“What’s the one thing I can do to engage my fans?”

This is a common question. People want to simplify their life and make it easy on themselves. What’s the one thing I should focus on to keep getting new fans? You are probably wondering the same thing. Well, there isn’t one single thing, there are two: music and marketing.

If I had to say which one was more important, I’d say ‘music.’

Music is the one thread that you’ll use to connect with your fans. And that one thread will allow you to share your craft with fans who appreciate what you are doing. Over time, you’ll increase the number of threads. Over time, you’ll find new connections. Over time, you’ll find new fans.

But if you don’t have the music to start the thread, then the fans will never come.

There are two versions of this post. This is the long one. Here’s the short one.

InfiniteFanBase ::  Fan Explosion Group

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How 2 simple conversations led to a fan explosion…

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The problem? Too much info, not enough time…

Musicians and artists are flooded by information overload. There’s some new, hip website occurring in the music industry everyday. New marketing this… new marketing that…

The music industry is shifting so fast now that it’s hard to keep track of everything that’s happening. New websites are popping up everyday. It’s hard to keep up. Most artists are so consumed with playing and writing new material that they can’t keep up with marketing themselves.

Two conversations birth an idea

Two recent conversations brought on an idea.

At a recent music event, a local musician was asking about Facebook and MySpace. Now, these weren’t killer questions or anything overly complex. They were basic things about getting started and getting a little exposure. I’ve no doubt that people could search the web and found the answers, but they don’t. There’s too much information to weed through.

That’s when I first thought…

“We really need a group that can help each other and provide ideas for promotion, marketing, and sharing info.”

The second incident occurred a few days later.

I was having dinner and a musician friend mentioned an article that he had read. It was a simple technique, but it was powerful. I mean brilliant. It employed 3 or 4 psychological techniques and 1 economic concept that was killer. ( Of course, the article made no mention of the underlying techniques, because most musicians don’t study arcane things like economics. )

It was after that conversation I knew was pulling together a special group of folks who could ‘TALK” to each other. A group who could share our success  and marketing experiences.

Rather than just reading about it, we needed to talk about it.

The group to join to explode your fan base…

I’m going to create a mastermind group consisting of 10-15 artists/bands/musicians. The idea is to create a special group where we can all share our marketing success stories and give feedback to everyone else. I’m limiting it to 10-15 artists because I want to encourage participation.  The group will be called the Fan Explosion Group.

This initial program is going to last 3-4 weeks. I’ll set up some type of weekly event – probably a teleconference call – and then get everyone to participate once a week. The idea is to get everyone talking with each other and offering feedback and discussion. I’ll provide and discuss some initial topics, then we’ll open it up to suggestions. (I’ll also ask for suggestions for topics for each call. )

Plus, the 3-4 weeks are free. No charge to the participants.

Big returns, little involvement

Also each week I’ll ask 2-3 participants to (a) share a success story that they’ve had or (b) offer a critique or question for one of the other members. It’s this type of conversation that will allow everyone to build on their own success.

Participation is key, but not critical. Each week I’ll host a tele-seminar in which we all get on and discuss topics. There’ll be plenty of advanced notice.

The format of the call is ’semi-formal’ – there’ll be some structure, but not rigid. Each call will have a set agenda, but there’s also room for discussion, time for follow-on questions, and then time for open, ‘anything-goes’ topics.

There’ll be at least one call a week. If you can’t make a week for some reason, I’ll make sure to try and get you a recording of the sessions.

Topics so far – Anyone of these could boost your fan base

Here are the topics I’m ready to discuss:

- The idea of charging versus giving away music

- Putting your music on iTunes

- Music Discovery – Finding out how fans find your music

- Fan engagement – turn your fans into rapid wolves who can’t wait to get your stuff

- Social media

- Specific techniques for Facebook and Myspace

- Building mailing lists

- Twitter

- The new idea of sharing versus selling

- Using Press Releases

- Talking with the media

Depending on time:

- Using the web to go on tour

- Using psychology to increase your penetration

- Sending out email and email marketing – tips and techniques

Thanks,

FanOne

(Kyle)

P.S. :: First, thanks to everyone who’s visited this site. And thanks to the special people who emailed me with suggestions, comments, and encouragement. If you need to email me please do so at ( fanone at infinitefanbase .com )

Sign up here and I’ll send out an update next week…

There are two versions of this post. This is the short one. Here’s the long version.

