musicians

Music Marketing Matters: 6 Secrets To Gathering Fan Data

August 6, 2012 By Steve Leave a Comment

Music Marketing Matters: 6 Secrets To Gathering Fan Data

Last week’s near essay took you through the significant process of setting up your fan database. With that being the crucial foundation of your renewed focus on getting the most from your data, I thought I’d take it easier this week.

As a useful redux to that piece, today we’ll run through some brief places that you can use to seek out previously uncovered fans (and the accompanying data that they bring… do you think I’m obsessed yet?)

Where the Wild Fans Are

Chances are you gather most of your new fan data from e-mail addresses, either taken at live shows or those that you’ve managed to tempt into sign up online. In most cases, you’re missing out an important portion of building out, and connecting with, your fan base.

Granted, they’re not necessarily all that wild, but they are out there in the wilds of Internet listening, often taking in your music but not connected to your artist-to-fan channels. Sometimes this will be by choice, other times a result of simply not having linked up to them… yet.

The former we will leave in peace. But the latter?

These are the folks that we want to target, with laser-like precision, and bring into the comforting fold of your warm and fuzzy artist updates.

But how to find them?

6 Steps to Gathering New Fan Data

As I said, we’ll get straight to the point today. Following are six steps that you can take to search out and identify disconnected listeners, with the objective of recording their data and requesting their permission to e-mail them from time to time.

(Note that some of these pointers will also be useful in filling any blanks in your fan data, as we discussed in How To Win Data & Influence People.)

1. Target Twitter

With its public data flow and two way communication, Twitter is an ideal place to scout out new fans and listeners you haven’t yet found. The search function gives you a simple place to search for your name or artists with whom you’ve recently played. Beyond that, look at the possibilities of mentions of local towns AND a related musical genre. Obviously if the individual is not listening to your music specifically, you have more work to do in building the relationship and connecting the dots to your tunes. Pursue that as far as you wish but, as a minimum, use a Twitter manager such as Hootsuite and set up a search tab on your own name and your artist moniker, if different. Alternatively, obtain the RSS feed for the search and have it delivered to your inbox daily (tweet me @AboveTheStatic or leave a comment, if you need to know how to do so).

2. Go Facebook Foraging

Despite being a closed network, you can gain access to a lot of potential fan data from information that people choose to share and that glimpsed from connections to your existing network of friends and fans. Open groups related to your genre, Spotify playlists that friends listen to and are shared through Facebook’s ticker, fan pages of artists with whom you’ve recently played, and pages of blogs who have featured your music or that similar to it, are all spaces that you should explore, from time to time, to note down any names of those name checking you or subjects related to you. Once you have a name – and this is something you can simply do one person at a time, as you have a few spare minutes – drill down to their page for any further information. If none is available, any common friends you have may provide an introduction. Failing that, you can Google them to see if there are any other web platforms available that offer an easier opportunity to connect than the generally more private realm of Facebook.

3. Look Over Last.FM

Although it has been around for years, Last.FM is often overlooked by artists as a forum to connect with fans. Despite the limited number of users, it has the benefits of almost a decade’s worth of fan listening habits stored up in its wealthy data banks. Obviously start with your own fan page and anyone mentioning your music, following the same process of drilling down to their individual user page to note down more information, but spread out that search to the similar artists, areas, and common musical interests, if you have the chance, in case people are looking for recommendations or an opportunity exists to strike up conversation with a fan around matching musical tastes.

4. Bottom Of Blogs

Way down below the articles of your favorite music blogs, a comments section holds the real buried treasure in the form of individual music fans offering their opinions. If you’re on Brooklyn Vegan, this will, admittedly, be largely comprised of moronic h8r hipsters and related in jokes. Elsewhere, however, you can unearth fans of both your own and similar styles of music. Start with blogs that you know have previously covered you (double check on Google’s blog search, Hype Machine, and elbo.ws, if you haven’t done so in a while) to track back and check the comments sections. Answer any questions and, again, click through to see if you can obtain more information on those commenting. You can also think laterally on this one, branching out to blogs and websites that cover subjects close to those that your songs address and building relationships with like-minded folks in those environments.

5. Ask Fellow Artists

Put simply, ask similar artists – preferably those with whom you’ve played or previously connected – to connect you with fans of theirs who they think will enjoy your music. Reciprocate for them with your own audience, as and when the opportunity arises. You can, of course, review the active fans of other artists on the platforms that we’ve already mentioned, but that recommendation from a trusted source will go a long way to adding authority and interest to your approach.

