How To Communicate With Fans Effectively, Per Senior

If there’s one thing music fans don’t have a shortage of, it’s access to their favorite stars. Thanks to the popularity of social media, it’s almost a rule among artists that they’ll use one, a few, or as many platforms as they physically can to let their fans know what’s going on with them.

There are different degrees to it, of course. Some artists decide to stay private, safeguarding their personal lives and maybe incorporating some of that mystique into their image. On the other hand, artists such as Taylor Swift will organize album listening parties for the most dedicated fans.

Fan communication is a spectrum. Senior, a musician from Canada who’s been turning heads online for a couple of years now, has found his own place on that spectrum where he feels comfortable. Still, to get to that, he had to weigh all of his options and learn quite a few things in the process.

Set Up a Presence

To start effectively communicating with fans, the first thing budding artists need to do is establish the channels. The artists who get to work with publishers, record labels, and managers should have some help with this. The artists who want to make it on their own will have to DIY it, which, according to Senior, musician, isn’t as hard as it seems.

It takes only a couple of minutes to start a profile or a page on any of the major social networks. It’s not as hard to open one’s own YouTube channel or create a profile on one of the websites that specialize in music publishing.

The first step to being able to talk with people is to be where those people are. This means choosing the right channels for the right kind of audience. Social media has audience tools that are very useful for marketing. It might not provide the exact kind of research artists need, but it’s still a good place to start.

Choose the Right Mode

With all of the channels set up, the next step is to choose and plan the modes of communication. An artist needs to figure out what kind of content they want to share and what’s the purpose of it. They also need to know whether sharing content is the only mode of communication they are willing to engage in.

Again, people who are established or are otherwise able to afford it can have content specialists work for them. They can set up chatbots and have whole teams in charge of replying to people on social media if that’s what they want. For up-and-coming artists, it gets much harder.

One important thing Senior, musician, advises artists in this section of their career is to pace themselves and figure out a sustainable mode of communication that fulfills their goals. If the goal of communication is to announce the release of a single, spending a week answering every social media comment isn’t a suitable or sustainable mode of communication. Staying goal-oriented and somewhat conservative with resources is a much better strategy.

Not for nothing, but keeping the communication professional is another thing Senior, musician, would like to mention. That’s not to say that artists should be afraid of engaging people online. They should, however, have clear boundaries between what’s okay to talk about and what’s not, and they should also refrain from treating the fans like they are their friends. Being cautious, respectful, and mindful of the situation could go a long way in ensuring the quality of communication.

Written in partnership with DN News Desk