Photo via  rileyroxx

With the Grammy Awards scheduled for next month I thought about writing on how Billboard Magazine does a yearly roundup called Maximum Exposure that  ”surveys label and music publishing executives to identify the most effective means of generating sales and/or buzz.” So here are the top ten methods that gain the most effective means of exposing your music:

#1 Performance on the Grammy Awards

According to the article Mumford & Sons performed twice on the 2011 53rd annual Grammy Awards and “the impact on viewers was immediate: U.S. sales of Sigh No More surged 99% during the sales week that ended later that evening according to Nielsen SoundScan lifting Sigh No More to #2 on the Billboard 200, and 60% of those sales since Grammy broadcast.”

#2 Performance during Super Bowl Halftime Show

Black Eyed Peas performed during Super Bowl XLV halftime show which pulled in “57 million viewers surging sales of the Peas’ album The Beginning to 62%.

#3 Home Page Placement on Itunes

Itunes has established itself as the online music store as “iTunes accounted for 33% of U.S. recorded music revenue in 2010.”

#4 Performance on Fox’s “American Idol”

American Idol has an average viewership of 24 million.

#5  Album displayed in Walmart endcap

With 4400 store in the U.S. the most desirable location in the store is outside the music department where the hottest, highest-turnover titles are placed.

#6 Performance on MTV Video Music Awards

With 12.4 million viewers in 2011, after Adele’s performed “Someone Like You” rose to number 1.

#7 Performance on Country Music Association Awards

16.4 million viewers tuned during the 2011 Country Music Association Awards telecast  and many labels and managers lobby to get their artists to perform on this popular show (so popular that according to the 2010 Billboard Maximum Exposure list it was #29.)

#8 First Arena Level Headlining Tour

Billboard uses Katy Perry as an example where Perry not only launched a North American tour, but Europe, Asia and Australia as well.

#9 Performance on Coachella/Mainstage

75,000 people attended the various shows of Coachella over three days.

#10 Song in a TV Commercial that Runs during a special event with Significant viewership

Other methods that appear to be rising in popularity:

#13 Album displayed in Target Endcap

#14 Album promoted in Target Circular

#21 Album promoted in Best Buy circular

#22 Album displayed in Best Buy endcap

#48 Featured on NPR’S “All Things Considered” (was #83 in 2010)

#52 Performance on Vans Warped Tour/Main Stage (was #100 in 2010)

Most people spend between one and ten hours a week watching video online. It will be interesting to see this stat in 2013 as I predict that time will increase.

Comedy and news take the two top spots. I wonder if you broke this down further as to what consumers are actually looking at for a retailer such as Overstock.com: Is it clothes, electronics, or other things?

John Jantsch, author of "Duct Tape Marketing" and "The Referral Engine" at the 2011 NYXPO.

I attended the 2011 NYXPO and was able to catch John Jantsch, author of “Duct Tape Marketing” and “The Referral Engine” provide some great social media tips for your business. Watch the video below.

Since the last few posts have revolved around video I came across this eMarketer stat of “Methods for Watching Video Content as per College Student Internet Users” and I thought the desktop would be #1 but interesting to note that mobile is #2. Watching via laptop means (mom and dad) that the students are watching videos during class when they should be participating!

A very very old video cassette recorder. May not be needed for YouTube.

Photo via deltaMikeD

Every day, 48,960 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube and two billion online videos are viewed. By 2015, the demand for online video is expected to grow by 81 percent.  The New York chapter of the Public Relations Society held a panel offering techniques to create, distribute and market high- impact online video that draws eyeballs and drives results. Here is the second part that featured Jake Finkelstein of Method Savvy and Jonah Minton of Ustream.

Jake Finkelstein, Method Savvy began with some statistics:

- 180+ million Americans watch videos online  (57% of US residents)

- Video is 53 times more likely to receive an organic first page rank in Google search engine results

- YouTube users account for 3 billion views every day making YouTube the second largest search engine

How can you optimize your videos for SEO success? Jake recommends you focus on content that grabs and holds the viewer’s attention. When setting up your YouTube page placing thumbnails is a big influencer and your video titles should include at least three to five keywords. In the description place the url first, and include tags and categories for users to easily discover your videos. Jake also suggests that if your videos get more ratings and comments they will get a higher ranking.

Since videos are invisible to search engines creating transcriptions will put you ahead of everyone else since not many YouTube users take the time to create transcripts. For your website be sure to include a video site map for search engine bots to help index your video. In closing Jake suggested that YouTube promoted videos are like Google ad words and users do not know the difference between the sponsored videos that appear at the very top and the regular videos below.

You can follow Jake on Twitter @tundro.

Jonah Minton of Ustream concluded the evening’s presentation with tips on how to best use Ustream for your live event. Ustream began live streaming in 1997 and  in 2011 attained the most viewed live video (200 million views) with Decorah Eagles. Other successful Ustream events include Nike sponsored live chat with Kobe Bryant  which resulted in average viewer time of 30 minutes, and  Budweiser sponsored chat with Kiss that averaged 43 minutes.  Jonah began with the question why should your company/organization live stream? If you want to have a live event for your message livestreaming stands out from the online clutter and brings in the audience.

With livestreaming there is more interactivity and participation from users and your organization also has a  social aspect to the event by integrating Facebook and Twitter. The best practice for live streaming is to have your event live and not scripted. As with any live event there may be technical problems that arise so be prepared with a plan to resolve them. Jonah also recommends having a moderator push questions so the dialogue flows smoothly and the guest can focus on a conversation with participants. To create the best user experience Jonah advises having your webpage promoting the event, and video-on-demand  so users that may have missed the live event be able to view it.

You can follow Jonah on Twitter @jonahmatthew.