In social media, you hear a lot of talk about the importance of cultivating of “brand advocates” and “brand ambassadors.” As you should; they’re a vital part of a successful social media strategy. Advocates and ambassadors are people who not only follow your brand on Twitter or “like” your Facebook page, but they also occasionally comment on your blog posts, share your status updates and retweet your content on a somewhat regular basis. They trust you. They listen to you. They respond to you. And in doing so, they’re promoting your brand to their networks for free.
One step beyond ambassadors and advocates is an enthusiastic group of people we like to call “superfans.” When I try to describe what a superfan is, I can’t help but think of my mom. She was always in the stands cheering for me at my various sporting events and giving me high-fives after the game. She bought countless boxes of Girl Scout cookies and rolls of wrapping paper to support me in my school fundraisers. She hung my sloppy artwork on the refrigerator and give me high-five. She was (and still is) my biggest fan–my superfan.
Mom is to kid as superfan is to brand. Superfans on social media don’t just like your brand; they love your brand. If you’re running a contest on Facebook, the superfan will enter AND tell all of their friends to do so. If your company is trying to raise money for a charity event via social media, you can count on the superfans to donate and help spread the word. If you’ve cultivated at least one superfan (besides your mom), you know you’re doing something right.
The question is, how do you find them? Do they start as advocates and turn into superfans? Or were they already supporters of your brand offline, but they’re better able to express it online?
I realized in writing this blog post that I’m a superfan. Yes, a Standing Dog superfan for obvious reasons, but I’m also a superfan of Red Mango and UnMarketing for less obvious reasons.
Scott Stratten, president of UnMarketing, blew me away during a keynote speech at BlogWorld last year. He included his Twitter handle in his presentation, so I immediately followed him from my mobile Twitter app. During a session later that day, he was sitting a few rows ahead of me in a room packed with at least a hundred people. I tweeted, “Scott Stratten from @Unmarketing rocked this morning! He’s sitting 3 rows ahead of me & I have the sudden urge to high-five him.” Seconds later, Scott stood up, scanned the room, matched my face with my Twitter avatar and walked over to give me a high five. Instant superfan. That was a year ago and my superfan status hasn’t wavered. He continues to reply to my tweets, whether I mention him or not. And every time he does, it feels like that high-five. If you look at his Twitter feed, you’ll see that he does that for each and every one of his followers. @UnMarketing has 106,631 followers on Twitter and I bet at least 100,000 of them are superfans.
In the case of Red Mango, I started as a customer. In-store signage prompted me to become a fan and follower. Without even noticing, I became a brand ambassador by uploading pictures of my frozen yogurt creation to my Facebook wall or tweeting them on Twitter. And when Red Mango followed and tweeted me back, well, that began my rise to superfandom. They didn’t just respond with a “thanks” and call it a day, they started a conversation. They built a relationship. Dan Kim, Red Mango’s founder and CEO, is also active on Twitter and Facebook, where he makes himself accessible to customers and fans. Through his personal account, we’ve chatted about Dallas, blogs and sometimes even frozen yogurt. Sometimes he reads my personal blog and retweets my content, and in a way, it makes me feel like my superfan status is mutual. Therefore, I feel a personal connection to the Red Mango brand and its people.
In both cases, the president or CEO of the brand played a role in my superfan status, but I don’t think that’s has to be a constant in the formula for superfan cultivation. It wasn’t the title of the tweeter that had me sold; it was the content, the interaction and the personalization of the tweets. It was the way the brand made me feel appreciated. It was the virtual and physical high fives.
Here are four tips for virtually high-fiving your fans:
- Whenever possible, meet your fans and followers face to face. Host fan-appreciation parties or fan-only events. Create opportunities for physical high-fives.
- Don’t just monitor your mentions and your inbox, read your Twitter feed. Listen to what your followers are talking about and identify conversations you can start or join based on what they’re already talking about.
- Reply. Reply. Reply. While this can be time-consuming for some brands, it can mean the world to a superfan.
- Be human. Be casual. Be funny. Everyone knows there’s a human being behind your Twitter handle or Facebook page. Don’t pretend there’s not.
These tips are solely based on my experiences. We want to hear yours. Are you a superfan? If so, what brands and why?
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[...] you’re into social media marketing, you realize that it is extremely important to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not only ought to you turn your brand’s fans [...]
[...] If you’re into social media marketing, you know that it’s very essential to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not only should you turn your brand’s fans [...]
[...] into social media marketing, you realize that it’s extremely essential to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not only ought to you turn your brand’s fans [...]
[...] you are into social media marketing, you know that it’s very important to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not only should you turn your brand’s fans [...]
[...] you’re into social media marketing, you know that it is extremely important to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not just ought to you turn your brand’s fans [...]
[...] you are into social media marketing, you realize that it is very important to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not just should you turn your brand’s fans [...]
[...] you are into social media advertising, you know that it’s extremely important to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not just ought to you turn your brand’s fans [...]
[...] you’re into social media marketing, you know that it’s extremely important to turn your brand advocates, your brand’s ambassadors, into fans. But not just should you turn your brand’s fans [...]
Great post Lauren. The best experience I’ve had being turned into a super can was about five years ago just prior to the social media boom. Have you ever heard of DuoFold? Well you have now. If you are unfamiliar they are the best thermal underwear on the market. At least in my opinion. I’d had the same long sleeve thermal shirt for years and when I went to replace it the tag was so worn I couldn’t figure out what model it was. None of the nearby stores arrived the one I wanted so I went online to find it. Still unable to pinpoint which model it was on their website I sent a request to their support. After typing out 300 words professing my love for the product I hit submit and website gave me an error. I had not saved a word of my love poem to them. So I rewrote it this time saving what I had written and again submitted it. Error again. So I took to my blog and wrote a post called “DuoFold I love you, please love me back” telling my whole story of frustration trying to purchase another of my favorite cold weather shirt. It was a pretty good rant, but at the same time displayed ky passion for their product. And I forgot about it.
About two weeks later, relatively late on a Friday night I got a phone call from the brand manager. I had come to find out they are owned by Hanes. But this lady called me on a Friday night, apologized profusely for the website errors and offered to send me out a few samples. She did, I figured out which one I owned and bought one in every color.
To this day any time I see someone that looks cold I tell them to get a DuoFold. Normally I can show them the product because if it’s cold, I’m wearing one of mine.
She had come across my post online and it meant enough to her to make it right. I was frustrated and she saw an opportunity to create a raving fan. I am certainly one of those today for DuoFold.
Sorry for the typos. Left that last comment from my iPhone. I hope you can get the gist