One Thousand True Fans

a while back I was talking about DHH’s pronouncement bout the need for “more good italian restaurants on the internet.” and what that meant in the sense of running a good business. not every business needs to be a rockstar-going-for-the-bleachers thing.

OK, so this article a bit of a classic around the Net, but I think it’s important to remember that if you’re not Google or YouTube or insert mega corp here that you need a customer and audience strategy (note to people who are not thinking this way : If you think everyone is your audience strategy, you don’t have one and should do some audience and/or market research).

And this is where community and direct contact is essential. As KK says, keeping in touch with your true fans is the key way to keep them happy. Understand their needs, feed their enthusiasm, riff off their ideas and creativity and take care of them.

Even if you are a bigger company this isn’t necessarily a bad strategy to follow. Look at Apple, for instance, who I’d argue have followed this strategy into being a widely loved and respected innovating consumer products company via the iPod and iPhone while still keeping their core macaddict fans.