Facebook fans, Twitter friends – what is the point? Today we are going to talk about the importance of developing a dedicated fan base to bring about brand success.
One thousand devoted fans can support your craft and social media can be one of the most effective ways to gather and interact with your true fans. Today, I am talking to creators. I am talking to those that have a product, whether it is music, art, video, books, or anything that you or your organization have created. I am speaking to those that need people to get on board with what they are doing and buy what they are producing. If you are a creator, than you need devoted fans. The Technium has an excellent article about this idea. They state that a creator only “needs to acquire 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”
Building a network of Facebook fans, Twitter fans, blog readers and over all dedicated fans of your brand will require investing time to nurture the fan base. Below are some basic ways to improve your fan base:
Build Your Network
Before you begin anything, start with something. Your mom is destined to be your biggest fan, so recruit her. Begin to build your fan base amongst your friends and family. After that socialize in places where those that are interested in what you are creating are gathering. Comment on blogs (genuine and authentic, please… everyone can see through a shmoozer), join forums, socialize in real life and follow up with people online afterwards.
Give True Fans the Inside Track
Someone needs to keep the conversations with your fans going. Fans want interaction and will become more and more interactive the more they feel connected with you. Don’t be fake; be genuine. If you can’t do it, find someone that can. Give dedicated fans the inside track, a one-up on information. Give dedicated fans an opportunity to see videos first, to view products first, to ultimately have first dibs on information (when appropriate) before others. Fans want to know what’s going on. Tell them. As you let them in on the “inside track” a little bit, you will find that they’ll increase their devotion and will adopt a “personal ownership” of the brand, which generally speaking increases word of mouth as well.
Some ways to use social media to let them in:
- Blog about road trip stories. Don’t shy away from “embarrassing moments” and YouTube videos of random jam sessions or funny interviews.
- Give them a heads up when a major life event is taking place, such as a marriage or a new baby.
- Let them know if you are doing a book signing or something in their city and offer a meet and greet time for your dedicated fans only.
Those are some basic ideas. However, I am confident that as you sit down and brainstorm, you will find ideas that are perfectly tailored to what you are creating that will be the best reward for the dedicated fan.
Give Them a Way to Spread Your Message
Dedicated fans want to spread your message. They talk about your product naturally and often with passion. Give them easy ways to talk about it. If there is national “buzz” on a topic, write about it in your blog. If you have a new video, send them a link that is easy for them to forward on. If you are putting on an event and are working to invite many people, give them an opportunity to invite people, whether it’s through a Facebook event page or another forum. Empower your fans to build your fan base, because they’ll want to.
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Photo Credit: Creative Influence
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hannah,
I had found an interesting article that talked about quality versus quantity in terms of followers and friends. It was the story of a Twitter user who’s follower list skyrocketed to 250K after Twitter put him on the recommended page. In his account, this huge number of followers did not increase his click through rate or number of retweets. He basically referred to the majority of these followers as “lurkers” versus true interacting followers.
Your advice above is spot on for building true community in social media which is important!
Here’s a link to the article: http://venturebeat.com/2009/12/30/anil-dash-twitter/
Derick, That Venture Beat article was fascinating to me! Great link… So interesting to learn that 1,000 true fans are more effective than 27,000 + “fair weather fans”… Nurture that fan base!
Great points Hannah. I was especially intrigued by the “inside track” tip. It’s a really great idea for building up that very loyal core that will spread your most important messages/online events around. To piggyback on what you said, people love to feel like they are “in the club” or part of an exclusive group. The more that you can cultivate that, naturally, the more loyalty you are going to build.