🔦Community Spotlight
​
- ​The Shift is a newsletter for creative entrepreneurs. Subscribe for stories, strategies, and experiments to help you build, grow, and thrive 🌟
- Discover the guiding principles of extraordinary individuals and unlock the wisdom of legends, with Principles Friday—a weekly dose of inspiration from iconic minds, such as Michael Jordan, Nelson Mandela, Jeff Bezos, and other famous people.
- Improve your podcast production process by seeing how the pros do it. In-depth breakdowns, actionable advice. Subscribe to Podcast Workflows.​​​
​
💡 Want your name here? Scroll to the bottom of this email to find your referral link & start referring people to Ideas to Power Your Future!
“99% of people don’t know this: raccoons cannot fly helicopters.”
Popular creators and companies can get away with bland, common-knowledge content like this.
Have you ever wondered why? Why do you have to bend over backward to create original content and make it look pretty only to get 1% of the engagement or enthusiasm popular brands get on mediocre stuff?
It’s because they run a fanocracy.
Metallica’s St. Anger album was…less than stellar. Fans still bought it anyway, along with merchandise and concert tickets. Because they were fans, not mere clients.
Similarly, Apple can get away with one or two meh products. Apple fans are still going to line up in front of the store when a new iPhone is released.
This is fanocracy 101: fans rarely ditch the brands they love. Clients do so more often.
What the heck is a fanocracy?
Fanocracy is a term coined by David Meerman Scott, who also wrote the book on it. While it may sound like yet another marketing buzzword, it makes perfect sense to explore it given how the way in which customers interact with businesses has changed lately.
A fanocracy is “an organization that inspires extreme passion for product, brand, or idea by putting customers’ needs and wishes at the center of ever it does.”
The bare bones of fanocracy according to David Meerman Scott, are:
- Something you’re very passionate about
- Something that makes you extremely happy
- Something you’re eager to replicate again and again
- Something that your friends or family do too
- Something that you devote significant time/money to
A few examples: Harry Potter, Wendy’s, Apple, Taylor Swift, Game of Thrones.
[Side note: why Taylor Swift and not all popular musicians? Because a huge part of Taylor Swift’s empire is built on her business acumen, not on her musical prowess. There are very, very few celebrity-led brands that have this kind of pull.]
In the creator economy, you may have heard of Mr. Beast, Sahil Bloom, Justin Welsh, or Katelyn Bourgoin.
What do all these brands have in common? They turn customers into fans and fans into customers.
Common marketing wisdom says that you can only turn buyers into brand advocates. In fanocracies, this is no longer a pre-requisite. A lot of fans advocate for a brand long before they buy its products.
Any business in any industry can build a fanocracy. Let’s see how.
Psst, my subscribers read this before you did. Want to be the first to see analyses and roadmaps like this one? Subscribe to Ideas to Power Your Future and get them in your inbox every Thursday.
How do you build a fanocracy
First off, let go of the common misconception that you need to be an influencer, an artist, or a Fortune 500 company to build a fanocracy. The only pre-requisite is being human.
Show your human side
Elon Musk has more followers than Tesla and Space X.
Tim Cook has more followers than Apple.
​
For nearly every business that built a fandom, you’ll see a human who’s more followed than the brand itself (unless the human is the brand).
In a world of generic “we are pleased to launch our revolutionary, best-in-class app”, people crave human connection and humanspeak.
They want to know the humans behind any business — what motivates them, what inspires them, heck, even what is their morning drink of choice.
Running a traditional business? The owner needs to become more visible.
Running a solo business? You need to talk about yourself too, not just about your business.
Passion breeds passion — talk about yours
What are you passionate about, other than your business? Music? Sports? Hiking? Cooking?
Talk about that too. You’ll find people who share your exact passion but, more importantly, passion is attractive.
Whether they share your passion or not, your audience loves seeing you talk about the small (or big) pleasures in your life. It’s inspirational and it reminds them to focus on their hobbies more.
