5 WAYS TO ACTUALLY (REALLY) ENGAGE WITH YOUR FANS
“This is 🔥🔥🔥” said someone who wasn’t following me and I wasn’t following them in response to a picture of my dog.
“I can’t even tell you how cute this is😍!” Said someone who wasn’t following me and I wasn’t following them in response to a pic of my screen with a bunch of vocal tracks.
“Hey! Check out my new single “Not Yo Mamas Lasagna” released on all platforms now! 😘😘” Someone replied to my question sticker on my story when I (ironically) asked about fan engagement.
You know what my reaction is to these comments and messages. A Big. Fat. Eye. Roll. 🙄🙄🙄
I know you have seen the same type of comments or have received these thoughtless, copy/paste messages, amiright? Well, what was your reaction? DId you say, “OMG I really want to listen to this artist that I’ve never heard of before!” Of course not.
So why are you guys spamming people with nonsense and calling it “fan engagement”???
Ok, sorry. No more yelling at you.
I totally understand your frustration. For years, to be totally honest, I didn’t really know how to advise artists on what to do when it came to “fan engagement”. But I’ve been studying about it and paying closer attention to what works for me personally (as a music listener/consumer) and what is a big turn off.
From my observation, I believe it comes to just five simple things:
Get personal
One day, I followed this artist named SHAR. I can’t recall who followed who first but she is a female music producer, therefore we both belong to “female music producer” groups and follow related hashtags. I didn’t give much thought to her or pay much attention to what she was doing until she posted a teaser video on Facebook for her new music video, along with a vulnerable, honest post about how uncomfortable she felt being on camera but really wanted to share the message of her song. Something about her face in that 10 second clip and that honest post pulled me in. I wanted to watch it. (I didn’t even have my sound on so it wasn’t even the music!) So I watched it and I loved it. I commented that I loved it and was a new fan. She replied to my comment right away that she appreciated me. Then, a few days later, I noticed an unread message from her in my Instagram messages from a few weeks earlier. Somehow I had missed it but it appeared to have been sent when we had just become followers of one another. It was a VOICE MESSAGE! I played it and her delightful British accent just made me fall in love with her even more! She called me by name, mentioned that she was a music producer as well and was so grateful to connect. PERSONALIZED VOICE MESSAGE??? I’m sorry but this girl has me LOCKED DOWN. Fan. For. Life. Not to mention that I love the song and love the message. We exchanged a few more messages and that was that. You better believe that I’m going to be paying attention to every musical move she makes because I am now a “SHAR Super Fan”.
Here’s her music video: https://youtu.be/CBM-fh5DGcM
Here’s her socials (FOLLOW HER I LOVE HER!) @officialshar_
Create content that is valuable to your fans
Mindy Gledhill is a well known indie artist (at least in my neck of the woods but has literally millions of streams) who has created such a personal connection with her fans. I've always admired her for her intelligence, talent and fierce fight for the marginalized. In my book, she has already "nailed it". But just the other day, I saw her post something amazing on Instagram to celebrate one of her singles passing 10,000,000 (!) spins on Spotify.
“It’s never been on a curated playlist. I’ve never purchased bots to get this number. It’s ALL YOU (see #4 below). Thank you! To celebrate, I’ve made you a SUPER easy YouTube ukulele tutorial to learn how to play it yourself! There are a lot of fan tutorials out there but no one has taught it correctly yet. And for all you hot-shot uke players out there, I’ve even uploaded an advanced tutorial made by Joe Corcoran, who arranged and played the ukulele on the original recording. So you can learn to play it EXACTLY like the recording. Enjoy. <3”
Her fans were freaking out over this. And of course they are! It is something special, completely unique to “Mindy” and is something that deepens their connection with her. What can you create, do, offer that is unique to you and your brand and has value to your fans? Chord charts? Including fan art in your next video? Sheet music? Look around at what other artists are doing to get you thinking outside the proverbial box.
Be consistent
We all want to hide from social media on the regular, but since it is your *job* to engage with your *fans*, set aside a specific amount of time each day (or set days per week if you can’t do everyday) that you can respond to comments, visit profiles of those commenting so you can get to know them, like their posts, share their posts (if you like it or agree), send a private voice memo thanking someone for their comment, etc. In other words, make someone's day. How bad of a job is that?? Set a timer for the amount you have allotted. Break it into two halves if needed (only have 30 minutes a day, do 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes on your lunch break). The key is to consistently engage in a meaningful way and to not “simply scroll” and get lost in the abyss that is social media.
Show them/tell them you love and appreciate them
I get warm fuzziness when Julia Michaels tells me how much she loves me or that she wouldn't be where she is today without me. It makes me feel like she's real and not a shiny, packaged product that shimmers in the light like all untouchable things. Translation: it makes me feel connected to her. And though I know she's not actually talking *to* me, I feel as though she is. Perfect segue to #5…
It's not about you
My friend and colleague Dave Cebrowski (producer, musician, engineer, record label owner) commented on one of my posts with this crucial piece of advice, “For every 1 post about new music dropping or a gig or video, make sure you have about 7 posts that focus on your fans. Give them something to talk about, something that includes them in your inner circle of your persona/life. The key is to get people commenting, sharing and engaging. Respond to every comment. Talk about them. Ask them what other artists they are digging, ask them to post cool videos, and yes, it’s ok to post things that have nothing to do with music. “ Italics added ;-)
In a nutshell, be a “friend”. Just like we all hate that person who dominates a conversation at a party because all they want to do is talk about themselves, we all hate being “marketed” to. If all you do is throw releases, accomplishments and your own wins in their feed, there’s a good chance you will lose their interest or even worse, totally turn them off. Take the term “engagement” literally and engage with them. Without them (your fans), you can’t build your music career. Of course, this doesn’t mean to put yourself in vulnerable situations or share personal information that should be kept private. It’s important to keep your boundaries in these relationships. Be safe, be smart but be kind and most importantly, show interest in these people who love your music.
