Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans

by David Meerman Scott, Reiko Scott, Tony Robbins (Foreword)

A  Wall Street Journal bestseller

From the author of New Rules of Marketing & PR , a bold guide to converting customer passion into marketing power.
 
How do some brands attract word-of-mouth buzz and radical devotion around products as everyday as car insurance, b2b software, and underwear? They embody the most powerful marketing force in the die-hard fans.
 
In this essential book, leading business growth strategist David Meerman Scott and fandom expert Reiko Scott explore the neuroscience of fandom and interview young entrepreneurs, veteran business owners, startup founders, nonprofits, and companies big and small to pinpoint which practices separate organizations that flourish from those stuck in stagnation. They lay out a road map for converting customers’ ardor into buying power, pulling one-of-a-kind examples from a wide range of organizations,
 
·         MeUndies , the subscription company that’s revolutionizing underwear
·         HeadCount , the nonprofit that registers voters at music concerts
·         Grain Surfboards , the board-building studio that willingly reveals its trade secrets with customers
·         Hagerty , the classic-car insurance provider with over 600,000 premier club members
·         HubSpot , the software company that draws 25,000 attendees to its annual conference
 
For anyone who seeks to harness the force of fandom to revolutionize his or her business, Fanocracy  shows the way.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Social Media, Self Help, Personal Development, Buisness, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 7, 2020

About the author

Our always-on, Web-driven world has new rules for competing and growing business. Advance planning is out – agile is IN! Those who embrace new ways will be far more successful than those who stay who stay stuck and afraid to change. No one knows more about using the new Real-Time tools and strategies to spread ideas, influence minds and build business than David Meerman Scott. It’s his specialty.

He’s a sales and marketing strategist who has spoken on all seven continents and in 40 countries to audiences of the most respected firms, organizations and associations.

David is author or co-author of ten books - three are international bestsellers. He is best known for The New Rules of Marketing & PR, now in its 6th edition, which has been translated into 29 languages and is a modern business classic with over 400,000 copies sold so far. David also authored Real-Time Marketing & PR, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. He is co-author of Marketing the Moon (with Rich Jurek) and Marketing Lessons from The Grateful Dead (with HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan).

Reviews

[Chris Halordain · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book contains a lot of examples across a variety of industries and sectors. Having said that, it felt too much a reflection of the authors' lives and habits and not true applicable advice I can exercise in starting a business. Certainly, having read the anecdotes, the reader is free to draw her own conclusions and take lessons away from the book, but I don't think the actionable advice is direct, in the sense of a list of things to try. The tone of the book reads like an essay, where each chapter lays out a point, such as "Fandom can unite a city," and then stories from various events like the Boston Marathon or Red Sox World Series back up that claim.

All in all, I believed everything the authors wrote, and I bought their premise about the importance of fanocracy, but wished that they spent more time and words describing how to actually implement it in a new or not-yet-established business, almost like a "how-to" book, rather than simply listing examples, many of which don't extend past that context or situation. I -- and I assume many other business owners -- aren't merely interested in reliving other companies' successes and reviewing them in hindsight, but rather knowing how exactly their methods translate to other industries, or to something new, immediate, and actionable. Otherwise, it's just a history lesson.

[Crystal King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of David Meerman Scott's writing since I was a young PR pro decades ago. When I heard that Fanocracy was coming out I was thrilled. As someone with a background in a little cog-sci, I was intensely interested in the science (which his daughter, Reiko Scott, brings to the table) behind what makes people want to become fans. I have made some shifts in the way I market some of my own projects as a result of what I learned in this book, and have seen very positive results. It's a new way to think about marketing and selling through making better connections with people, by drawing them in and making them part of your tribe. A win-win for everyone.

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed listening to audiobook that is read by the authors themselves. Their narration sounds very positive, well-matched to the book contents. I feel like fanocracy is not very special but just honest and kind way of choice, both as a businessperson and a consumer. What is the most encouraging fact for me is, passion outside of my work is surely helpful for my work. I’d like to express my fandom more.

