My incredibly talented, beautiful, and captivating clients have brought together millions of people across so many channels: social media, email, Discord, Substack, self-owned memberships, live events (online and in real life), printed books, and more. Followers become fans and then the hope is that those fans becomes friends. I’ve written about it before but since I took two months off from writing…quick recap:
Photo below for quick reference but basically what I believe is that something is the center. If you’re someone trying to grow a fandom or are wondering what to do with your fandom, you’re the center.
You’ve got lore. You’ve got ways to share it (channels). You build the world. The world is spinning. You’ve got gravitational pull. And someone gets pulled in, there are signs that they are a fan of yours, they start to spend the most precious asset of all (TIME) interacting within your world, and if you have a REALLY strong fandom…
THE FANS HANG OUT WITH EACH OTHER.
Okay so now we’re up to speed and caught up. This email is about how you threw this party for you. But not you have to start throwing the party for them.
Thriving fandoms depend on people who:
Take initiative (we love lurkers but we can’t only have them)
Ask thoughtful questions (they actually raise their hand or push publish)
Introduce new topics (“hey everyone, let me switch gears here”)
Plan events (pre-gaming, doing things without you)
Help others bond (wow, the ultimate fan!!!)
Early on, you need to identify and empower people who can take on more responsibility. You got the fire going with your spark but it cannot continue on with only you.
In my next post, I’ll be sharing a bit more about how people might be welcomed into your fandom/orbit/party. Thanks for reading! Forward or share with someone who might need it.
I think charli would approve of this graphic that I made in 3 minutes!
