What is a fan community? Think Beyonce’s “Beyhive”, Rihanna’s “Navy”, Lady Gaga’s “Little Monsters” these are groups of people that will go the extra mile in terms of supporting their favourite musician. They’re at the core of each artists’ success journey and are vital for the growth of an artist.
So why are they important?
Understanding a fan community will help an artist have a clearer idea on where their fans are located, the what platform their fans are most present at, which all becomes useful when it comes to creating the most engagement across each platform. The more you correctly cater with a fan community, the more an artist will get in return. According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of sales will come from 20% of your most engaged customers (in this case, your fans).
Having an engaging fan community also ensures an artist is able to have a cost effective form of marketing at all times. While of course it shouldn’t be relied on as a primary form of marketing, having an engaged fan community means that there is a constant core audience that will voluntarily push an artist's content outside the community outside of when the artist is pushing the content themselves.
There is also the commercial aspect to think about when talking about fan communities. With live shows being back in full capacity post pandemic, having an engaged fan community is crucial in ensuring that venues are filled during tour runs and a decent profit can be made from merchandising. The loyalty that comes from an engaged fan community will mean that tickets and merchandise can be sold at a speedy rate which is only beneficial for an artist as it's a form of revenue.
What are ways that you can build and maintain an engaged fan community?
Communicate with active members of the community on social media on a regular basis, the more an artist engages with their fan the more inclined fans will feel to drive engagement. An artist that currently does such a great job of this is new girl group FLO, who thanks to viral content across Twitter were able to impressively hit the ground running with their debut single “Cardboard Box”.
Create fun incentives that offer forms of exclusivity, there’s so much natural mystery that surrounds an artist that fans would love to get their hands on. An example of an incentive could be offering a meet and greet prize to the top percentage of streamers of a single.
Be consistent on social media outside of release cycles. This may sound like a given, however being consistent outside of when music is released will keep fans engaged and anticipating the next release. Artists only creating noise on social media when it’s time to release it’s not only expected and repetitive but will cause people to disengage with an artist and forget them pretty easily.
Behind every successful artist is an engaged fan community that constantly show up for them. However fan communities aren’t limited to just musicians, they’re also important for the growth of any sort of content creator.