How to get a Fanbase?

Congratulations on the editorial placement! I've never been in an editorial personally, but i can tell you for sure that unfortunately, there's many artists out there with consistent editorial support and barely any fans. This is because editorials are AMAZING for streams numbers, but those are for the most part PASSIVE streams, which means people just open a playlist and let it play without necessarily checking on the artists music in general. it's just there in the background.

There is also a big difference, and different approach, between growing followers and growing fans but growing your overall social media followers will definitely help you get more listeners, which also means more fans if they connect with your music and enjoy what you do.

To grow on Instagram for example (you can still apply the same principles in any social media platform), i can definitely help you. I've helped people before with the same tips and they managed to follow them and as a result, they had amazing growth. The best example i can give is A. Blomqvist, who i helped in the beginning and now went from 5K to 100K followers in the last year. I have to say that he was determined (still is) and did a fantastic job. his content is very good quality too.

Anyway, it's not rocket science, but make sure to follow these steps:

-Post as often as possible. (at least once a day)

-Be consistent

-Post good content (but TRY to not overthink it...)

-Prioritize REELS (yup, instagram is more focused than ever in video content)

-Use as many instagram features as possible.. go live, use stories, reels, photos, EVERYTHING!

-As soon as instagram introduces a new feature, make sure to JUMP ON THAT TRAIN right away. usually, new features always have the biggest organic reach. which means that you will get a lot more exposure and gain more followers.

It all comes down to being as active as you can and as PATIENT as you can. It takes time, work, and again, lots of patience.

Keep in mind that the instagram algorithm is always changing. Every time that you post on instagram, only 5-10% of your followers will see it. Depending on the amount of engagement that your post gets in the first hour(s), instagram will decide if it's worth showing your post to more people. Another 5-10% of your followers will see it, and another 5-10%, and so on. It s*cks, i know. Basically it's in instagram's hands whether your own followers will see what you post or not.

Now define engagement: Forget likes. it's all about SAVES & SHARES first, then comments, THEN likes. So you have to find a way to get people's attention as quickly as possible, retain their attention, and make them engage. Use text in your videos, use a nice caption, ask questions, use call-to-action.. anything! Instagram keeps track of everything in terms of engagement. how long people watched your video, how many people skipped after a few seconds, how many people watched the whole thing.... You should always try to reply to every comment, specially shortly after you've posted. it ALL counts as engagement.

This is why sometimes you see posts in your feed and it says 'posted 1 day ago' or '2 days ago' or 'X hours ago' and you wonder: ''How come i haven't seen this before?'' It's simply because before that moment, instagram didn't feel like it was worth showing. (low engagement) This doesn't always have something to do with the quality of your content so don't be too hard on yourself and don't let it discourage you. Instagram is just super annoying and they do everything they can so you lose patience and then pay for ads. which is how they make their money.

Talking about ads, yes, they can work and they can also bring great results. It really depends if you wanna invest the time necessary to follow the steps above, or take a shortcut and invest money in advertising instead. I suggest that you check Tom Dupree III on YouTube to learn anything and everything about ads.

EXTRA TIP: Be GRATEFUL for the followers that you ALREADY have. Engage with them. reply to their comments, to their messages. even if they don't write to you, reach out to them! You should be able to tell who has been supporting you for a while now, pay attention to them and aknoledge them. they will appreciate it. it's one thing to get followers, another thing to get fans, and ANOTHER thing to KEEP your fans. It's easy to focus on what we are missing instead of what we have so, try to remind yourself of this as much as you can.

EXTRA TIP #2: Don't focus only in the music. Nowdays people want to know more about the artist behind the art, who you are, what you do, your creative process... if you can manage to be comfortable sharing more about you, it will be very rewarding and make people want to connect more with you and your music.

So there you have it. this will make a huge difference for you, trust me. For the past 2 years I've been lazy and almost haven't posted on instagram at all. but these things work, so give it a try!

Let me know if you have more questions.

Best of luck!