One final thought: FANS can be fickle. Every week in football, there’s a team that’s booed mercilessly off the field. Often, those aren’t their enemies booing; those are their FANS. The double-edged sword of FANS is that they can turn on you just as quickly as they support you.
This is the risk you run when you chose to aggregate your FANS online. You are creating a public environment to share your successes just as easily as your failures. If your company doesn’t have the stomach to deal with the inevitable emotional ups and downs of passionate FANS, then it may be best to avoid building your FAN audiences online altogether.
But those who do take the risk and weather the occasional crisis will reap one of the unexpected benefits of FAN audiences: free customer service.
Serenity Now: When FANS Attack
As an online purveyor of “stuff for smart masses,” it’s no surprise that online retailer ThinkGeek (@ThinkGeek) has over half a million Facebook FANS. When you sell hard-to-find items like bacon wallets, Chewbacca robes, and canned “unicorn meat,” you tend to inspire deep loyalty from people with humorous sensibilities.
But all was not fun and games in April 2013 when ThinkGeek found itself the subject of sudden FAN outrage regarding a single product called Jayne’s Hat.13 The hat, a licensed version of one worn by tough-guy character Jayne Cobb on the short-lived, 20th Century Fox TV (@20CenturyFoxTV) series Firefly, was not unlike versions knitters had been selling on their own for a decade.
So, when unlicensed Jayne Hat knitters started getting cease and desist letters from 20th Century Fox in early 2013, many jumped to the false conclusion that ThinkGeek had something to do with it. The negative Facebook posts and tweets started rolling in, criticizing ThinkGeek for putting profits over FANS.
Fortunately, however, ThinkGeek had the facts—and its FANS—on its side. The company quickly clarified the situation on its blog and announced that all proceeds from sales of its Jayne Hat would go to benefit Equality Now (@EqualityNow), the preferred charity of Firefly FAN organization Can’t Stop the Serenity (@CSTS).14
In the end, ThinkGeek found its serenity thanks to its FANS who helped the company combat misinformation in the marketplace and amplify their shared dislike of the license owner’s actions.
FANS Serving FANS
When my team recently examined how the fastest-growing U.S. retailers interact with FANS online, we discovered something interesting. Fifty-one percent of the time, FANS answered questions on company Facebook pages before the company itself did.15 That’s right, engaged FANS voluntarily become an extension of your customer service department.
FANS can also play a critical role in PR and crisis management. When your brand is attacked—be it by outside critics, misinformed AMPLIFIERS, or angry CUSTOMERS—FANS will often rally to the defense of your brand on Facebook. They do so to correct perceived wrongs and to protect your brand. Unbound by rules, regulations, or lawyers, FANS can tell someone they’re wrong to their face without worrying about the PR implications. They are your social white blood cells that help fight those who want to infect your brand with negativity. Accordingly, your company needs to build FANS online for defensive purposes as well as offensive purposes. In so doing, you capture their full potential.
To summarize, consumers join your FAN audiences to:
Express their passion for your brand.
Connect with like-minded individuals.
Derive benefits from their fandom.
Protect your brand when needed.
Now let’s take a look at an audience that loves first-to-know information—as well as the prestige that comes with sharing it with others.
FOLLOWERS
In the pre-Internet world, a FOLLOWER had a pretty simple definition:
An adherent or devotee of a particular person, cause, or activity.
Yet when I ask people to give me examples of pre-Internet FOLLOWERS during my presentations, the answers don’t flow so freely. Someone will whisper, “Disciples.” Then someone with a bit more gumption will say, “Voters.” And finally, the comedian of the bunch will yell, “Cult members!” or “Stalkers!” The laughter that usually greets those last answers points to a certain awkwardness many people have about the whole notion of “following.” Perhaps it is today’s Type A personality–driven culture or our desire to be in control, but many people don’t want to be considered FOLLOWERS so much as leaders.
What FOLLOWERS Want
The key attribute of FOLLOWERS is that they’re seeking curated information, straight from the source, and they often want the social prestige that comes from sharing it. FOLLOWERS may or may not have a passionate relationship with your brand; information is their currency. This not to say that FOLLOWERS can’t be passionate; just look at the tweets from Justin Bieber’s (@JustinBieber) rabid Twitter FOLLOWERS. But by and large, FOLLOWERS are there to be the first to know information from the companies, events, organizations, people, and teams that interest them.