So we’ve covered why it’s important to grow a real following in part 1 and part 2 of this series. Now I’m going to show you how I’m growing mine. Keep in mind, this is not the only way. In fact, there are probably better ways. I’m interested in the quality of my growth, not the quantity. Therefore I make sure to curate relationships deeper than just a click. My approach has three parts, and I’ll share them with you.

Content is King.

Without good content, people just won’t care. People are interested in innovation. People get excited for new and fresh ideas. [Proof: have you ever shared a song that you love with a friend that they've never heard? I bet you were really excited to do that! It's because above everything, the content has to be king. It has to be something people enjoy and want.]

I’ve put out a lot of content in my day, and I wish I had a time machine to go back and say “nooooooooooooo….” (imagine slow motion as I grab the CD out of my hand or slap my pointer finger from clicking ‘upload’). Point being: Since 1999 when I got my hands on a 4-track tape recorder, I’ve been recording music. And guys…most of it is absolutely terrible.

I was so eager to get content out, I didn’t stop to think about the quality and workmanship of what I put out there.

You must work hard to create good content. That means extra hours grueling over that one lyric. It means paying really great photographers and designers to make your promotional material look the best it can. It means not cutting corners and being satisfied with ‘good enough.’

For Christians, we can even take it a step further. David says ‘Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts!’ Psalm 33:3

Content in the Christian community serves a higher purpose because we’re giving God a product from the material (talents) He gave us. It’s like when parents give children paper and crayons and says ‘make something.’ Most kids don’t throw something together and call it ‘good enough.’ They pour themselves into it and call it ‘good.’ You must make your content king.

Everybody Loves Freebies

There you go. Plain and simple. People love free. Anytime I pass the lady in the mall giving a sample of teriyaki chicken, I partake. It’s free. But wait…there is a strategy there….

By giving me a free sample, there’s a good chance (and personal statistics can testify) that I will buy an entire plate of scrumptious teriyaki chicken. I was provided with free content, and it led me to make a purchase.

That is my strategy with music. Since the public release of Noisetrade, I have always made something available. Sometimes it’s a sample of an album (a song or two), and sometimes it’s exclusive content (like the current acoustic demo EP from the Revelation project). I always have freebies available.

But I don’t limit it to one place. I also have freebies up on Bandcamp, which is our actual storefront. Those freebies are different than the ones on Noisetrade. The freebies on Bandcamp are actually B-Sides to our first album, and some bonus tracks as well.

I love giving away music, but in trying to grow and sustain a business I simply cannot give everything away. Ultimately my goal is to turn free consumers into paid consumers. And I believe it’s working.

As I shared in previous post, our Kickstarter was funded primarily by our mailing list. Our mailing list has come from Noisetrade, where people join our mailing list for free music. We raised $6595 from our mailing list…who were mostly free consumers.

By now you probably get the point. Everybody loves freebies. It’s a great win-win way for you to grow your platform and influence.

People Want Relationships, not Rockstars.

In the end, I’m interested in relationships. Through music, I have made some great friends who are great supporters. When I get personal messages through social media or email, I always respond. If someone comments on our Youtube channel, I always thank them and respond. I am not (nor will ever be) some elite artist. I am a human being, no different than the other human beings that consume my content.

I have several friends who are artists, and I support them with all I can. Many of them were artists whom I loved before they were friends. One of my favorite singer/songwriters responded to a twitter post while I was in Nashville last year, and we ended up meeting for coffee for a few hours. Since then, we’ve developed a relationship where he bought some of Amanda’s art, and we supported his recent Kickstarter. We’ve text, email, and keep in touch.

I’m proud to say I know and support Robby Hecht to the fullest. I discovered him on Noisetrade in 2008. I was a fan, and now I have a relationship that’s a little deeper than me just being a listener. I have proudly shared his music with several others who are also fans.

I could tell you similar stories, like how Steven Delopoulos of Burlap to Cashmere gave my friends and I a private concert after a show because we missed the first half of the set due to a major highway accident that held us up. I could tell you how Julie Lee took us to a private party with several Christian authors and artists. I could tell you about bowling with Andy Gullahorn and several other Nashville artists. I was fans of theirs before I ever knew them.

The point I’m trying to make is this: people aren’t hungry for rockstars, they’re hungry for relationships…at any level. The best thing you can do to grow your influence and platform is curate relationships with those who support you.

