Back when The Grateful Dead were touring, they had their fans sign up to a mailing list and would literally mail them things in the mail. At one point, they even sent a survey asking fans questions that helped them tailor their touring, merch and more. Not only was this a great way to gain insight, it also helped foster great relationships with their fans and converted them into fans for life – brand ambassadors.

Now that most of your interactions with your fans are online, it’s easy to forget that you need to foster relationships with them, not simply blast them with emails. And now, there are so many different channels that you interact with your fans, it’s hard to keep track.

The online fan club has changed shape. It’s less of a club and more of a 360-degree look at the ways you interact with your fans. While it might seem overwhelming, there are a number of great online services that can help you keep in touch, tailor your interactions with fans in ways that they prefer and make money.

Here are two online services worth checking out:

Topspin.com is a direct-to-fan marketing and retail software platform that helps artistsincrease awareness, build relationships and turn fans into customers. Turn your music career into a business. With Topspin, you can:

• Share content: Stream your audio and video anywhere from websites and blogs to Facebook feeds and mobile devices.
• Increase fan connections: Connect with your fans through email, Facebook or Twitter and you can analyze their data to send them targeted email blasts.
• Earn money: You can customize a pro-grade store quickly and easily (without knowledge of HTML) and share your offers with fans. You can sell digital downloads or physical discs, as well as tickets, merch, fan club memberships, and more.

FanBridge.com is the leading fan management and marketing platform for email and social media. It can help you grow your fan base, increase fan engagement, and then monetize those relationships with fans. How?

• Email, Mobile and Social Media: It merges email, Facebook and other social networking platforms with direct-to-fan engagement tools, no matter where you are, or what platform you’re using.
• Analytics: FanBridge offers very sophisticated and integrated analytics to help you understand your fans. You’ll know who’s opening your messages, and who’s clicking, sharing and more.
• Targeted Marketing: FanBridge offers targeted marketing to help you reach the right audience, and increase your likes, gain more fans and more.

So, if you’re interested in gaining fans for life, it’s important that you consider a fully integrated approach. Tools like TopSpin and FanBridge will help!

Tell us what you think: How do you keep track of – and in contact with – your fans?

The SongCast Crew