One Thousand True Fans
How to Build and Grow an Indispensable Membership Community
Summary
This is an article about cultivating true fans. These are the people who love what you do enough to stay connected, engage meaningfully, contribute with energy, and enthusiastically tell their friends. The concept comes from an essay by Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine.
Great leaders create great leaders. That is, the person in charge of the association (in concert with a board, staff, and a moderately-engaged community) creates a spark, builds coalitions, excites people hungry for connection, and provides indispensable value for them. This is how community is formed. Properly managed, it’s how a community can grow and thrive.
I lead the product community, a product development learning community designed specifically for associations. Let’s compare ideas and build something great.
What is a True Fan?
“There’s something distinctive that happens when givers succeed: it spreads and cascades.”
Adam M. Grant
1000 True Fans is an essay by Kevin Kelly, first published in 2008. It presents a simple framework for how creators can make a living in the digital age. He argues that we don't need millions of casual fans to be successful; we just need 1,000 true fans.
A true fan is defined as someone who will buy anything one produces and spend roughly $100 per year on your work. For instance, with 1,000 such fans, a creator could earn $100,000 annually. Social media and other digital tools make it possible to directly connect with and maintain relationships with these true fans, eliminating the need for traditional intermediaries like publishers or record labels.
What does this mean for associations? We have some built-in advantages: we serve a niche market without a lot of natural competition and we have a model of practice (events, content, learning, advocacy) that generally meets the needs of our members. Though this contained market is identifiable and finite, there are also lots of alternatives to bypass our associations (other associations, personal and professional networks, and private companies looking to gain our member’s eyeballs and clicks).
The differentiator for associations is community. This is how we create value.
The 1000 Trust Fans model works best for people (and organizations) who can build and maintain personal connections with their community. The formula isn't meant to be exact: the numbers (1,000 fans, $100 per year) are meant to illustrate the concept rather than be precise requirements. The key insight is that a modest but dedicated following can excite and sustain a larger, more robust community.
Diffusion of Innovation
“It’s scary talking to strangers. Guide your members into discussions by modeling what good participation looks like. Craft regular prompts and make introductions for newbies.”
Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, Kai Elmer Sotto
A thriving community is the basis for innovation; properly designed, community can make innovation social. I wrote an article on how to create and implement a community engagement funnel. It follows an argument similar to 1000 true fans: there are rabid, super-engaged members (I call these influencers) and many more quieter, on-the-sidelines members who tend not to engage (these are intriguers and seekers).
Let’s look at a couple of examples applying how the 1000 true fans concept might help transform an association's approach to membership and community-building.
The first is a mid-sized professional association for data scientists. Rather than focusing solely on growing raw membership numbers, they identify and nurture their true fan members: those who are deeply engaged and committed to the community's success.
A true fan member in this context might:
Attend every monthly meetup and annual conference
Regularly contribute to the association's community, blog, or knowledge base
Mentor new members and facilitate study groups
Share job opportunities with fellow members
Actively promote the association on social media and at industry events
Pay higher-tier membership fees for premium access and support
Let's say this association has 5,000 total members, but 800 true fans who each:
Pay $500 annually for premium membership ($400,000)
Attend the annual conference at $1,000 ($800,000)
Purchase additional training/certification ($300 average)
Bring in 1-2 new members annually through referrals
These 800 highly engaged members become the beating heart of the community, generating:
Sustainable revenue through consistent participation
Valuable content and expertise sharing
Natural membership growth through authentic word-of-mouth
A strong sense of community that attracts others
Leadership pipeline for the organization's future
Another example is the Information Architecture Institute, which built its early success on a core group of passionate members who:
Created and maintained the IA Library
Organized World IA Day events globally
Developed mentorship programs
Contributed to the association's journal
Shaped industry standards and best practices
Focusing intensely on serving and empowering our most committed members creates a virtuous cycle. These members become evangelists who attract others through their enthusiasm and contributions, rather than through traditional marketing efforts. The energy and dedication of true fan members can transform an association from a simple service provider into a vibrant, self-sustaining community.
Extending the Engagement
“In order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.”
Malcolm Gladwell
The ultimate purpose of building and sustaining true fans is creating a larger, highly-connected community. This is a community of connection that finds your association’s value truly indispensable. This isn’t easy; building true fans requires a tight, easily understood value proposition and strategic yet accessible offerings to keep people engaged.
Monetizing an association’s value takes much more than simply having 1000 true fans. We live in an increasingly noisy and competitive world, so simply telling our fans we have something to buy isn’t enough. We have to engage, communicate, and connect. We have to build momentum for our value, and then build more momentum to grow and sustain connection over time.
Having 1000 true fans or even 100,000 fans doesn’t entitle us to anything. We still have to earn member loyalty through attention and engagement and trust and connection every day. The outcomes of 1000 true fans isn’t only about money nor solely catering to our most visible and engaged participants.
It’s deliberately and authentically growing each segment of the community engagement funnel. Our efforts focus on indispensable and ongoing value to keep people serially engaged. The outcome is growth membership, diversified revenue, and a thriving community.
I lead the product community; we are a learning community because we believe great relationships help us create the value our members want. Remember, product-led growth fuels connection. Join the product community and flip your destiny.
About the Author
James Young is founder and chief learning officer of the product community®. Jim is an engaging trainer and leading thinker in the worlds of associations, learning communities, and product development. Prior to starting the product community®, Jim served as Chief Learning Officer at both the American College of Chest Physicians and the Society of College and University Planning. Please contact me for a conversation: james@productcommunity.us