Michael Minelli cracked the code on how to both use his Group as a focus group, create engagement and hype, and add new revenue - all with almost zero time/work on his end.
Here was the process:
Announce the competition where Group members can submit shirt designs for an official Minelli Family shirt. Now fans can have a shirt that is a symbol of being in the same family (aka Group) that they can wear to shows and easily meet each other.
Fans submit designs using the Discussion Tab in his Group
Minelli did a livestream on Grouped where he went through all the submissions. He did it so the fans could have their camera/mic on (like Zoom) and each person could explain the details of their design.
At the end of the livestream, Minelli had the fans vote on their favorites and he combined their votes with his own preference to pick the top 5.
He then posted an image poll with the 5 options and had the Group members vote on their favorite. The genius in this is that you are basically taking a pre-order by knowing that most people who voted for the design would end up buying it.
The winning design was available to purchase via Print On Demand (so Minelli wasn't required to front any money or ship any product - literally ZERO risk) directly in his Group. The winning design got a lifetime membership, free shirt, and bragging rights for life!
This is just one of many examples where you can create an entire months of content for your Group that takes little time, creates high fan engagement, and leads to more revenue for the artist!