Music festivals attract millions of people. From Woodstock to Coachella, fans come from all over the world to see their favorite artists perform and create unforgettable memories with friends. From a festival’s perspective, how do they get fans to come back each year? Is it the music? Is it the user experience? In 2014 a group of researchers, led by Simon Hudson, found that when festival brands have strong engagement on social media with fans, it can lead to not only an emotional attachment towards the actual in-person experience, but also towards the brand itself online. The findings were published in the journal Tourism Management. From that research, here are three ways festivals create a loyal fan base through social media.

1. Engagement

First of all, music festivals are brands. Look at Electric Daisy Carnival’s Instagram page. Their festival captures a sense of color, vibrancy and EDM music. It basically screams Vegas. While fans might go to a festival’s page to see the current lineup, they should also see re-cap photos from last year of people dancing, groups of friends laughing, couples holding hands, etc. FOMO creates attendance, but engagement creates loyalty. Hudson’s research says that a brand should become an active partner to consumers. When fans interact with brands, they can develop active relationships with those brands like people can with friends. For example, check out this post below from Firefly Music Festival. Not only did they post some UGC (user-generated content), but they also engaged with people who commented on the photo. In 2018, researchers Roma and Aloini found that UGC content changes across different social media platforms and has become a central role in developing social interactions, online word-of-mouth and brand relationships. Their findings were published in the Journal of Business Research. Festivals should take this into account when posting across different platforms.

2. Lovemarks

According to Kevin Roberts, former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, current chairman of Beattie and author of Lovemarks, in order to connect emotionally with consumers, brands need to evolve into “lovemarks.” A lovemark is a super-evolved brand that maximizes their connection with consumers by creating strong emotional bonds. This bond will create loyalty, which causes fans to recommend that brand. A festival’s social media page is a lovemark itself. It doesn’t have a physical product to attract emotions towards; it has an experience to market. Like Hudson’s research says, “Social media interactions with music festival brands affect how fans think and feel about those brands, creating a desired marketing outcome.” When Hudson and his team conducted a survey of 423 participants, the findings showed that social media interactions lead to high levels of emotional engagement. Stories sell, and so do experiences.

3. Loyal Followers

An article from Forbes titled Social Media Is Increasing Brand Engagement And Sales says, “1 in 4 users are following brands on social media from which they might make a purchase.” Hudson’s research also says that the likelihood for individuals to buy/recommend a product increases after they follow a brand via social media. It’s one thing to just visit Coachella’s Instagram, it’s another thing to follow them. While posting consistently and engaging with fans is encouraged, brands must be careful not to overload users with too much content. An overload of information can cause a brand to lose followers.

While this research focused soley on brand engagement with music festivals, it can be applied to any field that uses social media. Does social media engagement impact your decision to attend a music festival? Do you follow any festivals on Instagram or Twitter? Or are you just more concerned with who’s on the lineup? (If Billie Eilish is there, count me in!) Comment below and let me know your thoughts!