Turn It Up To 11

For those of you who know me in real life or as president of the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Marketing Association, you know this is my new motto… My creed… It’s what I want to do. But, perhaps, there is a slight disconnect about what this really means. Let me give you some back story and then I want to introduce someone who is LIVING this message.

So… My position is that in whatever it is you’re doing, why not push it just a little bit up to the next level? Why not “Turn It Up To 11”? No matter what you are doing, it can be done just a little better. Imagine if we all did this… Every day. How much different would things be?

Several years ago, my brother-in-law introduced me to a musician who goes by the name G Love and Special Sauce. Well, he’s G Love, his band is Special Sauce. Anyway, this is one talented cat and I was instantly hooked. He’s created his own style of music that he calls “The Hip Hop Blues.” Catchy, isn’t it? Now, I’m not a big hip hop fan, but I am definitely a connoisseur of the blues and this man knows how to make his guitar sing.

Over time, I have come to own virtually every album Mr. Love has put out. Heck, even my four-year-old daughter can sing a handful of his songs and she recognizes his harmonica playing on other people’s tunes. Cool, huh? Anyway, one day I decided to check to see if he was on Twitter. He was. I followed him.

I was pleased to see what he was up to… The occasional picture… Tour dates… Set lists from the previous night. This is all good stuff. Then, G Love decided to ‘Turn It Up To 11’.

Broadcasting to his fans was no longer enough. He wanted to interact with them. He wanted them to promote his ‘brand’ to their networks. And, really, isn’t that what all of us marketers want to do when we use social media. Here’s where Mr. Love was smart, though… He didn’t say “I’m coming to Tulsa… Please RT (re-tweet) this!” Instead, he started offering a free pair of tickets to an upcoming show by Tweeting:

“Tweet ‘I wanna see @Glove in Tulsa tonight!’ One lucky person will get a free pair of tickets!”

Now, how easy is that? Yeah, It’s That Easy. Can you imagine how much free word-of-mouth promotion he gets by doing this? Every day? In every city he visits? You can’t buy this kind of promotion. This is social media at its finest. It’s grass roots… And it works!

And what do the winners think? Well, let me tell you… I won those tickets to the Tulsa show to see G Love & Special Sauce… And… I won a pair to see G Love open up for Jack Johnson in Dallas last week. Not only did it solidify Garrett’s position in my ‘Book of Cool’, but it also made me realize what a great marketer he is. He is all about The Hustle. He is willing to take a few minutes out of his day to interact with his fans… And give them a reason to help promote him. Now, that is how you ‘Turn It Up To 11’.

G Love doesn’t stop at Twitter when it comes to social media, though! He also does a short, 30-second video blog every Thursday at 12:07. Everyone on his mailing list gets an email when the new video is posted to his website. Not only that, he lets people download exclusive live tracks… FREE. Talk about creating a community! This is how you do it.

Without a doubt, G Love knows how to Turn It Up To 11. What about you?

#brand #GLove #marketing #SocialMedia