5 Ways to Find and Keep Your Super Fans
(By Oliver Cox)
Finding those fans who will like, share, buy and be an evangelist for your music is paramount to fulfilling your dream of being a full time musician. We call them Super Fans and we think that you should know more about them, how to find them and keep them interested in your music.
The era when an artist’s success was made by the radio or a record company is over. Now, it’s down to artists to find the fans that will launch their career. At Soundudes, we separate fans into two groups: ‘Super Fans’ and ‘Casual Fans’. Casual fans enjoy your tracks and listen to them on SoundCloud – great! Super Fans are the powerhouse, they’re the people who’ll buy and put new people onto your music.
Here the top 5 ways to impress, attract and look after your Super Fans, to keep your audience growing:
1. ASL? – Find Your Super Fan Social Stats
So, what does your Super Fan look like? For this task, let’s head to social media.
Ditto Music recommends creating a profile of your Super Fan via social media metrics. Take your artist Facebook page, for example, and you can find stats on the age, sex and location of your average ‘like’.
With Wolfgram Alpha, you can get more data with more detail, such as a map of your fans’ home towns – if you have a hotspot in a certain city, that’s where you’ll find your Super Fans. With this data, you can plan your next tour more effectively and make sure to pack your venues with those that love your sound.
2. Have a Two Way Conversation
On Vimeo, music publicist Chandler Coyle explained to Benji Robers how fans crave a personal interaction with an artist that they appreciate. They will love it when you reply to their tweets, answer their questions and reply to their comments on SoundCloud. This is how to turn a Causal Fan who might have a passing interest into a Super Fan who believes in your music and who will support you.
Brother Jay Coyle cites the example set by Joy Williams, Civil Wars singer. Her talking to fans on Twitter like they’re humans, not wallets (asking them for advice on getting through a rough day), is great way to forge a strong emotional bond.
3. Make Content that is Specific to the Super Fans
[Video caption: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, in another genius move, invites fans to make short films that go with tracks from the album Ghosts, giving them the chance to be featured by the band on YouTube]
Now that you know who your Super Fans are, you can keep them engaged by putting out content just for them. This will keep them entertained, involved and make them feel special.
In a show of savvy, Trent Reznor posted stems from his albums Year Zero, Ghosts and The Slip to remix.nin.com. First off, this is a great gift to fans, allowing them to hear how their favorite songs are made. Secondly, this assisted the formation of a group of active Nine Inch Nails Super Fans who post their remixes on YouTube and SoundCloud, getting even more people interested.
Produce goodies with your fans in mind, and they’ll love you for it.
4. Stay in Touch
Regular fans like to stay up to date, but Super Fans want to know what’s going on in intimate detail.
Deadmau5’s live streams are probably the best example of large-scale staying-in-touch. If you haven’t seen them, Deadmau5 frequently streams live from his studio, allowing fans to tune in and watch him create new songs and fiddle with his massive synths.
We can’t all be Deadmau5, but this should give you an idea of how you can keep your Super Fans happy, engaged and coming back for more – Deadmau5 does so by giving his fans extra doses of his weird humor and quirky synth tones. What each artist’s Super Fans want will be different – find it, and give it to them.
5. Soundudes
Soundudes offers the perfect technology for tracking down and connecting with your Super Fans, that is what it was designed and developed to do. The Soundudes algorithm scouts SoundCloud and finds users that are likely to be your Super Fans and makes sure to connect the music seeker with the ideal music maker, that’s you.