Stop caring about your followers

Last week I went to the mall to buy new gym clothes.

I went to the typical big brands.

Under Armor?

Cool shorts, but nah.

Adidas?

BORING. Next

Nike?

Absolute bangers!

I liked what they had in stock so much that I went into the sneaker section and decided to buy a pair of dunks, a hoodie, and a sweatshirt.

That got me thinking, if Nike came out with a car would people buy it?

I'd say yes, many people will. Most of them out of curiosity and I'm one of them.

I forgot to mention that I used to buy football shoes from Nike when I was in school and during my first 2 years of undergrad.

You can also see that with people who buy from Apple.

People queue up outside of Apple stores days before the launch of the new iPhone, begging Apple to take their money.

"Ok Hussain, what are you trying to say?"

I thought you'd never ask.

Do followers = fans?

The obvious answer is no.

“OK, so what's the difference between a follower and a fan?”

I like the questions you’re asking!

Your fans will spread your message, followers won't

Your fans will stick with you when things get tough, followers won't

Your fans will buy things from you, but followers won't (even if it is free).

So you can see the power of having a strong fan base. After all, that's why Nike and Apple are so successful.

They created a massive fan base that will only buy from them and keep buying.

So today I want to share with you how I go about attracting fans and building a relationship with them.

But before I do, let me tell you another story.

A story about how I thought followers on X meant fans.

When I first started I wanted to grow my account as fast as possible.

So I played the engagement game.

I'd have Tweetdeck opened and my lists organized by creator’s size to make sure I'm one of the first people who comment under the big accounts to maximize my exposure.

And it worked I managed to add 80 followers in 2 weeks.

But there were 2 problems…

The first, I didn't find any fulfillment in it.

I found myself saying no to hangouts with my friends and family gatherings just because I was too caught up with the engagement strategy.

The second, my account was still 'dead'. I'd barely get any impressions, replies, or likes under my main posts.

Even when I did get the rare reply it would be these boring replies where they repeat what I said in the post.

good job, you ruined my perfectly written tweet

After getting bored of playing the engagement game.

I stumbled across a post that talked about how real businesses are built by fans and not followers.

It resonated with me. So I stopped the heavy engagement and started focusing on writing more stories and sharing the lessons I learned.

Happy to say the amount of boring replies I get is decreasing by the day.

Not to mention, I've been able to meet and call a bunch of creators my friends.

Lemme show you my favorite storytelling framework that I and bigger creators use:

B-A-B.

It stands for, Before, After Bridge.

This email is one long B-A-B story.

I’ll leave you with a few examples for you to get some inspiration and to start writing your story!

That’s all for today, thank you for reading.

Oh, before I go back to studying for my midterm, can I get your opinion on something?

Would you be interested in a Notion document that has saved tweets for inspiration?

 (it’s organized based on topics and niches).

Let me know by replying to this email.

Anyway, wish me luck with my midterm!

See you next week.

- Hussain