In 2008 Kevin Kelly wrote an essay on his blog. The essay was based on the premise that if you found 1,000 true fans, you could earn a reasonable living off of those fans. He defined a true fan as someone who was so committed to your work they would provide you with $100 worth of profit every year. His math would give you $100,000 income each year. Not a bad base.
The creative would need to connect with and communicate directly with those true fans. Would need to build community to keep their enthusiasm as brand evangelists stoked. Those true fans would then spread the word to regular fans who would also buy products and you’d grow even more.
He’s talking about building a brand on the long tail. The big tech companies like Amazon realized early on that the sales of all the low selling products combined equalled the total sales of the top sellers. When the sales were displayed graphically, the tail of low selling products were equal to the head of the top sellers.
It’s why algorithms and discovery engines were programed into existence. Not finding a way to churn up products in the low selling part of the graph was leaving money on the table. A lot of money.
I saw a similar demonstration from Seth Godin in a video on YouTube. He was showing a graph of the products within an industry. I think he was using the shoe industry but doesn’t really matter, it applies to most. His display was a bell graph showing the top selling products in the peak of the bell and much smaller sales toward the outer reaches.
He pointed to the outer reaches and asked his audience why they would try to jump to the top of the peak when there is a small under served market out on the edges. A market that if you give them what they are seeking delivered with quality, they will buy. A hungry market.
That’s the principle between the 1,000 true fans. You’re not going to just go out and find 1,000 true fans. You’re also not going to go flying to the top of the peak and sell to millions. Not in the beginning.
Ever heard the saying, “there is nothing new under the sun”? There is a world of truth in that statement. There are millions of people writing on millions of topics. Even as I write this post, there is someone, some where, talking about true fans or long tail.
So why would I bother?
Why not just find that post and send you there?
Because you are have found me, why would I send you away?
What I’m saying is no less important than what the other guy is writing. I’m not him and he’s not me. What I’m saying is different, even using the same facts. My perspective will vary. The way I describe the topic will be different.
Everyone one of my readers is different and will view my words differently.
You don’t have to do something new and different to build a following of fans. You need to deliver your products and provide value that matters to those fans. The more value you deliver the more loyal those fans will be.
As we enter the creative economy of Web 3.0, we need to be thinking about what we are wanting to build and the value proposition we want to deliver. Once we know where we’re heading, then we can figure out how to build our fan base.
I’ve known for many years I wanted to produce books. It was in the last couple of years I narrowed that down to wanting to produce books where my creativity could be used. Books like colouring books, journals, notebooks etc. My creativity gets called into play on the contents and the covers.
Doing them challenges me to improve my creativity so I can deliver more to my customers. My next challenge is to start building the circle of true fans around me. I’ll share with you as I explore that challenge.
Are you building your true fans circle?
SOURCES:
