Why You Need True Fans (Not Blind Followers)

It’s oh so easy to get caught up in all the hype and emotion around social media fandom.

How many new followers or friends did you get today?

What about retweets, shares, views and likes?

And of course it’s human nature to compare your performance to the others around you.

You might look to the rock stars in your field—how am I doing compared to the big kahunas?

But I’m wiling to bet you’re also comparing your stats to those who are more the all hat/no cattle kind of “expert”.

Ever find yourself scratching your head, wondering how to replicate their social followings?

Here’s the dirty little secret: you don’t.

You play your game, your way.

Because if you’re in the authority business—swapping expertise for money—it’s the true fans you’re building that will drive your revenue.

Not blind social followers.

Let’s unpack that.

A true fan, according to Kevin Kelly’s still-perfect definition is “someone who will buy anything and everything you produce”.

Sweet, right? And the more, the merrier.

So your job as an authority is to build true fans.

Not by catering to blind social followers (think of these as nice folks perhaps, but not the target of your message), but by drawing in your ideal clients and buyers.

By engaging them in ways that mirror the experience of working with you.

Which is why you always want to play your own game in social media.

Sure you want to count metrics—just don’t let them encourage you to water down your message (or your essence) in the pursuit for social approval.

Because really, the right metric is: how many true fans have I attracted or delighted today?

A couple more thoughts on true fans.

One: True fans have a significant and specific value in your business/revenue model.

If you’re not sure what one is worth to you, read this to learn more about it and see a few examples.

Two: There is an almost unlimited way to build true fans. Jonathan Stark and I discuss a few in our recent True Fans episode of our The Business Of Authority podcast. You can listen in here.

Building true fans isn’t easy. You have to work at it consistently and with an almost laser-like focus to avoid distraction from your core message.

But for those of us in the authority business, it’s worth every minute we spend on doing it right.

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