Find Your 1,000 True Fans
Whatsoever You Do –- Find Your 1,000 True Fans.
By Carl Kruse
A friend today asked me for a good book on marketing, as if I would know, but I then
remembered the impact Kevin Kelly’s essay “1,000 True Fans,” had on me some years ago
and suggested to my friend he start his research reading it.
As I myself went back to re-read “1,000 True Fans,” it now struck me as one of the sanest and
best approaches to reaching people, e.g., marketing, especially if you are starting out, like my
friend. Kelly’s essay is perhaps the ultimate anti-branding approach to branding.
In looking around the web, I see the essay has found champions such as Tim Ferriss, who has
included it in his latest work, “The Tools Of Titans” (another fantastic read for all things life-
hacking, to not say life-changing) and dovetails with the spirit of people like Seth Godin who
advocate the idea of starting out by marketing to one or two people and taking it from there; a
super condensed notion of 1,000 true fans.