Most indie artists in the digital sphere mistake building a fanbase with getting a lot of followers. The two are not one and the same as one group will bring dollars into your pockets and the second – if you’re lucky, likes and comments. You do as you please but at the end of the day, an artist needs MONEY to survive, not digital attention, although the second can be converted into streams of income but it’s a much lengthier process and involves a lot of luck in play. Read on to discover the 5 critical differences between fans and followers.
5. Followers Have Terrible Attention Spans. Fans Know What You Like For Breakfast.
Followers are people that follow you. Fans are people that adore you and believe in your mission, your product, your promise. When you follow Lady Gaga on Instagram but don’t even know the name of her top sold single, you’re just a follower. When you follow her on all social media and know the title of her latest album, the release date, and all the lyrics to the songs, you guessed it, you’re a fan. The reason is profoundly psychological. With fans – you succeeded in convincing them to perpetually invest time and money in you. With the followers – you just caught their attention for a moment.
4. Followers Judge Your Content And Get Inspired By It. Fans Appreciate, Share, And Repost Your Content.
When you follow someone without the basis of admiring that person, you see their uploads from a competitor’s mindset. Example: “oh! That’s a good idea! I could shoot a pose like that in my backyard too. Let me see if I can get my cousin to come over tomorrow to help me out.” When you’re a fan, you look without ever having the thought of “touching”: “Wow he has such a cool life! And those shoes! And that location!” Because a fan does not see you as competition, their self-esteem does not suffer as a result of sharing your posts. A follower, on the other hand, will be very resistant to publicly praising you.
3. Followers Have Their Own Sh*t To Sell. Fans Are Happy To Buy Whatever YOU Are Selling.
We all have those people who consistently drop likes, and possibly even a comment or two every now and then, but their engagement does not go further than that. They never buy tickets to your shows, never buy your merch, never post videos of them singing along to your songs, nothing of the kind that would place them in the actual fan category. And more often than not, when you go on their profiles, you will immediately notice they too have something of their own to sell. Be it landscaping services or clothing items. So beware of putting time into people who are entrepreneurial. They will almost always remain in the follower category and never become a hardcore supporter because they have their own business to push.
2. Followers Won’t Help Unless Beneficial To Them. Fans Will Help Without Being Asked.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how tired are you of begging people to check your music out? 100 and we know it. The root issue of that is that you have followers and not fans. With fans, you don’t have to put in huge amounts of effort because they are an asset and do the work for you. So if you’re unfortunately still asking people to support you and share your music, you, my dear, have been dealing with followers ONLY all this time. It’s time to start cultivating fans instead.
1. Followers Are Low-Key Stalkers. Fans Are Front Row Supporters.
What we mean by that is that your fans will never hide their affection for your music and your personality. They take joy in being part of your journey. Followers will watch a lot, if not all of your content and visuals, but never truly show their support for you. In marketing, that’s the difference between awareness and conversions. A lot of followers means a lot of people have heard of you and/or have seen you. Conversions mean that some of these people have decided to actually become fans and buy something from you. Focus on conversions and not awareness. Awareness DOES NOT mean money.
Blue Rhymez Entertainment ©2022
If you’re on Spotify, help us out by streaming the playlist below. Yes, your time and attention are just as valuable as a monetary donation and we both know you didn’t pay for this article.
Blue Rhymez Entertainment 