6. E-mail Individuals

Take every individual that you’ve gathered via the preceding steps and send them a personalized e-mail introduction. If you haven’t been able to gather an e-mail, it’s preferable to make a subtle ask for it via another platform, if the relationship has been established. If not, hold off and look for further opportunities to connect until it reaches that level. Make your intro more about them and their musical tastes than your own work. Keep it short, friendly but to the point, and add a note that they won’t hear anything more from you on the e-mail front, unless you hear from them and obtain permission.

That’s it!

Obviously some of this is more speculative than simply finding someone listening to your music and will take longer to develop, but don’t view that as a barrier. As Stan Stewart pointed out in a recent commentary, you have limited time available as an independent musician and you’d rather be creating for much of it. I understand this and would just advise you to carve out up to an hour for these data building activities every week or so.

Allocate just a little regular attention to setting your fan data foundation, then consistent data gathering and relationship building, and you’ll soon find that you have a lot of information to work with. Be it for your next tour plans, music release, or even polling fans for more information, this data will be invaluable to you when the time comes for your next big music move.

Over To You…

What stage are you up to with your data collection? How could it be improved?

Where could you gather more information about those who are listening to your music but aren’t on your radar?

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: bloggers, blogs, data, data gathering, email marketing, Facebook, hootsuite, last fm, marketing, MMM, music, music marketing, music marketing matters, musicians, new fans, search, social networks, twitter

Artist Answers: How Do I Propel My Kickstarter Project Funding?

May 21, 2012 By Steve Leave a Comment

Lynette Music: Funding debut album via Kickstarter

Photo Credit: Emma Rodrigues (click pic for site)

‘Artist Answers’ is a weekly feature that will help to deliver one of my three guide words for this year: Serve. I ask some like-minded creative types for their most burning new media questions, then set about providing some insight into the topics it raises.

This week, Parisian-based pop/folk (polk?!) artist Lynette jumps into the fray with a detailed question about Kickstarter campaigns. Currently in the last few days of a campaign on the platform, to fund recording of her debut album – you can listen to her music here and, if you dig, back the campaign here – Lynette asks the following:

“We started our Kickstarter campaign at the same time as a couple of other similar music projects and noticed that one, with the same $25K target, met their goal sooner than we have. We have 1000+ Facebook “likes” to our Kickstarter page, while this particular project just cleared 800. With what looks like more Facebook exposure, how could we translate that awareness into the $1-$50 donor level participation?”

Levels & Layers

As with the fluffy adage about a snowflake, no two Kickstarter campaigns are exactly alike. At least, they shouldn’t be, if the artist is truly seeking to build the project around their own particular fans and the community that they represent. That said, it can be more difficult to distinguish campaigns, especially those related to music, at the lower levels of rewards.

One of the crucial factors is to layer rewards so that each one offers something just a little sweeter than the last. Find the balance between having too many, which can overload a potential backer (paralysis by analysis), and creating enough to suit a number of single and double digit level backers. The difference between just $10-15 is larger than it seems in this region, so be sure to throw in neat flourishes that will encourage and excite your backers.

Above all, focus on injecting these levels of your campaign with fun and making it accessible to all who wish to support you. Focus on the “every pledge counts!” mantra and show that you value each reward, by weaving some of your (soon to be) famed creativity into each level.

Some examples of neat little extras at these lower levels, that can be achieved with minimal expense to yourself, might include:

Handwritten, personalized thank you notes,
A link to their web presence and thanks for donating,
A blog post on your site, about or including the backer,
Smaller merchandise items, such as stickers, tattoos, pins, drink koozies etc,
Oddball random items of your own that are limited in number…song notes, guitar picks…I know someone who gave away socks used in the update video…. (you know who you are

Let the Music Play…

Of course, in all of the excitement about personalized rewards and creative merchandise, it can be easy to forget about the music.

Don’t!

Your music is the crucial element of these lower reward levels, as it will be the core of what draws people in to support you. Plan to weave as many of your songs as possible into the fabric of your campaign video, project updates, social network promotions, and, of course, the end reward outputs.

