User:Soraya.cuesta/wct1112/wcplan

From EnWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

Web Communication Plan: Coldplay band

Coldplay is an English alternative rock band founded in 1996 by Chris Martin, Johny Buckland,Guy Berriman and Will Champion. Nowadays, it is one of the most succesful bands of the world and they have a well-developed Web Communication Plan that enables them to advertise their music and activities on the net. This report, as a part of the 2011-12 Web Communication Tools subject, provides an overall analysis of the Web Communication Plan of the band based on several Social Networks and their official web page.

Introduction

Social Networks have turned upside down the way brands interact with customers. Today, we could say that participating actively in Social Networks is almost essential to succeed in business. Coldplay music band is aware of the relavance the Internet has, and so has developed a whole Web Communication Plan that enables their music to be advertised on the net. As Susan Payton claims,”whether it’s you or someone else at your company, you need to dedicate someone to social media strategy". Coldplay’s members use quite often their Social Networks, however, apart from themselves, they have some staff that rules their accounts to make them more active and complete. The content is updated several times each day with some features that attracts fans, such as videos, photographs and life concerts. They have almost 16 million followers on Facebook and 5 million followers on Twitter. As only figures cannot prove whether the Web Communication Pland of the band is being succesful or not, a deeper analysis will be provided.


The report will have five different parts. The first one is about the usage Coldplay does of Social Networks, basicaly Facebook, but Google+ too. The second one is about Microblogging illustrated on Twitter. Then, the Official Web Page will be considered. The fourth one makes a mention of other web pages that the band has, such as My Space or Youtube Channels. Finally, some conclusions will be given to make an statement over Coldplay's Web Communication Plan.


Social Networks

Facebook

They have a Facebook account since 2007.Taking account of The facebook advertising infographic that Sarah Kessier made for Mashable, they created their page when Facebook usage was not so expanded as nowadays. That illustrates their efforts, from the beginning, to take advantage of Net usage. Formerly, they used it mainly to publish concert dates. However, when they gained followers they began to publish on the wall some extra materials like photographs of the daily life of the group, activities they do, videoclips and prizes they are given. So, following Anthony Mayfield's advices, they made it more "social". Although the facebook page is not mainly managed by the members of the band, when they publish something personally they add their names to the publication.

Since they began recording their latest CD "Mylo Xiloto", they do a much more active use of its Facebook page. The number of followers has rocketed and now their page accounts more than 16.000.000 followers. In fact, Facebook was the first place where they published inedit parts of Mylo Xiloto's songs.

Conversations

Obviously, with such a great amount of followers, the coments people publish on their wall cannot be answered. In spite of not repplying, the content is daily updated, with several publications everyday. Some examples of Facebok conversations are:

1. "Watch Coldplay LIVE in Madrid at http://www.youtube.com/coldplayvevo right now!" (26 October 2011, 2011)

  • This likes 12.323 people
  • It has 1.860 comments. Some of them are:

I.Sue Stubley: Absolutely brilliant!! Hope I get to see you live one day! " (28 October 2011, 2011) II.Gabriel Rodriguez: "simply wonderful, I love this band, you are more than great, the viva la vida`s performance was exciting, I love that song, and all you do also!!" (29 October 2011, 17:48)

  • It was shared 1.214 times shared.

2."Wow, the Paradise video has only been online for 3 days and it's already had 2.7m views. Amazing! If you still haven't yet seen it... [[1]l

  • 36.7000 liked it.
  • 2.379 comment. Some of them are the following:

I.Joe Best: "The video was kinda awkward...but the set for the video was astounding. Song is stellar by itself" (22 October, 2011) II.Angie Curtis: "sooooooo cool! So proud to have been one of the 62 000 people in that audience near the end of the video...Johannesburg, South Africa. Come back soon, Coldplay!!!" (22 October, 2011)

  • This was 9.992 times shared

Google+

Following the launching of the single "Paradise", they created a Google+ account. There, they have 400.000 followers which is quite a small figure compared to the followers they have on other webpages. Google+ is a brand new Social Network and it is, by the moment, not so expanded among Internet users which can be the explanation for the relative lack of followers.

Here, they publish less content, not everyday but only some times a week. Anyway, ruling an account on Google+ is a proof of their efforts to keep up to date the band's Web Communication Plan.

