Social Media | Marketing | Books | Fanocracy | Artificial Intelligence
Over the past several months, I’ve been working on a secret book project— The Fandom Playbook: Building Your Human Connection in a World of Digital Chaos. My team kept it a secret because the pioneering way I am creating it. Now I am excited to share the details of it with you!
The Fandom Playbook is both a print book and interactive companion AI chatbot being created as a derivative of Fanocracy, my Wall Street Journal bestseller.
The book is being produced as a revolutionary collaboration among my creativity, the expertise of a team of learning professionals including instructional designers and psychometricians (experts on learning assessments), and artificial intelligence developed by Cone.ai.
The Fandom Playbook and the AI chatbot are scheduled for release by Entrepreneur Press in mid-2026.
A press release announcing the book and describing the collaboration just crossed the wires. You can see it here: Authors Gain Control of AI - David Meerman Scott Champions a New Creative Process to Produce The Fandom Playbook.
I’m writing The Fandom Playbook in collaboration with my own “walled garden” Artificial Intelligence application created by Cone.ai. I know how to write a book, but I’m not an expert in the nuances of how adults learn. This pioneering approach to writing a nonfiction book ensures that learning best practices are integrated with my strategies for growing fans into tactics that are easy to implement and effective at putting my ideas to work.
While AI is involved, The Fandom Playbook starts and ends with my creativity.
The AI system was fine-tuned on my content including Fanocracy, more than twenty years of my blog posts, transcripts of speeches and podcast episodes and more. I use my private AI as my writing partner, asking it questions, and challenge its output—sometimes rejecting its suggestions, sometimes reshaping them, and occasionally being surprised by how it reframed my own ideas.
Why write The Fandom Playbook?
The most common question I get at my talks, via email from readers, or on social media goes something like this: “David, I love the idea of fandom, but how can I create fans of my business? Where do I start?”
That’s where The Fandom Playbook comes in. It’s a how-to guide that’s a combination of a book and a companion chatbot trained on my content. Readers will be guided through the ideas of fandom and engage in exercises and worksheets to help implement the ideas.
Throughout the learning process, I will be at their side via the chatbot trained on my ideas. Readers can ask me questions or brainstorm ideas on how to apply the ideas in their business.
Why fandom now?
Long time readers know that I have been writing about fandom for more than two decades. I’m fascinated by the idea that fandom isn’t just people cheering from the sidelines—it’s a primal, powerful force hardwired into our brains.
If you’ve ever felt goosebumps in a stadium alongside a thousand other fans or found a lifelong friend at a conference over shared excitement for a subject most people don’t “get”—then you’ve experienced the magic I’m talking about. Fandom.
For years, companies have obsessed over impressions, clicks, reach, and a slew of metrics that often miss the beating heart of what drives loyalty: genuine connection. In my work challenging traditional marketing, I’ve come to see that true fans don’t just passively consume your messages. They feel part of something. They join, share, and care because your passion is their passion, and you’ve experienced it together.
Digital chaos and the return to human connection
I see troubling patterns unfolding.
The toxic algorithms powering Meta, X, and YouTube are driving us further apart, feeding outrage and division. At the same time, generative AI is flooding the internet with content that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s fabricated. The result is what I call digital chaos.
However, people are beginning to realize we have a choice.
We can scroll through feeds filled with venom and manipulation. We stumble across AI-generated articles, images, or videos and hesitate—can I even trust what I’m seeing? This confusion and hostility is increasingly exhausting.
And exhaustion creates a turning point. I believe we’re nearing that moment when many people will say “enough”.
The craving for true human connection is already emerging as a counterforce. Look around and you’ll see signs of it everywhere:
- Concerts and sporting events are packed and it’s sometimes tough to get a ticket.
- Churches are quietly regaining relevance, echoing their role in the 1950s and 60s as gathering places.
- Social dances like my passion, the Lindy Hop—once nearly extinct—are making a comeback because people want that human connection.
- At HubSpot’s INBOUND conference a few weeks ago, more than 10,000 people gathered this year not just for the sessions, but for the simple power of being together with like-minded peers.
- Pickleball and even kickball leagues are exploding because adults want to play and connect, face-to-face.
There’s no doubt that building a genuine human connection leads to fandom.
Organizations that embrace this approach aren’t fighting for relevance in social algorithms. They’re growing their businesses with people who want to engage, who need to connect on a personal level.
And that’s where The Fandom Playbook come in. It’s a roadmap to a more civilized form of marketing. I invite you to join me in the journey forward.
