Web Design and Development in Greenville, SC | Merge

About five or six years ago, I rang the death knell on Rock n' Roll.  Anything on local radio was pretty much trash in my estimation, and finding anything new by any other means just wasn't easy enough to draw me away from my CD collection.  Things didn't change overnight, but it almost seems that way. 

A long, long time ago, say 1999, if you wanted new music, you went to the music store.  Either an Earshot or a big box, buy the CD, and pop it in your car on the way home.  You probably bought the CD because you heard the band on the radio at some point, or saw them on MTV, when they used to play videos.  Essentially you had two (three if you read Rolling Stone or Spin) channels from which to hear about new music.  Things are a little different today.

I love The Black Keys.  You know how I heard about them?  An EA Sports game via Playstation 2 about 4 years ago.  A little embarrassed to admit that, but glad I found them.  How 'bout a band you've probably never heard of, Dirty Sweet.  They are from San Diego and get zero radio play. I found them through the iTunes store looking for new Black Keys stuff and stumbled upon them through the "Listeners also bought..."  One of my favorite bands now.  What about a band I'd never heard of until literally 2 minutes ago, Railroad Earth.  They just popped onto my Pandora station.

The web is making it increasingly easier for bands to get their music to the masses. Long gone are the days of buying a $30 "import" to hear your favorite band live.  Pearl Jam released 72 live CD's about eight years ago after a tour, all available online.  Even that seems tedious now.  I saw them in Columbia in 2008 and downloaded the show three days later.  The band that refused to use Ticketmaster a few years back now has an iPhone App. 

Artists have long been the best marketers, and bands like OK Go aren't waiting on their labels to help sell records these days.  Check out their recent op-ed on the topic.  Ben Harper (along with countless others) has his own YouTube channel.  Many an artist use Facebook to share songs and video with their fans, who in turn share it with their friends.

Bottom Line:  The web has made it very easy for music and artists to find you.  No more do you need to get in your car and drive to buy music, now you can just buy music while you happen to be in your car.

For our non-profit friends out there, here is a quick success story of a grassroots organization and their use of the web and social media to make a big splash from day one. 

Fall 2009 - The Red Shoe Society (RSS) Board is formed, comprised of eleven volunteers.  The goal from the outset is to be the sought after young professionals philanthropic organization in the Upstate while creating awareness and raising funds for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Carolinas.

November/December 2009 - Planning begins for the year, with the first introduction to the public to be held on February 10, 2010, the "Open Your Hearts for the Ronald McDonald House."

December 2009/January 2010 - The board secures Good Life Catering, the Next Innovation Center, Highland Brewing Company and West End Wine and Spirits to provide the space, food and drink for the event.  All of which donate in kind (a good portion of their costs, if not all their costs in most cases) for the event.  

January 2010 - The invitation process begins.  The goal is to get 150 people to the event, and be happy to get ten new paying members that night. 

• Invites are done via email and Facebook.  An event is created and then shared by the board members. 
• Based solely on Facebook friends of the board members, the Open Your Hearts event was seen by a minimum of 3,800 people.  This is assuming  it was only sent out once by each board member.  It was also pushed on twitter.

The event ends up raising $1,980 for the Ronald McDonald House in roughly 2 hours. 

• This covers the cost for just over 22 families to stay at the house for one night each. 
• Close to 200 people attend. 
• The total cost of the event is $77.74.
• The year end goal for membership is 100.  As it stands today, after only one event, membership is over 30 young professionals, not including the board. 

Bottom Line:  Good strategy + dedicated volunteers and/or staff + plus the power of the web can lead to great things for your organization. 

So Brad, the elite hacker, and I were talking Tuesday morning about the USA vs. Canada hockey game from Sunday night.  It's being dubbed as the second greatest moment in USA Hockey history.  When there might only be three such moments (only one other actually comes to mind), second place isn't that bad, or that good.  Anyways, I listen to sports radio some, and on Monday the outrage that NBC put the game on MSNBC was everywhere.  "How could they do this?!"  Easy, we (25-45 year old male sports fans) weren't the demographic.  The market for Olympic programming isn't us.  It's your grandma, or sister, or mom.  "But it's the biggest sporting event going right now, and this was the biggest game!?"  More news, it's not sports.  Phenomenal athletes abound, but there is a reason you don't get two hour pregame shows beforehand, and instead you get polar bears.  Most of the events are subjectively judged on crazy and inconsistent criteria, and by humans to boot.  If you have to count on the judge from Belarus to determine a winner, and not a clock or scoreboard, don't be surprised if it's not aimed and marketed to the typically sports fan. 

NBC does what I would consider average coverage of sporting events.  Their Sunday Night NFL show is decent.  But their coverage of this years Winter Games has been a home run in terms of ratings and therefore revenue.   They've averaged almost 3 times the viewers of their closest competitor, Fox, home of American Idol.  For more proof of them backing the right horse, the USA/Canada game pulled in 700,000 more viewers than Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs in June.  And it was in standard def on MSNBC. 

Their coverage has not come without criticism however.  The lack of live events has come under heavy fire.  I guess that's justified, if it were up to me, I'd rather see live hockey every night in lieu of ice dancing on tape delay.  But if your business had the opportunity to do three times the business of your nearest competitor by simply conducting that business at the time when the most customers were available, wouldn't you?   You could say that they didn't put the best product on the table, i.e. live events, but I would contest that they really understand their market and have a great formula for delivering the right product at the right time and place.  That's two of the four P's for those counting at home. 

Bottom Line:  Like it or not, NBC got this right.  The majority is happy, otherwise they wouldn't continue to tune in, and that means more dollars for the Peacock.

Thanks to everyone who submitted entries into our Chill Corner Contest.  You made it a ton of fun and really difficult to judge.  At the end of the day though, a winner needed to be picked, and that person is Bryan Rees from Oobe.  We can't wait to hang out on the giant Fatboy beanbags, they are perfect for the new space. 

Merge officially begins work in the new space on Monday, feel free to drop by and check it out.  Our new address will be:

411 University Ridge, STE 225
Greenville, SC 29601

As you may know, Merge is moving.  We are leaving our cozy downtown loft for the spacious confines of the Next Innovation Center.  Amidst the chaos of moving, we realized one part of our space is still in need of some design work.  Dubbed the "Chill Corner," it's a place for us to collaborate, innovate, work and just chill.  So here is where you come in to play.  We want you to design this space.  Here's the deal, you have a $500 budget to work within, and all you have to do is send us the links to all the cool stuff you would like to see in the corner.  Time is of the essence however, the contest ends at midnight on Wednesday the 10th, and some great designs are already in.   The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to a Table 301 restaurant and an invite to our open house in March.  For more details and how to enter, check the link.