DIY musicianship can be quite a visual experience, especially with all the periphery surrounding live gigs and studio sessions. If you break it down to the Instagram followership, there are even some distinct similarities between concert crowds and online supporters. Amassing large bursts of followership or interaction over a release can be the result of great promotion, and should be appreciated, but not confused with the growth of a loyal and consistently supportive base.
Trends come and go, so you need people who are really interested in the musical side of what’s happening behind the visual curtains of Instagram. I collected a couple of pointers that can help you generate a horde of strong, loyal and devoted supporters.
Quality Interaction
Quality interaction means understanding the language and communicative habits of your audience. Speaking in a down to earth manner, especially on a fun medium like Instagram, is a chance you shouldn’t miss out on when interacting with your supporters.
Even though it takes time, respond to questions and react to their actions.
Quality interaction also means identifying regular visitors and supporters spreading content connected to your musical endeavor and appreciating that by shedding some attention on their efforts.
Exclusives
Spreading exclusives via Instagram, for example songwriting snippets and album pre-listens, can be a great way of keeping dedicated followers excited and devoted about your channel.
Here you can get interactive again – why not ask your supporters, which original track from a recent release they would like to hear as a reduced exclusive on Instagram.
Reposting fan-content can also be a great way of spreading exclusive content specifically tailored to your channel.
Regularity
Even though this seems like a no-brainer and just plain obvious, delivering content in a regular fashion is one of the most important factors in building a strong and loyal community of followers.
Think of media that you like – and you should definitely view your channel in these terms – you wouldn’t stick around and come back to a given medium if you get the feeling that the content is stale.
A good way of not getting overwhelmed by the task of publishing regularly, is setting up a content-plan ahead of time. So set up a spreadsheet and just start collecting ideas, images and content early on.
Identify a sweetspot
Most successful Instagramers have a very unique, identifiable characteristic that acts as a sweetspot. Try to identify which piece of content works best, which setting and context and try out different variations of this aspect.
Its definitely trial-and error here, and sometimes a thing that worked really well on a certain day won’t work at all on the next. Still, analyzing your own best-practise cases and trying to find a pattern behind the engagement of your audience is a great way of learning about you channel and followership.
Take your audience serious
Even if the social media game probably might not live up to the real, personal experience with people at live gigs, take the situation and the audience on Instagram just as serious as if it were real life. You’re working on creating a solid base of individuals that will eventually also visit your gigs, so to take them serious.
It’s easy to loose a sensibility for the connection between virtual-and real life audiences, but more often than not, that line is very thin, with people expressing thoughts and opinions on your performances on social media. Be aware of this connection and take audience voices serious – especially when they try to reach out.
Be aware of the fact that outsiders don’t know how many things you have going on, how much stress you have, yet expect prompt answers on questions and inquiries. Try to stay cool and be professional about it.
Building a loyal Instagram followership doesn’t have to be an all-consuming task. If you get the little things right and work continously, you’ll experience great results in no time.
If you’re looking for more insights and pointers on music and social media, feel free to check out our ForTunes Blog and leave a comment or feedback!
0 be the first one to show some appreciation for this!