In days gone by, it was much more difficult for a musician to get to know their fans, and even more difficult for the fans to get to know their musicians. I mean really get to know them. Like the way you know your friends. Sure, fan magazines would tell you little tidbits of info, like birthdays, or favorite colours… little tiny shreds of truth, the slightest little glimpses behind the curtain, to reveal some small bit of true humanity about your favorite stars. And fans clamoured to get that info, to know what their heroes and idols were like. Because fans inherently feel the need to connect on a more meaningful level with the people who create the music they already have that intense connection to.
Fans would send birthday cards to fan club addresses, make banners to display at live concerts, scream, case out the back doors of concert halls, wait outside tour buses, anything to make a deeper connection with their musical heroes.
Now think about your friends… those with whom you already have that deeper connection. You know their birthdays because you’ve probably celebrated with them. You know their favorite colours, even their hopes and dreams. You would do anything for your friends, and your friends would do anything for you.
How did that happen? Simple. Your friends know things about you too. That’s how you became such good friends… you shared information back and forth. It wasn’t a one-way street, where you knew things about your friend yet they knew very little about you. You spent time with your friends, had conversations with them, shared experiences with them… you created a deep meaningful connection where one didn’t exist before, simply by the fact both of you chose to interact with each other.
Tools now exist for you musicians to create friends, not just fans. To have a two-way dialog, learn meaningful things about your fans and share meaningful experiences with your fans. Conversely, the fans have the incredible opportunity to develop meaningful connections with you too. Share information with your fans, have conversations with them. Use Twitter, Facebook, Myspace even, but don’t just use these powerful interactive tools as a means to quantify your fanbase, or to spew endless streams of outward announcements. Listen to your fans, respond to them, have conversations.
You’ll start to turn fans into friends… and your friends will do anything for you.
