Arts Views with Thabani H Moyo
SINCE the opening of nominations for 2021 Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards social media went on buzz with artistes soliciting nominations from their fans and the public.
Soliciting is to canvas or to campaign for being nominated for a particular award. Most of the artists that have gone on the campaign trail to be nominated are newcomers who are seeking to make a mark in the creative industry.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with soliciting to be nominated for the BAAs, who doesn’t want to be part of one of Bulawayo’s premiere events? We all do.
In an age where artistes and their fans interact electronically the practice of soliciting votes through social media has a decisive role to play when artistes need to win support from their fans and followers. Solicitation sounds simple, it involves a team of people on the phone sharing information about what the nomination is about and trying to convince followers to follow a link as an exercise ‘their right to nominate.’ However the solicitation has to be done right the first time, no one wants to waste the opportunity.
Soliciting nominations can be thrilling and exciting in the beginning before the final nomination happens. The middle, however, is where campaign teams must draw together to keep fans and followers engaged about their artist candidates and their platforms. Artistes who want to be nominated must hold events or must be part of ongoing events. Venues full of enthusiastic followers are feeding off of their excitement, showing the rest of the world what kind of following an artist has. Artistes need to get creative with the kind of events they are holding or engaging in. This might grow their following
By now, every artiste know the power social media has to make or break their career and chances of being recognised and hence nominated. If an artiste is not leveraging it effectively, they are hurting their long-term chances of winning the race in the awards. To keep fans and followers excited about their campaign and works, they must reach out to them on multiple social media platforms. Artistes should now be used to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and more platforms to reach out to many followers and a larger populations.
Fans don’t want to hear the same old talk, especially online. This is why artistes need to get innovative with how they interact with followers through social media. Create campaigns, games, challenges and other fun ideas to draw followers in and keep them coming back. If artistes want to get followers excited, they need to make their solicitations different from all others. Otherwise people will grow weary and bored with the same monotonous messages that artistes are offering them.
It is essential that artistes who wish to be on the nomination list conduct “exclusive” one-on-one interviews with reporters and appear on different platforms and radio programs to get the word out about their works and its uniqueness. It is also wise to embrace non-traditional media coverage to keep followers interested in what the artiste do. Last but not least artistes need to pay attention to what the fans want.
BAAs nominations close on the 30th of September 2021. Best soliciting for nominations to all aspiring nominees for 2021. But don’t forget what counts above everything else is the quality of the work you produced in the past 12 months.