[Stephen Stilwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of superficial online communications. How many hours do we spend feeling social on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook; often unaware that we’re interacting with automated bots? People are starving for true human connection. To the point that the relationship companies build with their customers is often more important than the products and services they sell to them.

Create a product or service that highlights how you can get closer to friends/family; sharing more meaningful experiences. Loving things outside of work and sharing those passions enables you and your business to create meaningful connections with like-minded people. These deep connections lead not only to success in business, but at the same time, exposing yourself to people who share your interests leads to a happier life.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the idea, but couldn't get into it and think I would have preferred a much shorter version.

[Alexiel Dubois · Rating 1 out of 5]

Praticamente inutile, forse adatto solo a chi non ha mai letto né passato del tempo su un social o che non si guarda intorno.

[Josephine Gibbons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone in business can get something out of this book! Whether you sell products or services, this book illustrates how fans are made and why a passionate fanbase is essential to every business.

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Business of Being Recognized
David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott’s “Fanocracy” is most persuasive when it forgets to behave like a manual.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | June 10th, 2026

David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott’s “Fanocracy” begins from a premise that sounds, at first, like a customer-experience slogan with a laminated badge: businesses should stop chasing customers and start making fans. The sentence arrives with its shoes shined and its clicker already advancing. The surprise is that the book is stranger and livelier than its pitch. Its sharpest scenes are not finally about conversion or retention, though those words hover nearby, hands folded, wearing badges. They are about the bodily relief of being read without translation: a sticker on a laptop, a sweatshirt at medical-school orientation, a poem in a doctor’s office, a comic-book costume praised by the people who drew it. Under the sales-bright frame, the real longing is simpler: to become legible before one has to explain.

Even the founding anecdotes know this better than the book’s vocabulary sometimes does. David meets Brian Halligan at HubSpot, and what matters first is not software but the stickered surface of a laptop: Japan, Nantucket, the Grateful Dead. The stickers do what small signals often do in adult life – they smuggle the real person past the professionally acceptable one. Out of that shorthand come friendship, concerts, advisory work, and a prior book on the Grateful Dead and marketing. Reiko’s parallel scene is quieter. She meets Dr. Azra Raza expecting the scrubbed competence of a medical environment and finds, instead, a room where poetry, translation, memory, and medicine sit close together. Raza’s point – that care begins with knowing what a person loves – is the sentence the book keeps proving, sometimes in spite of itself.

Marketing books often flatter their readers by promising that the unruly parts of liking things can be laminated into method. “Fanocracy” does this too, and with ease and evangelizing polish. It offers marching orders: get closer than usual, let go of your creations, give more than you have to, make it a game, build identity, use influencers wisely, break down barriers, listen, tell the truth, develop employees who are fans, share your fandom. The chapter titles march in imperative boots. If Will Guidara’s “Unreasonable Hospitality” turns extravagant service into an art of attention, and Seth Godin’s “Tribes” treats shared enthusiasm as something leaders can gather, “Fanocracy” carries that impulse into fan fiction, software, surfboards, medicine, concerts, and convention floors. It is less elegant than Priya Parker’s “The Art of Gathering,” but it shares her interest in rooms arranged so that strangers can become legible to one another.

Examples keep arriving, genial and over-caffeinated. They pile up like tote bags at a launch event. St. Vincent steps offstage at Outside Lands and plays within almost-touching distance of her fans. Steve Cohen, the Millionaires’ Magician, turns intimacy into the engine of his parlor show. Starbucks sells not coffee alone but permission to sit near other people without having to call it need. KOA campgrounds recreate something like small-town sociability. Josh’s Rainbow Eggs makes ethical transparency and a teenager’s exuberance part of the purchase. The Grateful Dead allow taping and turn music into a gift passed hand to hand. Duracell gives away batteries after disasters. A Sydney taxi driver caps the fare and refuses the tip. Grain Surfboards invites customers into the workshop to build the board themselves. KFC, faced with a chicken shortage, apologizes with the kind of deadpan admission that makes a corporate mistake sound like a person clearing his throat. IHOP’s IHOb stunt, by contrast, becomes the book’s warning pancake: attention is not trust, even when it comes with syrup.

