Building Your Fanbase From Scratch (the brutal truth)

I have not been active in here for a long time and there is a lot that I still have not figured out. As oppose to other social media platforms, not many know me here either (yet…). 

At the same time, it is hard to figure out how to make sure that people know that I exist and read and like my stuff…

Before becoming fans, people need to meet you first and that seems to be the hardest part.

SOUNDS FAMILIAR? 

If you became a founder recently probably you are in my shoes.

Since I always prefer the brutal truth to a sugar-coated lie… I do tell the truth most of the time too (and maybe that is why some people don’t like me).

Today I want to talk to you about something that you may not like to hear. Many people prefer not to tell you this. Many people prefer to pretend this is not the case. But I need to tell you this anyway. So you are able to look at things realistically.

So you avoid being disappointed because you had unrealistic expectations.

Here is the truth:

BUILDING A GENUINE COMMUNITY TAKES TIME AND EFFORT!

Of course, all those who advertise the attractive “have quick results” model pretend that it’s not the case. You get “write a book in a day”, “create an online course in a week”, “grow your brand in a month” type of messages all the time. 

There are tons of “growth hackers” who would grow your community from scratch in few weeks with airdrops, FOMO, Hype, paid influencers, etc. And yes, if you are willing to pay (a lot) you will see all those numbers you hoped for… but that’s all those will be - JUST NUMBERS.

And of course, that’s much more attractive route than what I described. It sounds so much better than my “it takes time and work and you have to be persistent and patient” story.

I get that. I totally understand. But nevertheless, I prefer to tell you the bitter truth than the sugar-coated lie.

STORY TIME

I was walking in the city the other day and went to Covent Garden. Usually, there are many different street performances out there – from music to magic tricks and stuff. And since I love watching people I took some time and stuck around for a while. So I ended up seeing how one of the performers, who had the largest crowd gathered around him finished for the day. He said goodbye, gathered his last portion of applause, bowed, packed his stuff and left. Obviously the crowd too, melted out and after few minutes there was no one around.

A few minutes later, a slim guy with long hair came and started setting up his mic and took out his guitar. Now it was his turn to start performing.

So there was this guy all alone with his guitar and mic standing there.

I realized that probably that’s exactly how we look when we are just starting. We have no audience, we have not created anything yet and we get those uncomfortable fear of failure, self-doubt and vulnerability of being judged.

And the people (or in our case the audience) will probably pass by going to watch someone else performing because he already has a big crowd gathered around him, therefore, he must be good, right?

So what happens next?

Yup… the guy starts playing his guitar and singing his song. Did everyone run and gathered around him immediately?

Nope… It took quite a while.

For at least 2 full songs the guy was standing there, singing to no one. All by himself, creating his magic.

He was not noticed yet, he did not have anyone to perform for yet… but he kept playing.

That’s what happens to us too… we build our product, create and share our brand story, share content on socials, etc.… and for weeks/months nothing happens.

We feel like we are talking to ourselves. We feel invisible, unknown, unappreciated. At some point we are like “why the hell am I doing this, no one cares anyway”, right?

So what happened to the guy?

Well after a while few people came and stood to listen, then some more… after one the songs they started clapping, few others paid attention and joined. After a while, he got traction and gathered a pretty decent crowd.

Do you see the parallel?

The guy showed up, took the courage to put himself out there, created his music, persisted even though no one paid attention for a while, kept going on and only AFTER all that, things started moving.

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF HE GAVE UP AFTER SONG 1?

Yup, nothing…

It’s the same with us. 

We have to realize that there are others who do similar things out there already and they probably started way earlier. We have to expect that no one is going to notice us from day 1, that we need to show up consistently until people start gathering around us and that we need to stick around and do our best not to give up even when we think no one cares…

Because honestly…

NO ONE WILL CARE IN THE BEGINNING.

But that’s ok. That’s how things are. Even the person who eventually fell in love with you probably did not care about you at your first encounter.

Building and maintaining good quality relationships take time and effort. And THAT’S what you ultimately need to have – a good quality relationship with your audience.

You will start seeing fans only when you approach community building as a genuine relationship building vs just a transaction (i.e. sales for your business). You need to genuinely care about them first.

So don’t get distracted with all the shiny tools and “marketers” that promise you many followers, users and fanbase without asking you to be part of that and warning you that it won’t be an overnight success story.

THINK LONG TERM AND THINK QUALITY OF RELATIONSHIP INSTEAD.

It’s not about the numbers. Or to be more precise - the numbers are not so straightforward. It is definitely way better to have 1,000 true fans rather than 100,000 followers who don’t give a shit about you and your startup/brand/product, etc.

Oh, and you’d like to help me become visible here – please share this with others!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

How are you growing your fanbase?