How To Increase Your Fan Base The Social Media Way
How To Increase Your Fan Base The Social Media Way
Would you be happy with 1000 fans? 10,000? 1,000,000? I am so excited because I believe with Social Media you can do it. The tools and the strategies are in place; it just takes a lot of time and effort, and it probably helps if your music doesn't suck, but that's another story.
Of course there are no guarantees, but here is how to grow your fan base using a combination of website tools and social media. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves, work a little, engage a lot, and be consistent.
1_ PICK YOUR TOOLS
2_ VISIT DAILY
3_ BE CONSISTENT
4_ TOOLS TO HELP YOU SPREAD THE WORD A LITTLE EASIER
5_ ENGAGE AND REWARD LOYAL FANS
1_ PICK YOUR TOOLS
_ Create a website (sayvee, or bandcamp) or free online marketing platform (reverbnation, iLike, myspace). In my last article I listed some of these and described their features and benefits. You really can't go wrong with any of these.
_ Blogging is essential to this strategy (see below). If the tool you choose doesn't have a blog feature, and even if it does, sign-up for Wordpress, Blogger, or Typepad. All three are free and easy to use.
_ If you haven't done so already, sign-up for social media accounts i.e. YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. I'm really undecided about myspace for musicians right now (see article) because of the changes they are reportedly making, but I guess until the changes are actually revealed, it's still essential for musicians. All of the artists we support on Fuel Radio Music have myspace pages - You decide! While you are signing up for these social media sites make sure you take advantage of the features that ask you to check your e-mail lists for friends who are already members of these programs and let them know that you are now a member too.
_ Load em up with content and don't worry about the number of followers you have. Let me say it again don't worry about number of followers you have. Produce great content on a consistent basis for several months, post your major content on your blog, or website, do the actions listed below, and let it ride. The number will follow.
VISIT DAILY
Visit your social media sites, and other blogs related to your music daily - and see what your friends, competitors, and followers are posting. Make comments, retweet, and offer to help when you can. Attend your friend's concerts and events. Be helpful and listen first, and always.
BE CONSISTENT
Be consistent and keep producing content. Work on and deliver a major article, video (see idea* below), or audio at least once a week (If you don't suck, I'd be happy to interview you and produce something you can use on your website or blog for free). On the other days; post a comments on Twitter, Facebook and your blog about news in your genre, a quick opinion about something related to you or your band, a referral to a friend's concert or music, a question to get your fans opinion about something, or a discovery that would be helpful to your fans. Be personable and approachable, helpful and interesting.
TOOLS TO HELP YOU SPREAD THE WORD A LITTLE EASIER
Use Ping.fm for articles and TubMogul.com for videos. You'll need to sign-up for the social media sites available on Ping.fm, (you probably already have), but once you do, you'll be able post a short announcement about your new content, and bingo, with the click of a button it will be posted on several of your social media sites and your blog, all at once (TIP keep your ping.fm announcements to 140 characters and link to your blog, or website. ping.fm provides a character counter); same with TubMogul.com for videos.
Another helpful time saving communications tool is Hootsuite.com. If you work during the day, or are too busy to get to your computer, or cell phone to send out regular messages, with Hootsuite you can schedule tweets and Facebook messages to go out when you want. Keep it it real! - don't abuse it because people get turned off by automated messages. Twitter is used the most between 11AM and 2PM, so when you produce your major content for the week make sure you schedule an announcement for between these hours.
If you want to post audio, there are a ton of options. For reasons I won't go into now, I use Podomatic, and Cinchcast. I use Podomatic for podcasts and Cinchcast to introduce, report, and sometimes read my written blog posts.
Next on FUEL RADIO INSPIRED!!! I did a podcast interview with George Moen, the President of Blenz Coffee last week. Sometime this week (Nevember 1- 7, 2010) we'll post it and George will tell you how to increase the number of followers you have on Twitter. He has over 20,000 Twitter followers using this strategy and I have added over 100 quality Twitter followers this last weekend using his technique. Stay tuned! If you just can't wait and you don't mind being added to the FUEL RADIO MUSIC e-mail list, send me an e-mail and I'll share with you now. If you don't have time, or don't want to take the time there are companies out there that will do this for you, and we would be happy to help you out, for a fee, as well.
ENGAGE AND REWARD LOYAL FANS
There is a lot of ways to engage and reward loyal fans. Sports teams do this best. Musicians? not so much, but they're getting better. It could be argued that the biggest struggle musicians have today isn't selling music, it is getting recognized, so if a fan recognizes you, i.e. creates a fan page, tweets about you, recommends your music, tells the world they loved your concert, find a way to engage that fan, even if it's just a simple "thank you." It's never going to happen, but could you imagine if you got "thank you" from Bono, or Chris Martin for following them on Twitter? Bono and Chris Martin aren't going to engage their fans on this level, they don't have to, but you can do it, and the mileage you get with your fan's will be huge.
Well,that's it for now. Any questions, or comments, you can e-mail me at music@fuelradio.com, or please post something below. Would love to hear from you. We're to help!
*IDEA - This isn't anything new. If you want to video blog, tell some sort of ongoing story like your band's rise to stardom! You can get a decent flip video machine for around $150 to $200 that automatically loads to YouTube. Begin to document your weekly struggles and victories as an artist. Would love to see this, and it would be helpful to other artists too. For the king's of video blogging, Google Ian Watt (Real Estate), Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine).
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