Some additional thoughts:

At the very entry level rewards, up to $10, find ways to include perhaps a song or some advance streaming, so that not only those that pledge at the full album reward levels are included in the musical side,

Remember that you can send exclusive updates to just the project backers, something that you can communicate in the reward levels, so those who have not yet pledged understand that they get the inside track on the development of your songs once they back you,

Including exclusive previews of music can be exciting to media outlets such as blogs or local press, furthering your reach into their audiences and potentially bringing in curious new listeners, willing to back at the lower levels to explore further,

Your existing fans will likely pledge at a level that gets them the full album, regardless of the lower rewards. This effectively acts as a pre-order facility. Newer listeners, perhaps even first timers, however, often need an easier entry point. This means staggering the music you have available so that they can listen to some for free, get on board, then commit at whichever reward point gets them the music they desire,

Also remember that once someone pledges, you have them on your updates list and they can be reached with new music, notifications, and any new rewards that you choose to add. This can be a useful way to bring new listeners into the fold, then persuade them to a larger pledge as their relationship with you and and your music develops.

A Note on Facebook

Although the exposure that Facebook likes bring on a Kickstarter page is a valuable sharing resource, it appears only as a link on their Facebook Timeline and the News Feed of their friends. Even visibility of the latter is questionable, given Facebook’s limiting EdgeRank algorithm (more on that here) and the clutter that we all wade through in our feeds nowadays.

Therefore, you should encourage fans to share the project and its page on Facebook and other social media, but not at the expense of the campaign content, which is what will ultimately sell the visitor on backing your project.

For greater reach and traction via Facebook, encourage your closest fans to post about why they have pledged, talk about their favorite aspects of your music, why they are anticipating the new songs…anything that communicates the passion and content acts as a better call to action than a simple ‘like and link’.

And Your Good Self?

Have you successfully funded your own artist project on Kickstarter? What kind of rewards did you offer at the $1-$50 levels to excite fans?

And fans, do you have any advice on what most attracts you to back a Kickstarter campaign? Have you seen artists doing anything especially creative at these levels?

What do you think of the reward levels on Lynette’s campaign?

As always, your input is greatly appreciated!

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: crowd funding, edgerank, Facebook, facebook fan pages, facebook likes, fan engagement, fans, folk, funding, kickstarter, lynette, music, music income, music revenue, musicians, pop, revenue streams, social networks

Artist Answers: What Turns Music Fans Off?

April 18, 2012 By Steve Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: Gizella

One of the main reasons for this site’s existence is to assist you, the artist and creator, in developing a more effective online platform from which to showcase your art.

So, what better way to do so than to ask some like-minded creative types for their most burning new media questions, then provide as best an answer as I can muster?

This is where new series ‘Artist Answers’ comes into play; a weekly feature that will help to deliver one of my three guide words for this year: Serve.

To kick us off, good friend and songwriter extraordinaire Khaled helped me out with the first query. Khaled is a hard working and social media savvy independent musician (and aspiring chef!) based in NJ/NY. He is in the process of recording his sophomore album, an effort partially funded online by his dedicated fan base, following a successful Kickstarter project.

Khaled asks: “We see plenty of advice on how to engage fans. But what about the opposite? What disengages an audience?”

It’s a good point and important to consider, as a lot of good work can be undone – particularly online – by just one or to behaviors that really bug people. Avoid these off putting habits to maximize the connections you’re building with your audience:

Add nothing new to a platform. If your Twitter stream is simply a feed from Facebook, why would anyone follow it? If all your blog offers is a rehash of your news page, why bother reading it? Try not to phone in any of your social media efforts in this way.

Devoid of personality. A formal tone or purely business content leaves out the one factor that can most distinguish you: your unique personality. Fill your posts and content full of what makes you you.

Lack of incentives. Okay, your hardcore fans will follow you through Hellfire, but the rest of us need a little sugar to sweeten the deal of connecting with you, then staying put. It’s so easy to offer a free track, piece of merch, or something small as a reward for that connection. And it’s human nature to seek them out.

No diversity. Predictable is often a byword for boredom in the social media world. Be consistent in your content delivery, but diverse in what you deliver. Need ideas for fresh content? Another friend of the site, Alejandra O’Leary, offers twelve sources of inspiration in this article.

Fail to involve others. In the rush to push out communications to fans, many artists forget to also pull them in. Social media are intended to aid interaction, so a good portion of your posts and content should be designed to involve your fans. Most platforms reward such activity with increased visibility of what you post to followers and friends, so the pay off goes further than you may think.

At the heart of connecting with your fans online is empathy; understanding just what they’re expecting from you via social media. Tailor your activities to meet and exceed these expectations, at the same time as avoiding the various self-serving approaches covered herein, for noticeable improvement of your audience size and participation.

Over to you….

