Sliding Into DMs

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When to go public and when to go private.

Longtime readers are probably sick of me saying this: it's more important to focus on depth of fandom rather than breadth of fandom.

In other words, I'd rather have 1,000 diehard fans than 1,000,000 casual followers.

Getting views and followers is relatively easy. They can be bought for rock-bottom prices if all you care about are vanity metrics.

I can give you hundreds of pathways to hack your way to millions of monthly views in almost any content genre. But I doubt you'll get much satisfaction from it (or money, for that matter).

So how do you grow deeper fandom with your content?

I share this chart often from Evergreen Records. Though simple (I love simple) and music-related, it creates the right basis for discussion:

Let's break this down for a TikTok creator who is getting, say, 100m monthly views.

Non-fans: All of these views are coming from the FYP. Little engagement, low watch time per video, and seldomly follow.

Casual fans: Engage just enough that you show up consistently in the FYP, may subscribe, but don't seek you out.

True fans: They often engage, hit that subscribe button, sometimes even go to your page for a binge.

Super fans: Almost always engage, find you on other platforms, convert, and transact.

As you may notice, level of engagement is key.

And people engage when they want to be heard.

So tell them that you hear them!

Creators should know as many of their 'super fans' as possible, they should be constantly studying their 'true fans', and should find scalable ways to engage casual and non-fans.

And I have found the easiest way to convert a 'true fan' to a 'super fan' is through direct contact via DMs.

It can be simple: "Hey John! Just wanted to say how much I appreciate you always leaving such nice comments on my videos. It means the world to me. Just gave your profile a follow!"

Bam. John is now a super fan.

It can even be a tactic to organize your super fans into a community: "Hey John! You've been such an incredible supporter, I'd love to invite you into my private WhatsApp group with 20 other amazing members of the community so we can all get to know each other better. Are you in?"

Bam. You now have 20 super fans meeting each other so they can act as your promo team.

Or, best of all, you can make them part of the story: "Hey John! I've been loving your comments so much and I see you're a vlogger. If you shoot a quick 10 second video on your phone saying your last comment, I'll share on my Instagram Stories and tag you!"

Bam. You've made a super fan for life, given John incredible value, had John model behavior you'd like to see in other fans, and gotten an awesome piece of content for your IG Stories.

This works for brands too! DM coupons, meet ups, or just ask them how their day is going.

One word of warning: if it looks like it's copy / pasted, this will have the opposite effect. They'll feel like they're being used. Make sure to personalize it so this doesn't happen.

So my mission for you: identify your 5 biggest fans and send them a thoughtful DM today.

If you have a call-to-action, great!

If you're just making a personal connection, also great!

It's the first step to deepening their fandom!

That took 2 minutes. You have 8 minutes left. Enjoy the silence and grow 1% right now!

Thank you to our sponsor BrandArmy!

About the Author

Phil Ranta, is a 2021 LinkedIn Top Voice in Innovation & Tech and has been creating content for the internet and building internet businesses professionally for nearly 20 years, starting on MySpace and riding trends to the present. He was the Head of Gaming Creators, North America at Facebook, the first network lead at Fullscreen, the COO at Studio71, and spent 10 years as a working comedian (including 2 years on cruise ships). He's a husband, a dad of two littles, and an insufferable digital media wonk.

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