Get a highly engaged fan!

A fan who feels connected to both you and your work will not only buy it, they will like, subscribe, share, and promote it. You could pay to get tens of thousands views on an ad with fewer results than a single, highly-engaged fan.

So what's the fastest to get engaged fans? Hint, it's not just doing excellent work in a corner by yourself and hoping someone notices. It's making a personal connection.

If you're just starting out, using this method to get highly engaged fans will help you kick start your fanbase. You'll have someone to talk to, you'll get feedback, and you'll have other people starting to share your work.

If you already have a fan-base, but it's not very engaged, this can help you jump start more conversation and sharing. It will also help you stay connected to your audience and give you someone to talk to when you write posts. This will naturally help your posts feel more personal and engaging.

Here's the 5 step process. Remember, this is about keeping things simple and making authentic connections. Feel free to adjust the steps or ad your own.

1. Find someone making the kinds of comments you want your group. Make sure the topic is one that is an inspiration for your own work.
2. Thank them for their comment and tell them what you liked about it.
3. Tell them about how the topic inspires your work.
4. Ask for feedback on something small (a post, your first page, online store headers, whatever).
5. If they give feedback, thank them. Then ask if you can contact them with the finished product.

After these 5 steps, you'll have a person who likes to get engaged in your niche, who has already engaged in your work by giving you feedback, and who is open to hearing more. That's more engagement than 1,000s of people scrolling past a paid ad!

The hardest part is often finding the right group or conversation. Let your inner geek guide you. What inspires you, what do you tend to geek out about, even if you don't normally do that in online groups? Go there. If you're a King-inspired horror writer, start with recent discussions about his work.

You can run through these steps in one conversation or several. You can adjust these steps to your style, the platform, the group, the conversation, etc. The exact wording is less important than showing appreciation, having a shared interest, and genuinely wanting to listen to their opinion.

Because most people are busy, you'll probably have to reach out to a few people before you find someone who has the time for all 5 steps. That's okay, it'll probably require fewer contacts than you think.

One way to go about this is simply put steps 1-4 in a single email or direct message:

Hi [person's name], I saw your comment/post on [topic]. [What you liked about their comment]. I'm working on [something related]. Could I get your feedback? Thank you so much, [your name]

You can then follow up with a way to get the feedback (either have them visit a link, or even better do a video chat where you share something and can see their reaction).

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However, you also separate the steps across several comments over a period of time:

“That's a great point! I love how you [thing you liked about their comment].”

“Hey, how's it going? Remember that comment about [topic]? I'm actually working on [thing you want feedback on], and I used [whatever it is they said]. Could you take a look and give me feedback?”

“You're feedback was super helpful! Can I add you to my email list so you can hear when [post goes live, book comes out, next art is posted, etc]?”

This is the approach we've used to start the Ubiquitous Tavern email list, as well as other projects in the past. It's really a triple win, because we:

• Get feedback to improve our ideas
• Get a better idea of who we're talking to when we post
• Develop a contact list of people who care about the same things we do

However, not every creator or target audience is the same. Let us know how it goes for you! What additional tips do you have? What problems did you run into?

Reach us on Twitter or join our newsletter and simply respond to one of our emails with your story.

This exercise is great for getting some fresh eyes and feedback when you're starting out or you're feeling lost in your social media.

At some point, however, you are going to have find ways to speak to your audience as a whole while keeping that personal feel. All while balancing time between honing your craft and promoting it.

Join the Ubiquitous Tavern Creator Letter for regular tips and exercises for how to build (and keep!) an engaged fanbase.