My Rant – Engaging your fans

You’re in a band or your a solo artist and well you wanna promote yourself and what you are doing. Here is a hint do not promote the music, if you wanna keep the fans keep them engaged. For starters do not plug you have other pages, people are smart, they will find you. Have those pages linked on you’re about page on FB. Instead put up a funny photo, ask them a question that is not related to what you do. Put up something that is funny that has happened to you, maybe something that happened in your day, a cool photo, make people be able to relate to you.

When you have something big to announce, post it, but do not keep plugging away at that. If the fans love what you do, they will come. Yes you have to tell them you’re doing a show you are playing here and this is the date and time. Do it, But just do not make your page all about music and only post when you have something happening. You should be posting on it all the time. People want to know you, they want to be connected but they just do not wanna be rammed down the throat.

If all your doing is plug plug plug then people are gonna be turned off straight away. But if your music is amazing and you notice they hang off every word you say on FB , then you can get away with it. But usually well 95 to 98% you’ve gotta keep them engaged. If you start playing regular shows and getting more and more fans. They will wanna be kept engaged. So mix it up. You will find you will get more people noticing a post if it’s something else not your music. But if you do something big with the music like winning a massive competition, or signing a management/record label deal. That will also get you follows as more and more people find about you and want to know the next new buzz band.

Just look at any of your favorite bands that seriously social network, they post their lives well just what they want you to see and a lot of the time it’s not always about their music. They put up stuff about where they have been, maybe one of their hobbies, a cool sign or a place they just check out. The music is their for them but they want to keep it interesting. Just look around on the web. Look at even cherry bar, when not talking about the bar. Stuff is being put up random stuff, funny pictures and other stuff, and they alwaysy get a response. Look at people like Courtney Barnett she does it well. She mixes the music and non music side of things well. Two singer songwriters I know Katie Cole & Heather Longstaffe do it as well, talking not just about the music and it’s working for them.

Thanks for reading my rantings but seriously your music is important but if you wanna career people need to know about you, not where your playing next and where you can get the album. Engaging your fans is important to keep them. But if you have that killer song or killer album the rest will take care of itself.