How to Create Community Around Your Music

Today’s guest post comes from Jennifer Pitts, the Director of Marketing at Pathable. Pathable provides event apps, mobile conference apps and websites for events, trade shows, and associations.

In today’s world of profiles, friend requests, posts, tweets and trends, live shows provide a unique opportunity to connect in person with fans, influencers and peers, and to build real relationships from the ground up. If you’re a musician, the live show can be the spark that enables you to create buzz around your music. Here are a few tips to help you connect with your online community, take those topics through the doors, and keep the conversation going after the show.

1. Do your homework.
Tune in to the online dialogue at least a few weeks (preferably a few months) before the show. If you have a Facebook event page, pay attention to what your guests say. Find them on Twitter, Instagram, Vine. What’s trending? What questions do they have? Look up hashtags related to your show, your work, or your genre and join in. Share your show info whenever it makes sense. Personally invite people who express similar interests. Be open, authentic, and listen.

2. Stay Involved. 
As the artist, you should be involved with the online community on a daily basis. If you don’t personally have time to get online every day, then find someone you trust to help you. Maybe you handle personal messages and someone on your team does promotions. Or, check out resources like Hootsuite and Buffer for low-cost ways to schedule posts and maximize your engagement. The point is to be a consistent and dynamic presence online, to be a part of the conversation, and to be able to move with it as it evolves.

3. Recruit sponsors and partners.
Have ‘em join the conversation early to help drive engagement. This shouldn’t be difficult as they have already committed to your show and are there to build their brand with your fans. Remind them to tweet the details, post the flyer, and encourage their network to buy tickets. A good sponsor will engage potential attendees in meaningful conversation about their product, your show, and everything in between. Work together with partners to increase your online activity and expand your reach.

4. Leverage your lineup whenever you can.
Fans come to the show to see you, and your lineup. The online community is a great place for your fellow artists and performers to share their content, start conversations around whatever they’re into, or even get input about what songs fans really want to hear before the show starts. Ask the other acts to tweet as they travel to the show or post an Instagram at soundcheck to build day-of hype.

5. Encourage face time.
Whenever possible, encourage your fans to get together in real life to get the most out of the show, and each other. The combination of digital platforms and mobile phones make it possible for fans, sponsors, and fellow artists to find the right people to connect with before they ever step into the venue. Be a part of this process! Be the bridge between old fans and new. Connect partners with other artists. Connect artists with other artists.

6. Extend the experience to the show itself.
Engage with and reward your online community by doing something special for them at the show (and hinting about it during the lead up). If you don’t know their real names, shout out their handles. Retweet their concert tweets. Like their heartfelt instagram portraits of your sweaty face. Host an exclusive listening party for fans who help promote the show or work with a sponsor to give something away for free.

7. Keep it going after the show is over.
Don’t stop just because the party’s over. Continue the conversations and keep your music (or artwork) in rotation. Get feedback on ways to improve your performance and keep your audience hyped for the next one. Take advantage of the spike in attention to drop your next project or release a video for the last one. Give people a reason to keep talking with you, and about you.

What is your favorite way to encourage community-building before, during or after your show? We’re here to hear you.