Trust me, you can only spam your followers/fans/people in your circles for so long. Even if you're the hottest potato fresh out the oven, spamming 'hungry' fans is sure ticket to a fast expiration date.
Does it mean more work? Dedicating 'extra' time to sit by your device of choice to counter your posts on your upcoming gig with interesting snippets of your life? Maybe.
The key, (I find), is to work towards making your online social engagement 'second nature'. If surely you can spam,you can engage! (Rihanna's love of Instagram is a great example; after all, a (ratchety) picture is worth 1000 words,even more. I refer you to celebrity blogs and their constant deciphering of her posts. Keeps her relevant and mentioned and talked/bitched about...you almost always know what she's up to! Enough with improving her SEO ranking...
So,what can you do? How can you get the best out of the interwebs,your current and potential armies of fans? Behold, the pillars... (with italicized interjections from this gigging musician.)
(image via Hypebot)
First and foremost, communication with your fans must come from you, the artist, in your voice. Not your manager, label, or intern. People aren’t interested in hearing generic updates from your label or agent. They want to get to know your personality, hear about your experiences. Essentially, fans want to feel like they’re on the journey of your career along with you.
(It's cool to have your team update for you once in a while ,but c'mon, it's you we are following!)
Consistency is key when it comes to engaging with your fans. You can’t post an update on Facebook one day, then disappear for several weeks to come back and find that a bunch of fans responded with questions that you never answered. People will likely stop paying attention if you don’t have a consistent presence.
(I mean really, how would you feel to be snubbed? Constantly? That's the wrong kind of consistency to adopt.)
And finally, when it comes to fan engagement, you have to sustain it over the long term. Don’t expect immediate results. It might take months of being consistent to start seeing more quality interactions with your fans, which in turn could lead to new fans, more people at your shows, and increased sales.
(Quit with waiting to a week before your gig to start updating your profiles in CAPS (so annoying!), somehow thinking people should pay attention...you haven't even dusted off the virtual cobwebs!)
If you have an online presence, you in turn acknowledge that you know its inherent value. Else, you could also remain antiquated...which you can make work for you. Point is, an online presence indicates to fans that you are there to engage with. Remember that.
Never leave fans hanging yo! Same way you don't want them to leave you hanging at your gigging hour.
(image courtesy of hypebot)
It's part of the job. The sooner you accept/adopt, the sooner you can reap the awesome benefits of the interwebs and the fans that be.( An interesting and potentially rewarding approach is to centralize your efforts to one social network, then autopost to others. However, be sure to check the autoposted sites occasionally, to avoid a situation as that of the poor cat above. I'd personally recommend Google Plus for such an endeavour; benefits/features will be the subject of another post, so keep it here.)
You might also like: Artists and Social Media: Some Tips (thank me later!)
(Insights largely borrowed from Hypebot's 3 Pillars Of Music Fan Engagement)
Does it mean more work? Dedicating 'extra' time to sit by your device of choice to counter your posts on your upcoming gig with interesting snippets of your life? Maybe.
The key, (I find), is to work towards making your online social engagement 'second nature'. If surely you can spam,you can engage! (Rihanna's love of Instagram is a great example; after all, a (ratchety) picture is worth 1000 words,even more. I refer you to celebrity blogs and their constant deciphering of her posts. Keeps her relevant and mentioned and talked/bitched about...you almost always know what she's up to! Enough with improving her SEO ranking...
So,what can you do? How can you get the best out of the interwebs,your current and potential armies of fans? Behold, the pillars... (with italicized interjections from this gigging musician.)
(image via Hypebot)
1. Authenticity
First and foremost, communication with your fans must come from you, the artist, in your voice. Not your manager, label, or intern. People aren’t interested in hearing generic updates from your label or agent. They want to get to know your personality, hear about your experiences. Essentially, fans want to feel like they’re on the journey of your career along with you.
(It's cool to have your team update for you once in a while ,but c'mon, it's you we are following!)
2. Consistency
Consistency is key when it comes to engaging with your fans. You can’t post an update on Facebook one day, then disappear for several weeks to come back and find that a bunch of fans responded with questions that you never answered. People will likely stop paying attention if you don’t have a consistent presence.
(I mean really, how would you feel to be snubbed? Constantly? That's the wrong kind of consistency to adopt.)
3. Sustainability
And finally, when it comes to fan engagement, you have to sustain it over the long term. Don’t expect immediate results. It might take months of being consistent to start seeing more quality interactions with your fans, which in turn could lead to new fans, more people at your shows, and increased sales.
(Quit with waiting to a week before your gig to start updating your profiles in CAPS (so annoying!), somehow thinking people should pay attention...you haven't even dusted off the virtual cobwebs!)
If you have an online presence, you in turn acknowledge that you know its inherent value. Else, you could also remain antiquated...which you can make work for you. Point is, an online presence indicates to fans that you are there to engage with. Remember that.
Never leave fans hanging yo! Same way you don't want them to leave you hanging at your gigging hour.
(image courtesy of hypebot)
It's part of the job. The sooner you accept/adopt, the sooner you can reap the awesome benefits of the interwebs and the fans that be.( An interesting and potentially rewarding approach is to centralize your efforts to one social network, then autopost to others. However, be sure to check the autoposted sites occasionally, to avoid a situation as that of the poor cat above. I'd personally recommend Google Plus for such an endeavour; benefits/features will be the subject of another post, so keep it here.)
You might also like: Artists and Social Media: Some Tips (thank me later!)
(Insights largely borrowed from Hypebot's 3 Pillars Of Music Fan Engagement)
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