Li’l Chris from MySpace to mainstream: how social media launches trends

Looks like the music biz is getting the hang of the new rules of marketing in networks… just a bit.

I’m really glad Heather Hopkins of Hitwise wrote up her analysis of the rise of Lil’Chris, the nauseating/cool depending on your point of view, boy band-ish rock star who is a sort of Avril Lavigne cross-bred with Busted.

Using search and traffic data she shows that traffic to his official website came mainly from MySpace links until the point at which he became mainstream when the early adopter traffic from MySpace (word of mouth recommendations) fell away and his mainstream media profile and wider awareness meant that search engines took over and began to deliver the mainstream audience.

Lesson for brands? Social media is where your early adopters are (even if you’re not marketing to tween-agers. It’s where the cool stuff starts. Pay attention. Li’l Chris’s marketers certainly have.

The Arctic Monkeys, he ain’t though. Nothing organic or left ot chance here… I mean, there’s no online community or tool left to chance… we have – in no particular order:

The aforementioned official website: