The Grammys have just passed and the attention of music lovers around the world was riveted on the Staples Center to see if Chris Brown wass going to be let out of rehab long enough to snuggle with Rihanna again. Even if you’re not a music lover, or even if you can’t hold a tune, you can still learn some valuable online marketing lessons from the Awards ceremony.

Don’t manipulate social media like Al Walser

What do Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Chuck Berry, The Doors, Queen, Diana Ross, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Bob Marley and (gasp!) The Beach Boys all have in common? They’ve never won a Grammy! However, Al Walser was nominated exclusively by gaming the Grammy nominations through trolling and spamming the Grammy365 website where many of the voters hang out… as pretty well no one has ever heard his music. On the day of his nomination, his music video had garnered all of 20 views. Walser apparently didn’t care that his name would be Mud once his sneaky little ploy was revealed, as he was only seeking to grab an undeserved nomination and the fleeting fame it would bring him. Walser manipulated social media in a way that some may say was masterful, while others will insist it was shameful. Either way, it’s an example you want to steer far away from. Reputation is first and foremost when your brand is engaging in social media and email marketing, so you have to maintain spotless levels of trust with all your customers. You might be tempted to pull a fast one for a quick bottom line score, but it will cost you in the long run.

The biggest winners are ones you’ve never heard of

You’d think that The Beatles or Michael Jackson might have the highest Grammy totals, but the winner is Classical conductor Sir Georg Solti who has taken home 31 awards. (Confess… you just said Sir Georg Who?) MJ didn’t even reach 20 and John, Paul, George & Ringo managed just 8, a number they share with Take 6. (Take 6 Who?) You can take a page from the Grammy playbook and realize that just because you’re competing against massive international megacorporations with an online marketing budget similar to the GDP of some small nations, you can still distinguish yourself. You might never have their number of followers in the dozens of millions, but if you provide exceptionally responsive social media and email marketing services which provide true value while engaging your customers to the utmost degree you will be record breaking prize winners in your own right.

K.I.S.S. isn’t just a band

There have been over a hundred Grammy categories but most of them are presented outside the televised program segment so pretty well nobody ever finds out about them. While we can all understand the reasons for the top awards, you really have to wonder if it’s worth minting an award in order to present it to the Best Spoken Word Album for Children (“Here comes Barney, he’s smarmy and gnarly”), Best Surround Sound Album (Wow, the sound is coming from all the speakers), Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist (Isn’t that an oxymoron?), Best Polka Album (You’re kidding, right?), and the best one of them all, Best Album Notes. Yes, you can take home a Grammy due to your excellence in informing your music-buying public just how many bourbon shots you had when you wrote that song. OK Hal, how do you tie this one into online marketing? Easy! Don’t make your campaigns so complicated that community colleges have to offer courses on interpreting them. If you’re barraging your customers with 100+ different campaign aspects all at once they’ll flee to your competitors which offer campaigns mere mortals can actually understand. K.I.S.S. isn’t just a band (FYI, the famous make-up fire spitting band have won 0 Grammies)!

If you pay very close attention to these three Grammy examples and implement those valuable lessons your brand’s cash registers will be ringing with that wonderful sweet sound of cash that’s beautiful music to any online marketer’s ears!