Pink Floyd, social media, engagement platforms

Pink Floyd is arguably one of the greatest bands that ever played.

It is also unarguably one of the greatest bands that practically never gets played on the radio. (the reason is that radio stations prefer their songs under 3 minutes in length. Pink Floyd songs, or ballads as they are sometimes referred to, tend to be around the 4 minute mark with 2 even going over 20 minutes)

At a time that artists depend on air play for success Pink Floyd’s success can be attributed to only one thing: Social Media.

By Social Media I don’t mean things like Facebook (tho they have a good FB page) nor Twitter etc. Rather I mean Social Media as it is meant to be..interactions with like minded people.

I heard Pink Floyd at a friend’s house, got hooked and stayed that way.

My daughter, who is 12, first heard them at home a few years ago. And maybe she will pass on the love of their music to people she meets and knows.

Thus successful social media campaigns work.

Keeping aside the milieu against which the songs were written and the ups and downs of the bands, among many things there were a few engagement opportunities provided by Pink Floyd that made one want to learn more.

For instance there was the unmistakable sounds that they incorporated into their albums. It was unique, distinctive and unlike anything heard before. It made me, for one, to find out who did it, how they did it and there are enough videos out there that told you how.

Then there were their shows, which where just that..shows. Visual spectacles. Odd, stunning graphics, laser shows the works.. well before Michael Jackson, poppified the shows. Again, beyond the music itself here was something else for you to engage with the band and their story telling.

And so on..

I mention this only as it struck me, perhaps obviously so, that there’s a lot that brands can learn from Pink Floyd in the context of engagement platforms.

Most brands have recognised that they need to engage their customers/consumers. Tools such as Facebook and Twitter make it easier to do so too. Yet few brands have been able to create successful engagement platforms beyond ‘like’ and ‘follow’.

As with Pink Floyd the platform must attract the consumer and make her want to know more.

Free samples, games, promotions tend to be the oft used ones by most brands. However, they seldom create long term sustainable platforms.

If a band can engage and sustain itself decades after they last released a song, there is opportunity for brands to identify themes that are long running and bringing consumers in to their story.

Brands that invest time in identifying these themes and then using Social Media to promote them, rather than the other way around, have only long standing success to achieve.

I say themes, as I think as brands tell their story to its consumer it needs to be layered so as a Consumer she gets engaged, wants to know more and learns more as she engages more.

Relying on one platform can make it a uni dimensional story and not rich enough for a deep engagement.

Who would’ve thought one could use Pink Floyd to talk about Social Media engagement platforms.

As a token of my appreciation of your having read this far click here and listen to their magic.