Blog-Marketing Case Study: What is A Piece of Strange?
posted on May 04, 2006
What does it all mean?
Name: What is A Piece of Strange?
URL: http://www.whatisapos.com/
Marketing focus: A Piece of Strange, the third and most recent album by southern underground (reference intended) duo Cunninlynguists.
Approach: A fan-created site with a focus on this concept album’s storyline, religious themes and biblical allusions.
What they’ve done right:
- The premise.
I haven’t heard this album but its admirers seem to celebrate its depth and complexity. A fan site devoted to exploring that depth, solving the puzzles or discussing interpretations of the album should be a perfect match then.
The hypothetical benefits could be huge. The album gets to stand out for being different. After all, how many rap albums need or even could support a website dedicated to their deconstruction?
If you took the time to place some hidden meanings in your music that is a story you definitely want to see spread. And your fans have motive to spread it because it gives them the power of having a secret, of feeling on the inside. There’s a certain mystique involved – a challenge that has been offered. Nobody wants to be among the unwashed masses who don’t “get it”. Rock acts like the Beatles or Pink Floyd have certainly seen the viral benefits of having this type of mystique attached to their music.
A hidden-meaning story worth spreading is the stuff cult phenomenon is made of. Now we have another story worth spreading because we have the fan of a not very well-known act creating a site to spread these hidden meanings. That itself is unique and so the blog potentially becomes a story to spread, a part of the overall story of the album.
Sure enough, the blog was mentioned in a few other blogs and publications as a footnote to their reviews of “A Piece of Strange”. Unfortunately, for reasons mentioned later, this blog may be wasting the opportunites it has created.
- Page design
Overall, this is a nice looking site. The template incorporates the cover art image and picks up on one of its greens for the page background. It doesn’t look like your cookie cutter blog template. The sections with text-heavy pages do come off a bit dull and cramped (how about a right margin?) but the site clearly has improved visually from its original incarnation.
- Fan goodwill
The fact that this was created by some passionate fans is a boon for CL. When your fans are going out of their way to spread your message it signals to the world that there’s something worth hearing about here. It can also help foster a community, being a resource for existing fans and a showpiece for potential new ones.
- When is a blog more than a blog?
Traditionally, a blog displays its content chronologically. Some blogs also use tags or categories for grouping posts. But there’s nothing stopping a blog from incorporating some more conventional web site navigation. Yes, I’m speaking of static links in the sidebar to content that you consider your key material. These are the things you want everyone to have a good chance of finding.
In this case, the POS blog uses it for the bulk of their content: the sections of analysis on the album. I’d argue that they should be using this sidebar in an even smarter fashion to help out newcomers but at least this is a start.
Where they’ve gone wrong:
- Posting frequency
Not every blog needs to be sustained by daily posts but it’s impossible to build a relationship with readers without at least semi-regular postings of at least a few times a month. It’s been over two months since the last post went up at the APOS blog.
On January 25 the blog announced the album’s official release and then just when the blog should have gone into high gear it fell into a month long coma instead. When they did make their next and most recent post on February 25 it didn’t follow up on the January 25th announcement at all. How is the album selling? How’s it being received by CL fans? Any in-store promotions to report on? Anything at all? Throw us a bone.
- Substantive writing
For all its good intentions there’s not a piece of original content worth reading on the Piece of Strange blog. The explanation of songs, characters, biblical allusions, etc. read like someone’s skimpy lecture notes. They’re not supported or developed into anything resembling a cohesive product. Doing studies of songs or albums is a make-or-break game contingent on well-constructed ideas and good writing. Thanks to the proliferation of hip-hop blogs, there are plenty examples out there of writers who are capable of this type of work. One (or several) of them should be writing for the A Piece of Strange blog. A blog is going to have a hard time getting off the ground without a halfway decent writer at the helm.
- Voice
Yes, these all fall under the umbrella of “writing” but they are worth visiting individually so we have some framework for what constitutes good blog writing. Because the POS blogger writes so infrequently and can’t muster entire paragraphs on his chosen topic we have no idea who this person is. A blog is much more effective when shaped by an identifiable voice – as readers we want to be guided by a real person. Who is the real person behind the A Piece of Strange blog? Why does he care about this album? And by inference, why should we?
The answers to all of these questions don’t have to be spelled out but there should be some clues on the table.
- Blog Title
What is A Piece of Strange? Can we not have that in the form of a question, please? If not Jeopardy, this blog’s title may invoke that old (in internet time) marketing juggernaut The Matrix, with its slogan “What is the Matrix?” and website www.whatisthemattrix.com.
It’s never a good idea to shamelessly steal from a well-known unrelated work for no particular reason. It’s even worse if that work itself lost its cool five years ago.
