How to Really Grow Your Fan Base and Brand Loyalty

If you were asked who the most important people in your life were, you would likely say your family, a few friends and those who have taken the time and effort to help you in life.

In the world of branding and social media, the concept of growing a loyal fan base and brand should be based off these same principles.

Everyday I get emails from readers of the blog asking how they can gain thousands of new blog readers and social followers. You can either run a targeted social ad campaign, buy fake followers that provide no value and waste time and money or actually invest in yourself by providing real value to your audience.

At the end of the day, who cares how many followers or email subscribers you have on your list — instead what matters is how many of them actually care what you have to say. A good majority of the time marketers and brands will send out promotions, emails and updates to their following and only have a mere fraction of their list even respond.

The better question is “how can I grow my fan base with people that really care?”.

No one gained a million followers and blog readers over night. Everything happens for a reason and nothing happens with out cause.

Don’t ever discount the 100 authentic social followers you have right now. That is huge! One hundred people took the time to click LIKE or FOLLOW because they are interested in what YOU have to say — now that is brand power at work!

Not that I even need to bring up Gary Vaynerchuk, (quote) but he is the perfect example for this. When Gary was first starting out in the whole online marketing and social media thing a few years ago he was all over the place and preaching the importance of relationships. Now look at his brand power and following today… it’s massive!

This is exactly why I always take the time to respond to all of my emails, respond to interview requests, provide guest posts on other blogs and strive to provide value and real engagement at the end of the day.

Here’s the kicker… I don’t care if your audience is 1 reader or 100,000 — I still take the time to respond!

Yes, this is a time killer but it makes a huge difference for your brand and the people who are taking the time to contact you and read your stuff.

It’s important to realize that we all have to start out somewhere and your business and reach continues to grow, your time and resources to respond to each and every email and request will simply become overwhelming at some point. However until that time comes, the answer to how to grow your fan base and brand is to actually give a crap.

Big things coming soon!