What did I glaringly overlook?

What obnoxious social media habits have you seen in yourself or others?

Filed Under: Concepts Tagged With: artist answers, audience, engagement, fan engagement, music, musicians, social media

A Friendlier Facebook: 25 Tips to Improve Your Musician Fan Page

March 7, 2012 By Steve Leave a Comment

In the last few years, Facebook has emerged as the undisputed king of the social networks.

Several other platforms hold their own in a niche battle but, as Zuckerberg’s baby nears 1 billion global users and over 1/3 of the US population signed up, it’s almost impossible to ignore Facebook if you want to reach your fans online.

What becomes the burning question for you artists, regardless of size, genre, or location, is how to connect with those fans and keep them interested in the contents of your Facebook fan page.

The Burden of Growth

Unfortunately, as Facebook’s user count has grown, so has the number of groups trying to get their message in front of ever-wearying fans. To rise above the static noise of this Facebook update deluge, you need to vary your content, encourage fan likes and comments, and keep your posts engaging enough to continue attracting attention.

“Yes, yes, yes, we know all this…”, I hear you chorus, “But how?”

Well that’s exactly why I probed some of the smarter and socially savvy artistic folks I know – in addition to the depths of my own experience – to bring you these 25 tips for creative Facebook fan page content:

1. Ask fans to comment with their favorite artist, song, genre, or anything that you believe will fire their passions to contribute. You learn about your fan base, as well as gaining traction in their News Feed from their participation.

Threyda's Facebook page often posts art for auction or direct sale, based on bids in the comments.

2. Auction or sell one-off items in the comments section of a post, with the image of what’s up for sale. This real-time selling can create visible demand and prompt further interest in your future posts or other sale items, as fans watch more closely for these specials.

3. “A big thing is cross promotion. For example, the Foo Fighters have a FB page and I cover Everlong in a video. So I can tag and say, “Hey, check out my @FooFighters cover” and it will show up on my page and theirs, increasing clicks and impressions.” ~ Khaled Dajani (NYC singer-songwriter)

4. Produce a few different versions of cover art for your next release. Post each separately to a Facebook album and ask fans to pick the art work that you’ll use by most liked/voted for piece.

5. Be timely in responses. You need not be on 24/7, but the sooner you can respond to developing conversations on your page, the better the discussion and closer your fans will feel. Plugging in via mobile devices and getting into the habit of checking in a few times through the day will help your engagement levels no end.

6. Hand over control of your Facebook page to one or some of your most passionate fans for a set period, perhaps a few days to a week. Give them room to express their musical and artistic interests, as far as is appropriate for your page.

7. “Let fans vote on new song choices or additions to your set list.” ~ Karlton Utter of The Hazmats

8. Ask for fan stories from your shows that they’ve attended. Many will be happy to share; you’ll remind them of a great time associated with your music and you’ll get more testimonials/comments encouraging those who haven’t yet seen you to catch that next gig.

9. Check your Insights. Your fan page has the ‘Admin Panel’, which offers a look at your most popular posts by date, time, type of content, and much more. Check these every week to see what your fans are reacting well to and what you need to dump.

10. Let another band or artist run your page as administrator for a few days to a week. Give them access to your audience and they’ll likely reciprocate by bringing some of their friends and followers to your page. It will also freshen up content and allow you to see how fans react to the change.

11. “Use your new show or project poster/art as your profile pic. For your fans, it’s an easy visual reminder of what you’re working on and keeps your visual message fresh.” ~ Alejandra O’Leary (Michigan singer-songwriter)

12. Run ongoing competitions that encourage multiple clicks and comments, such as entries to sweepstakes drawings or picture posting/voting contests. Each interaction gives the fan a greater chance to win and gives you a greater number of connections to these fans.

13. Expanding on number 1, make use of the Facebook ‘Question’ function (pictured left). This gives you instant poll-taking on your page and in the fan news feeds, providing an easy opportunity to encourage one click feedback. Questions on topical subjects, favorite artists, or those that give your fans a choice in your creative process are all great ways for you to increase interactions.

14. Post non-profit or cause related content that aligns with your personality and/or music subject matter. People like and share good causes more readily, helping both the message and your page to spread.

15. Make Facebook content feel like bonus material. Share things there that you don’t post elsewhere, including a look into your tastes, interests, and current listening, viewing, or reading habits.

16. Share an insight into one of your songs, preferably something that hasn’t been explained elsewhere. Ask fans to share their own perspectives on the song & encourage discussion around the themes that develop.