I always arrive early to gigs so we can hang out with the people hosting it. I also always stay late. I don’t disappear. I stay right out in the open. I have several one-on-one conversations. I accept Facebook request. I always communicate.

It’s a lot of work to build relationships, but it is so worth it.

In the next and final part, I’ll share with you some resources that have helped me along this journey. Thanks for reading! 

In my last post, I was transparent about my social numbers. In this post, I’d like to share a few things that really get to the heart of this matter. I believe this is really all about honesty.

To put it simple: creating a fake following is like telling a lie. Read that again. And again. When you have a fake following posted on your social media sites, you are telling people you have more influence than you really are. It’s no different than exaggerating a story, which is no different than telling a little white lie.

If the very foundation for your influence is a lie, you don’t have much to build on.

Many people say that for a person to be able to be ‘full-time’ at what they do (music, authors, content creators, etc), they need to have 10,000 fans. Google that for more info. That is a lot of fans. (Bands need 10k per person…yikes!). Here is where the weight is, from least important to most important.

1. Facebook. Least important. Why? Because your followers on Facebook do not see all of your post.

They only see what Facebook’s algorithm shows them. If I want everyone to see my post, I have to pay $5-$50, depending on how many of their friends will see it.

Facebook is not at all interested in your success or following. They are interested in selling ads and promoted posts, as they should be…they’re a business. But because of their business practices, Facebook is the least valuable of the three most important places to have an honest following.

2. Twitter. Fairly important. Twitter doesn’t hide your post from your followers behind a paywall like Facebook does. If you post something on Twitter, it will be seen by all who follow you.

But here is where Twitter becomes a lie. Twitter is a two-way street. You have followers, and you follow people. When you follow so many people (normally in hopes they follow back), it’s clear that you’re not interested in being part of the two-way street…you’re interested in self-promotion. Now we’re back to narcissism.

Here are some of my followers (analytics via Fruji). Let’s take the one on the bottom, @johntibbsmusic. He has about 55k followers, which is impressive. But he follows almost 49k. If I follow John (and I do not), then I will most likely see his post out of the 137 I follow. But when I post something, he will probably never see my post. There is no two-way street here. (John, if you read this, please don’t take offense. I’m simply making a point.)

Your Twitter ratio has to be realistic and allow for you to communicate back with people who follow you. The best way to measure influence on Twitter is this ratio of followers to following. Analytics call this the YAS (YouAreSpecial) factor. The better this ratio, the more real influence you have. Again…the numbers do not matter.

3. Mailing List. This is the most important thing you can have, and a real measure of influence.

Our email addresses are our new physical addresses. We want to maintain anonymity on the web. We don’t want people and spam blasting our email inboxes in the same way we don’t want junk mail crowding our mailboxes. When someone gives you their email, it’s given in trust that you won’t abuse it.

A mailing list is voluntary, and starts your relationship off with trust. If someone doesn’t want to be on your mailing list, they can easily opt-out. Out of the 1,366 emails I’ve collected for my mailing list the past 2 years, 137 have opt-ed out and 23 have been removed because their addresses were no longer working.

No big deal. I generally send one email a month, and usually lose 5-10 subscribers per email. I also add around 50 per month. I consider that healthy and organic growth.

The most important reason why your mailing list is the most important platform is this: it’s direct. It comes straight from you to their inbox. And it’s private between you and those who subscribe to you. Through Mailchimp (the service we use), anyone can hit reply and write me back. And I always respond.

We successfully raised our Kickstarter by primarily sharing it with our mailing list. Most of our interaction with our fans come from our mailing list. Most of the sales we’ve made during promotions come from links in (where?….you guessed it…..) our mailing list.

It is impossible to have a fake following on emails, because people will move you into their spam inbox, where mail servers like Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc will identify your email as spam and you’ll automatically be filtered there. The mailing list is protected, built on trust, and the most honest way to measure your influence.

There are some other great platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. I believe they all add to our influence. But Facebook, Twitter, and the Mailing List are the most weighted, and it is crucial that you develop a real and healthy following on all three if you intend to increase your influence.

If your goal is to get to 10k followers, having fake followers doesn’t help you achieve that. See equation from last post. There has to be an honest and transparent relationship across social platforms if you want to have true influence. No one respects a liar.

In the next part, I’ll show you my strategy for growing our platform.