What’s the best way to keep our fans informed?

It’s hard to stay on top of everything.  If you’re moving forward as a musician you should absolutely put as much time as possible into writing better songs…that’s your job.  However, you must also never neglect the marketing of yourself and those great songs you write.  I know, common sense, right?  But I’m amazed at how many artists don’t take advantage of the FREE tools available for their use.  Jason is wondering what tools I’ve found to be most useful for keeping in touch with fans.

Great question…something every new band needs to not only know, but utilize.  There’s no excuse not to.  If you want to rise above the clutter you need to actively promote yourself, find new fans, and stay in constant contact with those fans…they are you’re lifeline.

You absolutely need a mailing list.  I know, I almost feel ridiculous saying it…it’s one of the least techy tools out there..but still the most important.  Contrary to what you might think, not everyone is on myspace.  So what good is posting a tour date or news bulletin that people may not see.  Some might, but others wont.  You need direct contact.  It’s also a great indicator of how many true fans you have.  You may sit on tens of thousands of myspace friends…but you know as well as I that only a fraction really care.  I highly recommend ReverbNation’s mailing list tools.  They really are great.  Very easy to use, provide a ton of statistical information, and best of all…FREE.  Go to http://www.reverbnation.com and set yourself up with an artist profile if you haven’t already.  While you’re there, you’ll find other valuable tools like street team functions, tour widgets, banners, and “tunepacks” (links you can send to people to hear your music).  With all the options and distractions your fans have, why rely on the assumption that they’ll continually come to you for information?  You need to feed it to them.  Seriously.  You wouldn’t believe how many times I’d receive messages on my bands’ myspace pages asking “When’s the next time you’re coming to ‘insert your city here’?” when it’s right there in our tour dates…trust me, the best way to keep your fans informed and a part of what you do is still e-mail.

Also, don’t just exist on myspace.  I often wonder what would happen to the independent musician community if myspace went bye bye…think about that.  You’re trying to start and run a business and most likely your main point of contact, information, and media is 1 website that you have no control over.  You think that’s wise?  Trust me…I know it’s a pain updating ALL the various community sites…but do it.  Set up pages on the top 5 or 6 and link them all together.  It offers more exposure and less dependence on one source.  By the way…I heard myspace is no longer going to allow ANY external links from band pages!!  No links to merch, youtube, itunes, mailing lists, touring…nothing.   I don’t know if it’s true or not, but if it is…you might want to start thinking NOW about setting something else up…like your own website.

I can go on and on…but the question is staying in touch with fans.  Set up your mailing lists and send out at least 1 newsletter a week with interesting information!!

Ben