D.I.Y.

What Could You Teach Your Fans?

image from www.google.comThis guest post is by Bob Baker of www.TheBuzzFactor.com

I know what you're thinking …

"I'm an artist. I'm a performer. Why should I bother thinking about what I can teach my fans? My purpose is to entertain them."


True. That is your role. But an equally important activity you should engage in is communicating with your fans in meaningful ways.

When done right, that involves more than just promoting upcoming shows and letting people know where they can purchase your music.

Whether you know it or not, you have skills, talents, and first-hand knowledge of things that many people (especially your fans) would love to hear about and learn from.

Why not start sharing some of your unique perspective in the form of how-to videos or blog posts?

Admittedly, this is not the first angle most music people think of when promoting themselves. But I encourage you to consider creating some of the following things:

•    a video showing how to play your primary instrument (especially a specific popular song related to your style)
•    a blog post on the history of your genre (or some little-known aspect of it)
•    a video or blog post about how to best listen to and appreciate music in your specific genre
•    a tutorial on the technique you used to record your song, video, or special effect

Examples:

Adrian Galysh is a Los Angeles-based guitarist. His video called "The Scale That Will Change Your Life" has been viewed more than 42,000 times. By teaching a technique that helped him greatly, he has connected with more aspiring guitarists … and more fans.

Amy Noonan from the duo Karmin is known for wearing a 1940's-inspired hair style called a "suicide roll." After being asked by many fans how she does it, Amy posted a tutorial video on YouTube showing exactly how. More than 1.5 million views later, it has proven to be a smart move.

So …

What could you teach your fans that would truly engage them?

Yes, you're an artist and an entertainer. But you also have special information that your fans (and potential future fans) might just love hearing about.

So get comfortable with your new role as a teacher … and get ready to convert your students into hardcore fans!

What other examples of teaching have you used yourself or seen other artists do effectively? I welcome your comments.

 

Bob Baker is the author of three books in the “Guerrilla Music Marketing” series, along with many other books and promotion resources for DIY artists, managers and music biz pros. You’ll find Bob’s free ezine, blog, podcast, video clips, and articles at www.TheBuzzFactor.com and www.MusicPromotionBlog.com.

Share on:

5 Comments

  1. Adela & Jude ( I am Jude) – try to teach our fans about some social justice issues that are near and dear to our hearts We are big supporters of Local Food Chains – that eating food grown close to home supports an anti-bigfarm-GMO crop base. So we perform at lots of farmers markets across the northeast – when we are touring – we will try to hook up with a farmers market as an early show – and we usually pull in decent tips and merch sales – which defrays our operating expenses when on tour.
    We are also deeply committed to the Appalachia Rising movement – to STOP big Coal from destroying the way of life for so many West Virginian families – much of our music comes from our heritage there – and we have organized shows with great talented people around this. At our shows – we remind folks that OUR electricity is produced from 50% of coal, and that coal comes from those places.
    As acoustic performers – we are lucky that we can set up our gear and perform “off the grid” – no electricity required. We do carry a small converter in our van, that we travel in and can run a pa speaker at markets and such.
    So – we try to bring to our shows a deeper commitment to some causes that we
    believe in – and we’ve reach many people, and made many good friends on our tours.
    http://www.adelaandjude.com

  2. I really like you idea about teaching our fans about what we do and how we do it.
    I have been teaching my Djs for many years but personnaly i would find transfering my skillset to video to teach over the web very difficult.

Comments are closed.