17. ”I’ll use Facebook to discover who I know in each city, then communicate with those folks about how to best turn out their friends and their friends’ friends. The best PR is word of mouth.” ~Danny Ross (NYC singer-songwriter & band leader)

18. Give away one-off items by asking fans to like or comment on the post, keeping entry easy & increasing interaction with your page. Draw a winner randomly and offer unique, unexpected prizes to keep interest and participation high.

19. Weave videos into the tapestry of your page. As YouTube links automatically translate to an embedded video when posted, your fans can watch and listen without leaving the comfort of your page. Remind them to comment or like the post as they watch.

20. Highlight your most compelling content. The new Timeline based Facebook layout will allow you to pin important posts to the top of the page. Take either your main calls to action (e-mail list sign-up, music downloads etc) and make them one of the first pieces of content that people see.

21. Work with other bands to exchange page tags. When you’re playing on the same bill as other artists, this helps to encourage each act’s set of fans to check out the other easily, leading to extra visibility and, in the case of complementary acts, more likes of each page.

22. “Pictures, pictures, pictures! Pictures convey so much more than text alone. Keep your page as visual and colorful as possible to create a non-verbal vibe around your music.” ~ Alejandra O’Leary (Michigan singer-songwriter)

23. Err on the side of posts that inspire conversation and feedback, rather than too much promotion of your own links and content. Of course you should highlight new music and important announcements related to your art, but these should be sandwiched between non-promotional content and entertaining posts. Offer more than just another sales pitch.

24. Request, infrequently, an event or page share. Fans don’t like to feel put upon, yet a certain amount of involvement in sharing your music does help to build a closer bond. When you have an important site on which you need to gain traction, or when you simply need a boost to share your content or a big event, don’t be afraid to explain just how crucial it is and make the ask of your fan base.

25. Integrate your Facebook presence into other social media and communication channels, especially e-mail newsletters. Go a step further than the simple social buttons that often appear in e-mails and create a special incentive for your subscribers to click over to like your Facebook page. Competitions promoted by newsletter but actually carried out on your fan page are a great example of weaving together your communications lines for those who follow you.

Phew! Plenty to be working on there….

….BUT, we’re not done!

What would you add?

How have you used Facebook to offer your fans a unique, interactive experience?

Add away in the comments below or on Facebook itself. Include a link to your site or Facebook page so that I can update this post and give due credit with a link back.

Filed Under: Web Presence Development Tagged With: alejandra o'leary, artists, danny ross, Facebook, facebook fan pages, fan engagement, fan page, fans, feedback, interaction, karlton utter, khaled dajani, likes, music, music sales, musicians, social media, social network, the hazmats, threyda

Attracting and Engaging True Music Fans In the Digital Era

February 29, 2012 By Steve Leave a Comment

TechCrunch David Hazan (Mobile Backstage) Video Interview

Click to head over to the video interview

The remit to attract new fans of music is a ball that is now almost completely in the court of the artists themselves.

After a decade of digital disruption, even those artists on whom major record labels decide to take a chance, need to have built a significant base of excited, engaged fans following their every move.

The key question in the emerging digital music industry is this:

Where and how do you as an artist attract and engage these fans?

Watch the interview linked from the image above (or start here and watch for just a few minutes, if you want to avoid the awkward interviewer’s preamble).

It features David Hazan of musician-to-fan community service Mobile Backstage and covers some potential solutions to the question above. Although the platform itself is rather new and still to prove itself sustainable as a business, there is a trend towards these types of ‘true fan’ platforms. The reason being that musicians need to connect regularly and deeply with their most passionate core of fans, in order to drive longer term sales of merchandise, concert tickets, and perhaps even (shock) recorded music.

Wide Open Spaces

The intention of this post is not to glorify one specific service in this realm. Rather, I want to focus your attention on the potential online spaces in which you can best attract and engage fans.

Consider questions such as:

Which platforms (social networks, websites, blogs etc) attract the most new fans to your music?
Where do you find your fans becoming most passionate?
How could you combine platforms to deliver a more coherent, interactive space for your fans to gather and interact?
How could you utilize mobile content to connect with your fans more closely?
What other media have you not yet tapped to connect with fans? (e.g. video, podcasts, text messaging, crowd funding)

Photo Credit: Ian Balcombe

Fan Clubs for the Digital Era

Whatever your answers to the questions above, the overall objective is to find either one highly productive space, or a fusion of many, that in effect becomes the digital fan club for your music and the content, products, and events that surround it.

