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Friday
Jul162010

Multiply and Strengthen Your Fanbase: Connect Fans with Fans

DateFriday, July 16, 2010 at 09:52AM

So, you’re doing a lot of things right – you’re show is tight, you’re giving out some
free tunes and encouraging people to share, you’re building up your mailing list
and nurturing it with content, you understand social media.  You’re building fans.

Now what?

Keep repeating what you are doing? Yep.

But what else?

Ever thought about taking your existing fans and then connecting them with each other?

Think of it like a spider web or an offline version of twitter. You connect person A
and his friends with person B and their friends – those two groups come together,
and networks expand – but more importantly, the infrastructure of your fanbase
strengthens.

How?

Because everyone starts to become more of a family. Or pretty good friends at
the very least.

Then, you’re shows have one more hook to grab people. Great music, great
atmosphere, and GREAT PEOPLE. Person A may now come to the show just to see
Person B and so on.

Think about the promotional benefits too. By doing this you are actually forming
a REAL street team, not just some online “Hey, do this for us and we’ll do this for
you” type street team. I’m talking about real friends of the band that are friends
with each other – that will join up and spread the good word about ya.

Anyways, enough of the anecdotal stuff. Here are some ways you can work on
this:

#1  Connect the Connectors with the Connectors | Read Gladwell’s The Tipping Point? Connectors are people in the community who know large numbers of people and have made a habit of making introductions. You already know a few and they’re easy to spot.  Find the “connectors” in your group and introduce them to each other.

#2  Encourage Social Media following a’ la Follow Friday on Twitter, etc. | This is why I LOVE twitter. It’s seriously like a 24/7 networking event. And in real-time too – not like email where you shoot someone a message and CC the other person, etc. Hand pick people in your fanbase that have started to become friends and introduce them to each other through Social Media. Twitter’s Follow Friday (#FF) is a great way to do this. Be sure to give a good reason to follow as opposed to listing a bunch of names.  REMEMBER:  Quality over quantity.

#3  Throw a festival around your band’s name and vibe | Typical concerts and shows only last a few hours. Give your fans more of an opportunity to create memories and meet each other by throwing a multi-day festival. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a jam band to throw a festival. Just make sure the fest atmosphere matches the vibe of your band and you’re good. Throwing a festival also builds an entire cultural experience around your band, which can be a completely different topic – but my main point here is it gives your fans more opportunities to meet, connect, and build memories that involve your music.

We had one that lasted 5 years.  They are hard to get started, but if you find a venue - you'll hit your stride around year 2 or 3 and you'll be good.

#4  Play house parties | I wish I would have set up more house shows as we were touring. The small number I did play really generated more for us than any opening opportunity or high paying show ever did as they give you a opportunity to really get close and meet people and then introduce person A to person B.

#5  Show up at non-music events | I can’t tell you how crucial this is. This makes you a REAL person, not just some schlub trying to hock his music on everyone. If you’re going to be a REAL indie, you have to be a real person. It’s just like owning a small business. The more friends you have, the kinder you are, the more helpful you are, the better off you’ll be. Just show up, provide support, genuinely network. Which means, using YOUR network to help more than you rely on others’ networks to help you.


 

AuthorDave Huffman | Comment5 Comments |
in ,

Reader Comments (5)

Hey Dave, this is really an excellent post - it hits on something that I've felt very strongly about recently. Without mentioning it, you speak of creating a tribe of fans! The great thing about connecting fans with each other and creating a tribe, is that it gives fans their own separate entity to exist outside the band. While fans are typically and extension of a band, a tribe or community that is built parallel to the band has the power to connect in any way that it pleases, and in most cases, this is done completely revolving around the music.

I grew up in a Dead Head household and am myself a huge fan of the band Phish. Both bands have such robust communities around them that networking events, such as tweets ups, take place for fans to connect with each other, though the band no longer has any involvement. In short, a successful tribe is one who will take their loyalty to a band's brand into their own hands, and what could be better than that?

July 16, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterJon Ostrow

Hey man, thanks for taking the time to comment! And a nice insightful one at that!

But yea - I was actually trying to stay away from the word "Tribe"...I've been a Godin-Head for a few years and I'm trying to shed that buzzword ;)

Either way - I shouldn't be a snob about it, it's a good word and it totally describes what they are...you're totally right.

July 16, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterDave Huffman

This is an excellent post and consistent with Set Grodin's school of marketing via Tribes- by the book of the same name. It explains how the strongest tribes have great communication not just between leader and tribe but between members. Any model which implements this will certainly have a stronger brand.

FW

July 17, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterFreddy Walker

I feel great reading this post because we have been doing just this recently. A great friend of ours has recently taken on the role of street team leader/merch girl/help-us-with-everything-she-can-pizza, talked about stuff people wanted to do to help us, and then we all split up and went flyering together. We took some video, photos, tweeted, texted each other, and just had a great time. We all came together afterward and had some beers and felt great about our accomplishments. One group got ice cream donated to our waffle themed night "Wafflepalooza" by a local business and we hung up over 200 flyers in like 2 hours. In addition to flyering we got everyone amped up for the event and told everyone in the street team we would put them plus one of their friends (that has not heard us) on the list. We will make less money but in the long run it will help...that's the goal at least!

August 10, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterchris shaw

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