Fans are often eager to be the first to know and tell their friends that a favorite band is coming to town. Social media facilitates a certain amount of this organically, but how about harnessing the excitement of a tour launch to amplify the results? For the launch of their co- headlining “This World Is Ours Tour,” Escape the Fate and Attack Attack!‘s management team at The Collective built a custom Facebook app that used fans’ engagement to actually reveal the dates.
Those who added the “This World Is Ours Tour Reveal app” were encouraged to share it with their friends, RSVP to the shows, and like the bands on Facebook. The more installs, shares, RSVPs, and likes, the more dates were simultaneously unveiled on both artists’ fan pages. Within hours of posting, all of the tour dates were revealed.
“By using sharing as a vehicle to unlock dates and increase RSVPs to specific tour dates, we are also laying the groundwork for geo-targeted marketing efforts down the line,” said Kavi Halemane and Chris Jahnle of The Collective, adding that “natural benefits arise when revealing a co-branded or co-messaged tour or promotion of any kind. You gain a larger audience pool for content such as tour video teasers, tour posters, and ticketing information.”
Don’t fret if you don’t have the digital team to pull this type of promotion off. Kavi & Chris offer this advice: “Take advantage of as many of the free tools that are out there and generate as much original content around the tour that you possibly can to use as drivers for increased interaction and engagement.”
Interaction and engagement sparks interest, and the more interested your fans are in what you’re doing, the more likely they are to buy your new music, follow you on multiple social networks, and help spread the word about your next show. You may not be able to create your own app, but maybe you can ask for song requests through RSVPs on Facebook. It can start as simply as a shout-out from the stage of a fan’s name from Facebook or Twitter. Social media can go beyond direct to fan communication, and makes it easy for fans to find you new fans – just give them the right incentives, and you’re on your way.
Sam Christie-Sgro is a Business Development Coordinator at Bandsintown, one of the top live concert tracking and discovery applications on Facebook.