Taken in outline, this can sound almost indecently cheerful, as if loneliness needed only better event planning. For long stretches, the book is indeed lit from the front. It prefers the path from being counted to being known. Reiko’s chapters complicate that brightness most fruitfully. In “Sleep No More,” she learns that an audience member cannot experience every thread of an immersive “Macbeth” and that this incompleteness is not a defect but the form’s point. Her discussion of fan fiction, curative and transformative fandom, “Check, Please!,” and reader-response theory gives the book more resistance than its standard business examples supply. Here fandom is more than devotion to a thing. It is the right to interpret, remix, argue with, care for, and partly remake what one loves. A company that wants fans must be willing to lose some control over what its creation means. This is a barbed idea, and it is not fully house-trained for business advice.

Reiko is also the reason the book’s emotional life extends beyond enthusiasm harnessed. Her medical chapters, especially those centered on Henry and Jeremy, test whether the book’s favorite words can survive a hospital room. Henry has MDS, but the fact that most matters in the scene is that he is an artist whose treatment decisions depend on whether he will still be able to make work. Jeremy arrives first as a chart, a diagnosis, a recurrent infection, a difficult social situation; then he becomes a person asking why he is not getting better and responding to a doctor who finally answers him plainly. These scenes are not service lessons. They show how reduction wounds before it organizes. A person becomes less human when flattened into a category – patient, user, buyer, prospect, ticket, lead. The book’s best moral correction is tucked inside these encounters: no one is only the folder into which you have dropped them.

In that sense, “Fanocracy” is most powerful when it forgets to behave like a manual. Reiko’s “Mass Effect” sweatshirt, spotted by another medical student, is a better argument than many of the bullet-point lessons. So is her Comic Con chapter, in which she, Jenny, and Claire dress as the three forms of the Morrigan from “The Wicked + The Divine,” worried that no one will recognize them, only to have the creators praise them and ask for a photograph. The moment is small, brightly foolish, and strangely exact. The costume is not a disguise. It is a confession with feathers. The scene catches what the book keeps circling: fandom lets people wear the self that an ordinary résumé would have no idea how to list.

Part of what saves the book from becoming only a genial marketing sermon is its dual authorship. David’s prose has the springy, demonstrative gait of a practiced speaker: anecdote, principle, example, takeaway, smile. He is at his best when he lets scenes carry their own persuasive weight – the surfer giving him a wave in Hawaii, the Grain Surfboards workshop, the chef’s table at L’Espalier, the Roman restaurant where staff warmth becomes the real meal. Reiko’s prose is more exploratory and more willing to revise itself. She admits embarrassment, misrecognition, hesitation. She is alert to the ways identity forms through stories and how professional life often polices the enthusiasms that make people vivid. If David gives the book its working scaffolding, Reiko gives it its inner weather.

As prose, “Fanocracy” is clean, conversational, and built to move. It is not built to brood. Sentences tend to be short to medium in length, with a rhythm closer to public speaking than to essayistic pressure. The diction favors accessibility: passion, connection, trust, authenticity, community, fans, human. These are not false words, but after a few hundred pages they begin to look as though they all belong to the same very friendly gym. The imagery is stronger when it is concrete: laptop stickers, black Comic Con makeup, a wooden surfboard, a Lindy Hop jacket, Coldplay wristbands, Trader Joe’s pastel mini totes, a “Mass Effect” sweatshirt, a doctor’s bookshelves. The book needs these objects. Without them, its abstractions would evaporate into keynote mist.

Practically speaking, the structure both clarifies and corrals. The command-driven chapters make the book easy to use. One can imagine a marketer, founder, bookseller, restaurateur, physician, event organizer, or team leader flipping to the relevant principle and finding something applicable. The design works because it lets a busy reader enter almost anywhere. It also repeats itself. Again and again, a vivid scene is introduced, translated into a principle, supported by additional cases, then restated as advice, as if the example might wander off unless clipped to a takeaway. The method creates momentum through abundance, but not always depth. After a while, the reader may feel less like a participant at Comic Con than a person trying to visit every booth before the hall closes.

