E369: The playbook that DJ, Fred Again, uses to create a community that: - Sells out his shows in days with no marketing. - Makes millions. - Is a lot of fun.
Read the thread from Rob Abelow: https://x.com/abelowrob/status/1808184852908499215
00:00 The Buzzword 'Community' 00:33 Building a Loyal Community 00:56 Direct Fan Relationships 01:32 Community First 01:49 Reward Fandom 02:28 Get Fans Involved 02:52 Create FOMO 03:52 Be Authentic 05:17 Be a Connector 05:43 Summary 06:18 Final Thoughts
#marketing #communitybuilding #guerillamarketing #digitalmarketing
The Edward Show. Your daily content marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
The word community is an overused buzzword in marketing circles. But it's gotten so often used that we might as well pay attention. I came across this thread. The introduction to the thread is Fred again is crushing it. Fred again is a DJ. He's a master class in building fandom and is redefining the model for music's future. Here's seven things he does to create an insanely loyal fan base and what you can learn. So I came across this thread. The introduction to the thread had me. I read the rest of it. I said, this is great. I'm going to share this on the pod and that is today's episode. It is about how to build a loyal community. I do think community is an overused buzzword in marketing circles. But if something is super popular and there's a great piece of writing about how to do it. Well, it's worth hearing about. This comes from Rob Ablow at Ablow Rob on Twitter. X and the link to the thread will be shared in the description. Number one, build direct fan relationships. Fred has focused on direct engagement from day one. Prioritizing lean in locations like discord and WhatsApp to build genuine community. Know his fans and activate them in real time. It's not just big numbers. It's about deep interactions. If you're watching, by the way, you'll see videos from TikTok of Fred doing events and his fans freaking out. And these videos feel really gorilla and really authentic. Not hyper planned or ridiculously overdone like a crazy activation, but authentic. So number two, put community first. For actual life three, he asked his most engaged discord fans to host 18 early listening launch parties across the globe. Fans connected together more deeply in real life with Fred as the context. First, feed the community, then the masses. Number three, reward fandom. Before his LA Coliseum show, he hosted his secret listening party for 150 fans. He found and invited who went to his first LA show in 2021. He greeted each personally, handed out tea and previewed new songs, show fans their scene, show them their valued. And there's a picture of the 150 fans taking up a small portion of seats in the Coliseum. And it's before the show. And you can see just how big it is, but these select fans get a very special experience. And then, of course, you're going to go talk about this on social media and nonstop, but they will also become fans for life. That's great. Number four, get fans involved. Fred includes fans in his process. They vote on tracks to release. He asks fans to suggest venues, video recaps from the dance floor, cultivating community generated content. Don't serve fans content. Make them part of the journey. This thread is gone. How great is this thread? This is great. I'm personally enjoying this. Number five, create FOMO. Fred is the king of pop-up shows. No rollout, no pre-hype. Fans find out first. Fans band together on Discord to help each other get in. Every event feels like you're lucky to be there. You had to be in the know. They're marketing from the ground up. Honestly, I hope you check this one out on YouTube because the screenshots that are included and the videos that are included. Add such a huge amount of context to each part in the thread. What's crazy is Fred again is taking pop-up shows to arena tours and selling them out on three-day notice with no ad budgets. This is wild. These decisions are backed by direct fan data, not vanity metrics like monthly listeners. If you know your fans, you know your value. That really is crazy. He's selling out arenas with three-day notice and no ad budget. Wow. There's a headline, Fred again tour didn't spend a single dollar on marketing. Now this one's about authenticity number six, be authentic. It all works because it feels authentic. He's pouring you pints of Guinness, sharing face times with collaborators, attending quiz night with fans. There's no pretense. It's not about being slick or coming across as bigger, better, and more famous than you. Authenticity, I think, is one of the keys. It's also a buzzword. But it really is one of the keys in marketing today. Every brand is on social media and the best content on social media is authentic. Authentic is used so much that it's hard to know what it really means anymore. The term authentic is used so much. I take it to mean done without a huge amount of oversight. It could take a good amount of planning, but it's not muddied by lots of cooks in the kitchen. What's thought of by one person or a small group of people. Corporate advertising is a lot less likely to be authentic because there's so many people behind it. And oftentimes corporate advertising is very cringe. I share lots of well performing amazing ads on my Instagram and on TikTok. But the truth about these ads is they're actually made by small groups of people. They perform well because they're authentic and they don't have the clients getting in the way very often. So authenticity is everything in a piece of marketing is made by a very small group of people or even a single person. Number seven be a connector. Fred finds his way to bring people together like a massive community bike rides across London to celebrate his album or facilitating proposals on the dance floor. What people want more than anything else is human connection. This is the dopamine Fred delivers. That's also why authenticity works so well because one person or a group of people. Not a huge group of people which is harder to have a connection with. So we're wrapping up now. Seven ways Fred again finds a loyal AF fan base. Number one build direct fan relationships. Number two put community first. Number three get fans involved. Number four reward fandom. Number five create FOMO. Number six be authentic. Number seven be a connector. Lean all the way in the future is niches over masses. Deep interactions over big numbers again. This is from at a blow Rob on Twitter X the link to this thread is shared in the description for the podcasts was so great. And even though community is an overused buzzword this content about community this thread about community. I find this to be very inspiring inspiring piece of marketing writing. Thank you Rob for the great thread and I hope you enjoyed this episode of the show. This is episode three hundred sixty nine of my daily digital marketing podcasts. I do this thing seven days a week every day. I hope you like it. Let me know if you like it. Let me know what you think of this one. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. I will talk to you again tomorrow.
