Lauren Ackerman, Web Content Specialist
In early May, British musicians Radiohead did the unthinkable: they lived up to their song title “How to Disappear Completely,” and erased themselves from the internet. Their website gradually decreased in opacity over the course of several hours, until it disappeared completely. Then, the band and its lead singer, Thom Yorke, removed all past posts, photos and content from Facebook and Twitter.
High-traffic music sites like Pitchfork, Stereogum and Rolling Stone took notice. As did Reddit, which chronicled and reverse-engineered the phenomenon in real time. Radiohead fans were astir with speculation predicting a new album on the horizon. A few days later, Radiohead did indeed return online. First with a new video, then the full new album.
Given the band’s massive success at generating online buzz, and ultimately album sales, let’s examine the tactics. What can we learn from Radiohead’s bold moves to generate our own online engagement?
- Create quality content. If you’re Radiohead, this content is your new album, A Moon Shaped Pool. Simply upload that, and watch it rise quickly to No. 1. If, like many of us, you are not Radiohead, you need to have a reason for people to visit your website. For ecommerce, this means frequently updating your home page with new promotions, product introductions and explainer videos. If you’re service oriented, this means you need to keep a steady stream of content your audience might find useful: blog articles, white papers, stats and industry updates.
- Cultivate followers. If you’re Radiohead, you’ve done this over the last 20+ years with a series of experimental and groundbreaking records and world tours. However, if you are not Radiohead, you will need to nurture customer relationships at every phase of the relationship. This can (and should) take different forms. For example: triggered email series for the different phases in the customer lifecycle (welcome, order confirmation, post-purchase thank you, review requests, reactivation). Empower your customer service staff to create magical moments through exemplary customer service. Create memorable packaging that will inspire delight the moment it arrives.
- Disappear completely. If you’re Radiohead, this means erasing all of your website content, and scrubbing social media accounts of all past posts, status updates and photos.
For the rest of us, the takeaway is this….
Er….
Hrm.
Well, it means that sometimes the best course of action is a complete break from perceived wisdom. Radiohead did something unexpected. And mysterious. And it was wildly successful.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that deleting everything is NOT the right move for … probably anyone except Radiohead. But it’s that kind of counter-intuitive thinking that spawns a taxi company with no cars (Uber), or a bed and breakfast chain that owns no buildings (AirBnB).
In short, ask yourself, “What would Radiohead do?” And if you’re Radiohead, do that!
If you’re not Radiohead, maybe … don’t do that, but take from their lessons. You may not be a groundbreaking band, but you can be a groundbreaking brand.
Need help with counter-intuitive new thinking for your brand? Email me at laurena@jschmid.com or call 913-236-8988.
Photo above by Alterna2 via Flickr under Creative Commons License.
Tags: branding, campaigns, Customer Experience, email marketing, Social Media, Strategy