Abundance, though, is part of how this book thinks. “Fanocracy” wants to prove that fandom is everywhere, and so it goes everywhere: music festivals, software firms, hospitals, bookstores, restaurants, campgrounds, surf shops, skate shops, dance floors, voter-registration booths, comic conventions, olive-oil supply chains, ticketing systems, employee-culture decks. The range gives the book its bustle. It also blurs the term. By the later chapters, “fanocracy” has come to include hospitality, customer service, transparency, generosity, influencer strategy, employee engagement, gamification, ethical sourcing, activism, crisis communications, and personal happiness. Breadth gives the book warmth, but it muddies the borders. If every admirable organizational behavior is fan-building, the word begins to lose the particularity the book otherwise celebrates.

David’s own disclosure in the acknowledgments matters here. He notes that he does advisory work, seminars, and paid speaking around the book’s concepts, and that some of the people he writes about are friends, clients, or professional contacts. This does not disqualify the examples, but it changes the light in which they are displayed. The case studies often enter already warmed by friendship, access, affinity, and mutual admiration. That proximity gives the book vividness, but it also pads the corners of skepticism. The book is excellent at showing how enthusiasm circulates among people already disposed to share it. It is less searching about what happens when belonging is harder, more expensive, more exclusionary, or more aggressively engineered.

It is no small omission, because fandom can bite. The book does acknowledge toxic fan behavior, especially around “Star Wars,” and it understands that creators cannot simply surrender to audience ownership. It criticizes fake influence, manipulative language, ticketing opacity, and attention stunts masquerading as candor. Still, it tends to pass through the back rooms quickly, flicking on the light, nodding at the mess, and returning to the party. What about scarcity engineered to create status anxiety? What about employees asked to be passionate on command? What about fans who confuse access with entitlement, or brands that turn intimacy into capture? “Fanocracy” sees these dangers, but it does not let them interrupt the music for long.

Maybe that preference is why the book remains likable even when it is stretched too thin. Its optimism is not cynical. It does not seem to be selling community while secretly despising the people who gather. Quite the opposite: the Scotts are unusually generous toward enthusiasm itself. They take seriously the fan-fiction writer, the cosplayer, the Deadhead, the Lindy Hop dancer, the teenager with Air Jordans, the “Magic: The Gathering” player, the editor who is an author’s first fan, the a cappella singer who asks job candidates what they can do better than anyone else in a gym full of strangers. The book’s small but real rebellion lies in refusing to treat delight as embarrassing. It argues that the supposedly unserious things people love are often the most reliable maps to their seriousness.

In the final chapters, this becomes explicit. Reiko’s “A Passionate Life” turns away from customer strategy toward the publicly worn sign of private devotion. Juanito Pascual folds Hendrix, the Beatles, jam bands, jazz, and flamenco into a musical language that tells audiences, “I am one of you.” Jenny, an editor, describes herself as an author’s champion – the first person whose enthusiasm must become contagious inside a publishing house. India Wood, the girl who found a dinosaur, does not grow into a paleontologist but learns from the discovery what obsession and accomplishment feel like, then builds a career studying creative markets. HeadCount and the Harry Potter Alliance show fan energy redirected toward voting, literacy, health, justice, and civic participation. The book’s sales pitch is about companies. Its ending is about the relief of not sealing off what one loves from what one does.

This is where the father-daughter frame finally earns itself. The closing chapter, “Share Your Fandom,” is slight, but its modesty is the point. David and Reiko receive the Boston Calling lineup at the same time, scan for favorites, message each other. It is not a grand revelation. It is a ping of shared anticipation across separate lives. The scene neatly reverses the book’s business vocabulary. A fanocracy is not first an organization’s asset. It is a relationship sustained by common language. Father and daughter, physician and marketer, boomer-adjacent concertgoer and millennial fan-fiction writer, meet in the space of what they love. The book has been building toward this domestic truth all along.

Rating “Fanocracy” requires proportion, and proportion is not the same as dampening pleasure. It is not rigorous enough, original enough, or formally taut enough to be a great book. It repeats itself, overexplains, and sometimes mistakes the glow of a good example for proof. Its belief in fandom’s goodness could use more friction, more shadow, more sustained attention to how easily belonging becomes leverage. But it is considerably better than a mere customer-loyalty manual. Its finest scenes have charge, and Reiko’s chapters give the book a cultural and emotional intelligence that its framework alone would not possess. My final rating is 76/100, which translates, by the stated scale, to 3/5 stars – a favorable three, warm but not dazzled, appreciative but unwilling to join every parade.

