Questions you absolutely must ask yourself.
Here are some critically important questions I’m asking almost every artist I encounter lately:
+ How are you getting your fans/tribe involved?
+ What are you doing to encourage participation?
+ What are you “putting out there” that fans/tribe can take with them?
+ What sort of “content” are you producing regularly for your fans/tribe?
+ Other than email and Myspace, how can your fans/tribe interact with you?
+ Are you listening to your fans/tribe? If so, what are they saying? What do they want?
+ What have you done lately that is “outside of the box” and different from the way you’ve always done things?
+ Are you inspiring your fans/tribe with anything other than the songs on your latest CD and your Myspace page?
+ How are you “leading” your fans/tribe? Where are you taking them?
+ Are you giving your fans something they can believe in?
As you can see, all of these questions are loaded. And believe it or not, they all have right and wrong answers too.
Welcome to the new age of the music business. Long gone are the days when artists can simply make music, put out an occasional CD, maintain a Myspace page, send out a few emails announcing upcoming shows, and hope to build a fan base or get the attention of the media or someone important. It’s just not that easy anymore. You have to work much harder, and moreover, you’ve got to work MUCH smarter if you want to achieve any degree of success. (Note: For the purpose of this essay I’m defining success as growing your fan base and getting the attention of the media. If you don’t care about building your fan base, I’m not talking to you)
A few truths to keep in mind.
Before we go any further, here are a few things that I believe to be true:
+ Demand for new music is at it’s absolute peak right now. And it will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
+ The music business is more competitive and over-saturated than it’s ever been in the history of mankind.
+ “Push” marketing/communication is a broken model and rarely works in today’s music business…unless you are U2, Miley Cyrus or Coldplay.
+ Consumers own the conversation. If you aren’t listening…and engaging people in some kind of interactive dialogue, you won’t succeed in building your fan base/tribe.
+ If the phrase “consumers own the conversation” or “push marketing/communication” went over your head, you have a lot to learn before you can even think about building a fan base/tribe.
Okay, now what?
The new age of the music industry.
For starters, put everything you think you know about the music business behind you and open your mind to a new reality. Stop doing things the way you’ve always done them and start asking yourself what you can do that is new, innovative or different than the status quo.
I’m sorry to keep hitting everyone over the head with terms like “Web 2.0,” “Social Media,” “Content,” and “Interactive Communication,” but these ideas, concepts and tools truly are at the center of the solution. And yes, you must first have a good product (music, live show, etc). But that’s sort of a given in my mind. If you don’t have a good quality product, I’m not talking to you.
Why do people like me and so many other thought leaders of today keep talking about these new age, techy terms and phrases? BECAUSE THEY MATTER. The basic premise behind Web 2.0, Social Media, Content, and Interactive Communication is that consumers have waged a revolution and have taken control of marketing and communication. You can’t tell them what to do. In fact, you can’t TELL them much of anything. They decide what they want to do, buy, listen to, etc – nearly regardless of what you tell them.
Ask for permission.
We are now living in an “opt-in” world. If you want a fan to listen to your music, you first need to ask for their permission. Without their permission, they’ll block you out like they’re blocking out all of the other crap in the world – billboards, commercials, sales calls, email, spam, etc. One-way messaging is a thing of the past. In today’s day and age, if you want to build fans and relationships, you must first ask for permission.
Now, once you get permission your work is not finished….not even close. Some people actually believe that once you get permission (ie: new email sign-up, new Myspace friend, new Facebook friend, new Twitter follower, etc), that you can suddenly get lazy and go back to your good old, tried and true, one-way messaging tactics….when in fact, that is probably the worst thing you could possibly do.
You see, as soon as you revert back to your old blah blah blah email announcements about your upcoming shows…and your same old blah blah blah Myspace bulletins…and your boring blah blah blah Tweets about what you ate for dinner – you’ve taken the first step to losing the permission of your fans.
Invite participation and interaction.
While they may have once given you permission to interact with them – the key is to remember to INTERACT with them. Interaction and participation is the key to successfully building your fan base/tribe. What every artist needs to learn is that their fans don’t want to be continually hit over the head with the same old sort of messaging. They don’t want to be “talked at.” That’s the very thing they’ve revolted against. And before long, if you continue to talk at your fans, they will revoke their permission and you will lose them for good. And the craziest part of all is that you may never even know it. They’ll simply add you to their spam email filter or “un-friend” you on Facebook or on Myspace and you’ll never know. It’s virtually hidden.
Assuming you’re still with me and now are starting to better understand this “new age of the music business”… now go back and ask yourself the questions at the top of this essay.
A few ideas to get your wheels turning.
Here are some ideas for how you may better interact with your fans and give them something that they can believe in:
+ Launch a blog. Blogs are interactive. Blogs provide an easy way for artists to share and interact with their fans/tribe.
+ Shoot some do-it-yourself videos of a rehearsal, a performance, or an interesting activity. Share them on your blog or your website or your Myspace page or your YouTube page.
+ Share demos with your fans. Include a link in an email. Post a link to a demo on your website or blog. Send it out in a Tweet on Twitter.
+ When the weather gets nice, organize a BBQ at the park invite your friends to show up for an informal, “invite only” performance (via your email list, Twitter, blog subscribers, etc). Keep it light…make it fun…take a few requests of fan favorites.
+ Ask your fans for their mailing address and send hand-made Valentines to everyone who responds.
+ On your next “show announcement” email, instead of just listing out the details of the show, tell a short, cute story and tell your subscribers that the first two people to respond will get a guest list spot at the show.
+ Do you use Twitter? Remember that Twitter is not intended to be a one-way communication tool. Follow the people that follow you. Respond to their Tweets. Take time to send them a direct message from time to time. INTERACT with them.
+ Ask questions. Post a survey on your website or your blog and ask insightful questions that may teach you something new about your fans/tribe.
+ Tell a story. Blogs are the ideal place for this because they allow people to respond and interact. Fans want to know more about you than what is listed on the liner notes. Tell them about the movie you saw last Friday night. Occasionally list what you’re listening to the most on your iPod. Ask them what’s on their iPods. Tell your fans about the last great concert you went to. Ask them what their favorite concert of they year was. Tell them about your childhood or about the inspiration for a new song. Ask them about their childhood.
This is a very brief, limited scope of ideas. With a little time and creativity, I’m sure you can think of twenty better ways to interact with and participate with your fans. Give it a try over a few months and see what happens. And keep in mind that these sort of strategies do take some time to develop. After all, these are relationships we’re talking about. Like most good things, including fine wine….relationships take time….and work.
Give them something to believe in.
Do this, and in due time, your fans will believe in you. And once they believe in you, you can grow them and lead them almost anywhere.
I enjoyed reading this! Here are some more fun ways to interact with fans/tribes:
throw a concert on the train
make a music video with your fans by asking them to send in lip-syncs
reward the fans who retweet you
publish your lyrics and and them out
reach out to creatives who need music for their projects
@derrekwayne me!
DW
Some incredible advice here, thank you! Time to stop just tweeting myself and do some retweets. It’s especially a good point because I hardly ever have anything interesting to say, anyway
Mo
http://www.myspace.com/moshaw