Do You Know Who Your Engaged Fans Are? Every artist has three distinct communities within their fanbase, each with unique characteristics.
The challenge is that most artists tend to use just one blanket strategy for marketing and promoting, failing to recognize the differences among these groups.
This post dives into how to energize and truly connect with Community 2 – Engaged Fans. These are your Active Online Audience—the ones who subscribe to your emails, watch your videos, and follow you on social media. While they might occasionally comment or engage, they don’t yet interact as consistently as your Superfans.
Engaged Fans live in what the New York Times calls “ambient awareness.” They know who you are and follow your journey, but they haven’t reached a deeper level of connection—yet. This is why engagement with this group is essential. To bring them closer and foster loyalty, you need a different strategy—one that focuses on consistent, meaningful interaction to transform casual awareness into a lasting bond.
Recap: Your 3 Communities Are: Super Fans, Engaged Fans & Ambient Fans
Community #1: Your Super Fans
These are fans who are primarily Your Live Audience. You know them by name. If you play out live, they attend your shows regularly and buy many things you offer (not just music). If you have a street team, they are on it and evangelize strongly on your behalf. They are the first responders when you post on your socials, and they follow you on multiple channels.
Community #2: Engaged Fans
These fans are your Active Online Audience. They are email subscribers (if not, they are close to becoming subscribers) and active Social Media engagers.
Community #3: Ambient Fans
These fans are your Passive Online Audience, and they are your social media friends who are aware of you via TikTok Facebook, Instagram, etc., but don’t actively communicate with you and may not have heard your music (yet).
Engaged Fans Are Your Active Online Audience
They’ve discovered you but haven’t fully committed yet. The key is interacting with them as much as possible to make them “stick.” By doing so, you can move them closer and start to get to know them. Engagement is vital for this. The goal is to touch, move, and inspire them and have meaningful interactions! This is why I named this group Engaged.
First, Fix Your Fan Journey
The first thing you want to do is be sure that any potential fan trying to reach you or understand you doesn’t get cut off in the process. Analyzing your fan journey and where you may inadvertently be stopping easy access is crucial.
To craft a compelling fan journey and engage with Ambient fans, it’s crucial to ask yourself (and your team, if you have one) some thought-provoking questions: What exactly takes place during each fan interaction? How can we elevate their experience, increase the frequency of these interactions, and turn Ambient fans into dedicated supporters?
Make SURE Your Messaging and Fan Journey Match – On Every Platform,
Check yourself! My team and I find broken links and outdated messaging almost every time we do a social media assessment!
Here’s a quick punch list – go through each and be sure you have up-to-date messaging and links that WORK to whatever you are currently promoting!
Website:
Do you need to change the artwork on the landing page to announce the new music?
Your most recent release should be mentioned in the Bio/About section with a link to stream (studies show people tend to take action on the Bio page!).
Is your news section out of date? Do you have recent and upcoming gigs posted? Use Bandsintown to help!
Socials:
Change your bio and link to announce the newest release or your current CTA – add appropriate emoji, too!
Curate! Pin and highlight newer relevant posts
Get on Instagram Live and interact!
Send DMS to your fans and leave them comments – go beyond the emoji comments and say something memorable!
Upload a new top banner to your Facebook personal and Page, change your profile photo to the album art (if you want!)
Edit the “About” section to include the new release and make an updated banner
Boost or Buy an Ad If you don’t already have your credit card set up on Facebook to purchase boosted posts and ads, register it so you can easily boost posts throughout your campaign.
YouTube
Customize your top banner profile picture to match all socials for consistency.
Post shorts!
Create and post simple lyric videos or visualizers
Rethink Your Email List!
The first place to begin flexing your muscles when honing your clear brand voice is with your email list.
Keep your artist bio/signature story and brand in mind, and develop some topics to share in an email. When crafting emails, think about your superfans and write directly to just ONE fan, which is perfect (naming them helps with this!). Tell a story, share something personal and go out of your comfort zone with this and see what comes up!. The key is asking your fans to respond to your emails, being sure that you ask a specific and pointed question, and watching your email inbox for responses.
Getting into two-way conversations over email could be the tipping point for ambient fans to turn them into engaged fans!
Create A Regular and Consistent Email – With ONE Call To Action (CTA) That Encourages CONVERSATIONS Each Month
If you don’t have one, start sending one now (even if it’s only for 25 people to start). Only have one call to action per monthly communication – too many CTAS will confuse people.
- Ask for them to join you on Instagram – promise to follow back!
- Invite them to like your TikToks
- Ask them to become a follower on Spotify
- Watch a specific video on YouTube and subscribe to your channel
- Invite them to hang with you at a bar, club, coffee house, art show, conference, etc.
- Send a survey to fill out or a fun poll
- Schedule a group ZOOM and invite everyone to the call
- OR – ask a simple question that encourages a response!
Educate Your Fans! (They Don’t Know How To be Engaged Fans Till You ASK!)
It’s easy to forget that not everyone in your life understands the impact of their support on your music career. Many of your non-music friends might not realize how crucial their engagement is or how it directly influences your growth as an artist.
For example, they might not know that every time someone streams your song on Spotify, you only make about $0.003 per play—that’s just a fraction of a cent! So, while every stream is appreciated, it’s even more valuable if they take the time to follow you on the platform. A follow means they’ll be notified when you release new music, which leads to more consistent streams and a stronger presence on Spotify’s algorithms. This, in turn, helps your music get discovered by new listeners.
You could also explain that sharing your music on social media or adding your songs to their playlists does more than just boost your ego—it helps increase your visibility to potential new fans. The more people who engage with your content, the more likely it is to be seen by others, which can lead to new opportunities like playlist placements or even live show bookings.
In short, don’t assume that your friends and family know why their support matters—break it down for them. Let them know that small actions, like following you on Spotify, subscribing to your YouTube channel, or sharing your latest track, are precious. They’re supporting you and playing an active role in helping you build your career. Even take a screenshot and explain HOW they can follow!
Try Shining A Light – Use This Fun Ultimate Fan Engagement Tip
Keep in mind that people are more interested in themselves than they are in you. Make them the main attraction. These potentially engaged fans will also be delighted to be included.
Take photos or videos of people who come up to talk to you and/ or purchase merch at every show from the stage or at the merch table.
If you don’t play live, that’s okay – you can still feature them by showcasing and Re-posting their posts!
Post and tag these fans as stories on your IG
As you add everyone to the email list, you point them to each photoset featuring: Them! They are very likely to go check themselves out.
Create IRL Experiences!
Fans want experiences, so make some—try a sip-and-paint event, a bowling night, a pub crawl, or even a casual meet-up at a local coffee shop. These in-person events are a fantastic way to connect with your Engaged Fans on a deeper level. Not only do they give fans a chance to interact with you in a relaxed and personal setting, but they also allow your fans to bond with each other. This is a huge part of creating Super fans—when your community feels connected and united, they’ll become even more invested in you and your music. Keep it simple, fun, and aligned with your vibe as an artist, and you’ll be building lifelong supporters while creating lasting memories.
Want to dig deeper to get more Engaged Fans? I have a check list for that 🙂
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