Outside its business frame, the book speaks to a plain modern appetite: people are over-contacted and under-recognized. They receive messages all day and still want to be met. They are sorted, scored, targeted, segmented, and reminded, but not necessarily seen. “Fanocracy” is most useful when it names that hunger without pretending that every organization can solve it with a checklist. Its practical advice is sometimes too frictionless, but it knows that the first note of attachment is usually small.

Perhaps the book’s most durable contribution is its defense of ardor worn where others can see it. There is a faintly comic bravery in wearing the sweatshirt, applying the face paint, putting the sticker on the laptop, joining the dance class, saving the concert ticket, making the tote bag matter. The Scotts understand that such gestures are not merely consumer behaviors. They are small flags planted against anonymity. They say: here is a door into me; knock if you know the code.

One can object, fairly, that companies are not friends, brands are not families, and the language of love becomes dangerous when access, passion, and community are too easily translated into revenue. The book knows this in flashes, especially when it warns against fake influence, fan entitlement, and corporate spin, but it rarely lets the objection become heavy. That is a limitation. It is also, in some ways, the condition of the book’s appeal. “Fanocracy” is not written from suspicion. It is written from the floor of the convention hall, the edge of the stage, the exam room, the dance class, the campfire, the kitchen, the workshop, the place where people are already leaning toward one another.

Underneath the framework, then, is a more fragile proposition than the book always admits: fans are not made; they answer. A company, artist, doctor, editor, teacher, or friend can create the conditions – nearness, honesty, generosity, room to play – but the answering spark remains voluntary. That is why the book’s best examples involve recognition rather than persuasion. The surfer gives the wave. The doctor asks about poetry. The comic artist asks for the photograph. The student notices the sweatshirt. The signal travels because someone receives it as more than a tactic.

Look closely and the book’s central word begins to feel less corporate than communal. “Fanocracy” may be an ungainly coinage, half manifesto and half merch-table banner, but the longing it names is plain enough. People want to gather around what they love without being mocked for loving it. They want to carry private enthusiasms into public rooms and discover that those enthusiasms can become friendships, work, care, and sometimes service. The book is at its wisest when it stops trying to prove that this is scalable and simply shows how it feels when it happens.

One leaves “Fanocracy” with a sharper eye for the little flags people fly in ordinary life. A sticker, a sweatshirt, a tote bag, a tattoo, a comic costume, a song half-played in another genre, a book pressed into a friend’s hands – these are not trivial signals. They are invitations, sometimes awkward, often hopeful, asking whether anyone else speaks the language. The sales apparatus may be overstuffed, but the first gesture is right: before anyone risks a confession, there is the sticker, the shirt, the half-overheard song.

Still, the final image is not of a brand capturing a customer but of one person looking up. Someone has brought what they love into the room. Someone else recognizes the signal and answers back.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a lifelong fandom participant (comic cons, midnight book signings, buying merchandise, fan fiction etc), this book gets it right when considering the enthusiasm and loyalty of fandom! It is engaging throughout, easy to digest, and thought provoking.

From cover to cover, I enjoyed reading "Fanocracy" - which isn’t something I typically say about marketing books. The insights David and Reiko offer about harnessing passion as a marketing tool really resonated with my nerd self and I cannot wait to put them into practice!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANOCRACY is not just another business book. It’s a revelation.

There is a fundamental truism of business that most people working today have never learned or have simply forgotten in our hyper-digitized world: regardless of the sector we are in, or the product or service that we offer, we are all in the business of relationships. Our success (and our failure) stems from our ability (or inability) to generate a true human connection in an increasingly dehumanized world.

FANOCRACY by the father/daughter team of David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott lifts the lid on this important insight, and provides a powerful, engaging exploration of ways in which businesses – and, indeed, ANYONE, from garage bands to YouTubers -- can build life-long relationships with fans and super-fans. As David and Reiko make clear, creating a FANOCRACY around your product or service is at the very heart of what it means to build a brand or any meaningful corporate culture.

