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A new study by NYU has revealed that blog chatter about upcoming CD releases does more to increase CD sales than how many "friends" an artist adds on MySpace. But the findings also tap into the potential of embracing customer evangelists in industries other than music.
Researchers at New York University's Stern Business School charted the number of blog posts about a new CD release for a month before and a month after its release to see if blog posts about a new CD release had any impact on sales.
The report, entitled "Does Chatter Matter?", tracked the sales of 108 CDs and discovered that there was a positive correlation between number of blog posts, and sales. Not earth-shattering, but here's more precise findings.
According to HypeBot, a new CD release that had at least 40 blog posts about it in the month leading up to release, enjoyed sales that were 400% higher than those for the average release.
A new CD release that had 250 or more blog posts about it in the month leading up to its release enjoyed sales that were 600% higher than those for the average release.
The researchers also discovered that while a higher number of 'friends' that an artist had on MySpace increased sales, the increase wasn't as great as those gained from blog posts.
The researchers attempt to explain why blogs mattered more than friends on MySpace: Our hypothesis is that blogs and social networks matter independently for the following reasons. First, we believe that a considerable amount of effort goes into writing good blogs, and their authors feel passionate enough about the topic to spend the time writing and sharing them with others. Readers recognize good blogs and pay attention to them. Secondly, while blogs are largely unfiltered, some blog sites tend to have more authority than others. In other words, reputation helps them attract traffic that is in turn influenced by their content.
While I have been saying that blogging music fans help increase music sales for years, there's much more happening here. This is a validation that online evangelists drive sales. Think about it, isn't 'fan' just another word for 'evangelist'?
Thanks to social media, fans now have more tools than ever to promote their favorite products and brands online. And with new search tools popping up every day, companies have more ways than ever to find these fans.
But they still have to be smart enough to embrace them and empower them to market for them. Now that they have the research to prove that evangelists drive sales online, they have no more excuses.
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Comments
Nice example. I'm just missing one additional analysis here: how much does it cost to raise so many blog posts and how much it costs to add/notify friends to Myspace and/or get publicty in some big media house that has thousands of readers?
So it is obvious that having a lot of posts on blogs that "have more authority than others" is effective regarding sales.
Yet you need to get attention and positive response of the authors of those blogs. Since they're many individuals spread accross the e-world, how much time and effort do you need to talk to each of them? And how much time and effort do you need to talk to 5 most influencal journalists in the industry? Which method will bring better ROI?
Just wondering. :-)
Posted by: Dusan Vrban | 02.14.08
"Nice example. I'm just missing one additional analysis here: how much does it cost to raise so many blog posts and how much it costs to add/notify friends to Myspace and/or get publicty in some big media house that has thousands of readers?"
I would guess that 99% of the blog posts are simply coming from music fans that are talking about how a particular artist has a new CD coming out. So the cost here would be virtually zero.
"So it is obvious that having a lot of posts on blogs that "have more authority than others" is effective regarding sales."
I think volume trumps authority. This is exactly why I think music labels need to be finding and embracing their artist's fans online. I'll take 100 blogging fans of my artist posting about a new CD in a second over getting Pitchfork to review the release.
"Yet you need to get attention and positive response of the authors of those blogs. Since they're many individuals spread accross the e-world, how much time and effort do you need to talk to each of them? And how much time and effort do you need to talk to 5 most influencal journalists in the industry? Which method will bring better ROI?
Just wondering. :-)"
Let's break it down even further:
Which would work better, having 5 major journalists write about your new product, or have 100 blogging evangelists write about your new products?
Posted by: Mack Collier | 02.14.08
Impressive. Wish it worked with books. We've been conducting Virtual Book Tours for our authors and... we're not seeing sales. Maybe we should do the book tours BEFORE the books come out. Currently, we're waiting till their released. And yes, we're using influential bloggers...
Posted by: Yvonne DiVita | 02.14.08
Oops... meant "they're" released. Fingers and brain do not seem engaged!
Posted by: Yvonne DiVita | 02.14.08
"Impressive. Wish it worked with books. We've been conducting Virtual Book Tours for our authors and... we're not seeing sales. Maybe we should do the book tours BEFORE the books come out. Currently, we're waiting till their released. And yes, we're using influential bloggers..."
See I don't think having influential bloggers is the key, I think having bloggers that are passionate is what counts. Bloggers that are passionate about the author not only are likely to give a better 'showing' for the book, but they are more likely to want to promote the book to other bloggers, since it's from their favorite author.
I think passion trumps influence.
Posted by: Mack Collier | 02.14.08
Mack's right here. Blogging works and these numbers from NYU confirm it.
Yvonne: The key to getting fans blogging about your books is to give them something to blog about. In turn, the key to doing that is to blog yourself and do it regularly.
In each of your posts, provide information and content that readers are going to be interested in checking on a regular basis. If your book is about music marketing, for example, build a blog around tips and tricks for promoting music online. Make it easy for other bloggers and readers to link to, share, and syndicate your content and you'll notice an increase in traffic almost immediately.
This is what I've done for my new book. It focuses on using Web 2.0 to promote independent music, but many of the lessons apply to virtually any product niche...including books!
Keep up the good work Mack, and good luck Yvonne!
Max Lowe
http://maxlowe.net
Posted by: Max Lowe | 02.20.08
I read about this from an MI2N posting I got earlier this month. As was mentioned earlier as some PR and Labels actually buy services of sponsored bloggers to help spread the message.
I would be interested if it worked across all genres of music to increase sales.
Posted by: hd-productions.biz | 02.20.08
Thanks Max, and good luck on your book!
As for 'buying' bloggers to help spread the message about your product, I think it's a very bad idea. First, because it turns many people off when they find out it's not authentic, and second, the blogger will lack the passion of a fan.
Fans have the incentive and passion to promote the product, a 'sponsored' blogger just has the incentive to get paid.
Posted by: Mack Collier | 02.20.08
Time Life provides so many music CDs & books at very reasonable price....!
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