Building an online audience isn’t easy. It’s all about putting the time in and growing your fan base one person at a time. It is even harder if you don’t know who your fans are or where they hang out. The way most bands audiences grow is via friends, then friends of friends and then word gets out via social media and the press. You need to do as much as you can to get people talking and telling their friends about what you do. To find your audience in the first place you need to know who your fans are and where they hang out, the best way to do this is to ask your first few fans. If you want the audience to grow you need to talk to them.
Here are some ways of getting to know your fans better:
Talk to them at gigs – When you play live don’t just dash off after you have finished your set. Make the effort to hang around and speak to your audience. Tell them about any other gigs coming up (make sure they are listed on your website and on Live Unsigned), ask questions and try and get an email address if possible.
Ask them questions online – Using your social media sites ask your fans questions, people love to talk about themselves. Ask them who their favourite bands are, what their interests are and what they are passionate about. Once you know where your fans are online you can engage with them there. Forums may not be the cutting edge of social media but a lot of really hardcore fans still use them. If you’re engaging with people on forums or elsewhere don’t try and sell to them, talk to them about other subjects and build a relationship first. It takes a lot of time but it does work.
Meet up with them – Using Twitter or Facebook arrange to meet up with your local fans for a beer or a meal. Finding out what they are into and what they like will enable you to work out what other similar fans may be into. With this information you can focus your marketing and promotion to find more of these people. So for example if you discover a lot of your fans read a particular publication this may be a place to really focus on advertising or getting reviews.
Don’t forget your newsletter – Email newsletters are still a great way to talk to fans, always try and include one question for fans to answer within the content, the answers you get may prove to be very useful. Always reply to every fan response!
Say thank you – Saying thank you is a good way of getting fans talking. So if you have a successful gig or a pre order for a new album sells out take the time to say thank you via your social media sites.
Open up – If you really want to get to know your fans let them know about your life, what you believe in, what frustrates you and what you care about. Tell them about who you are, honesty and integrity can take you a long way in terms of building a real relationship with fans. Authenticity is the key here, be yourself.
Over the period of a few years a fan can be worth a lot to you both financially (if they buy your merchandise) and in terms of the other people they will tell about your music. If you don’t engage with them someone else will, you really need to make the effort with your audience if you want them to be loyal to you. The more you know about your existing fans the more chance you will have to find out where more potential fans are and what they are into. Make sure you are listening to what they say carefully.
