It’s peak summer season in the Northern Hemisphere and people here in New England are giddy with the excitement. The short summer season means getting outdoors... now! It’s a chance to be with friends, in real life, doing what we love.
For me, there are just a few months in the year to surf and backpack. I feel like I need to cram it all in quickly. As a result, I find myself participating on social media less often during the summer.
And during the summer, I’m with other people much more often than in the winter. I feel great as a result.
Bring people together
An important aspect is being around other like-minded people. Hanging out at a backpacking shelter, bobbing in the ocean swell, chatting at an outdoor party.
For example, I have fond memories of a morning on the top of Bromley Mountain in Vermont last year when I hiked the 273-mile Long Trail. I had stealth camped there the night before and I saw a group of people climbing the last part of mountain and then up the stairs of the lookout tower. It was about 6:00 in the morning, a strange time to see a large group, so I went to check it out. It turns out that soon-to-be-married couple Sam and Chris included a view of the sunrise from the Bromley summit with their friends as part of the festivities leading up to their wedding ceremony. They’d started at the parking lot while it was still pitch-black outside and began climbing up the ski trails by flashlight to reach the tower by sunrise. Well, the actual experience was planned to be with their friends, but it now also included me, a wedding party crasher. What a great experience!
When we’re near people we trust, in real life, a strong personal connection develops. It’s a survival technique developed over thousands of generations and is an important component of fandom.
Organizations that bring a tribe of like-minded people together in real life build fans. There are many ways to do this. Hold a conference or event, take your customers for an outing, go to a show together. Or hike up a mountain.
How can you bring people together to build fans?
Top photo: A “look away” shot of me with a few enthusiastic participants at my two-day masterclass in Rome on June 20. Thank you to Nello and the team at Hi-Performance for a wonderful event!