Why Your Brand Needs SuperFans And Why Only Having Followers Is “Out-dated”
In Biblical Times People Didn’t Have Fake Followers
“How many followers do you have?” is the question so many creators and brands get asked as a means to measure their value in the marketplace and ascertain their worth. While this is understandable, as follower count was a determining factor in securing sponsorship or product endorsement deals for aspiring influencers, brands are quickly realizing that “counting on” follower count is not as dependable as they may have once thought.
To truly understand the dilution of the word “follower”, let’s trace it back to its source. According to the website of the United Methodist Church, Jesus’s “followers” “left behind their families and careers to follow Jesus, learn from him, and carry on his mission.” Even after his death, his followers “continued to spread his message and establish new communities of believers.”
Today having followers can mean little more than having hordes of strangers who like to ogle your pictures anonymously; hardly the clarion call of loyalty the word once upheld in a former time. To compound this further, we live in a day and age where “followers” can be bought by the thousands for as little as $400-$1000, so how viable a metric can it truly be for determining brand and creator success?
Back to the present, here’s the word on the street. “Follower count is a vanity metric. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have if they aren’t engaging with your content”, says digital marketing expert Neil Patel. The now infamous entrepreneur and social media mogul Gary Vaynerchuk had this to say, “You can have a million followers, but if they aren’t converting into customers, then it’s just a number.”
There you have it. The term “followers” no longer carries the clout it used to in the hay-day of social media influence. These followers certainly aren’t going to follow you to the ends of the Earth and spread your doctrine in your wake. However, there is one devout group among your community who will “spread your message” and “establish new communities of believers” and regularly do. They are the ones who dress up as their favorite characters, strike up covenants at cosplay conventions, and dutifully collect every stitch of merchandise and stick of memorabilia. They put up posters, purchase box sets, fight tooth-and-nail in comment threads, scour Etsy for limited-edition figurines, speak the lore and lingo, get tattoos, and do their utmost to prove their devotion to both their peers and the brands they’ve sworn allegiance to.
This special group of people is not called “followers” however, they go by a different title. We call them “superfans”, and there has never been a way for brands and creators to detect who in their midst has superfan potential and then ascend them into their full superfandom splendor…until now.
The Potential And Power of Web3 To Transform Brands
Brands are coming to realize that unless their followers are highly engaged and genuinely interacting, it’s just a game of pretty optics in the digital vanity parade that is modern social media. So how then can creators build this ride-or-die culture around their brands? How can a brand aspire to garner the loyalty and popularity of hit franchises such as Star Wars or Harry Potter and not get left behind in the quagmire of muggles?
The answer, broadly speaking, is through Web3, the next iteration of the internet that adds exciting new functionality to the way brands and communities can interact. For the uninitiated, here’s the timelapse:
Web1
Web1 was your dad’s era. The internet was used as a glorified encyclopedia or online library. You could “read” information at the “tips of your fingers.”
Web2
The next phase was Web2, your era. This is the world of social media, peer-to-peer networks, internet forums, chat groups, and e-commerce. With Web2 you can “read and write.”
Web3
The new generation of the internet is Web3, tomorrow’s era, where not only can you read and write, but you can own. Through the blockchain, an immutable and tamper-proof record of all transactions, Web3 builds utility and financial layers on top of familiar Web2 usability. You no longer login with a password, but instead connect a digital wallet. This wallet allows you to receive financial rewards, token-gated content, access to exclusive experiences, digital deeds of ownership and so much more. Web3 uses the blockchain, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and embedded smart contracts to carry out a myriad of tasks on your behalf. This new capacity in measuring and rewarding behavior now makes it possible to nurture followers into superfans.
While the promise of Web3 is indeed enticing, few platforms have realized the true potential of its power. Many tech startups are left scratching their heads as to how to implement this functionality and overcome the technological hurdles required to make a user-friendly experience out of this newfound potential. This has resulted in road-maps that lead nowhere and platforms that are in truth more of a patchwork of third-party solutions glued together with duct tape and a smile. The reliance on crypto and the steep learning curve it brings with it, not to mention the abasement of the term “NFT” as little more than JPEGs of obscenely expensive digital art, have dulled the enthusiasm of brands looking to stay ahead of the technological curve and harness the wizardry that Web3 is truly capable of.
Superheroes Are Found Leading Movies. Superfans Are Found Leading Movements.
The reality is that when well implemented and integrated Web3 provides the solutions that brands and creators have been craving. StarStake is no such platform of franken-features. We provide brands with a no-code, no-crypto-needed Web3 suite of proprietary tools that fit together like long-lost lovers.
You can use StarStake to build personalized, tiered-loyalty “BrandClubs”. Think of these as financially incentivized and exclusive access-driven VIP member clubs for your brand. Here you can launch promotions for your latest project or product in minutes, and engage your followers to collect, share, and make referrals and purchases, driving the success of whatever you are promoting in real-time.
Doing so allows fans to increase their “Fan Status” and ascend up a gamified, interactive journey all the way to “SuperFan”. Fans can join your latest promotions and challenges, allowing them to unlock whatever you choose to reward them with. This can include a variety of rewards, perks and privileges, and even a percentage of sales for their efforts.
It’s our belief that a rewarded fan is a loyal fan, and in a time of sky-rocketing CACs (customer acquisition costs) having an exciting ecosystem to keep fans immersed in your brands is key. Also with traditional “followers” in the Web2 world, you don’t have access to all the important metrics that let you distinguish the true fan from the follower. StarStake changes all that by making all the behaviors you care about visible.
This gives individual fans an identity they can tout on the leaderboards and you can choose which fans to reward with gift drops and other goodies. Furthermore once inside your BrandClub, fans will see what they have to do in order to unlock exclusive access, earn fan rewards and win the current promotion you have on. As these fans get rewarded and ascend from Connected Fan to Active Fan, then to True Fan, and Finally Superfan, they will enjoy a level of immersion and sense of belonging they’ve never been able to have, bringing them closer to you and your brand than ever before.
Building The Brand Of Your Dreams
Now your brand can begin to cultivate that cult following you’ve always dreamed of. You can meaningfully reward them with things that matter to them and tokenize access to exclusive experiences at the click of a button. All the advanced smart contracts that deliver the rewards are written for you, you simply decide on what the rewards are to be. When the promotion you’re running ends, all qualifying fans will get their rewards automagically in their wallets and they’ll be able to view and interact with them through the inbuilt performance dashboard StakeHub. Want to know another word for “superfans”? Customers for life. They are the ones who’ll stick by you and purchase from you over and over again so long as you continue to provide meaningful value.
To find out more about how these individual features and suite of Web3 tools can empower your brand and business, please visit the other articles right here or join our private community StarHub HERE. We look forward to welcoming you inside the StarStake universe. You can begin creating for free as there are no upfront fees or monthly costs. We’ve made it easier than ever to build the brand of your dreams. StarStake, where superstars are born and superfans are made.
Written by a human, for humans.