By the way, the title wouldn’t really be a problem if the site actually answered the question.
- Be a good host
This blog with its fantastic premise stops its own story from spreading by not considering the newbie. It was mentioned already that fans of this album get to have the joy of feeling on the inside of some kind of puzzle which goes beyond your normal album listening experience. It’s a brilliant idea to have a site cater to them but why just preach to the choir when it’s not particularly hard to keep a door open for newcomers?
The site should be more conscious of newcomers and include a way to introduce them to the album. It could provide a separate page providing a succinct overview of the album (one where the title “What is A Piece of Strange” might be less offensive). The sidebar navigation could be made of much greater use to newbies by including an obvious link right at the top for where to get the album, a few words mentioning what the album is with a link to the overview page.
Newcomers will want to hear the music. Give them some audio. Newcomers won’t know who Cunninlynguists are, so explain it and give them an external link in your sidebar. Right now the sidebar links include “A Piece of Strange”, which takes you to the official (officially useless site) that has nothing to do with the album but just serves as a gateway for two other sites, and “Qn5” (CunninLynguists’ label). If I’m a newcomer what the hell is QN5 and why would I click it.
Navigation that is clear and includes key terms is helpful to newcomers and it will also be appreciated by those other ignorant newcomers coming to your site: search engine spiders.
Good luck finding this blog on a google search of CunninLynguists. That could be easily remedied by some thought to how the blog structures its content.
- Showmanship
Blogging can trump advertising as a marketing tool in that you get to reap the benefits of speaking as a human (instead of as some reptilian salesman) to other humans. But it’s also human nature to like a show and there can be much value to putting one on.
A site like the POS blog offers a lot of opportunity for rewarding its readers. The blog owner should contact the CunninLynguists for interviews or for extras like photos, video or exclusive audio. Get them to contribute some writing. They’d be fools not to cooperate. In fact they’d be fools for not knocking on this blog’s door with the idea if not approached first.
Showmanship is about giving people a reason to come back. Even the site’s existing content could be sold in a better way. If the meat of your site will be material annotating the album then at least make an event of it when you post. Space it out time-wise, let us know what you’re working on next. Put some effort into the content so it looks finished. Use the blog on your homepage to refer us to your new content once in a while. And make it sexy when you do.
- Spark conversations
If there’s enough going on here to merit a site then show us. Pose questions about specific ideas on the album worthy of debate. Try to challenge your reader to get them to respond.
When is a blog less than a blog? When it restricts comments on the only interesting content on the site! We are told that “Comments are closed” on lyrics, characters, biblical references, and so on but they are open on the lame home page. Somehow a little conversation started of people critiquing this Elemental review of the album but how would anyone know that some pages in the site heirarchy have comments and some don’t?
Looking at this old thread on the QN forums that1guy has the right idea when he says “have you thought about putting it on a wiki? That way people could edit it as they come up with things.” Even without a wiki more emphasis can be placed on letting others to participate through comments or other writers.
- Open your eyes
At first, I thought maybe I shouldn’t speak about the lack of content on this site without acknowledging that the narrow focus makes generating new content difficult. The one other hip-hop fan blog I’d seen before this one was for Mos Def and that one ran out of steam in exactly two months. But take a look at the Nas-centered site “Rebel To America“ for a great idea of how a fan blog can keep coming through with new ideas and fresh content on a single topic. What it takes is an open mind and the ability to come at your subject from different angles.
Some things that Rebel To America is doing that they may want to consider over at What is A Piece of Strange: 1) inviting guest authors to chime in 2) posts that strongly focus on one aspect like a given theme or reference, or going one song at a time. as william blake once said “see a world in a grain of sand” 3) posts that consider broader themes that relate to the artist, the genre, etc. 4) topics related to your subject appearing at other media sources
When southern rap vs new york rap was the hot topic for a few weeks on various hip-hop blogs, where was the P.O.S. blogger? Joining conversations can be every bit as valuable as sparking your own and will introduce your site to a brand new audience.
Now what
I found out the back-story of this blog while I was already in the middle of writing this. It plays out in this QN5 forum thread. It turns out that it was one fan that made the initial tripod page about the album with their notes on it and another person who prettied it up and turned it into a blog. This helps explain the sudden disinterest in the original mission.
If I was the creator of either incarnation of this fan site, a member of CunninLynguists, or a passionate fan of this album with a stake in the blog’s success, I’d take a good look at this blog and consider whether I had it in me to help resuscitate it.
Please feel free to use this critique as something to springboard some discussion or new content. Maybe you disagree with parts of my assessment and want to respond. That’s the point of all this after all. To spark conversation and spread ideas.
