by Dan Runcie, Founder of Trapital, April 1st, 2023
Your followers are not necessarily your fans.
That’s hard for many artists and creatives to accept, but it’s the truth.
Artists hear the same rhetoric often: “Build your social media following!” “Use it to promote your work!” “Be your own distribution!” It’s good advice, but it’s also reductive without context.
On most social media networks, it’s impossible to segment your followers into different categories:
– Are your fans there because they love your music?
– Or because they like you as a person?
– Or do they find your posts entertaining?
– Do they follow because they find you attractive?
– Or do they love the gossip-worthy posts you share and don’t want to miss the drama?
- Do they hate-follow you?
For some artists and creators, it’s all of those combined, but most of the time it’s not.
There are many artists who have tens of millions of social media followers, but can’t sell tens of thousands of album. Similarly, artists can generate tens of millions of streams, but can’t sell a concert ticket!
Social media will continue to be an essential tool for many artists to promote their work. But it’s also a vanity metric that can be manipulated, and has its tradeoffs like any other platform.
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What are your thoughts on how social media following relates to true fandom?
Read more articles by Dan Runcie on his LinkedIn profile, where it was initially published.
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