The place to find the best description of a ‘true fan’ is in sports. And in what better sport than football.
For example, if your spouse is an Arsenal fan, I can bet that you understand this concept better than most. You want to know why your husband hasn’t renounced Arsenal yet? He is a true fan. And, true fans have a mantra, ‘We die here’!
So, my advice to you is to get used to the highs and lows because unless Arsenal gets its winning wand back, you are on a very long thing.
To a podcaster, who is a true fan? A true fan is someone who will listen to an episode whether you promote it or not; they will share links to your episode whether you remember to inform them or not; they will buy your merchandise even when the delivery cost is more than the price of the shirt.
The concept of ‘A thousand true fans’ was proposed by Kevin Kelly who noted that as a content creator, you do not need millions of views or listeners to make a living out of your craft. You only need a thousand true fans. As a podcaster in Africa, you may find it hard to get a thousand true fans. But you can definitely still get a lot of fans. Fans in this context are people who love you enough to do anything for you and your podcast as long as it will not cost them money.
One way to know the number of fans you have is to publish an episode and not promote it. The number of listens you have on the episode is roughly the number of your fans. Warning: This number may come as a huge surprise to you.
As soon as you know the number of fans you have, you want to do everything to make them happy. On the flip side, it should then be your goal to convert more of your listeners into fans. Remember, this is a marathon, not a 100m dash.
May all your listeners be as dead hard as Arsenal fans.
