Rapper Chamillionaire's Twitter-style Stakeholder strategy.

Now Playing Chamillionaire’s Twitter business sense.

I love to see how artists have circumvented large corporate media and are now meeting their customers face to face. Chamillionaire is a perfect example of this. The power of his brand lies in the fact that through Web 2.0 technologies he can build and maintain relationships with his customer base. This allows him to have full control over his brand, and also gives him the opportunity to invite his followers into his life. Fans have the opportunity to help him make artistic and business decisions thereby giving them a stake in his career. This is brilliant. He also participates heavily in social media communities and events so that his profile is particularly high among Web 2.0 users and thought leaders.

I have also seen MC Hammer out there keynoting large social media and business strategy conferences with roughly the same message. Big labels are no longer reliable from the artist perspective. This has forced musicians into being the early adopters, innovators, and pundits of Web 2.0. Imagine what these technologies would have done for the already successful hip-hop artists that sold tapes out of their trunk? Too $hort would have gotten as large as U-2.

There is a stakeholder management strategy being instituted in these music industry cases. In brief, managing stakeholders strategically gives the firm/entrepreneur Centrality, Urgency, and Control. These important concepts can be problematized as follows:

• Centrality - This concept recognizes that the firm/entrepreneur is the hub of a stakeholder network, a network that is looking to be satisfied by the firm in many different ways.
• Urgency - UPS' slogan "Moving at the speed of business" means that management decisions are made in a fast moving and ever changing climate - some would call this the firm's strategic landscape - where stakeholder demands must be met in short order.
• Control - A firm/entrepreneur operates for stakeholders, but stakeholders do not run the firm, e.g. the leadership must lead and that demands not just having significant stakeholder relationships but a means for controlling those relationships.

As articulated by Chamillianaire, social media takes the media company our of the center and replaces it with the artist. This means that the artist can now understand the consumers desires in real-time and gives him the ability for agility. Finally, Chamillionaire has control of his brand and its products. He also has control over his stakeholders because the social media gives him the business  intelligence to capture their perspectives and also to help shape their desires. There is an authentic encounter, that recognizes the consumer resulting in the co-shaping of the product path by the artist and their fans. Not only is this a better state of affairs for all stakeholders, it is a profitable strategic positioning for the artist. Congrats Chamillionaire!

Look for more Stakeholder Theory perspectives in future posts from Professor 2.0.

via www.building43.com

Comments

[Corey Olds]

15 October 2009

Dear Paul,

In addition to speaking with you last evening, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog posting on Chamillionaire. To read more of your cutting-edge analyses of how social media transforms traditional business strategies, I have subscribed to Professor 2.0 via FeedBurner.

Loot for leisure,

Corey