15 Nov Tunespeak: An Overview of the Musician-to-Fan Social Platform
I’m a John Mayer fan. Go ahead and judge me. The guy rocks it on the guitar, and I’ve been following his music since before the “Your Body Is a Wonderland” days. Being such a fan, I recently stumbled upon his Facebook page’s latest social media campaign and a platform called “Tunespeak.”
Tunespeak is a musician-to-fan loyalty platform that gives music fans the chance to win prizes through various social actions, including listening to music, viewing photos, and watching videos. The idea behind the new social platform is that “fans win for simply being fans” and bands get to engage and grow their fan bases.
How Tunespeak Works
Bands start their campaigns by announcing prizes like meet and greets, free tickets, and signed merchandise. It’s up to you to decide which campaign you want to go after. Pick your favorites and sign in with your Facebook account.
Once you’re signed in, your homepage will pull up your Facebook profile picture, your list of favorite bands, and any current contests you’re competing in.
From there, the playing field is level to all participants. You can earn various amounts of points on your own by viewing photos, listening to songs, and watching videos. Extra points are earned for watching the highlighted video each day, which usually consists of the band’s newest single. The real edge comes from the social aspect of the contest and sharing the content with your friends and followers on a daily basis.
While anyone can view the necessary materials to earn points, it’s up to you to share the band’s content with your social networks to gain the extra points from their clicks and views and take home the prize. Clicks and views help you by giving you up to three times the normal points total, and they help the band by giving their music exposure to potential new fans and followers.
There’s also a simple fan acquisition play involved, where participants earn bonus points for liking and following the bands and music venues on their individual social networks, giving them greater numbers and even more exposure.
Fans stay motivated to participate until the end with a public Top Ten Leaderboard and a real-time counter that shows your points total and how long you have left until the contest ends and the winner is crowned.
How Brands Could Use Tunespeak
Tunespeak’s blog claims that the platform is in BETA right now, so it could be a while before you see your favorite band or brand using it for their next social media campaign. However, there is lots of potential for brands to use this platform in future partnerships. Here are a few ways brands could take advantage of Tunespeak:
- Get involved by teaming up with various musicians and bands.
- Add a fan/follower acquisition as a points earning mechanism to the contest.
- Sponsor events that the featured band will headline.
- Incorporate brand materials in the photos and videos that will be viewed and shared for points.
- Take advantage of the highlighted video that earns extra points for views and shares.
- Give away brand-related materials as part of the prizing.
Positives and Negatives of using Tunespeak
Tunespeak is a useful and innovative platform because it puts you and your social networks in the drivers’ seat to winning prizes. You don’t have to worry about a random drawing or a panel of judges. You just have to sign in each day and stay committed to the timeline and the leaderboard. It also gives positive exposure to the featured band, which in turn could give positive exposure to any brand taking advantage of this platform.
The downside is that being a contender in the contest is very time-consuming. It takes dedication to sign in every day and rack up your points again. It’s also easy to spam your friends and followers with videos of the band and cries for help in the contest, which could cause overexposure for partnering brands as well.
There’s a fine line between oversharing and earning points in a balanced way, but overall, Tunespeak has the potential to be a useful tool for brands that want to partner with musicians for social media campaigns. The outcome in a partnership like this would mean happy fans and positive exposure for brands and bands alike.
What are some brands that you think would do well on Tunespeak? What kind of prize would it take for you to participate in a Tunespeak social media campaign? Let us know in the comments below.
Oh, and for a real-time example of how Tunespeak works, feel free to click and view this video to help me earn a few points. (Can’t hurt to try, right?)