InfiniteFanBase ::  Fan Explosion Group

-

How to have a fan explosion…

-

What is this?

I’m going to create a mastermind group consisting of 10-15 artists/bands/musicians. The idea is to create a special group where we can all share our marketing success stories and give feedback to everyone else. I’m limiting it to 10-15 artists because I want to encourage participation.  The group will be called the Fan Explosion Group.

This initial program is going to last 3-4 weeks. I’ll set up some type of weekly event – probably a teleconference call – and then get everyone to participate once a week. The idea is to get everyone talking with each other and offering feedback and discussion. I’ll provide and discuss some initial topics, then we’ll open it up to suggestions. (I’ll also ask for suggestions for topics for each call. )

Plus, the 3-4 weeks are free. No charge to the participants.

Participation is key, but not critical. Each week I’ll host a tele-seminar in which we all get on and discuss topics. There’ll be plenty of advanced notice.

The format of the call is ’semi-formal’ – there’ll be some structure, but not rigid. Each call will have a set agenda, but there’s also room for discussion, time for follow-on questions, and then time for open, ‘anything-goes’ topics.

There’ll be at least one call a week. If you can’t make a week for some reason, I’ll make sure to try and get you a recording of the sessions.

Topics so far – Anyone of these could boost your fan base

Here are the topics I’m ready to discuss:

- The idea of charging versus giving away music

- Putting your music on iTunes

- Music Discovery – Finding out how fans find your music

- Fan engagement – turn your fans into rapid wolves who can’t wait to get your stuff

- Social media

- Specific techniques for Facebook and Myspace

- Building mailing lists

- Twitter

- The new idea of sharing versus selling

- Using Press Releases

- Talking with the media

If you are interested, please sign-up here.

Turning on your auto-follow is a way to automatically follow people who follow you. This is one of the ways to incorporate automation into your Twitter marketing. If you don’t enable the auto-follow, then you’ll have to manually follow people by hand.

To turn on auto-follow, you’ll need to use an external service, like Twollo or SocialOomph .

Note: This is a fairly controversial amongst marketers. Some people can’t stand this, some people swear by it. I use it because I try to automate as many aspects of my marketing as I can. I save time by auto-following people who follow me. If someone starts sending me spam, then I’ll go unfollow them.

Don’t be afraid to go find people you admire and follow them.

Go find your favorite bands and artists and follow their Tweets.

Your first goal in using Twitter should be to establish a connection with your fans. This comes naturally for some people, for others it’s a little awkward.

One of the easiest ways to make a connection with fans is to share things – news, updates, other bands, etc.

In order to ease this effort, create a content plan that outlines what type of information you’ll share. The plan doesn’t have to be complex, but it should be fairly detailed. Use this plan to guide your communication with your fans. You can also share the plan among your band mates so you are all sharing the same type of information.

You’ll see why in the next tip, but it’s important for you to seperate out the band identity from the individual.

Having multiple accounts allows you to not worry about things like changing band members and personal comments versus band comments

Also, if each of your band mates builds up a following, you have the potential for more than one Twitter audience to hear about your band.

There are a few downsides to Twitter. One is the huge investment of time it takes to stay on top of it.

If you aren’t constantly checking messages and updating yourself, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. And, if you are recording, writing, or some other non-Twitter activity, it’s hard to break away to keep updating Twitter.

And, because of this, you sometimes neglect your Twitter audience for days, weeks, months, and sometimes forever.

The way to prevent this is to allow multiple people to post to your band’s account. That way, you can divide up the responsibility for interacting with your audience among all the band members, lessening the burden on a single person and providing more interaction for the audience.

This is about start-ups, but the lessons for artists and musicians are the same. Keep going. Don’t give up.

Link: The Difficulty in Identifying Your “Big Break”

Here’s a story to a few more success stories using unconvential methods. You struggling musicians out there take note: You can make it. Just stay at and don’t be afraid to try new things.

Link:  Readers as patrons in the digital age