What is Fanocracy, and why does it matter?

So where did this idea of fandom and fanocracy come from? The whole idea started because we were thinking about social media and the promise of social media. And I've been talking about social media and how to use it in marketing now for way more than 10 years. And social media has incredible promise. At that point. It was all about how you can communicate with people and how you can grow your business and how you can engage with people. And that is sometimes happening. But what we've both noticed and in talking with hundreds of people around the world, everyone is saying to me is that there's digital chaos out there. There's cries of fake news, there's yet more spam and more spam, and then sometimes you don't even know if you're communicating on Twitter or Facebook with a robot. It's just incessant when people are doubling down on yet another social post. We believe that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of superficial online communication when people are hungry for a true human connection. And so we came up with this concept of fandom, the concept of true human connection to reach people as an antidote to this digital chaos. A fanocracy, as we describe it and define it, is an organization that inspires extreme passion for product, brand, or idea by putting customers, needs, and wishes at the center of everything it does.

It's a force critical for massive success.

And this idea of fanocracy, of growing fans, is how you take and create human connections, true human connections, to move that pendulum back from superficial online communications to an organization that truly meets the needs of customers. So to think about this idea of fandom, it's important to be thinking about what you're a fan of. So what are your fandoms?

So when I was six years old, the same time that you brought me to my first rock concert, you also started reading Harry Potter to me. It was about a few years after the first book came out, and then you kept reading them to me as, you know, nighttime stories. We enjoyed our time together like that.

We're sitting close to each other until.

The fourth book where I couldn't wait for you anymore because you thought it was too long and I just wanted to finish it. So that was my fandom growing up. And the last movie came out when I was a freshman in college. So my whole grade school life was Harry Potter.

So I've been to 788 live concerts since the first one when I was age 15. And I'm so such a geek. I actually have a spreadsheet that lists the concerts that I've been to. And I'm so, so, so into live music. The most shows I've ever seen of One band is 75 of the grateful Dead, which is kind of nutty. I know, I get it. But I love it. I love going to live music. So what's interesting about this idea of fandom, this idea, as we call it, fanocracy, is that those things are great. Live music is great. Harry Potter is great. But what's really powerful is the relationship that we have with our friends who do the same thing. And it's incredibly powerful. The shared emotions. We humans biologically are hardwired for sharing things with like minded people. And that's the idea of why growing fans of your business is so, so, so powerful. Because that human emotion of sharing is something you can actually develop within your core group of people. So we have a definition of fanocracy. There's five things that are part of this definition. It's something you're incredibly passionate about.

It's something that makes you extremely happy.

You're eager to replicate it again and again and again.

You have friends or family who do.

The same thing, and you devote significant time and or money to that activity. You're always looking for something that you can do to celebrate that fandom with the people that you're close to. I have three already mentioned. Live music. Huge fan of live music. I'm a huge fan of the Apollo Lunar program. It's a really obscure fandom and I love to surf.

I have, I actually tried to count and it got up to like 25.

Wow.

And then I was like, I don't think I can really put them into boxes.

So infinite, infinite number of fandoms. But what's interesting is for you to be thinking about as you're going through this course, to be thinking about what it is that you're a fan of, why you're so passionate about that and how important that is to your life. Because that can help you to better understand how to grow fans for your business. We've identified by asking thousands and thousands of people that, unlike you, Reiko, the Average person has 2.5 fandoms. I have 3. The average person is 2.5. And interestingly, the average person's most passionate fandom, they started when they were age 12. So fandom, a fanocracy, it's a fabulous way to grow a business. The more you think about your own fandom, the better you are equipped to be able to use this idea. In your business.