Yahzahrah The Brightest Star

Artist management should provide social networking platforms that develop communities of social networkers that center on shared interest in the artist (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Aside from artist Facebook pages, managers could also create Facebook groups that give fans and critics a place to communicate with one another. Some artist websites have a forum section that encourages registered users to post discussion topics to which other users can post their responses.

 

Foo Fighters is one band that employs this tactic. By registering to the Foo Fighters Postboard, fans can share their opinions on Foo Fighter-related discussion topics with others. Allowing users to submit feedback results in a closer artist-fan relationship and engaged a wider fan base. To encourage use of similar forum or discussion platforms, artist management may provide registered users with exclusive benefits, such as being able to hear songs before they are released to the public (Mangold & Faulds, 2009).

 

Another crucial element to controlling publicity is by providing information about artists. Mangold and Faulds (2009) suggest, “Consumers are more likely to talk about companies and products when they feel they know a lot about them.” The same is true with fans and artists. Information inspires action. For example, when fans learn that their favorite artist is coming to a nearby venue, they may share that information with their friends via social media. Once artist-fan relationships are developed from promotional efforts, these relationships must be maintained. The best way to maintain and strengthen these relationships is to keep fans and followers informed and updated with what the artist is doing. Twitter is probably the most ideal social networking platform for this type of communication although Facebook can also be used. By publishing a tweet every day or so, artists remain in the public eye of their followers. At the same time, if an artist has recently received bad press in other media outlets, social media gives them the ability to address their fans and provide a response to the press.