The Fan Relationship Pyramid

There are 5 levels of online relationship, and regardless of what we're selling, the goal is to satisfy our superfans first, then get the visitor or fan on the lower levels to make the transition up the ladder to the top level.

ReelSEO had a great article about the relationship pyramid that describes the various levels. I've changed them to reflect the music industry, but they are (from lowest to highest):

• Awareness: Know your music but don't regularly interact with you.

• Acquaintance: Has heard your music and sort of liked it and is willing to listen again.

• Friend: Regularly listens or visits your social media or websites, but hasn't engaged yet.

• Confidante: Has gone as far as to join your mailing list, become a friend or follower and even a regular listener of your music.

• Intimate: Has purchased your music or merch, regularly engages on forums or social media, sees every gig, and evangelizes about you to anyone that will listen.

As said before, the goal is to move the people on the lower rungs of the pyramid upwards, and this is done by offering more targeted content. The easiest way to do that is with video; either a music video, behind the scenes video at a gig, or during rehearsal or recording. This allows you to connect on a very emotional level as humans respond to moving pictures and pictures of other human beings more than any other medium.

So keep doing those videos. They're helping you in more ways than one.

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