I plan to attempt a few more of these (they will probably run shorter!) to spark discussion on the concept of blogging as a marketing tool in the sphere of hip-hop. I have a few blogs in mind for analysis but feel free to make suggestions.<
Comments for "Blog-Marketing Case Study: What is A Piece of Strange?"
Wow, I really don’t know what to say. I’m trying think of something that would be worthy to come after that very thorough entry and well-appreciated recommendation but can’t. I’d say a blog about a single album has a different ability than a blog about a single artist, especially with a career as long and storied (good and bad) and Nas’, but while the CL spot does have a novel premise, as you say, it coulda been a whole lot more. At the very least, it has the benefit of being connected to a great album.
But yeah, RTA will probably exist until just after Nas’ Def Jam debut, but, in the mean time, I hope I can keep the quality at a level fitting of this kind of notice. And remember, speaking of guest authors, we’re always looking for more. I have a notepad full of ideas and am willing to listen to new pitches, whatever makes the site better (because there still is room to grow, I know).
thanks again
— fletch May 4, 10:46 PM
I agree Fletch that Nas’s large body of work provides a lot more material to write about but the point is that you can have a narrow focus and still regularly produce new material.
— rafi May 4, 11:40 PM
thanks for your kind words and criticisms. i admit, i have fallen off of trying to keep up with it. Like you said, most of the content was written by someone else and i have been wanting to clean up the language, just have not had the time. Time is something i have little of. Hopefully when things settle down over the summer, i’ll be able to devote more time to it, and of course i will keep all your suggestions in mind :). Kno was supposed to start posting on the site as well, but with CL touring, that can be quite a difficult task.
— shep May 7, 01:56 PM
I’m just curious as to how much an artist should be involved in an endeavor such as this and why. I mean, this was completely a fan undertaking and as much as ANY press/blog/info dedicated to a project can help the spread of the music, theres only so much responsibility that can fall on our shoulders. Its hard enough to upkeep our official websites while producing for QN5 and others, planning tours, managing business and making albums such as this one.
I appreciate a fansite revolving around our record, but in the grand scheme of things it just can’t hold much weight in the 16 hour cycle of my workday.
Peace
Kno
— Kno May 18, 04:32 AM
For the record, I have supplied information for the site and done some editing where I saw fit, but again…theres only so much I can find time to do.
Peace
Kno
— Kno May 18, 04:34 AM
I think Rafi’s suggestion was that you guys could at least volunteer for some interviews – I mean you probably end up doing a certain amount of interviews in the wake of an album release anyway (maybe not as many as you’d like) so it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Maybe they were hidden on the site somewhere, but I didn’t see ANY interviews.
— David May 18, 01:37 PM
there are plenty of interviews out there, though you can never have too many in my opinion. every little bit of press helps. i shall add those when i get time. And kno is right, they really can’t be bothered to spend time on a fan site when they are already devoting more time than 99% of artists on their own sites. this was not a companion site to the album, just a site that fans could take a look at to see how other fans see the album and its meaning. i appreciate every little bit kno and the gang contribute to the site, and i never really expected any contributions of recognition for it.
— shep May 22, 11:08 PM
To Kno and Shep, I think you’re misreading the intent here.
Kno,
I wasn’t saying you guys should have taken charge of the operation or help run it. As I stated, the fact that this was coming from fans should have been the great strength of this blog.
I was just saying that since you know people in your active forum community and you were “there” in the thread where this redesign was taking shape, you had a rare opportunity to offer things to enhance the blog or even suggest people from your fan-base who might be able to step in and do some writing. Is it your responsibility to do those things? That’s up to you. Are you in the wrong for at the time (and maybe still) underestimating the potential that this blog had? Yes, but chill, I’m not holding it against you. Many people underestimate this medium.
Should you have been obligated to check up on the fan blog? Nah, that’s up to you. But I would have. It’s too good a potential opportunity not to. Also, I think you’d be surprised at how far the power of suggestion will go when you already have a fan-base of potential volunteers. They showed their willingness by taking the 1st step of creating the site on their own. This could have been used (could still be used) to rally other people to help.
Whether it’s on you or Shep or anyone else to make the decision to bring in help or try a new approach is not for me to say. I’m not sitting here in judgment of anybody, just giving my commentary on what parts of the blog work and what parts don’t.
This example definitely isn’t traditionally considered marketing because, as you said, it’s a “fan site”. But marketing is about trying to spread an idea and in that sense whatisapos.com is 100% a marketing effort.
— rafi May 23, 12:06 AM
Your analysis was on point. Well done.
— rakimfan Jul 19, 01:37 PM