AUDIENCE(4)

While not owned, audiences can be proprietary in that the right to communicate with them belongs to a single entity. To better understand this distinction, let’s take a look at someone who’s not quite as famous as Bruce Springsteen but commands a loyal FAN base today, Joel McHale (@JoelMcHale).

For those unfamiliar with Joel, he’s a talented actor, comedian, and “Proud Mom” according to his Twitter profile. In reality, he’s one of the hardest-working men in show business, with a starring role on NBC’s Community, a long-standing role as host of The Soup on E! Entertainment Television, and a lucrative stand-up career built in part on making fun of Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest). Joel and each of his shows have an active presence on Twitter, and as I write this, their FOLLOWER counts stand at:

3,272,374 @JoelMcHale

241,996 @TheSoup

234,997 @NBCCommunity



No audience is owned; members can leave at any time they want.



You read that right. Joel McHale has over 13 times more Twitter FOLLOWERS than each of his shows. In fact, as I write this, he also has over 11 times the Twitter audience of the NBC Network itself (@NBC—364,945 FOLLOWERS)! “Must See TV” has definitely seen better days.

But here’s the twist: Not one of those FOLLOWERS is owned by Joel. He must work to retain their attention with each new tweet. Still, Joel’s Twitter FOLLOWERS are his proprietary audience in that he is the only person that can message them in the aggregate. E! and NBC can’t. They can message their own FOLLOWERS; but to reach Joel’s, they must ask (or pay) him to message them.

As it turns out, Joel does encourage his Twitter FOLLOWERS to watch both of his shows. This is of tremendous benefit to NBC and E! as it extends their promotional efforts for zero cost. Similarly, Joel has to love it when NBC and E!’s main accounts (@NBC and @Eonline, respectively) include his Twitter handle (@JoelMcHale) in their promotions. This helps him build his Twitter following—an asset that he will take with him long after he departs from Community and The Soup.

Audience Exercise #1: Check Yourself

If you want to understand audiences as assets, look no further than your own behavior.

Write down the brands you currently like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or elsewhere. Now check your personal inbox. What brands did you give permission to send email to you? Which ones do you still look forward to? If you have a smartphone, pick it up and browse your open apps. How many are provided by companies you do business with?

Now ask yourself this: Is your company doing all it can to build its proprietary audience across these channels?



Twitter definitely provides Joel with his largest proprietary audience, but it’s not the only one that he commands. He also has a website audience (www.joelmchale.tv), a Facebook FAN audience (www.facebook.com/joelmchale), and a live audience of CUSTOMERS when he headlines as a stand-up comedian.

Does this sound familiar? It should, because aside from being an actor/comedian, Joel is really a business—a business seeking to increase the professional opportunities and income for one Joel McHale. He does this when he can create energy in the form of buzz, interest, and ultimately sales around his projects. The same thing holds true for Bruce, and the same thing holds true for your company.

In fact, if you’re in marketing in any capacity today, it’s time to embrace the fact that you, my friend, are in the energy business.

The Relationship between Audience and Customer

As I’ve hammered out the concepts in AUDIENCE, I found myself referring back to three books that helped to shape many of my beliefs as a marketer:

1. The One-to-One Future by Don Peppers (@DonPeppers) and Martha Rogers (@Martha_Rogers)

2. Permission Marketing by Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog)

3. Flip the Funnel by Joseph Jaffe (@JaffeJuice)



Each of these works envisions a future where marketers could increasingly leverage technology to build deeper, more meaningful, and more human relationships with consumers. Each also values consumer permission as the key to unlock both the channels (email, SMS, Facebook, etc.) and the data to power more personal, relevant, and timely communications.

AUDIENCE stands on the shoulders of these giants, seeking to remind marketers that before you can gain a CUSTOMER or build a relationship with a PROSPECT, you must have an audience—preferably one that’s bigger, better, and more responsive than the competition’s. That’s the heart of Proprietary Audience Development—and hopefully, a worthy heir to the fine work of Don, Martha, Seth, and Joseph.



a I’ve elected to capitalize the terms Paid, Owned, and Earned Media from here on out to better highlight how they support Proprietary Audience Development.