Written by: Emily Hume
Fan pages can be a great way to help your favorite artists grow their fan base, and running a fan account can create lifelong friendships with other fans. Every fan wants to feel a part of a community, and running a fan account is a great way to foster that sense of belonging. Instagram is one of the best tools out there to host a fan account, and help grow a fandom! Here are some tips for how to start a fan page on Instagram.
1. Choose an Artist
Pick your favorite artist - just one! To start off, focusing on only one artist will be easiest to manage. Pick someone whose music and personality you enjoy and support - this way you’ll always feel inspired to keep up with the account. If you’re having trouble picking an artist or are stuck between two, go to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to music and see who you listen to the most. Who gets you the most excited when they release new music? Who provides a lot of content you can work with? Who has a lot of fans you can reach out to? This is a great starting point.
2. Choose a Direction
It is a good idea to settle on what specifically your fan account will focus on. Not every fan account has an exact theme that it sticks to. Fan accounts can be overall just about sharing announcements and love for your favorite artist! A great way to try and decide what type of fan page you want to have is to not only think about what you love most about the artist (anything from music and chart rankings, to charity events and fashion), but also what other fans are always talking about! Ultimately, you decide! Setting the direction you want your account to go will help you figure out how to get started, and it will also make the account easier to maintain over time.
3. Choose an Aesthetic
Of course with Instagram in particular, it’s all about the aesthetics! How are you going to get people interested in following you? First, pick a theme that you love and is also relevant to your artist. There’s a couple different ways to think about this. You could choose an overarching theme that is unique to you that you will always have, or you can choose whatever current theme your artist is using. For example, Billie Eilish was all about dark colors (black, red, blue, and green), and in her new era, she is much more into lighter tones and neutrals. If you had decided to follow her lead, then your fan account would also need to change aesthetically.
4. Set Some Guidelines
One very important final step is to set some rules! Post something that outlines what you want your club to be. If you want it to be a positive, safe space that doesn’t tolerate negativity or hate, be sure to outline these rules. If you’re going to be posting about an artist whose music and content is more mature, you might consider making your fan page age restricted. To do this, you can make your profile private and only accept people who are of age. However, if your Instagram is a business profile, you can’t have it be private, but there are still settings to make it age restricted.
5. Grow Your Account
To help grow your account, it’s important to find people who are just as passionate about your favorite artist as you are. Go see who’s following your artist’s page, and follow some other fans. You can even try to send them a message telling them you’re starting a fan account and hope they’ll join your community! If you are not wanting to remain anonymous, you can also share your new fan account information on your personal social media pages and highlight why your friends should join.
Your fan account is ready to go! From here on out, it’s all about building a community where everyone feels comfortable and safe to share how much they love the artist! It takes hard work and dedication to keep up a fan account, but the reward from it can be so amazing. Check out some of the awesome fandom stories below from fan accounts with some of our Behind the Fan interviews!
Behind the Fan: @szaforyou (A SZA Fan Account)
Behind the Fan: @beberexhaczsk (A Bebe Rexha Fan Account)
Behind the Fan: @teddyssquad (An Ed Sheeran Fan Account)
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