Web Marketing Therapy

Viral Marketing for Rock Stars!

May 1st, 2009
by Kelly Kohen

Viral Marketing is all the rage!

When I first met my husband, he lived with five guys that made up a popular local band, Thriving Ivory. They had been close to record deals multiple times over the years, but something always fell through for them. They continued to play to crowds headlining in California clubs and opening up for Hootie and the Blowfish, Eddie Money, Kelly Clarkson, INXS and Chris Isaak in huge concert venues. But for some reason, the coveted record deal seemed elusive.

Thriving Ivory didn’t give up! They utilized every form of social media they could to pack clubs, share their music and gain a great fan base. They had a huge following on MySpace (currently in the top 12 profiles) and quickly started a Facebook Fan page, as well as Tweeting on Twitter. Their efforts began to pay off!

Their first break came in 2006 when a popular radio station in San Francisco began playing one of their earlier singles “Angels on the Moon”. From there, they built up momentum! In 2007, they were signed by Wind Up records, they were featured on VH1’s You Outta Know, they have performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Rachel Ray Show and the lead singer, Clayton was featured in a Lee Ann Womack video. Their new album is EVERYWHERE!

So why am I telling you about Thriving Ivory? They are a great case study of using social media in a positive way to gain exposure, create community and ultimately achieve the goal they had set – make music AND get paid for it!

I went to see them play last month, do you wanna know what’s funny? They hadn’t changed much! They were playing many of the same songs that I had grown to love years before and I loved every minute of it! They weren’t doing anything wrong before the record deal, they had a winning combination of originality and talent. They just needed to wait out the organic process and continue to work every other area for exposure and do it well!

Don’t give up on your dreams…remain committed,

commit to great marketing and you are bound to reap the rewards!