Thursday, May 09, 2013

Social Media and Paul McCartney

Sir Paul the Liverpool genius will be turning 71 in June.  He is my favorite Beatle.  Most of the Internet Kids today don’t even know who this cool dude is! I do!  Heck my kids don’t even know what a record is.   I have to say he would have rocked the world of Social Media in his day if it existed.  When I think of the Beatles and Paul McCartney I think about all the comments out there in the musical world that said the Beatles were way ahead of their time.  Paul McCartney came out of nowhere and became the star of the group.  His style would have rocked the world of Social Media Marketing and Strategy.  I want to share some insights Sir Paul has given me in his songs that lead me to believe, that he would have got the social media world.
Most of you by now know I’m huge on engaging with my audience.  I’m huge on listening to my audience.  So I find it interesting how McCartney engaged his audience.  So here are the songs he wrote that I feel were cutting edge Social Media material. If you’re a cynic you would disagree with me maybe, but I will try to win you over.
1.  I Want To Tell You:  LOL our world today is loaded with people who want to tell us something.  It seems like today I even know when someone is taking a shower.  We Facebook it, Tweet it and even blog about it.  Someone out there is listening.
2. Love Me Do: Heck if it isn’t about love what is it about.  Seriously. A lot of online engagement is about feeling the love. When we write a post we sometimes say we’re hoping for some comment about love. Or it’s about being loved.  We thank people sometimes for the RT love. And there’s that little detail that people we engage with on Twitter are called followers. On Facebook – “fans.”
3. No Words:  Sometimes it really is all about pictures!  Just saying!  Go Pinterest!
4. The Fool on the Hill:  "Well on his way his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him, Or the sound he appears to make,
And he never seems to notice, But the fool on the hill . . . "  Need I say more Facebook is full of them.  You know those obnoxious types.
5.  Let It Be:  “Speaking Words of Wisdom” Let it Be.  So many times I will be on line and I have a moment of learning through a quote or phrase posted by someone.  Paul seemed to have this one right.  The Let it Be Album for me was the record I listened to most.  Awesome music.  Too bad it was the end of the Beatles.  They did get to record from the rooftop how cool is that.  Talk about getting out there in a big way!
6.  The Long and Winding Road:  Somehow, Paul knew that the commitment to life was going to be a long and winding road. This song perfectly describes the Social Media experience. Anyway, to build your online community it is a long and winding road but you must go down it!
What’s most amazing is Sir Paul from fifty years ago still has the ability to Rock Me.  McCartney was prolific with the Beatles.   He was way more than a band member, he was an influencer with his words.  Paul and the Beatles created trends in music in which the masses eagerly followed.  I know I would certainly want to be the influencer in Social Media.
Social Media allows us to reach more people then we ever could before.  The first step to being a trendsetter is to make sure the quality of what you do is something to be proud of.  Paul didn’t write songs by thinking about what the fans would like, Paul wrote songs that his fans liked.
I really had fun thinking about this.  I told you Paul was all about engagement and way ahead of his time.   The Beatles wrote a lot about online engagement.  Just think of John Lennon’s song “Eight Days A Week”.  Social Media is really more than a 7 day commitment to your marketing.   How did they know all of this? I have no idea. I always knew they were geniuses.  Just saying!
Now, maybe by now you’ve uncovered other Paul McCartney songs or Beatles songs that also reveal this expertise of theirs. If you have, would you share them below for the rest of us?