The Path To Success As A Content Creator: Building Up Your True Fans
from the they'll-pay-for-value dept
Here's a story that follows nicely on our recent post about Trent Reznor quickly selling out his $300 "Ultra-Deluxe" limited edition offering on his new album. As we noted, just because Nine Inch Nails is a recognized act, it doesn't mean that smaller acts can't learn from it as well. Helping to underscore that point is yet another thought piece from Kevin Kelly, talking about the concept of 1000 True Fans. The idea is pretty straight forward: if you want to become a successful content creator, what you really need is 1000 True Fans. In Kelly's estimation, that's the cutoff point where a content creator can make a living. His definition of a True Fan is:
Someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.That appears to be exactly what Reznor has (though, clearly he has a lot more than 1000 at this point). But Kelly then discusses just what you need to do to build up 1000 True Fans. You need to connect with them directly. That means communicating with them. Having a blog, a social network profile, a Twitter account -- whatever. And then using all of them to really connect with the fans. Give out your early content so more and more people have access to it and are more likely to become True Fans. As Kelly points out, for each of the True Fans will be surrounded by Lesser Fans -- some of whom may purchase goods from you, some of whom may not. Some may become True Fans over time and others may not -- but the more True Fans you have, the more True Fans you're likely to gain over time. There's a network effect here. You build up those True Fans and then you give them reasonable reasons to spend money to support you. It's not about gouging them, but offering them something (scarce) of value that they're perfectly willing to pay for.
It's an excellent framework for any content creator getting started. Certainly, you may not be able to build up enough True Fans if the content isn't good enough (or unique enough, in some cases), but you're certainly unlikely to be able to build up those True Fans from scratch by keeping your content locked up and hoping that someone important "discovers" you and makes you a star.
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Compare with QuidMusic by Crosbie Fitch on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 8:10am
QuidMusic is a site that aims to let true fans sponsor their musicians.
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i agree by miles on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 8:32am
I could not agree more with this post! I wish everone thought this way!
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by Anonymous Coward on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 8:58am
True fans or stalkers?
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Nice post by TheDock22 on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 9:20am
This is 100% true. And with this model at least startup bands have a chance at trying stuff out to build up their true fans rather than a Recording label dropping them if the 1st cd doesn't sell.
I know I buy stuff from my favorite band all the time. Tickets, shirts, blankets, all their cds (35 at this point in time I think, although more are coming out).
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Re: by Jonathon on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 9:55am
Funny, but still a good question? At what point do these "True Fans" become too infatuated and its unhealthy?
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by Anonymous Coward on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 9:57am
Just look at the American Idol blog that you love to hate: http://www.votefortheworst.com Hilarious!
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True Fans? by Mikedd on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 10:22am
Like Jonathon - does this encourage stalkers? Is there formula to convert your stalkers to True Fans?
Seriously, how many Lesser Fans equal one True Fan? Is there a healthy ratio?
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This is true, but twitter isn't the way you do it. by Alexander Fairley on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 10:26am
Trent Reznor doesn't have lots of true fans because he spends much time on Twitter or facebook. He has lots of true fans because he composes daring, meaningful music that speaks to people in ways that other artists don't.
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Re: This is true, but twitter isn't the way you do by Paul on Mar 5th, 2008 @ 12:32pm
Good point. Reznor had hardcore fans before the term "blog" was even coined.
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