Welcome to the first edition of our Social Media Scorecard series. The first installment looks at the social media power of the various brands of cymbals in the world of music merchandise.
Why? First of all, aren’t you curious? I know I was.
But secondly, there is a much more selfish reason. If and when you pursue an endorsement with any brand of cymbal, drum or stick, besides the fact that you love the brand–and that should indeed be your primary concern–what kind of marketing power do they have to help you?
I believe that the partnership between a drum related brand and a player is a two-way street. You help them promote and they help you promote.
Well, no offense to some of the brands who finished low on this list, but if you sign with a company that is weak in social media and marketing, you should know what you’re getting into.
How much help can you really get on the marketing side from a cymbal company that has no significant social media reach?
That’s why I put this together. In the first place, it’s interesting. Further, it’s important to know these things as your career progresses and you consider the possibility of endorsements.
Let me give you some details of how I looked at this. The only platforms I looked at were Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I left out Twitter. I’m sure some of you may disagree, but here’s the thing. I’ve been looking at Twitter for a while now and considering what it’s value is to musicians. I don’t think it does much for us. It’s great for news and politicians. But for marketing music, I believe it’s dying. If you don’t believe me, check out the engagement numbers on Twitter for music accounts vs those same numbers on Instagram, for example. No comparison. Twitter is a weak platform for musicians. The cymbal companies looked at for this scorecard all have crappy engagement numbers on Twitter.
So, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are the three I looked at.
Cymbal brands are looked at and ranked on the individual platforms and then in the aggregate across all three socials.
All the data was collected on the same day: February 14th, 2020.
On Facebook, the number of followers rather than likes for each brand was looked at since likes are generally a subset of followers. On Instagram, the measurement was followers and on YouTube the measurement was subscribers.
As for the results, you probably won’t be surprised that the big 4 cymbal companies: Zildjian, Paiste, Sabian, and Meinl, had the most social media power. But the difference between the high ranking and lower-ranking brands is massive.
There were some surprises. One was that Sabian crushed everyone on Facebook. Another interesting fact is that Zildjian absolutely destroyed everyone on Instagram. On YouTube, Meinl was the winner.
The #1 brands on each platform:
–Facebook: Sabian dominated with 1.9 million followers
–Instagram: Zildjian was by far the leader with 783K followers.
–YouTube: Meinl was the leader with 223K subscribers
So, without further ado, here is the PDF with all of the numbers: Cymbal Brands 2020 Social Media Scorecard
He first gained attention as one of the winners of Modern Drummer magazine's very first drum solo contest, judged by Rush's Neil Peart.
He's played with Oz Noy, Will Lee, Alison Krauss, Curtis Stigers, Emily Remler, Joel Hoekstra, GE Smith, Andy York, Marshall Crenshaw, Tony Shanahan, The Drifters, The Marvelettes, Big Brother and The Holding Company, and many other artists.
For more info: onlinesessiondrummer.com
- The Gift - December 30, 2021
- The Rock Drumming Six: A Simple and Solid Drum Fill Idea - December 25, 2021
- Avoid This Costly Mistake When Practicing Rudiments / Hand Technique - December 13, 2021
Leave a Reply