This is gonna get boring before it gets exciting.
There are some hard truths in this post that might sound too basic to be true. “Getting fans is supposed to be like Hungry Hungry Hippos, right? You just grab a bunch!” Nope.
Start from the outside
Many showbizzers look at fan growth from the perspective of the showbizzer. Instead of thinking about increasing your numbers, I hope as long as you read this article, you’ll think about the perspective of a potential fan.
People are fans of what you make
It seems like there are millions of people who love Garth Brooks, but then he releases an album from a different genre and his peeps jump ship. Fans connect with the creators and characters of stuff, but it’s usually through the service of the entertainment. The assumption is the entertainment service is the most authentic expression of the people within.
If you have three fans right now, don’t expect them to follow you anywhere. Remember that they like something that you do. They might all three like three seperate things you do. If so, you might not be able to take them all with you.
Making the first good thing
The people that are able to make a good thing, and stick with it for as long as it takes, are often filling a gap that they see in the world, not just seeing something that’s popular and trying to duplicate it. Scratch your own itch and it’s likely there are other itchy people like you.
This formula doesn’t only enflame your passion, but it helps you create something with a feeling of authenticity and originality. If you’re serving people in a way nobody else is, you’ve got a monopoly!
Fans trust that the next thing you make will serve them again
You’ve seen 12 episodes of “Dinosaur Battles” and you liked them. You are a fan. You will watch episode 13. You trust that the show will deliver either the same thing you liked about the others, or something adjacent to that thing. If suddenly, they have a love story between two cartoon horses, you might lose trust in “Dinosaur Battles” and become a non-fan.
Consistency builds trust.
This can be tricky because sometimes you don’t always know what part of the thing you made is beloved.
Yes there has to be a next thing and a next
You won’t get a fan before they consume a thing you made, so you can’t sell an album to a fan that hasn’t heard your music. They’re not a fan yet. Just because someone clicks ‘follow’ doesn’t mean they’re a fan either. You need trust for them to commit to getting on board with your next project and telling their friends about what you’re doing just based on your name.
This is why you can’t grab a fan. You have to build up the trust.
Then, if you want to sell something to a fan, you do that with the next thing.
Less scatter more scalpel
So, if you believe me that a fan is made of trust, the game isn’t so much about exploding your work out to the world, hoping a percentage of people see it and like it. It’s instead, how do I meet up with the person who is served by my good thing and serve them consistently well?
I do puppet shows for the children of celebrities. How do I make some things they want in line with my puppet shows, get in front of celebrity parents, give them some awesome thing, and then keep on giving them consistent good puppet show content.
More details on small effective fanbases : 1000 true fans
Consistency signalling
A fan can see something they like and have different levels of trust depending on whether they see the thing as a part of a consistent portfolio or not.
Scot Nery’s Boobietrap has a high barrier to entry, so we want people to get the idea that, even though the show is different every week, it serves the same amazing feeling every time. Here are some tricks to that.
- Have a long track record : we announce how many show’s we’ve done.
- Have good reviews : we have 5 stars on review sites like Yelp.
- Have other fans
- Show confidence in what you do
- Don’t give the signal that everything’s made up on the spot
- Mimic qualities that other consistent organizations have
- Express your mission. When people know the core driving force behind a piece, they can imagine that the next piece will also spring from that mission.
Serve individuals
Now, more than ever, we need to think of fans as individual people with individual expectations. Everyone wants a bespoke experience. If you can’t give it (or part of it) to them, they can get it from an algorithm.
Flyer the block
If you have the budget to make 300 flyers for your show, you’re better off putting all 300 up around one city block than around the whole town. The people on that block will see your flier, get impacted by it, read it, and possibly respond to it by buying a ticket or at least looking up the website.
Since this game is about consistently building a relationship of trust with fans, you’re going to have to stop spreading yourself out, and figure out how to fence yourself in to your people so they can see you’re always showing up.
I know I didn’t cover this whole topic, so please ask questions in the comments.