Musicians always want to know how to build a community of fans around their music. Successful musicians understand the importance of cultivating a large and engaged fan base around their music. Diversify your outreach to build the largest community possible and maximize your exposure.
Let’s explore extremely powerful tools for building a large and diverse fan base across multiple media platforms and artist profiles!
1. Take no one for granted to build a community of fans
If you only remember ONE thing, make it this:
All of your fans will be strangers before they become fans. Your job is to turn them into fans.
Everyone you meet, everyone who likes or comments on your recent posts, everyone who visits your website, and everyone who shares your TikTok video. Prior to this point, they were all complete strangers.
Nobody should be taken for granted. You never know where it will take you.
At this point, every true connection starts with 1 to 1. Create a legacy. Remember that everyone wants to feel special. Do things that go above and beyond to show how important your fans are to you. Don’t just act it out; live it!
Doing something amazing for one fan so that everyone can see it, responding to comments, direct messages, and more. You are rewarding those who interact with you and encouraging further interaction in order to naturally grow your fanbase.
Every day, you can start building a fanbase that will last for years by leaving a legacy for your audience.
Those one-on-one interactions may seem insignificant to you, but they could change someone’s life. This is how you cultivate a legion of devoted followers who hang on your every word.
2. Give Value On Social Media To Build A Community Of Fans
Everyone else advises you to “do social media” in order to build a fanbase for your music.
However, social media does not simply display a random post from your camera roll. How do we add value?
To be honest, if you’re not going to take the time to create and share quality content on social media, you might as well not bother. No content is better than poorly thought-out content.
This is due to the fact that average content on social media faces a LOT of competition.
If you do something better, different, or both, you’ll find yourself competing with far fewer people on social media. Organic reach is suddenly easier, as is fan building…
Everything becomes less difficult.
Value is also demonstrated by how you conduct yourself on social media. You can’t just post your content and then disappear.
Fans want to be valued in the same way that you value them. They appreciate you enough to comment on your music posts and share your content, so respond! Showing fans that they are valued and loved is the proper way to build a fanbase.
You have the ability to provide someone with the value that will live on in your legacy for the next 10, 20, 30 years. Taking proper care of 100 people will soon result in 1,000 people.
Create a fan creation loop if you want to grow your social media fan base for your music. This is how it works.
Make value-added content.
Consult everyone who engages personally.
They are 10x more likely to engage and increase their fandom the next time you post.
3. Be More Human
Do you recognize the following scenario?
“Hey, check out my music.”
SPOILER ALERT: this does not entice someone to listen to your music!
It’s not easy to release music, and the key to success is to make someone want to listen to your music without forcing them to.
You, your appearance, your lyrics, your story, what you stand for, and how you interact with people on social media are all part of the process of gaining a fanbase, not simply shameless self-promotion. It’s all about feeling.
Be more entertaining and relatable on social media. Be honest. Simply DMing someone and asking them to listen to your new song on Spotify isn’t going to work. There is no relationship, no connection, and no reason for them to believe in you or your brand.
People enjoy hearing stories and connecting with others who share their interests. Consider the feeling of belonging to a community. A tribe. Low-effort efforts to promote your music and build a fanbase will quickly turn people off from following your journey.
4. Post on Social Media Frequently
Showing up on social media on a regular and consistent basis is how to build a fanbase that will last.
The worst at this are musicians.
It’s always the same story when bands and singers release new music. A flurry of content, videos, behind-the-scenes footage, songs… and then nothing. This shift from being extremely active one day to being a complete ghost the next is a negative step.
People are prone to forgetting. If you give them one big swing with a song, they’ll like it but then forget about you if you’re not consistent.
I understand that we’re all busy.
So, what’s the best way to grow on social media when you can’t spend 24 hours a day on it organically?
THE TIME IS NOT ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA. The time is in the creating.
All social media is about is connecting with your fanbase and getting your work out into the world.
It’s difficult to feel overwhelmed when you have to create 50 pieces of content. It’s less so when you take one piece of content and break it down.
Here are my top tips for consistently growing a fanbase on social media platforms:
- Never post something without a purpose or meaning.
- Use no more than two social media platforms. There isn’t enough time to do things better. For musicians, I recommend TikTok and Instagram.
- Set aside 1-2 hours per week for content creation only.
- Plan out the next few months’ releases, photoshoots, and videos.
- As your pillars, use large projects like song releases, album releases, and music videos.
- Divide those pillars into as many pieces of content as possible.
- Create accountability by setting an attainable and consistent goal. For instance, ‘new video every Wednesday.’
It can be difficult to know what to post and to establish a routine of providing quality, valuable content to grow your fanbase, but consistency is highly valued by all social media platforms.
