Whether you are in music, art or pretty much any industry, all the magazines and “experts” are talking about the “new model” and how the “old model is dead.” Guess what? The old model didn’t work that well for most folks anyway. Yes, social media is out there. And there are a million options for websites, PR, distribution, and everything else. The bad news: No one has built the new model yet. Worse news: One model may not be the new model.
But here’s the good news. Awesome, actually. It’s not your problem. Because you don’t have to figure out the new model. You just have to figure out YOUR model. The model that gets you and your products in front of your customers and gets them to open their wallets. The one that plays to your strengths and manages against your weaknesses. So maybe that’s three social networks, a website and a demo video on YouTube. And maybe it’s four events a year and a monthly email newsletter. Or maybe it’s a corporate sponsorship and giving your product away. The point is that it doesn’t matter what your model is as long as it works for you. Let me repeat that last point: It doesn’t matter what your model is as long as it works for you.
And oh yeah, you don’t have to get it perfect out of the box. Try some things. And if they don’t work, drop them. And if they do work, invest more time, energy and money into them. Keep tweaking. Eventually, you’ll find a mix that works for you. Or you’ll find out that you don’t have a viable business and you need to do something else. Either way, you are one step closer to getting it right.
Excellent points, sir. It’s a bit disconcerting to some folks to realize there is more than one right way to do things. Of course, there always has been more than one right way to do most things (even under the “old model”). The folks who are mentally flexible enough to figure this out are the ones best equipped for success.
Agreed. My old boss, Carol Coletta, once gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten while she and I were negotiating for me to come work for her. I was convinced that she couldn’t give me everything I wanted in terms of freedom, money, flexibility, etc. She said, quite simply, “All it takes to make a deal is for both sides to agree.” So I asked, we haggled a little and we struck a unique deal. One that was unlike her deals with anyone else. All in about 10 minutes over a drink. We try to make it more complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.
The internet age brought in that age old used car salesman thinking and made it the new model: we can reach everyone and sell anything. So many start-ups failed because they thought they could do whatever they wanted simply they had access. But what to do with it, where to target it, how best to use it? That new model got old, fast.
You should keep an eye out for what’s new, the next model, and if your audience is using it then you’d better get up to speed as fast as they are if you’re not already ahead of the game. I guess that’s where the conundrum comes in. You want to do your homework, be aware, but you’re right that just because it’s the new model doesn’t mean it fits your message or that your audience is even wearing it.