There are so many ways to engage with your fans that your message can often be lost amongst all the other bands trying to say something. Social media can also lull you into a familiar rhythm where you’re posting often, but not making an effort to stand out. Your online persona needs to be curated and personal for people to resonate with you. Nowadays, musicians need to find creative ways to engage with their fan bases to make sure they will hear about your releases, shows, and other news.

Here are some creative ways for you to engage with your fan base.
Run an Online Poll
Polls can be a great way to engage with your audience and get valuable feedback. Your fans want to feel like they’re connected to your creative process so having a poll to let them decide what song you should cover at your next show or what your next album cover should be could be a great way to show them you value their input. Facebook, Instagram Stories, and Twitter are all great places to run online polls and if you have an email list you can use services like Survey Monkey to send a poll to your fans.

Have an Email List
This one isn’t very creative, but I feel that a lot of bands overlook this. All you have to do is put out an email signup list by your merch and let people sign up. It’s a great way for people to opt into being your fan. You know the people who give you their emails are sincerely interested in what you’re doing.

Fan Contests
Running a contest with your fans is a fun way to generate buzz and make them feel like they’re a part of what you’re doing. You can run a submission contest, where people submit ideas and you pick the one you like the best or have your fans try to answer some question. Maybe you can start leaving clues on your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and the winner will get free tickets to your show. This will encourage people to follow you across multiple social media platforms as well. Using a platform like a Hive is a perfect tool to help aid in contest creation.

Incorporating gamification into the way people experience your band encourages positive behaviors and interactions and makes participating more worthwhile.

Feature your fan’s content on your social media feeds
You should repost good content you find on your fan’s pages (with credit of course) to make them feel like they’re involved in your brand. You should feature some content that is about you, like photos or videos people have taken, but also features cool things your fans are doing to give them exposure. By doing this you can turn a fan into a superfan who will be invested in seeing your popularity grow. They will be far more likely to recommend your band to other people and buy merch.

Remix Competition
This idea is a bit more involved but if you put up a good price you can really get great fan engagement and publicity. Everyone who enters a remix to the competition will probably be posting to their fans so you’ll be able to take advantage of your fan’s fanbases. You are able to upload your stems to sites like Splice if you want to open it up to the public.