Building a fanbase

There would be so many nights liverpool football club would have crashed and burned if their 12th man (the fans) had failed to turn up and it is no different for any successful start-up. If Apple today loses half it’s fans cum patronizers to say Microsoft, they would be out of business. The importance of a fanbase is one that can’t be completely put into words, but you better roll up your sleeves and start building.

When you are building a start-up, your idea is to come up with a product or service that people will like. Customer trust is important to your success but you must earn it. It ultimately starts out by gaining fans.

A fan is anyone who likes a particular entity. They might not necessarily patronize you, but there’s something about your swagger that revs their engines. I am not necessarily an Apple guy, but i like their products…just like i am not a ‘customer’ of the samba boys of brazil even though I am a big fan of how Kaka’s sublime touches frees the driveway for Robinho to humiliate the opposing goalkeeper. There is a difference between a fan and a customer but often times, fans turn into customer.

Building a fanbase is not necessarily an easy thing for a rookie entrepreneur, it is hard and often frustrating. It requires you to be on top of your game,  it will make you sweat, cry, smile but in the end if it is well done, you will reap the benefits.

There’s the general belief that one can just sign up for a google adwords accout, pay a few quid for facebook ads and you’ll get customers. Yes, well maybe sometimes. They are actually just traffic that (lucky for you) turned into customers. Will they come back? will they bring other people with them when they come back? these are questions you must ask yourself…hence why you need a fanbase, people that will come back, that will tell others about you and often times become hardened-customers.

I have found that most times RSS, email lists, social media groups (digg, stumble upon) are a great way to win fans but often times people never pay attention to the power of a blog. A blog can win you a huge amount of fans if it is well written and maintained. I recently heard the story of a law firm in NYC that hired a media consultant ( a friend of mine), whose job was primarily to win more customers for them by harnessing the power of the internet. He quickly built a blog and started writing posts about the firms niche. In 3 months he had built a fanbase…about 700 subscribers around the nation. The customers came pouring in for the law firm.

If you are looking for the best way for your own startup to build a following, you might need to specifically see a consultant but several ways that have worked for me and people i know include:

1.) sponsoring events where the patronizers are in your target market

2.) discounts might me your startup takes longer to get profitable but trust me it works

3.) constantly have giveaways. Hold raffles for your few patronizers and they will bring more fans

4.) Get on twitter, make friends and tweet. sounds so easy but it’s a great way to promote your self.

There are several other ways to build a fanbase, just make sure you think carefully about which one will benefit your niche.