Conversations

1. Coldplay -Jan 13, 2012- Public "Coldplay have been nominated for Best British Album and Best British Group at the 2012 BRIT Awards. It'd be lovely if you'd vote for the band to win the Best Group one at http://cldp.ly/votebrits (thanks very much)" +227 17 shares 55 comments I. Justin Rosselet:"Well-deserved! Now if they'd confirm a show for Magnetic Hill like reports are saying, I'd be an even happier camper." (13 January, 2012) II. Kaiden Clayton:"Paradise is unarguably the best song ive ever heard. somehow it managed to top the song i never thought any song could-clocks :)" (14 January, 2012)

Microblogging

Although there are many sites for Microblogging, Twitter is the most common so Coldplay has decided to have an account for Microblogging only on it.

Twitter

Using Twitter terminology, Twittter itself has become a "trending" Social Network.[2] The number of people tweeting it's increasing at a schocking pace. Coldplay doesn't ignore this fact, and although its members don't have their own accounts for microblogging, they have a common account. The name of who normally brings up to date Coldplay's Twitter , who signs as A, doesn't figure, but, as they do on Facebook, when any of the musicians tweets something, he add his initials to the tweet. They tweet regularly. Their manager, Phil Havery (PH) also tweets quite often.

The band started tweeting 20 October 2010. They have around 5.500.000 followers and they are following 2.443 twitters. Since they created the account they update it constantly and they currently have around 1.500 tweets published. Tweetgrader gives them a 100 out of 100 grade of influence [3]. On Trendistic [4] we can see that Coldplay trend in Twitter fluctuates significantly and reach peaks in very special dates. We can asume that those dates normally coincide are linked to the launching of a song, videoclip or CD and then people express their impressions. For instance, 27 October 2011 was an special they as they offered an online concert from Youtube and people connected to access to the link and commented about the concert.

Susan Ward gives some rules for Twitter Promotion. They could be summarised as follows: 

1.Don't sell, converse
2.Listen more than you tweet
3.Be helpful
4.Give your followers what they want
5.Don't just feed them feeds

Those tips could be useful for Twitters which don't have a large number of followers. It is clear that they are the key for ruling a "succesful" Twitter. However, trying to use them on twitters like Coldplay's is complicated. It could be told that they fullfill the 3rd, 4th and 5th point. The first point is debatable. They used Twitter to advertise their songs, albums and Itunes, but, at the same time they publish some private content about what they are doing and where are they going. This could be considered as a kind of "conversation", as it is the highest point of interaction the account reaches. The second point: "listen more than you tweet" is completely ignored. With almost 6.000.000 followers it's nearly impossible to read and answer all the feedback. So they just don't do it. Heather Mcdonaldgives some tips to use Twitter on music promotion and also gives special relevance to making the Twitter personal. Although R42 and A are the one that tweet the most, Coldplay members tweet quite often so they make the account more personal. She says that Twitter cannot become a time-waster for any band: "Twitter can be a tool in your promotional arsenal, but it should never come before the basics like practicing, playing shows, and so on. Your number of Twitter followers, like your number of MySpace friends, is actually a pretty poor indicator of how much you're accomplishing, so don't forget most of what you need to do for your music career needs to happen outside of the virtual world."


Twitter Conversations

  • "Will isn't here yet but this is what he hits. This is at EMAs rehearsal. Brian may was rocking the whole place. Chris http://pic.twitter.com/cxWY64wS ". 6 October 2011. This was retweeted more than a hundred times.
  • "First time in Paris since watching Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris', hoping for a similar experience. Will"'. 31 October 2011. This was more than 100 times retweeted.
  • "Now that quite a few of you have (hopefully) heard the new album, do you have a favourite track? Let us know, using #ColdplayMX A". 24 October 2011. Retweeted more than a hundred times.

Official Web Page

The official Web Page is crucial for the band. The page is really well updated. In fact, when they publish content on Facebook or Twitter, quite often are links to the web page. Moreover, it has an ellaborated design with the colours and themes used on "Mylo Xiloto" CD. The web page has even an application to customize your initials in Mylo Xiloto's style. Grantastic designs gives 5 basic rules of web design that will make the web page succeed. They are the following: 

-The website should be easy to read.
-The website should be easy to navigate.
-The website should be easy to find.
-The web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site.
-The web page should be quick to download.

Coldplay's webpage follows all those requirements, so we could consider that it is a well-developed web page. The information is classified under several sections to make it more accesible.

