Category: CommunityCategory: Community

This from a Chris Dalla Riva piece called ‘Your Followers are not Your Fans.’

“Your followers – and maybe even your listeners – are not necessarily your fans.”

Riva goes down the rabbit hole of how Spotify plays and TikTok numbers don’t always translate to ticket sales.

Social media vanity metrics don’t always translate to real world fandom.

People who “like” a post probably won’t buy your album, sign up for your course, join your email list, or share something with their friends.

Many followers like you, but they don’t LIKE-LIKE you.

A “follower” starts at the very top of the “marketing funnel.”

Moving the follower down the funnel is an adventure.

One does not simply turn this casual fan into a customer overnight.

Customer. Subscriber. Student. Client. Whoever you’re trying to bring into your world.

You probably know this because of the very few followers that even see your social media posts, very few click anything.

So in our SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE PLAN journey, we’ve been doing a lot of ATTRACTING (at the top of the funnel).

Our next move is INFORMING.

Nobody knows everything you’re doing.

Most of your followers don’t know about your next course, your next photo session, your next tour, your new shirt.

They don’t know they can subscribe to your cool email list.

Here’s some wild things you can do:

➡️ Reply to someone who leaves a comment with a link

➡️ DM someone and let them know about your new project

➡️ Email someone directly

➡️ Make personalized videos with Loom and send to fans (like this):

You can directly reach followers, all while watching Ahsoka on a Tuesday night, or watching the Jets season implode in just 75 seconds.

It’s hand-to-hand combat from here on out. It’s gonna take time, and it doesn’t scale, but it can help move casual fans to people who absolutely love what you do.

Rick Rubin had quite a media tour a few months back, but it’s a quote from this 2014 interview that stuck with me:

“Everything was trying to make something cool to play for our friends that they would like.”

When you change this to “make something cool to post on social media,” you’re in trouble.

There’s a chance it might take off. But most likely most of your fans won’t even see it.

Social media algorithms are designed to limit your reach.

That’s why you should have an email list that your fans can subscribe to.

You can call email lists old fashioned, but so are vinyl records, and everyone who buys them online gets a receipt and shipping info delivered direct to their email inbox.

Send an email to your fans more than once a month. It’ll be okay, your fans signed up because they wanted to hear from you.

Instead of posting a funny meme on social media, message it to a friend.

Call a buddy and tell them you’re sending them something to check out.

Set up a Zoom call with your creative community and make art together (like my friend Robin does, every other Friday with her Creative Drop-In).

Make cool stuff, and show it to your friends without social media.