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- Secrets to a Loyal Fan Army.
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In today's episode of Grow Solo Saturday, I'm going to let you in on the secret that helped me build a loyal community of 25,000+ in under 9 months with an average of 100+ comments per post.
My secret? Building a community around Pat Flynn's concept of 'Super fans'.
But why should you care?
Moving your audience from passive followers to super fans is the greatest move you could make to monetize your following.
Pat Flynn's "Super Fans" concept refers to the most loyal and dedicated members of your audience who actively engage with, promote, and support your brand, products, or services.
They go beyond passive consumption and become advocates for your work, helping to grow your community and drive your success.
By moving your audience towards super fandom, you will receive:
- Increased brand loyalty: Super Fans stick with your brand and are less likely to switch to competitors.
- Word-of-mouth marketing: They actively promote your products/services, leading to new customers.
- Higher engagement: Super Fans engage with and share your content, boosting visibility and reach.
- Constructive feedback: They provide valuable input to help improve your products/services.
- Lower marketing costs: Super Fans organically spread awareness, reducing marketing expenses.
- Resilience: They remain loyal even during challenging times, helping your business weather tough periods.
- Higher customer lifetime value: Their long-term support and purchases contribute significantly to revenue.
No brainer.
Unfortunately...most creator-led businesses struggle to build an audience of super fans because they focus on the wrong things.
You treat your audience as followers, not old friends.
You might also:
- Be fixated on making sales. Commission breath kills communities.
- Fail to reply to DMs from your followers.
- Be stingy with your content, reserving your most valuable playbooks for your high tickets.
Fear not, I combed over Pat Flynn’s Super Fans so you don't have to. In today's issue, I will outline the exact process you can use to build a raving audience for your brand/business, even if you have a small following.
After all, Kevin Kelly said in his 1000 fans theory, If 1000 people will spend $100 dollars on your services in a year. That, my friend, is a 6-figure business.
Now, let's get this bag:
Step 1: See the world through your Super Fans' eyes.
Too much content is unfocused and selfish.
Have you ever asked your audience why they follow you?
I'm guessing you haven't.
Riddle me this…
How can you create content for your audience if you have no idea what challenges they face?
Now I regularly ask my audience what challenges they face in:
-Posts
-DMs
-Sales Calls
I hear the same pain points over and over again.
This will be prime material to attract your super fan.
Next, go one step further and look at the language and syntax your desired audience uses in your niche.
Let's take the brand, for example. I hear the same words again and again:
"My Engagement is down"
"I can't generate inbound"
"How do I position my brand"
Once you have spoken to 10+ audience members, keep track of their challenges in a notes doc and the vocabulary they use.
Then your content to attract them looks as simple as our Grow Solo Method formula:
{Audience Pain/Opportunity/Desire} + {Inject yourself as a solution} = Attract Super Fans.
Learn their language and pain points. Keep them hooked.
Be personable. Create vivid content, not walls of text.
Step 2: Break the ice
"The moment that you feel, just possibly, you are walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind, and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself...That is the moment, you might be starting to get it right." - Neil Gaiman
I love this quote from Neil. It highlights how real you have to be to attract your audience of super fans.
Be comfortable sharing personal topics to connect with your audience. You could try content around:
A time you failed
A learning experience within your business
A challenge you faced and overcame
Match your personal stories to the audience challenges you discovered in the first step and the language they use, and you will be in an excellent position to attract your first super fans.
Use unique and interesting titles for blog posts, incorporating your personality. You will see I use this a lot. Yesterday's post, for example:
"Forget Content is King. Reach is power."
Become known for your unique viewpoints on topics and people will soon crave your unique approach to solving their problems.
Step 3: Focus on building meaningful connections.
Super fans don't come from treating your audience like followers… that's the fastest way to turn off loyal super fans.
People crave attention and encouragement. We live in a world where most of the time our greatest traits go unpraised.
Speak to your followers like you would an old friend. Give them a compliment. Stay focused on their problems and their world. People will do anything for the person who will:
"encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies."- Blair Warren, The One Sentence Persuasion Course
Go for meaningful connections over mass appeal.
Making one fan a day would compound to 365 in a year.
In 3 years, you could be at that 1000 super fan golden number, as well as making some awesome creator friends in the process.
Step 4: Create Quick Wins:
Offer quick wins. Host giveaways or challenges—make it easy to win.
Engage.
But what does this look like?
- Reply to comments
- Respond to messages
- Send a "thank you letter" in a voice note- using Li's feature voice feature (powerful rapport builder)
Step 5: Turn active viewers into connected community members
Getting views is easy. Encouraging engagement is harder.
Connected community members comment and share your content.
The translation of this is super simple:
Recently I have experimented with multiple CTAs to drive audience involvement. Here are the top 3:
Use an open-ended question at the end of your posts:
For example:
- "Thoughts?"
- "What did I miss?"
- Try adding a request for a reshare in the first comment of your post.
"Hey, if you got some value, please reshare this with {audience persona} that needs to see this?"
Ask your audience what sort of content they would like to see from you.
The purpose of all these techniques is to encourage audience engagement to take them from being active audience members to a connected community.
Step 5: Give them a name.
Just like Beyonce has her Bey Hive. To nurture your own community of super fans, you need a banner your followers can gather under to help foster a sense of increased connection between you and community members, but also between community members themselves.
People love those who are similar to them. We evolved in tribes. Use this to your advantage and think of a name for your followers.
How do you pick a name?
A play on words
Something catchy
Maybe it's a phrase you hear followers say a lot
Try floating a few names and see if people start to adopt it.
For example: I experimented with a few; I tried "Souls" at first, but that sounded a little esoteric.
I settled on "Soloers." Given the large majority of you guys are Solopreneurs running creator-led businesses.
I'm always open to other suggestions (send me a reply to this email if you think it should be something else).
By naming your potential community, you instantly create a sense of belonging between all of your community members. Belonging is the bedrock of Superfandom.
In summary, to build a community of super fans:
See the world through your Super Fans' eyes.
Break the ice and be genuine.
Build meaningful connections.
Create quick wins.
Turn active viewers into connected community members.
Give your followers a name to foster a sense of belonging.
By following these steps, you'll be on your way to creating a thriving community of loyal super fans, ready to support your brand and help you grow your business.
Remember: it's not just about the numbers but the quality of the connections you make with your audience. Cultivate those relationships and watch your community flourish.
Thought of the day...
When you are ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
Founders: Wanna find out how you can scale your content and turn it into leads? Book a complimentary strategy call here to explore how Grow Solo can help grow your business.
Book a 30 min LinkedIn power hour for a 1-on-1 consulting session here to discover how you can finally turn likes into paying customers.
Peace,
Luke Shalom
