The limitless world is not the place to find your fanbase. The easiest way is to connect with a tribe.
Advertising is expensive
The way advertising works is saturation. You repeat a connection with an audience until they start to trust your offer. So, advertising to everyone is very expensive for a few reasons.
- If you could get the message to the world – like i don’t mean make it available to the world by putting it on MySpace, but by really getting it in their attention – one time would not be enough
- The companies that own peoples’ attention charge for it
- You need to make advertising that speaks to the needs of people directly and people are different
- You need to make advertising that clearly communicates your offer
- You need to make advertising that deserves attention
- No matter what you’re offering – even if it’s Coke- it’s probably not for most people.
When I say expensive, I’m not just talking about cash. I’m talking about all your jellybeans. When I’m talking about advertising, I’m talking about everything you do to find new fans.
A tribe is small
A tribe is a collection of people who gather and talk, who have a similar set of interests. Having a small group of people takes the expense out because you know where to find them, you know the message, and you can saturate the same people with your message.
The original tribe is locals
That’s people who live in the same geographic area. With the internet, tribes can get really weird. You could target the tribe of people who dress up hamsters as drag queens and probably still have an audience.
Serve that tribe
If you serve enough people from the tribe of your chosing, you will have a fanbase. Then, you can serve and reserve them as fans and have them buy into the things you offer.
A tribe is not just people that are similar
Don’t shoot for “people that are happy” or “people who want inspiration” because you need a gathering place to reach out them.