Build your own fan base

Amazing things happen when you have the right friends.  Not only can friends can bring you up when you're down but they can really motivate you to pursue your dreams and encourage you to go further than you ever thought you could.  I was thinking this week that bars and bands also benefit from having loyal friends and customers.  Facebook and other social media sites have proven that if you take a handful of people and entrust them with the power to easily spread good words to their friends, a simply seed can grow into a tree within days instead of years.

Do you have a business that needs help growing?  Have you built an infrastructure that supports a loyal fan base?  In other words... Are you making friends?  I'm not talking about sharing all your personal secrets with people you never met before.  I'm talking about finding out what people like to see and hear so that they will come back to you over and over again.  If you don't do anything that people really like, how are you going to build up a fan base that will make you successful?

If you are in a band and you play songs that you like but nobody gets up to dance and all you get is polite applause, should you keep playing those songs?  I find that many businesses operate like a band that plays songs that they like even though nobody is getting off their butt and onto the dance floor.  You know those businesses that keep running but are usually half empty on a night when similar businesses are booming.  When you do things that make people want to put down their drink and cheer for you as loud as possible, you know you are doing something right.

Some people are in a hurry to get as many fans (ie: customers) as quickly as possible.  They may print flyers, place ads, make the glossiest business cards, but did they take time to find out what people liked and disliked?  Steve Jobs felt that people didn't know what they liked because they had never seen his products before he invented them. That's not really true.  You see, people did like the original Apple computer that he and his friend Steve Wozniak built in their garage.  He just built upon his successes to come up with the Apple Macintosh followed by the Ipods, Iphones and Ipads.  Are you building upon your successes?

Everyone says that you should do something you enjoy to be happy.  I say, make people happy and before you know it, you will enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

Rob aka Weekend Concierge