Fan Engagement - 5 Tips For Effective Fan Polling

Last week here on our posterous page we posted an article on How To Increase Your Reach On Facebook. Explaining that the reason your posts are not being seen by your entire fanlist is becauuse of a system called Edgerank, which basically puts your posts into more newsfeeds depending on how viral your previous content is. This judges your content as relevant and worth spreading.

One system that I have personally seen to bring results is to run a poll.  Facebook has a section in create a post section called 'Ask Question'. Working for a band, we decided to get the fans involved and created a poll about what songs the audience wanted to hear at an upcoming London gig. We placed just few songs in there to start, and allowed the fans to add more songs to the list, effectively creating a chart of what were the favourite songs of the bands fanbase. 

The engagement was amazing, and the chart filled up nicely bringing many songs they hadn't played for a while to the list, which were then added to the setlist on the night of the show.

This also had a positive effect on the edgerank, as other posts seemed to reach further and be viewed by more of the fanbase. Just the result we needed! Polls can be useful, our reach definitely increased and the fans got to hear songs that they wanted!

Polling fans can also be used to obtain different information you may need to move forward with your career, such as what songs should i finish for my album?

You could very easily do this on Facebook but there are other applications that can help you get feedback and be even more engaging to your fanbase such as the online app called Popplet, and DIY musician Abi Robins did just that.

Mark Boyd has written an article for about how Abi used Popplet and she shares some of her ideas about fan polling that can help you build and maintain a loyal audience for your music.

She states in Marks article,

“A lot of my fan base thought it was really cool to use Popplet as a way to provide feedback. It gave fans an insight into the new album production – much more than just asking a  poll question – and a lot of people thought it was a really neat idea. It was a way of presenting the information that they hadn’t seen before, which, I think, turned quite a few heads. The fact that it looks really neat and it is easy to navigate helped a lot, too.”

She also gives 5 Tips For Effective Fan Polling, so its worth reading the whole of Marks article here.

And find out more about Popplet here

Of course you can be very imaginative about the things you poll your fans about, fans love to be involved. Remember in this Social Media age you are now their property, with them you are nowhere.

Links 

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2012/07/5-tips-for-effective-fan-polling/

http://popplet.com/

 

Above photo is of the artist Modest Mouse checking out what his fans have to say. photographer unknown.

 

 

Build A Loyal Fanbase - 13 Tips On How To Turn Fans Into Superfans

 

I've just read an interesting article on Hypebot, all about what's needed to build up a loyal fanbase. The interesting thing about it is how they have noticed it is quite similar in a way to building a cult! And as artists i guess you all want a little praise every now and then, so it is boiled down here into 13 tips on how to turn your fans into superfans! ( err and not the darkside!).

 

Building A Loyal Fanbase:

1. Give Your Fans a Name

2. Tag Fans in Your Panoramic Concert Photos

3. Give Approaching Fans Your Undivided Attention

4. Always Have [Cheap] Merch Handy [For Free Giveaway]

5. Share Dark Secrets on Your Blog

6. Send Special E-mails

7. Develop Shared Symbols

8. Use Loyalty-based Apps to Connect to Your Fans

9. Play in Smaller Venues

10. Stay on Your Merch Table

11. Conduct Live Webcast

12. Showcase Them In Your Music Video

13. Post [Photos of] Their Gifts on Your Website and Social Networks

 

You can read each part of these 13 tips here on the oiriginal post by Unified Manufacturings blog site.

They manufacture merch both sides of the atlantic for majors acts, hence the emphasis on merch, but hey in this DIY approach we push here at Make It In Music, merch is a really good thing. It can really strenghten the relationship between you and your fans, as well as being packaged in a deal in your online store.  Topspins figures prove that music and merch packages sell far better than just music, cds or downloads.

 

Check out Hypebots Cult analogy here.