As the authors make clear, people crave meaningful and relevant relationships in their lives. Some of the most powerful (and enduring) relationships are built around shared passion. As the many examples in this book illustrate, the strongest and longest lasting relationships are formed when our personal passions intersect with the normal daily activities of our lives. Are your customers your biggest fans? Do they crave engagement with your company like they do when they engage in their hobbies? If not, and you WANT them to, then you NEED to read this book.

In reading FANOCRACY, I was also particularly impressed with the generational perspective – from boomer to millennial -- as Reiko and David each bring to the table their own personal, insightful observations and lessons. This unique dynamic infuses FANOCRACY with an engaging and urgent authenticity.

FANOCRACY is a unique and invaluable business book. It’s a page turner. And a heck of a lot of fun to read. In a word: I’m a fan. Buy the book. Read it. Practice it’s simple but fundamental lessons. You will be a fan, too.

[Steve Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s like some kind of inspirational soup for the Marketing Soul.

Fanocracy is an inspiration. Many marketing books describe a perfect scenario which often leaves me thinking, “That’s fine for them; they’re a big company. But my little company could never do it.” As you read Fanocracy, you say, “Hey, I could do that!”

Fanocracy is how you bring like-minded people together to celebrate what they love. And any company or organization can do it—including yours. Authors David Meerman Scott and his daughter Reiko show how organizations as diverse as Kampgrounds of America and Duracell create fanocracy. Fanocracy works for bands and batteries, multi-player games and surf boards—well, it works wherever you find fans and organizations aligned around a purpose or a passion.

David writes, “A great way for to create love for what you do is to figure out ways to let people into your world. When everyone else is making products and services sold via transaction, you create fans!”

Reiko adds, “A fandom business is human-centered instead of data-obsessed.”

It’s actually quite simple: be consistent in your behavior and you win the trust of your customers. After all, when you encounter a person or organization treating you honestly and fairly, aren’t you surprised? I’m thinking of car companies and internet providers—who seem to have tricking (or cheating) their customers as a key element of their business model.

If you’re in a marketing role, you surely know the power of work-of-mouth. Without it, you’re missing the best way to reach your clients—by creating a community of and for your die-hard fans.

[F Aljenaei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good insights, stretched storytelling

Overall the idea of fanocracy and building fans is smart. I enjoyed some ideas and benefited, but found myself digging to figure out actionable advice. Here’s the breakdown:

Good takeaways:

- your brand should reflect your audience’s identity.
- 3.6 meters human proximity rule; getting within client’s social space will turn them into fans since they will feel they are part of the experience.
- hybrid lead magnet; offer clients totally free info/webinar etc. with nothing in exchange and within this free offering they will find another freebie that requires them to give some info. This is the most effective lead magnet method.
- let fans be part of creating their experience, see the brand through fans eyes.
- power of selfies, they break intimate barriers + they’re fun and show humanity which creates a strong passionate fans.
- mirroring effect; we unconsciously mirror others which means when you engage closely with a client other clients feel they are part of the action and the intimacy.

Downside:

- Filled with storytelling, sometimes fun and other times repetitive and well.. just kind of predictable and long to the point of boring.
- Lack of direct actionable steps.
- Could be shorter for sure.

[Michele Silbey · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was boring and uninformative. It was basically a book of stories where the writers had received better than average customer service from various product companies or services. I do not recommend.

[Grant Cousineau · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's certainly a unique idea, going beyond the concept of just satisfying customer needs or disrupting markets. The Scotts identify the central North Star for any company looking to maximize its customer service: by turning them into fans. The idea is that if customers love you like people love movies or music or books, or certain brands like Apple or the Green Bay Packers, they'll not only become lifelong loyal customers, but probably the strongest on-the-ground marketing component for your business.

