Influx

While it seems to be culturally ingrained into our DNA that you need mass scale for success, it’s possible that you can find success in the niches. The Long Tail suggests you need have a hit or you risk sinking into oblivion, but we’ve heard of artists doing surprisingly well utilizing their Twitter bases to auction off band gear, t-shirts and special one-off performances. People making money in a way that few brands or even Twitter itself has demonstrated.

Kevin Kelly has spent some time thinking about this, as is his style and sets the magical number of 1,000 which he believes are the number of fans required to support an artist. He defines them as true fans, which is probably not the same as Facebook fans or Twitter followers.

“Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail?

One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have
discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth
trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer,
craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in
other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only
1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and
everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They
will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even
though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for
your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions
show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies.
They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till
you issue your next work. They are true fans.”

While most consumer brands aren’t artists, there are clearly some opportunities for brands who can find their niche super fan bases in social media and then offer up unique products and services that are limited only to those super-fans. It’s a new way to think about limited edition. We are already thinking about brands as media, so brands as artists, is yet another lens to use.

Posted by Ed Cotton