Turning customers into fans requires physical closeness. At Outside Lands, St. Vincent left the stage to stand near the audience, shifting from public distance to personal space. Edward T. Hall's proximity zones show how moving closer builds emotional connection and trust.
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The idea of fanocracy is about shared emotions. And what's important about this is it's biologically hardwired into our brains. This idea is non negotiable for we humans, we naturally attracted to other humans that we like. We're attracted to other humans that we feel safe with. We're attracted to other humans who are like us. And if you know this concept, you can use it to grow fans in your business, specifically through something called proximity. The concept of proximity is really interesting. And it was totally at work when I was at a show. Of course, it was another rock concert. This was at Outside Lands in San Francisco. And it's a big festival, lots of people, thousands, tens of thousands of people. And I was really excited to see St. Vincent. So I got there early, went down. It was an hour ahead of this particular show. So I went down way in front of the stage. And I was looking directly at St. Vincent. And she was probably about 20ft away because I was right in the front and then the stage and then up on the stage. It was a big show. But then something remarkable happened. What happened was that at that moment, she was playing her concert and she did something that I've almost never seen before. She actually came down the steps and went into the audience.
Right in front of you?
Right in front of me. Like it was right in front of me. And I could touch her. That's how close it was. And so she went from being on a stage far away, untouchable, something that was almost movie like, because it was far away, to being a human that was in close proximity with me. And I mean, you know, I've been to 788 live shows. You've been to probably over 100. This idea of coming into the audience.
Right, it almost never happens. We try as audiences to get as close as we can, trying to get up against the rails, reach out, touch those people. But the fact that she came down.
To meet you is really, really, really interesting. And I got a fabulous photo. That photo I put out on my social media feeds. My photo is from a way better angle than the professional photographers who were shooting.
Because she was facing you.
She was facing me, and the photographers were all behind me. It turns out when Rolling Stone magazine wrote about Outside Lands of that show, that was pointed out as the standout moment of the end. Not just St. Vincent set, but the entire festival. And in fact, if you look at the picture that went with the Rolling Stone article, yep, there's the geek right there. You can see me. And every Photograph that was taken of that moment. You can see me. And this was perfectly illustrative of this idea comes from neuroscience that the closer you get to someone, the more powerful the shared emotions. The closer you get to someone, the more powerful the shared emotions. And this concept comes from a neuroscientist called Edward T. Hall. And it was a long time ago that he came up with this concept of proximity and the four zones of proximity that we humans experience.
So more than 12ft away is the public space. There are people that are maybe in the same room as you, but you're not interacting with. Social space is 4 to 12ft. It's people who you are aware of people around you. You're not talking immediately to them. However, personal space is 1.5ft to 4ft. It's. You're at a cocktail party, you're talking to somebody, you're really getting to know them that close. And then intimate space is less than 1.5ft reserved for close friends and family.
Right? So we've done the research in looking at this idea of proximity at all kinds of different colors, and it turns out that the idea of proximity is absolutely valid over all humans. The actual distances might vary slightly, and in some cultures, when you're at a cocktail party, people are a little bit closer than in other cultures where they're a little bit more further away. But the idea of the neuroscience behind the closer you get to someone, the more powerful the emotions, and the idea that the closer you get if you trust someone, the better that is for growing fans is valid throughout cultures.
The concept of the four zones is the same between all cultures. What may change is the actual distance between personal space, social space. It may be more or less than 4ft, depending on where you go in the world. However, the neuroscience between proximity and. And getting close or getting trust between humans is the same, depending no matter where you go.
So there's no question that these ideas work no matter where you are. And so most of the time, when you're at a rock concert, it's public space. What St. Vincent did that was remarkable is she came down into the audience and was in nearby a number of us in our social space, 4-12ft and our personal space, and in my case, within four feet, between a foot and a half to four feet. So this idea of proximity is really important because when we trust somebody, when we're with friends, when we're with people that we know well, or when we're in a cocktail party, when you know everyone was invited so you can trust them. The closer you get to someone, the more powerful the shared emotions are. The converse is if you don't trust someone or you feel threatened, for example, in a crowded elevator, you don't know people, you feel really uncomfortable. It's the same reason the closer you get to someone, the more powerful the shared emotions, either positive or negative. So where this becomes important is how can you do what St. Vincent did? How can you, in your business get closer physically to your customers? How in your business are you able to get into the social space, the personal space of your customers? Because it's so powerful that it will drive fans into your business.