My team at work read this as part of our monthly book club, and I will say, it was a good selection. Creating that mindset among as many employees as possible is essential--any company where every associate is hyper-focused on creating fans is bound to succeed. The stories were insightful, like how McKinsey taps alumni to become brand ambassadors beyond their employment, or how Magic: The Gathering creates an immersive world where players can customize their decks, thereby giving them more control over their experience. They talk about how video games give players the tools to build their own experience, and how one surfboard company invites customers to workshops where they can learn how to build their own board. There are dozens and dozens of examples where companies thought outside-the-box to create unique experiences that turned customers to fans.

Where the book fell a little short for me, personally, was that in the end, this felt more like a list of all of the authors' favorite brands and companies. These were experiences they'd had and collected over the years, identifying why some businesses stood out to them more than others. While insightful, I was unsure how to carry this back to my own work. For the record, I work for a health insurance company, where turning customers into "fans" is inevitably going to be a little more difficult than, say, Ubisoft, who makes colossally creative and imaginative games, or Nike, a company associated with the sports we play as a kid and root for as an adult. We pay insurance claims. It doesn't matter if a service is denied because their employer chose a plan that didn't cover it -- most often, we're the faceless bad guys. That doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to turn people into fans, or that we haven't already. It's just a much taller order.

I'd hoped to find something a little more prescriptive, maybe. I don't know if that's possible, though there were moments where they came close, such as how Adobe's website spent more time addressing how the word "Photoshop" should and shouldn't be used in the English language than on actually improving the experience with the program. I also enjoyed the anecdotes about how IHOP intentionally misled customers with their "IHOB" campaign, as opposed to KFC who, when they once ran out of chicken, were bluntly honest with customers in a way that people appreciated. I work in content strategy (similar to marketing), and wholeheartedly believe honesty is crucial for every business. But if there'd been something more in this book about how to elevate customer service interactions, or communicate a brand story, or even stats on the most impactful forms of customer interactions, it'd have made it easier to figure out how I could apply these concepts at my own job.

I will say that, at the very least, I have a new goal. Not just at my current job, but any job I have hereafter. I want to work for a company that when people think about it, they smile, that they tell friends and family about. I want them to genuinely enjoy what my company did/does for them. I want to work for a company that people enjoy having in their life, that they'd buy a t-shirt of and wear at the store like Nike or the Packers or Coldplay. I think that's an honorable goal to have in life, and for that, I should thank the Scotts. (Also, they personally signed this copy of the book--something I didn't ask for, or pay extra for, but it definitely made me smile to see it. Things like that are just cool.)

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Entrepreneur Press Audio for access to this audiobook arc in exchange for my honest review.
I was not familiar with this book prior to seeing it on NetGalley. I realize this is the second edition, but I went into reading this without previous context. I thought it would have more of a sports focus, given the cover. It instead is a book about developing fandoms for all kinds of topics, including businesses, brands, activities, hobbies, etc. I think it is a good read, not a great read.
Narration: Fanocracy is narrated by the father-daughter duo who wrote it. And I think it’s okay, not great. I am really a proponent of hiring professional voice actors to narrate audiobooks, unless the authors bring an especially emotional viewpoint or the author is also a trained actor. This book would have benefited from professional voice work as it’s informative but a little flat. Still, it is easy to understand both narrators, they have good pacing, and no annoying or distracting verbal inserts. But the narration is “fine” when a professional could have made it excellent. For a book about building a fandom, I would have presumed they would want the best talent working to tell their story.
Story: The story is good once I got past the bait and switch I experienced. This is very much not a sports book which was a little disappointing for me. The cover uses such sports-style iconography, I expected to be reading more about sports fandom. However, the book is good and offers solid business-related tips. I did take note of several things I’d like to consider for my work in the non-profit world. I like the variety of examples, even though some of the examples seem like elite brands (private snorkel tours, monthly underwear subscriptions, build your own surfboards, etc.) and I would have appreciated more lower-priced examples. Not everyone has $100 for a deposit; still there are pieces of information I garnered from these examples. The voter registration is a nice instance of finding creative ways to connect with your audience.
The style of the book - sharing various examples across chapters and referencing back - kept me engaged. And I like the idea of a father-daughter duo. Feels updated and relevant.
Audiobook Flow: It flowed well, besides a small issue I mentioned to the publisher, which will likely be fixed prior to audiobook publication. Otherwise, good quality audiobook. No extraneous sounds. The chapter structure is easy to follow and the two narrator voices are different enough to distinguish.
Recommendation: 3 stars. It wasn’t the book I was expecting and I think it is really intended for different readers than I am. I like business advice, but I think making it a bit more accessible and practical - perhaps having different price-point examples, would have made this a higher rated book.