 

Links 

http://www.unifiedmanufacturing.com/blog/transform-fans-super-fans-build-loyal-fanbase/

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/05/13-steps-to-turn-your-fans-into-a-cult-of-superfans.html

http://www.topspinmedia.com/

Distro FM and 4 other Apps changing the Music Industry

Social Media or Social Branding, the two buzz words that are changing the way we interact with each other and all with the things we like from musicians, artists, TV shows and Films, and even Products. In a short time the market place has been revolutionised by the world of social interaction.

This process is slowly removing the 'middlemen' from the equation. There was a time that everyone needed middlemen (labels, publishers, distributors, marketers, retailers, ticket sellers and promoters) to get their music career happening.

Now this is no longer the case, the DIY artist/musician now have a wealth of apps and different choices to carve their own future, using direct to fan technologies which we at Make It In Music absolutely love.

There's a new technology that I am quite excited about, Distro FM. It has a new twist on the spotify subscrition model, where a fan can directly subscribe to an artist to play their music, live shows, videos, in fact anything the artist wants to share with you. 

Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm says this about Distro fm in an article on Hypebot.com.

The recently-launched Distro.fm can handle all the technology stuff for you, so you can charge your fans 10 bucks a year (or so) for everything you want to send them. When that year is up, you can ask them to resubscribe. Your fans can stream all of that stuff, download it, or play it within Distro’s upcoming app, which will be able to cache the songs so they can play them without eating up their precious little data plans.

Check out what the other four Apps Eliot recommends in his full article here.

There is a more in depth article on Distro FM from evolver.fm here

Links

http://evolver.fm/2012/05/14/interview-distro-fm-could-revolutionize-music-with-artist-subscriptions/

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/05/5-powerful-music-apps-that-should-make-middlemen-nervous.html

http://distro.fm/

Where Do You Start Marketing Your Act and Your Music?

 Throughout the years I have known many many bands that seem to think that their music will do all the talking. That somehow their fantastic songs are all they need to win the hearts of the listener and convert that person into a lifelong fan. 

This in a sense is true conviction that any artist should have about their music, and that's no bad thing because inside that is also how we all feel we discover music, on a personal level, but the reality is we wouldn't hear anything if it wasn't for marketing, which is the first basic concept to understand in developing any career these days in the music industry 2.0.

The independent DIY artists really needs to embrace marketing, and Cyber Pr head honcho Ariel Hyatt has put together a cool set of posts explaining in 3 stages how to increase your fanbase and income. 

Ariel starts off saying that bands and artists seem to be more concerned with increasing the numbers and getting new fans, which is no bad thing thing, but also puts the emphasis on focusing on the fans that they already have.

  These fans don’t need to be found, because they are already your fans. Studies have proven that it is much harder to make a new client and get them to purchase something than it is to get a client that already knows you and trusts you to purchase from you over and over. 

It's all very well building numbers, but engagement is the key, and keeping your act in your fans mind. Building a solid marketing strategy is key to getting new fans and keeping old fans interested. 

You can read her full post here

Links

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/16/basic-marketing-principles-for-artists-part-1-3/

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/23/basic-marketing-principles-artists-part-2-increasing-frequency-purchases/

http://arielpublicity.com/2012/04/30/basic-marketing-principles-artists-part-3-increase-amount-money-charge/

 

Motivate and reward your fans for spreading the word

There is an awesome idea at the bottom of this post that I haven't seen used in quite this way by a musician.

The post is a very thorough explanation of how to build an iFrame page on Facebook. Of itself that is a great post and worth learning how to do - although I use the 'Static HTML for iFrame' app on Facebook rather than going through the app developer route - you might if you're geeky!

But that's not the point here.

The point is to look at the bit of the post right at the bottom just above the comments where the author offers a reward/prize for people who pass on his post on Facebook or Twitter:

To make this a little bit more exciting, I’m gonna give away one copy of Guy Kawasaki‘s new book “Enchantment“, which I have been reading for a couple of days and can guarantee you it is off-the-heezy. To be fair and give everybody the opportunity, you’ll be able to participate on Facebook or on Twitter.

