Welcome to Amplify the Noise’s DIY Guide series.
This is your go-to source for free tips and advice on levelling up as an artist.
Whether an artist has one fan or one billion, their fan base is the most powerful asset an artist has in their arsenal. An engaged fanbase is good. A loyal fanbase is good. An engaged and loyal fanbase is even better. They can amplify your reach, boost your sales and plays, and even help you achieve goals.
If you don’t think a fanbase is an artist’s number one weapon, then you’re not listening or looking hard enough. One has to look no further than Taylor Swift fans, aka Swifties, or BTS’ fandom, the ARMY. The latter may go down in history as single handedly wrecking the far right’s hashtags by flipping the script and turning hate into love. And of course, I have to give Taylor props on getting her fans to register to vote. Back in my day, I had Rock the Vote and today, there are more artists with a voice and base who’s listening.
One of my favourite “weaponizing fan base power” was Lord of the Lost’s 2023 Eurovision Germany win. Watching the country’s final, it seemed the band’s dream was dwindling by every jury vote given, and as the televotes came in, the win seemed to be slipping away, especially with Ikke Hüftgold’s 101 televote tying them with Will Church. But then the televotes dropped for Lord of the Lost: 146. It would be more than enough to secure the number one position. Except for the online voting, the band held number one in phone and SMS (they were second to Ikke in online voting).
The coup was because of the band’s loyal and engaged fanbase. Lord of the Lost may be one of the hardest working bands on a fan level I’ve seen in a long while. If you’re a fan, casual or hardcore, it’s hard not to know what is happening with the band. They’re engaged and loyal to their fans as their fans are to them.
And that is probably the biggest take away from Lord of the Lost’s win. An artist can’t expect Swiftie or the ARMY loyalty and engagement without doing the work themselves, and the band did their work.
So how do you weaponize your own fan base? Here are some ideas to help you along the way.
STEP ONE: Get to know your fans
- Understanding your fan base is crucial to engaging them effectively. A fan base of fifteen year old social media loving teens is going to be way different to a fan base of forty something vinyl fanatics. And don’t assume you know your fans based on their age either. This leads us to the next step.
STEP TWO: Analyse your audience
- What is your demographics? Identify the age, gender, location, and interests of your fans.
- What is their behaviour? Track their online activity, such as which platforms they use and how they interact with your content.
- Once you have the above, create detailed typical fan personas. Develop detailed profiles of your typical fans. This is an old school marketing tip that is still relevant. It will help you in tailoring your communication and content to their preferences. Again, marketing to a fifteen year old is far different than marketing to a forty year old.
STEP THREE, FOUR, and FIVE: Connect, engage and interact
- CONNECT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: The easiest way to connect with your fans is to go where they are. Social media is your tether to your fans. Yes, sometimes it can seem like you’re screaming into the void, but social media is your friend. Go to where your fans are hanging out online. Are they mostly on TikTok? Instagram? Spoutible? Don’t have an account on any of these? Go and at least grab your “artist handle” and then make it private until you are ready to use it. We can’t be great on all the platforms at once, so if you’re a solo artist, pick one and make it yours. If you’re a band, split the duties between members. Remember, you don’t have a hired team helping you out, you’re going to have to get in the ditches and get dirty doing it yourself.
- ENGAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Now that you have a social media account(s), you have to have an active presence on social media. You have to post regularly on platforms where your fans are the most active. You can try to get them to come to where you are the most active, but it will always be easier to go to them and then ask them to follow you over to another one. Whichever you choose, get to posting. Do it manually, schedule them, or whatever works for you.
- There are plenty of 3rd party platforms that help schedule posts. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, can schedule posts on Facebook and Instagram posts, reels, and stories through Meta Business Suite. Manually posting to Instagram can automatically post to Threads if you allow for cross posting. Lnk.bio allows TikToks to be scheduled along with all the things on Instagram. If I’m honest, I think it’s worth the $25 USD one time fee for Lnk.bio’s pro account. It has become a go to platform for us for scheduling TikToks and creating a clean “link in bio” page with links to our posts.
- To build a strong connection and relationship with your fans, you have to engage and interact on a regular basis. Half ass engagement and interaction with your fans will get you exactly that in return. If you’re a band and you have that one member who is the social media junkie, then they’re probably ideal to be your social media point person. That doesn’t get the others off the hook of ever engaging and interacting, but it does mean you have at least one person who’s where your fans are. If you’re a solo artist, set aside a set amount of time out of each day for social media interaction. Be it answering questions, commenting, whatever. When the time is up, you can carry on creating music.
- INTERACT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: One of the easiest ways to engage and interact is to respond to comments. Show appreciation by replying to comments, messages, etc.
- Need ideas for socials? Host live Q&A sessions, performances, or behind-the-scenes glimpses. The possibilities are limitless. You can get creative with your fans and create something that’s just yours.
- Can’t commit to daily interactions? Make a date with your fans. Tell them when you’re going to be doing a live, online, etc.
- If you need examples, honestly, follow Lord of the Lost on any of their socials, be it the band or the individual members, they understand the rules to the social media game.
- NON SOCIAL MEDIA Connect, engage and interact
- Emails / Newsletters – use these to send regular updates – be it monthly, weekly, etc – you can use these for exclusive content, updates, and special offers. Depending on your email platform, you can personalise greetings and segment your email list to cater to different fans and their interests.
- Fan Clubs and Communities – create a Discord channel, Instagram channel, Patreon, etc for your most dedicated fans. Here, you’ll be able to interact with your most loyal fans by offering items such as exclusive content, exclusive experiences, exclusive merch, and early access to new releases, tickets, and the list goes on.
STEP SIX: Empower your fans
- Encourage your fans to become active participants in your success. Be it challenges or contests encouraging fans to create content related to your music or highlighting fan-created content on your social media or website. It’s content you may easily have access to.
- Don’t forget an old school way to empower fans is the good ol’ “street team” aka “local ambassadors”. Recruit passionate fans to promote your music locally and don’t forget to offer rewards for their efforts like free tickets, merch, etc.
STEP SEVEN: Weaponizing your fanbase
- Once you have a fanbase you’ve connected to, engaged with, and interacted with on a regular basis, you can weaponize them to assist you with your campaigns. Activate your fan base for specific campaigns to maximise their impact for things like crowdfunding your next single or album through platforms like Patreon or Kickstarter with exclusive rewards for becoming contributors. Host streaming parties to boost your plays on platforms. Reach career milestones with their help. Have a call to action to have a single, album, EP, trend. The options are endless when it comes to having your fans help you reach goals.
- However don’t abuse the trust between you and your fans. Constantly asking for help with giving something in return is a surefire way to burn a bridge.
- Independent and viral sensation Ren nabbed the UK number one album in 2023 with his album Sick Boi besting Rick Astley’s Are We There Yet. Ren, like Lord of the Lost, Ren asked fans to help him reach number one and they happily obliged.
STEP EIGHT: Give credit where credit is due
- Once all is said and done, don’t be a dickhead. Your fans will lift you up, but they will tear you down as well. Make sure you let fans know that they are seen and heard and that you appreciate their support and efforts.
This is, of course, a small and short list on how to weaponize your fans by turning them from supporters of your music into active promoters of your music. But it at least gives you an idea that it’s not impossible for even the newest band to have a fan base as crazy effective as larger known fan bases.
Engaged and empowered fans are invaluable in spreading your reach and helping you achieve your goals as an artist. How you choose to engage and empower them is up to you but hopefully, you’ll choose good and not evil when it comes to your fans.