Increase proximity
Connect to your audience via multiple formats: written content, video, audio, and in-person as often as possible.
Think about the original fanocracies, those built around musicians. Sure, the fans bought their albums but the real connection happened when they attended concerts. Getting to see the artist in person and sharing a venue with them builds a different kind of connection.
While you may not be able to meet your audience in person, you can reach them via different formats. It’s important that they read what you write, but also that they see your face and hear your voice. It will make them feel closer to you.
Offer something for free, WITHOUT asking for anything in return (reciprocity 101)
Think back to when you received a gift — you experienced warm feelings about its giver, didn’t you? You may have even wanted to give them something back — and you usually did, perhaps a hug and a heartfelt “thank you”?
This is reciprocity 101, a strong psychological lever made popular by Robert Cialdini’s Influence.
According to Cialdini, when someone does something nice for you, you want to reciprocate. When servers bring the check without a mint, the patrons will tip according to how they feel about the service. When they bring a mint, the tip jumps by 3.3%. Generous enough to give two mints? 20% extra tip!
In B2B, the most common gift you can give is free content (but make it good!). If the readers feel like they learned something from you, they will feel the need to reciprocate.
This newsletter is a good example: you can learn from it, even write back to me to ask for extra clarifications (I answer every email!). I don’t ask for anything in return but that doesn’t mean I don’t get anything:
- Every reply keeps me going because I know what I write is useful to you.
- Your feedback helps me create better content and better products.
- My free content sets the scene and builds trust in my paid products.
Reward your most loyal audience members
In fanocracies, not all fans are alike, just like not all clients are alike in any type of business. The most active of them will bring new fans on board and they will spend the most on what you’re selling.
Identify those people and make them feel like royalty. Discounts, freebies, even a social media comment are always appreciated.
For me, email subscribers (like YOU, thank you for being here!) are always > than everyone else. This is why:
- You get first dibs on everything I publish. I could make every issue of IPF public with a single button push but I choose to do it manually, on Fridays, so you see it before anyone else.
- You’re the first to know about new product launches, at least 24 hours before anyone else.
- My discounts are never available to social media followers or publicly in the newsletter archive. Only you have access to them.
- If you refer subscribers to Ideas to Power Your Future (your referral link is at the bottom of this email, feel free to use it) or if you promote my newsletter in yours, you get featured at the top of every email in the Community Spotlight section.
You can foster the sense of belonging to a community by:
- Answering comments or social media posts that mention you.
- Thank people who share your work.
- Support your best supporters.
I know, it takes time and it can feel overwhelming. But, if you already have a decent-sized community, thanking someone or supporting them can literally change their lives — or at least their day. I was over the moon whenever someone I looked up to gave me the time of day.
Foster communication between the members of your community
Fanocracies aren’t bi-directional relationships; they’re multi-directional.
Just like there are forums for Apple fans or Metallica fans, your audience members need to talk to each other.
The products themselves are great but what truly matters is the relationship the fans build with their peers who are into the same things. If you see members of your community talking to each other (on your wall, in comments under one of your posts, for instance), you know you have something there. You have the makings of a fanocracy.
Social proof is your best friend
This is the biggest lever you can pull to build a fanocracy.
The most reviewed restaurant on TripAdvisor is always full
The newest iPhone model gets people lining up in front of the store because they know their peers want it too
Swifties spend insane amounts on merch because wearing them will make them feel like they belong to a club, to a fandom of peers.
Every testimonial you publish has the chance to reach someone who can relate to its author. They look alike, they speak alike, they share a pain point. Plus, when you see SO many people raving about a product or a brand, you HAVE to see why. You’ll join the tribe too.
​Gather, collect, and use as much social proof as you can.​
Vanity metrics aren’t just for the vain
“We don’t need followers, we need customers.”
“I don’t care about vanity metrics, I care about money in the bank.”
“Likes and comments don’t pay the bills. Neither does traffic.”
All of these are true. But you need the vanity metrics.