As outmoded as the notion of a fan club may sound, is it not where the core of your most ardent supporters will gather? Through a combination of interaction with the main event (you!), community with other equally engaged fans, and that intangible ‘inner circle’ feeling that comes of investing oneself in an artist’s work. Furthermore, the excitement that is generated when impassioned fans gather together around a shared interest only furthers the attachment that they feel towards that common denominator. Fans breed further fanaticism.

From this base of hardcore support you can launch all of your future projects, from new music to international tours and other artistic pursuits. And it’s a purer connection in the digital era, as it has been built by you the artist directly, rather than through a convoluted chain of marketing departments and physical retail chains.

Your Two Cents?

Where do you stand on this?

Is it a crucial consideration that needs to now be fully taken up by musicians themselves, or simply another distraction from the true pursuit of making music?

Where do you make the truest connections with your fans?

Filed Under: Concepts, Web Presence Development Tagged With: david hazan, digital music, fan clubs, fan engagement, mobile backstage, music, music industry, musicians, techcrunch, tools, true fans

The 3 C’s of Web Presence Engagement & Interaction

February 14, 2012 By Steve Leave a Comment

Recently I posted more in depth explanations of the first points 1,2 and point 3 on my original 12 point check list for developing your web presence.

Today, we’ll look more at the fourth and fifth points on the list: the touch points of your platforms and using them to form two way conversation with your fans.

Photo Credit: David JW Bailey

These considerations follow on logically from the previous task of selecting your key platforms. Knowing where you’re going to be expending most of your efforts, you can now decide the ways in which you’ll communicate with fans on those platforms, as well as how to involve them in the process.

In short, this is engagement and interaction time!

Compelling. Concise. Content.

There are always a few memory aids to guide your work in any field. Social media is no exception and you will see these 3 C’s crop up time and again as you read further into the effective use of platforms. As overall way points, they will serve you well.

Content is anything from a sub-140 character tweet to an in-depth blog post on your site. To start on the long road to fan engagement, each piece of content needs to be of interest to your target audience. Be it informative, amusing, or something that stirs their passion, hitting the mark consistently (another ‘C’!) is where your content becomes compelling.

Content lies at the core of your web presence. It is the factor that decides whether visitors keep coming back for more, or are uninterested and leave, never to return. The other adjectives really only serve to emphasize key factors in making sure your content achieves the return value that you’re looking for.

Although a given platform will determine the depth of your content (try getting complex in a tweet….ouch!), conciseness will serve you well in almost every piece you post. By all means, explore the intricacies of a topic beyond 500 words in a blog post. Just don’t use a paragraph when a sentence would suffice. Attention spans are short on the web and the average visitor decides in under ten seconds whether or not they will stay.

Having eye catching headlines and visuals to draw people in, followed by the quality content that will keep them interested, is a sure fire way to keep your visitors engaged and coming back for more.

Join The Conversation?

The cacophony encouraging us to “join the conversation” grows ever louder by the day. In reality, this is a catch all phrase that wants a more general response from us: interaction.

Once engaged by your content and creations, the next objective is to draw a visitor deeper into your creative world. This extends beyond mere discussion, delving into the realms of building emotional connections to your art, gathering feedback, involving visitors in the creative process, adding game mechanics to content, or any number of new and emerging techniques to develop a stronger bond. A bond that, as it builds, turns uncommitted visitors into excited fans of your work.

Although the application of these concepts has the potential to become quite complex, the core idea is simple: offer your fans a compelling, two-way experience with your art, in addition to the traditonal one-way consumption.

How to do this?

Think about what your most passionate fans say about your creations. What do they love about what you do?

For a writer, it could be the characters of your stories that pulls readers into the world you’ve created. How can you give those characters a new lease of life across social media? Furthermore, how can you weave your readers into the story, so that their experience moves from passive to interactive?

For a musician, perhaps your listeners have certain songs that really speak to them. Ask for their interpretations, or comparisons to other artists. Bring to the fore their thoughts and opinions about the subjects of your songs, valuing their additions to the discussion. Fans now create videos and other spin-0ff art in response to their favorite music, so embrace these creations and encourage visitors to pursue their own answers to the questions posed by your songs.

The more that your fans become involved and invested in what you create, the more they’ll support you for the long haul. Sharing as they go, the power of social networks can begin to work for you as your creations are spread far and wide, offering opportunities to repeat the process of engaging and interacting with new fans.