In his book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, marketing expert Seth Godin writes, “An individual artist needs only a thousand true fans in her tribe. It’s enough.”

That’s right: a jewelry store or jewelry designer needs only 1,000 tried and true fans to help inspire success.

How is that possible? 

Consider your own loyalties to your favorite brands and businesses. When you really like a local restaurant or bar, don’t you tell your friends about it? Maybe you even invite them to Happy Hour. Because of you, 10 new people will learn about the establishment and became fans themselves.

If you can convince just 1,000 people to become fans, those people will not only tell their friends and family members about your jewelry brand but they’ll also be more likely to create content that you can also share.

What do I mean? Here are five examples of how your loyal fans can create content that you can share and use as leverage for your awesome jewelry brand.

Encourage your fans to write Yelp reviews and then borrow review highlights for your own marketing efforts. Nudging someone to write a Yelp review is as easy as sending a follow-up e-mail or making a follow-up phone call to a happy customer. Most people don’t spend their days thinking about writing Yelp reviews, but a gentle reminder or even an incentive will prompt a satisfied customer to sing their praises. Once you’ve gathered some excellent Yelp reviews, share quotes from those reviews on your social media accounts.

Pro tip: I like to create “ready-to-share” graphics with solid-color backgrounds and text from the Yelp reviews.

Source guest bloggers (if you already maintain a blog). Some of your fans will love the opportunity to show others how they wear or style your jewelry. Maybe these fans already have fashion blogs or Instagram accounts of their own, and they’d like to gain more followers by leveraging your blog platform. Invite your fans to contribute guest blog posts that feature their tips for wearing your jewelry.

Cultivate the product reviews section on your e-commerce site, Etsy store, or even eBay page. Again, always encourage customers to leave product reviews. You may even want to consider providing a coupon code or contest entry as incentive for customers to write a review; after all, doesn’t a store with lots of product reviews (even lukewarm or negative reviews) appear to be more trustworthy and legitimate than a store without any cred? Share highlights from product reviews in your social media marketing.

Host a social-media-based contest that requires entrants to post something related to your brand. Maybe entrants must post a photo of themselves wearing your jewelry or submit a design idea for a future piece. Either way, they’ll be entering your contest but also sharing their creativity and your brand name with all their followers.

Host a blogger or influencer event. In a previous post, I discussed the advantages of hosting such an event and how an exciting event can encourage influencers to share their thoughts about your brand. The event can take place in your physical showroom/studio, or it can be completely virtual. Definitely make it worth your attendees’ while to attend.

Which one of these ideas would best work for your jewelry brand? How will you begin to implement these strategies? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Featured photo by Graeme Maclean