Attention clusters where it finds attention clusters.
You can’t find your “true 1000 fans” if you don’t have 10K people engaged with your content.
Again, this is the reason why big brands get away with mediocre content and products. People will strive to find meaning in the blandest of phrases because they trust not just its author but the hundreds of thousands or millions of other fans.
Use the mere exposure effect to your advantage
The mere exposure effect states that the more we are exposed to a person, a brand, or a product, the more likely we are to nurture positive feelings toward it. We favor the things we are familiar with.
To fully leverage this effect, ask yourself this: how much content can you produce and on how many platforms without significantly diluting its quality?
[Here are 20 marketing channels you can try.]
The more people see you, the more they will like you.
Plus, cookies and algorithms work in your favor.
For instance, if someone engages with a post of yours on LinkedIn or reads something on your website, then opens YouTube, they will be greeted by one of your videos.
Why?
Because cookies and other forms of tracking remember that that person liked your content. So they’re gonna feed them more of it.
Limitations of fanocracies and things to be wary of
When you have a critical mass of fans, it feels like you can’t go wrong. It’s a lovely feeling, I’m sure.
You’ve seen it in action:
Apple exploits workers in China? → “Sure, but I still won’t give up my iPhone.” Or “those people would be worse off without the Apple factories”.
JK Rowling tweets against the trans community? → “She’s not hateful, she’s just expressing her views”.
Taylor Swift is accused of fatphobia? → “She’s just describing her own body image issues.”
These are all real controversies. All of these people and products are still popular thanks to their fanocracies.
But (and this is a big BUT), this doesn’t mean you can do anything you please. Cancel culture is alive and well.
Kevin Spacey won his trial for sexual abuse. But before that trial was over, he lost nearly everything — most notably, his career.
One misstep can be enough to demolish everything you built. In some cases, you can bounce back. In others, you’ll have to find a new career.
So, be careful about what you say. If you’ve been reading IPF for a while, you know I encourage you to stand for what you believe in and AGAINST what you utterly dislike.
However, moderation and caution are always required. Be careful who you associate with and how your values can pass the test of time or not.
Don’t be(come) a jerk
Fanocracies build strong, future-proof businesses, but also…jerks. Most people who lead fanocracies have been accused of being arrogant, haughty, or downright jerks at least once.
In a way, it comes with the territory. After a certain point, you simply can’t keep up with the demand for a bit of your time and it gets far too easy to be labeled an arrogant prick.
However, it’s also very easy to become an arrogant prick who gets high on their own supply. When you see that it gets harder to accept an opinion that contradicts your own or when you feel like people are just numbers (yay, 2k extra fans today, don’t even care who they are!), STOP!
You’re on your way to extreme prickness. Stop and re-evaluate your attitude. If you don’t care about your public per se, remember that without them, you have nothing. So re-adjust your attitude until you become an approachable, relatable human being again.
That’s it from me today!
See you next Thursday in your inbox!
Here to make you think,
Adriana
P.S.: I’m launching a new product on September 11, a customizable marketing strategy roadmap you can use to future-proof your business. It will have all the bells and whistles and, more importantly, guidance at every step, every section, every box you need to fill in. I’ll keep you posted and, as always, you’ll be the first to learn about it.
Adriana’s Picks
- Curious how the creator economy is faring? Check out Convert Kit’s State of the Creator Economy report. The most surprising find: bloggers still make up a decent chunk of creators.
- Apple fan? You’re gonna love this visual history of the iMac in honor of its 25th birthday.
- Microsoft leads the AI race. If you’ve seen the recent earnings report call, you surely haven’t forgotten Satya Nadella’s huge grin while bragging about it.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Need me in your corner? There are three ways I can help you:
- Get my product launch email templates that sell: 5+1 emails you can send to your list in 45 seconds.
- Book a 1:1 strategy session with me. Let’s unlock your growth in 60 mins!
- Get content or copy that converts AND ranks. My digital marketing agency is here.
