Fan-driven marketing is one of the most powerful ways to spread the word about you and your music. After all, your fans are some of the biggest advocates for your career. With all the activity on social media, however, it can be difficult to get fans to comment or like, let alone share. But whether you realize it or not, they're waiting to champion your music – it's just up to you to give them the opportunity.
In this article, we'll be going through the strategy that digital agency Jaden Social used to rekindle the career of Australian rock group Baby Animals – a strategy that was primarily driven by Baby Animals' fans. If you want to learn more, Jake Challenor, CEO of digital marketing agency Jaden Social, will be joining me for a free webinar this Thursday, March 26 at 4:00 p.m. EST. He'll be sharing some fan-driven marketing strategies that he's used with his own clients. You can join the webinar live or sign up to watch the replay – all free.
Baby Animals is one of the most successful Australian rock bands. Their first album went eight-times platinum, and they spent 12 years as the highest selling Australian rock group, but after record label troubles, they were forced to split in 1995. Recently, the band reformed with two new members to release their third album, but after being on a hiatus for so long, the band was not technologically on par with other bands in terms of their online presence and social media. For such a popular band, they only had about 2,800 fans on Facebook and 187 Twitter followers – not the best way to head into a new album.
Baby Animals had a lot of fans out there, but they just needed to reconnect with them. To do this, Jaden Social used a targeted Twitter follow strategy – following followers of similar artists to try to find Baby Animals fans. They got the band regularly sharing content like songs, photos, and videos from their glory days to rekindle the fans' love for the band. To take it a step further, they also included a Facebook contest in which fans shared their best Baby Animals experiences for a chance to win a prize pack. Not only that, every fan who shared got their experience added to Baby Animals' timeline.
At the end of the promotion, Baby Animals had reached 5,361 fans on Facebook and 7,030 followers on Twitter. Their Facebook contest got 257 entries and the amount of engagement on their social channels went through the roof. Of course, you don't need to be a comeback band to use these same strategies. Below, I'll show you how to incorporate these strategies into your own music career.
Contests are a great way to drive engagement on your social media channels, and the more your fans are commenting, liking, and sharing, the more your music is being put in front of their friends and connections. Contests don't have to be complicated, and the rewards don't have to be expensive. A private Skype call, a handwritten note, a specially requested cover, or even just a follow back will cost you nothing but could mean the world to your fans.
If you have a tour going on or are really focusing on gigging, you could create a contest where fans share pictures of themselves at your shows for a chance to hang out backstage. If you want to get the word out about something, tell your fans that you'll follow everyone who retweets your next tweet about your new song, video, or album. With contests, the sky is really the limit, so get creative here.
Being personally involved in something greatly increases the chance that someone will share on social media. We've all proudly shared an article we wrote, a race we ran, or an event we helped put together on social media, and it works the same with music. Baby Animals put their fans' experiences on their timeline as events, but simply mentioning the fans that helped something come together is enough. Ask your fans which song they'd like to see you cover next, and then include the name(s) of the fans who suggested the song at the end of the video. Ask your fans to send in pictures and tag those fans when you send them out on Facebook or Twitter.
On Twitter, there's a general trend of reciprocity, and people tend to follow back when they're followed, but this won't get your very far if you just follow random people. You may end up with a large number of followers, but a lot of them won't care about you or you music.
Instead, you want to follow targeted people who are already inclined to like your music. Find bands or artists with a similar style, and follow their followers. If possible, try to target musicians who are fairly local and at a similar point in their career as you. You also want to make sure that your bio is really solid – this is what people will use to determine whether you're worth following back.
As you can see, there are some incredible (and easy) strategies you can use to get your fans out there marketing for you, but we really just scratched the surface in this article. Again, we'll lay out even more great strategies in a free webinar with Jake Challenor from Jaden Social. He'll be sharing some of the strategies he uses with his clients – strategies (like the ones above) that he's seen work time and time again. I hope you'll join us on Thursday, March 26 at 4:00 p.m. EST, but if you can’t make it, sign up to watch the replay.
If you're interested in learning more about how you can create a plan for success for your band or career, check out the New Artist Model, the alternative online business school for independent musicians, songwriters, producers, managers, and new businesses.
Dave Kusek is the founder of the New Artist Model, an online music business school for independent musicians, performers, recording artists, producers, managers, and songwriters. He is also the founder of Berklee Online, co-author of The Future of Music, and a member of the team who brought MIDI to the market.