It’s all a game of numbers.
More impressions. More followers. MORE CONTENT! This is the way to, “win” at social media…. or so I thought.
I drove home tossing around ideas on my head on what my next article should be about. “Should I find a popular article, and put a fresh spin on it? Should I dig deep into the recesses or my mind, and pull out some nugget of wisdom to share? Should I simply ask my followers what article would interest them?” Then it hit me… Who exactly am I writing for?
I’m about to spend my evening writing an article for strangers I know nothing about. It’s like hand writing an absolutely brilliant letter, only to let the post office decide who it’s sent to. Maybe they’re cool, and will send to a couple of hundred people, or maybe they’ll just toss it out, and no one will every see it. Who would want to write under those conditions?
Yet that’s the way we’ve structured our content marketing. You’ve got to write, write and write in the hopes that a small fraction of people will see it; a fraction of those will click to read; a fraction of those will read some or all of the article, a fraction of those will share, comment or subscribe, only to miss your next article. It’s a game of numbers, and it’s a stupid game.
1000.
In 2008, Kevin Kelly wrote a legendary article about you can make a living doing anything if you have 1000 true fans. In his own words:
A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.
This is a great strategy for, “makers”; people who sell handmade items on etsy, or musicians who work at Starbucks during the day and play local gigs at night. But is this a viable content marketing strategy for a startup like Swaayed that needs tens of thousands of users to gain meaningful traction? I think it just might.
The Strategy
Looking through the Twitter accounts of some of the best loved brands in the world such as “Marvel” and “Star Wars”, most of their posts have been shared less than 1,000 times, despite having 5.2M and 3.4M followers respectfully.
What if I could get a consistent 500-800 shares per post, with just 1,000 followers. What would I need to do to make that happen?
- Identify who Swaayed’s super fans are
- Build a relationship with each super fan
- Earn a massive amount of trust and good will
- Give them something they want to tell others about
- Ask them to share it for you
Using Swaayed as an Example
Identify who Swaayed’s super fans are:
Swaayed is an influencer marketing platform, therefore our super fans will be influencers who want to monetize their influence. We span all categories and social platforms, so they can really be any blogger, YouTuber or social media enthusiast who is serious about their presence online. I can’t just build a persona of what my super fan looks like though. I need to actually connect with people on an individual level.
I’m going to start by going through Swaayed’s member list by hand. This is my first stop, because I’ve got their contact information. Beyond that, I’d use some influencer ID tools, and would reach out via Twitter and Facebook.
Build a relationship with each super fan:
How do you get to know 1,000 people? Look, it’s not realistic to think that you can engage with 1,000 people very day on a deep, close friendship level on the daily. But that level of engagement isn’t necessary. I think it’s enough if I know who they are, and they know who Swaayed is, and they have a very positive impression of the brand.
When Steve Jobs died, millions of people grieved for him, even though he knew almost none of them personally, and almost none of them truly knew him. What they knew and loved was his work, and through his work they felt as if they connected with him as an individual.
With Swaayed, I want them to have a relationship with the brand through our product. But I, as the content creator writing on behalf of the brand, want to at least recognize their name and avatar, perhaps even their bio. I want to know who they are, because I’m writing to them, and they’re expecting to hear from me.
They’re like a regular walking into their favorite restaurant. The waiter doesn’t need to know their life story, they just need to know their first name, and how they like their eggs.
Earn a massive amount of trust and good will:
This is easier said then done. It begins with giving them something valuable for free. In our case, we built a social media scheduler tool to help them share content on social networks easier. It’s got a visual calendar, plugin and all the fancy features others charge for.
Apologize when things go wrong. Explain why the inconvenience happened, how you fix it, and give them something extra to know that you appreciate their patience.
Be transparent. I want to focus on communicating our vision for the platform, what goals we’re working toward and the problem’s we’re facing. If your fans can help you with a challenge, ask them for help.
Good will is all about putting those true fans first. Focusing on what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.
Give them something they want to tell others about:
Exclusive content. Exciting news. Leaked screen shots of new features. Coupons. Invites to private events. Special deals with partner companies. Positive, uplifting stories. Humorous videos. Free digital downloads.
Today, I’m hoping that this counter-intuitive idea of sharing less content with a smaller, more intimate group will be an idea worth sharing.
Ask them to share it for you:
I’m not going to ask Swaayed’s 1,000 true fans to share everything, but I am going to ask them to share the really good stuff.
Where things usually fall apart is the “ask”. Even simple things, like sharing an article, can become a huge pain if done thousands and thousands of times. It’s like the celebrity who is asked to sign an autograph for the Nth time. If I want my super fan to share content consistently, I need to make it as easy as possible to share.
So, I’m going to build a feature within Swaayed that allows members to import content from any RSS feed into Swaayed for scheduled sharing. Then I’ll add a feature that let’s them auto-share all posts from that RSS feed to their connected social networks. THEN I’ll create a special category on this blog for the “1,000”, so that I’ll have a category specific RSS feed with only my best content. THEN and then, after I’ve earned their trust, after I’ve given them a great tool for free, after I’ve removed the hassle of sharing individual content, will I ask them to give my special RSS feed auto-approval status.
WordPress automatically creates RSS feeds for all categories, tags and authors. Just create a new category in WordPress named 1000, or whatever you want to call it. Then go to https://swaayed.com/category/1000/feed/ where “https://swaayed.com” is your domain and “1000” is your category name.
This is the power of reciprocity at work. I’m going to give, give, give with no expectation of getting anything in return. Then, when the time is right, I’ll politely ask for them to do this one thing for me, being very clear that I won’t abuse the privilege of posting to their account.
The Plan is in Motion
I don’t need 5 Million followers to get my content shared. I need just 1,000 Swaayed members who like the product, find my content worthy of sharing, appreciate the free tool and trust me enough to auto-approve a very special RSS feed with content just for them.
With 1,000 people constantly sharing my best content, we’ll have a strong content marketing program in no time.
What about you?
Chances are you don’t own a content sharing platform like Swaayed. That’s ok. You can still copy 90% of the above strategy for yourself. Just ask them to join an email list, and deliver that great content via email with strong call to actions on the sharing links. If they use Swaayed, or a tool like it, you can ask them to add your special RSS feed as well.