[MUSIC PLAYING]
If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody is around to retweet it,
does it make any noise?
You've got music, and you've got a message,
and you want to get that message out.
But sometimes it can feel like you're shouting in the middle of a forest
and nobody hears you.
So what do you do?
Well, you've got to find more fans.
And there's two ways to grow your fanbase, organically and inorganically.
So let's talk about the difference.
Organic fan growth is word of mouth.
It's people getting genuinely excited about your music and your message
and spreading it to their friends, or spreading it to new people they meet,
or just spreading it out in the public on social media.
Eventually the word gets out, and people start
coming to you, because they trust what other people are saying.
Inorganic growth, on the other hand, is capitalized fan growth.
It's when you put money into finding fans through buying ads.
And there are some advantages, but it also comes with some disadvantages.
Let's discuss the differences.
Let's first talk about four different types of fans.
Non-fans, fake fans, real fans, and super fans.
Non-fans are people who would see your ad
and accidentally click on it as they're scrolling through your feed
and like your page or add you.
Fake fans are fans that add almost everything that pops up in their news
feed without really paying attention to it or ever giving it a second thought.
Those two, on some sites, can actually damage your social media outreach.
If you have too many non-fans and fake fans, when you share a post,
the sites will algorithmically detect how many people
are interacting with your post, and it'll show it to, for example,
100 people.
And if it turns out that 50 of those were fake fans or non-fans,
and they don't click on it or interact with it in any way,
then that social media site will be much less
likely to show that post to the next 50 people or the next 100 people.
The next group are real fans and super fans.
Real fans are fans that will actually click on and interact
with your content.
May or may not share what you do, but will definitely
like it and listen to your music.
Super fans, these are the ones you really want.
They'll interact with almost everything you do.
If it's a new CD or new merch, they'll buy it.
If it's a new album update or a video of you in the studio,
they'll share it with all their friends.
Super fans will go out of their way to tell everybody else about you,
because they think you're so great.
If you're lucky, you'll have found some of those through organic growth,
because that's how typically those relationships are built.
And you also want to think about them as relationships, not fans,
because most social media is a two-way conversation.
You're not just blasting your ad out there
and then telling everybody else, OK, go put my ad somewhere
where other people can see it, and that's the end of the day.
You're interacting with your fans.
So if you're thinking about investing in inorganic growth,
consider whether you want to stack up a couple of non-fans and fake fans
and possibly have your message fizzle out before it
gets to your real fans and super fans.
Think of your music like a religion.
You're trying to find missionaries and proselytizers
to go out and spread your good word to the rest of the world.
And when you're thinking about fan growth,
you should also think about sustainability.
You're not just trying to find a quick fix to boost your numbers so
that you look better on social media.
You're trying to find real humans that will interact with you,
and real humans that will keep listening to your music
and keep coming back to you year after year.
In essence, when you're thinking about fan growth,
start thinking about finding your people, not finding your numbers.
Let's talk about organic growth for a second.
This is the part that's about building relationships,
finding out who your fans really are, what
they love about you, what excites them, and what incites
them to go out and spread your word.
If you check your feed and you notice that one of them
is tweeting about some new pair of shoes that they bought that you legitimately
think are cool shoes, then hit him back.
Tell him how cool you think their kicks are.
If they post about some other music that you like, don't be shy.
Tell him how awesome an album it is.
If you notice that they like something particular about your song,
like your lyrics, when you put out a new song, make sure to tag them in the post
and say, hey, I think you're going to dig this one if you liked my last one.
The lyrics are really killing on this.
All in all with organic growth you're really looking to build a connection.
And don't be afraid to ask for their help.
People like feeling useful, and especially
like feeling useful about causes that they personally believe in.
But that being said, there are times when
inorganic growth is the right strategy.
Let's say that you've just put a record out.
All of your super fans have spread the word,
and it's still not sizzling enough.
Or let's say that you've just released a song on a blog,
and you want it to climb the charts on Hype Machine,
but your real fans and super fans aren't getting you enough growth.
Well, that might be the time to do an ad campaign to grow your fanbase,
when there's something specific that people can click on,
and if they like it, subscribe to your page, or like you,
or share what you post.
Or let's say you've got a bunch of merch left that you need to sell.
Well, maybe doing a new campaign might be a good way to get some of it
off your hands.
Or maybe you're doing a tour, and you're going to some cities
that you haven't played before, so you need to drum up the fanbase.
Well, doing some targeted ads to people with those ZIP codes
that like bands that sound like you might be a great way
to fill up the seats at your show.
And that relationship doesn't have to be built just online.
You can also do it at your live shows, when the energy is really high
and you just had a great performance.
Or just before you play a song, you can ask the audience
to take pictures or share videos on whatever social media site
or using whatever hashtag you want to use, to build up
a buzz around your show or event and to give the people there a sense
of community about what's going on.
A friend of mine was playing a gig, and as he was about to play a song,
he gave a little talk about it, about how he had written it
for a children's musical and how he loved writing children's musical songs,
and how cool it would be to write for somebody like Sesame Street.
So he had already talked up the audience,
and before he could start playing, one of the audience members
shouted out that she worked for Sesame Street.
That's something that never would have happened had he not taken the time
to build a connection with his fans.
It turned out, after the show, they got together and chatted
and he had an opportunity to start writing something for Sesame Street.
So you never know who your fans are and what kind of connections
you might form.
Just always be building relationships.
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