How to start a fan club in 3 easy steps
With more competition for our attention than ever, fan clubs offer artists guaranteed ways to reach their most devoted fans.
A guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix.
Everyone knows about the importance of engagement in social media, but what about reach? Engagement proves people want your content, but reach plays a big role in determining who decides whether or not to engage with your posts.
Think of reach as the number of unique people who see your content. In a perfect world, every one of your followers would see every piece of content you posted. That’s not the world we live in. Here, roughly 5-7% of your total following may see any post.
But what can you do? After all, increasing your reach on any social media platform comes with a price. Digital advertising promises to get your content in front of more people, including your fans, in exchange for as much money as you’re willing to pay. If you have $10 and 100 followers, for example, you may be able to reach more than 10% of your following. But if you have $10 and 10,000 followers, your reach may only increase by 1-2%. In other words, it’s all relative.
Fan clubs are the answer. If you are a musician making music in 2022, you can create a fan club. There may only be one or two members, and you may be related to them, but fan clubs make it easy to directly reach your most engaged followers for little to no money. You may not think you’re big enough or important enough to warrant a fan club, but we don’t tolerate that kind of negative self-talk around these parts.
If you’ve made it this far, then you’re looking to start a fan club as soon as possible. That’s great! Here are three surprisingly simple ways to begin directly engaging your core audience and developing a community around your music in a matter of minutes.
Newsletters Never Say Die!
We told you about the surprisingly powerful reach of newsletters back in January, but did you know they also make a great fan club? Join Mailchimp, Substack, or any popular newsletter service for cheap or low-cost options to reach up to several hundred fans directly via email. From there, grab your registration link and share it everywhere your fans live online. You should also make a signup sheet for your upcoming gigs. Don’t be afraid to work the line before the show, searching for new signups. You never know who might be in attendance!
Start a Private Facebook Group
Everyone we know has a love-hate relationship with Facebook. It’s the one app that most people are likely to have an account on, but the platform’s immense popularity has made user timelines so cluttered that most ignore them altogether. Pages aren’t much better, with organic reach shrinking by the month. The last place for any community to truly thrive on Facebook is its private groups, which allow anyone to create and maintain a space for interaction and announcements. Most artists have fan clubs created by fans on the site, but launching an official fan club gives fans a one-stop-shop for all your news and puts YOU in control of the space. If someone acts up, kick them out! If you need help with something, ask! Facebook groups are free, easy to use, and exist on one of five sites that the average person visits daily. Groups may not be perfect, but they’re hard to beat for the price and power!
Go The Professional Route with Patreon
For any artist looking to create a space to share exclusive content with fans, Patreon (and its competitors) may be the solution. The popular platform allows anyone to create fan clubs and charge for access. You can have one flat rate for all subscribers or offer different tiers, each with special perks. The setup and execution of this option are more involved than the previous two, but for those prepared to do the work such an undertaking requires, it’s more than worth the effort.
James Shotwell is the Director of Customer Engagement at Haulix and host of the company’s podcast, Inside Music. He is also a public speaker known for promoting careers in the entertainment industry, as well as an entertainment journalist with over a decade of experience. His bylines include Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Substream Magazine, Nu Sound, and Under The Gun Review, among other popular outlets.
James Shotwell is the Director of Customer Engagement at Haulix and host of the company’s podcast, Inside Music. He is also a public speaker known for promoting careers in the entertainment industry, as well as an entertainment journalist with over a decade of experience. His bylines include Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Substream Magazine, Nu Sound, and Under The Gun Review, among other popular outlets.