Main Sections

  • On the one hand, they have the Home Page that provides access to all the other sections.
  • Live gives information about concert dates.
  • News is one of the most important sections. There, they publish everything the group does. Apart from news and interviews it is a kind of blog on which report or articles about concert, videoclips, or curiosities are published. The main updater of this space is someone close to the band that signs as Roadie#42. He describes himself as "Hello there, I am Roadie #42. My good friend Prospekt has asked me to keep you all posted on the goings on from inside the tour. I sit somewhere stage left through every performance. Wherever the band are in the world, I'll be there and I'll be reporting back to you."
  • Coldplay has its own Archive which provides graphic material, like photographs, videos and short movies.
  • Timeline is a very interesting section that tells the history of the band from 1997 to ownwards. It is written by the protagonists of the story, who have added photographs and videos among other material.
  • Recordings offer demos of the songs, lyrics and videoclips from all the albums.
  • The Exhibition Roomis an akward section. In spite of being focused on the band, it allows people to show what they can do under the motto "Exbihit Yourself" and promote themselves. People have taken this seriously and they upload regularly "artistic" content like videos, drawings or photographs.
  • The Oracleis quite an original part where whoever can ask whatever about the band and it will be answered.
  • The last part is the Shopwhich is the official store where some merchandise of the band can be purchased.

Other web pages

My Space

My Space is a very important marketing tool for music bands. It's usage has enabled many artist to become famous. Heather McDonald, who works as a music careers guide, gives some of the reasons to use My Space: 

1.It is one of the easiest ways for bands and labels to communicate with their fans, and it makes the fans feel included.
2.MySpace Music is a free and easy promotional tool and can be used to promote new releases, tours and videos.
3.A global audience can be reached.
4.Everyone thinks everyone else is on MySpace, so as more people embrace it, the opportunities increase

Coldplay is aware of that, and though it is not the most important tool of their Web Communication Plan, their My Space account is well-ellaborated. There, we can listen to their songs and not only demos like on the Web page. Concert dates, photographs and some concert videos are also published on this account. It could be considered as a complement of the Official Web Page as it has some inedit videos.

LAST FM

On Last FM you can listen to their songs for free or buy them. Moreover, it supplies information about the groups biography, concerts, albums. According to Last FM's polls it was the 13th band most listened to on this website for 2011. It also makes list with the most played Coldplay's songs being "Viva la vida" the most played during the last 6 months.

Youtube Channel(official)

This is the official home for Coldplay in Youtube since 2007. For singers, having a Youtube account becomes very important because fans like having a site to watch their videoclips and live concerts. The videos of this channel have more than 77 million views. Here they have uploaded 22 videos and listed as favourites many others from the Vevo Channel.

Youtube Channel on Vevo

Vevo, property of Google and Universal Music Group, is a Youtube Channel, where these companies upload videos of artists all aroud the world. Coldplay has its on channel on Vevo which has 46 videos uploaded and it's joined to the official channel. It has loads of visits, specially since it has stablished a new system which make possible to see live concerts while they are "happening".

Conclusions

In general terms, Coldplay is developing properly its Internet communication strategies. They make an active use of the elements on the Web Communication Plan providing their fans loads of "proffesional" data and curiosities about the band. However, it must be pointed, that there are some aspects they should improve. The most important one is interactuation, which is almost non-existent except on "The Oracle" section of the Web Page. A conversation is bilateral, and Coldplay members refer quite often to the "audience" but they don't really let the audience talk to them. It is quite difficult to coordinate a conversation with such a quantity of feedback but they could work harder on this aspect. For example, each week one of the group members, could set up 2 hours to speak directly with their fans through Twitter.

Another aspect they should seriously consider is creating a profile on LinkedIn. Susan Ward explains that: "Its stated purpose is to help the world's professionals connect with one another to accelerate their success. As of this writing, LinkedIn has over 40 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world. It's a powerful tool for marketing online, giving you the opportunity to connect with potential customers, partners and colleagues."

LinkedIn is the Social Network for professionals and an important marketing element. It is not designed for fans but for enterprises who want to hire their services, compare their curriculums with other band, and many other serious issues. It is the only main Social Network were they don't rule and account and creating one could be profitable for the band.

So in conclusion, and to sum up, Coldplay is doing a good work at their marketing strategy on the Internet. If they keep publishing content at the pace they currently do, they will be able to maintain a highlighted position compared to other important music bands on the net.

References

Retrieved from "http://wiki.littera.deusto.es/en/index.php/User:Soraya.cuesta/wct1112/wcplan"
Personal tools