On Facebook

• Go to the SocialMouths Facebook Page and “Like It” (molto importante)
• Share this post on your wall by using the link: http://bit.ly/iFrameTabs
• When you share the link add this comment How to Build a Facebook Landing Page with Frames | @SocialMouths – If you “liked” me first, that “@” in front of “SocialMouths” will automatically tag me and make your post show up on my wall too, that’s how I’ll see you. If you don’t use the “@socialmouths” in your share you will be invisible to me ; )

He then goes on to explain exactly how he'd like you to share the post on Twitter as well using hashtags so that he will see the tweets.

He then picks a winner at random after a couple of weeks by watching the Facebook shares and the tweets.

At the time of me writing this, the post has been tweeted 1036 times and shared on Facebook 1463 times.

That is a HUGE amount of traffic.

Some of these will have been natural from the post's readers but there's no doubt that the contest and specific instructions will have kickstarted the sharing. This has snowballed further as it got shared wider picking up lots of Google +1's and clearly getting the love on StumbleUpon.

OK, this is a great post that is very useful to people as a tutorial and so very shareable.

But you can apply this principal to your own site and use it to get your fans and readers to promote your music.

Simply offer a copy of your album if they tweet your post about it using the same promotional techniques.

Or, perhaps you think you don't have enough clout to get the momentum started?

How about you make a list (or an album even) of bands in your genre or locality and pick one track from each and everyone runs the contest.

If I was in a folk band I might write a post about the ten best up and coming folk acts and add my own band in there as a cheeky final suggestion. I'd then perhaps offer the albums of the top three bands in the post as a prize to a tweeter or sharer. Get the ball rolling by telling the other 9 acts that they are in the post by contacting them on Facebook, Twitter and via their sites. Spread the word to blogs that cover the genre and you ought to see a massive spike in traffic and interest in all ten bands on the list, including yours!

It's also worth noting that all the sharing and tweeting will give your site a very signifcant SEO (search engine optimisation) boost as well that will have a lasting effect on your site traffic.

Use this as inspiration to try it and see what you can do to entice fans to share a post.

We will DEFEINITELY be using this technique ourselves.

 

10 steps to music success

This is a brilliant 'must-read' post from Emmanuel LeGrand in which he sums up the thoughts of many very successful web 2.0 savvy music indsutry people on how to make yourself a success in the modern music world.

It ends up being a 10 step method which talks about creating great music, connecting with fans, collecting email addresses and so on.

At it's core it has this message which applies today as much as it did 30 years ago:

In the mid-80s, Island Records – then still independent and owned by Chris Blackwell – sent to all its affiliates around the world a poster which showed a colourful drawing of an island with a coconut tree surrounded by the sea. The tag line was: “A terrible thing happens when you don't promote...” The answer came in the form of one word in very small font size: “…nothing!”

Read the whole post here.

The modern musician NEEDS time

I could've titled this post in a number of ways and actually deleted and changed he title a few times.

I don't normally do that, but I hoped to attract attention and make people take the time to read the article it links to, because it encapsulates the whole truth about what being a musician is all about today....and it's written in business management speak by a non-music industry writer!

But it's EXCELLENT. Read it here.

Smart managers realize every artist is a standalone business that generates income from multiple revenue streams. A manager's job is to create those businesses and run them well. This requires thinking globally and being agnostic about which revenue stream or territory is the most important. As long as those channels can deliver the aesthetic the artist wants and make a profit, the business is a success.

But the business of relationship building is not a quick one. Artists have to earn the respect of fans, convert that respect into trust, and, eventually, convert that trust into faith. Building communities takes time, and it can only be achieved over the long-term. In this model, artists can no longer be treated as interchangeable hit makers.

This writer understands the turning point we are at.

Make your music, work hard to be as good as you can be, put it out there and grow and develop in sight of and with help from your fans. They will come along with you.

The second KEY lesson in this article is:

Value the artist-fan relationship as highly as traditional rights.

i.e. don't just make music and try to sell records. The value is in the long-term relationship with your fans - and that's not just a monetary value, it's artistic, cultural and emotional as well.

Those fans will sustain you for a far longer period (including fiancially) if you treat them properly and maintain that relationship.

Read the whole thing here....please.