Using social media to create winning moments

The Washington Post’s blog on the Obama transition made a really good point today, explaining why for instance, Team Obama decided to post photos of his daughters’ first day of school in Washington D.C. on Flickr.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the best way for Barack Obama to keep any of his life private in this era of cell phone-snaps, Facebook goofs and long-lensed paparazzi is to do exactly this: reliably and regularly release pictures of newsworthy intimate family moments in a manner that he can control.

That’s because online, the only way to control your own image is to drown outsiders’ takes in media stream of your own creation — and there is no news agency or paparazzo in the world with better access to inner workings of Obamaland and the Obama family than Obama himself.

I think the lessons go well beyond politics and can be applied to a variety of different markets, as we’re all trying to reach people with our information. I think the real difference is, you can use social media tools to create interest in your content. In the vein of “if you build it, they will come.”

Not only will they come, they’ll pay you if it’s something they really want. Even if they can get it for free.

The best selling MP3 album of the year on Amazon.com was alternative rock band Nine Inch Nails (NIN) Grammy nominated Ghosts I-IV LP, which they released for free under a Creative Commons license.

NIN fans could have gone to any file sharing network to download the entire CC-BY-NC-SA album legally. Many did, and thousands will continue to do so. So why would fans bother buying files that were identical to the ones on the file sharing networks? One explanation is the convenience and ease of use of NIN and Amazon’s MP3 stores. But another is that fans understood that purchasing MP3s would directly support the music and career of a musician they liked.

-Creative Commons Blog

This isn’t really a business model for people starting out, since NIN has already had a long career and could afford financially to take a risk like this. So while Joe Bootstrapper might not consider trying this, it doesn’t mean a larger institution couldn’t take a bold risk. You have to take opportunities to reach audiences when you can. It can head off your competition and build loyalty among those you want to reach.