Commentary

M.C. Hammer, Still Moving Crowds

by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, February 22, 2011

M.C. Hammer has had an interesting life, to say the least, from his stint in the U.S. Navy, to glory days when he was arguably the most famous musician in the world, to bankruptcy, to his reinvention as a social media superstar. He is also an acute and rousing public speaker, as the audience at the Gravity Summit at UCLA learned on Tuesday, when Hammer turned an awards acceptance speech (naming him social media marketer of the year for 2010) into a brief but sweeping review of the progress of social media over the last decade.

"When social media was just getting started, you all probably remember this as well as anyone -- a lot of people would say ‘why do I want to know you're having a sandwich?' Well, it's gone from sandwiches to the driving engine" of "a whole social media economy."

Of course, it's worth noting that many people still dismiss social media, even when they have no direct experience of it, as trivial and meaningless. But Hammer's own reinvention is pretty convincing proof to the contrary: if nothing else, his current success isn't trivial or meaningless to him, and any ambitious individual would be wise to at least consider his example.

The same is true of marketers, and Hammer had plenty of advice on that score: for entertainment and media properties, he ventured "It's better to have social media optimization than SEO" because it means "you're hot where the buzz-makers and tastemakers are." On that note, he emphasized the distinction between "relevance" and "influence," adding that simply creating relevant content is no longer sufficient: "What you really need to do is create influence, and influence is relationships," which "allow you to not just create new customers, but retain customers" in the long term.

Pointing to the continuing events in the Middle East as evidence of the huge (and still-expanding scope) of social media, Hammer concluded: "It's really no longer debatable... This thing, which started out as ‘Who cares about you having a sandwich?' is now helping change governments." Hammer closed with a final piece of advice to the marketing audience: "It's engage now, or lose later. It's engage now, or lose out somewhere down the road because your competitors are engaging now."

music, social media, technology

4 comments about "M.C. Hammer, Still Moving Crowds".

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Rodrigo Sierra from American Medical Association, February 22, 2011 at 4:23 p.m.
Here, here to MC...master communicator! He's got it right. Thanks for the insight.
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Amy Do from SPARK, February 22, 2011 at 5:53 p.m.

Now that is legit. 2 Legit to Quit!

Mark Vozzo from Salesforce.com, February 23, 2011 at 7:48 a.m.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr MC Hammer in person when he was visiting Sydney and helping Microsoft promote it's new (at the time) HD Web Cam. He was truly inspirational and charismatic person - still full of energy and presence. He get's Social Media and is a great spokesperson for SMO. As the article quote, MS says "It's better to have social media optimization than SEO" I do agree with him, but I feel it's far better having both in the mix as it's like a 1 + 1 = 3 effect. There's no point generating all this buzz if folks who want to catch the wave can't find the right wave to catch when the search on Google and Bing (if you get my drift). You want to make sure you have a search optimized landing page to channel the buzz.

Darrin Searancke from Halifax Chronicle Herald, February 23, 2011 at 9:12 a.m.

You can't Tweet this - oh, wait a minute.