[JennaJustReading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott explores how businesses and organizations can move beyond simply attracting customers and instead build communities of people who genuinely care about what they do.

I thought the content of this book was very good. The authors make a strong case for why developing real connections with people matters, and they support their ideas with practical, concrete examples. Those examples come from several different industries, which helped demonstrate that the principles they are advocating aren’t limited to one particular kind of business. The methods can be adapted and used in a variety of ways, whether you are building a company, growing an organization, or trying to create a more engaged community around your work.

Because I am currently working on a startup, I found the book personally relevant and genuinely helpful. It gave me useful ideas to think about—not only in terms of attracting customers, but also in terms of creating the kind of experience and connection that could turn those customers into enthusiastic supporters. The book is insightful and accessible without being overly technical. At the same time, it doesn’t oversimplify its subject. For me, it struck the right balance between explaining the larger ideas and showing how they can be put into practice.

The audiobook itself was just okay. I believe it was narrated by the authors, and I found the delivery a little immature or unpolished at times. However, I don’t listen to many nonfiction audiobooks, so some of that may simply come down to my own preferences or unfamiliarity with the format. Either way, my feelings about the narration did not diminish the value of the actual content.

In fact, I think this may be a book that works better in print than in audio. There were enough useful ideas and examples that I wanted to stop, make notes, and return to certain sections. I will likely purchase a physical copy so I can do exactly that.

Although the audio experience didn’t completely work for me, the book itself was insightful, practical, and very beneficial. I would definitely recommend it, especially to entrepreneurs, business owners, marketers, or anyone interested in building meaningful and lasting connections with the people they serve.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entrepreneur Press Audio for providing me with an advance listening copy of this book.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book contains a handful of examples of how to strengthen relationships with customers and turn them into fans. It was interesting to learn about some of these approaches, but at the same time, the book often felt very one-sided. The authors focus almost exclusively on how each proposed mechanism can positively impact a business if done correctly, without really discussing the potential downsides. I was also hoping the book would at least touch on the darker side of fandoms (cases when fans are blindly driven too far, up to the point of becoming harmful to society or humanity in general), but there was no discussion of that.

It’s also important to highlight that this is a book written by marketers, for marketers. There is little to no research behind the ideas, and most examples seem to be based on the authors’ personal intuition, judgment, and a few successful past experiences, without much supporting data.

A note about the audiobook:
As an audiobook, I also found the narration confusing at first. The switch between the male narrator, David Meerman Scott, and the female narrator, Reiko Scott, was done in a way that made it difficult to understand what was happening. David would be telling a story about how being a music fan changed his life, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, a female voice would start talking about an experience in a doctor’s office. I genuinely thought there had been an error during the audiobook assembly and that part of a completely different book had somehow been inserted. It took me quite a while to realize that the female narrator’s story was also meant to illustrate an example of fanocracy.

[Stephanie McMillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I find myself reading non-fiction outside the explicitly medical/health fields I'm always surprised how universal some themes and topics are and how you can easily apply concepts to other industries. In other words, I don't always go seeking out medicine, but it often finds me in unlikely places. In this book, told by a father-daughter duo (a first in my reading life, to my knowledge) the daughter is a medical student and used several medical examples I found highly relevant to my own life.

I liked Fanocracy because it worked to explain the phenomenon I've seen in businesses around me. Why are Jordans so popular? Why is Starbucks? What drives the phenomenon around Harry Potter? The Grateful Dead? These are several examples that the book discussed & to a certain extent I wish they had been discussed even further.

The book alternates author & their tone is definitely distinct. Unsurprisingly, I found myself relating much more to Reiko, as a young woman in medicine myself. And I didn't relate as much to David's sections and often found myself kind of skimming those.

It's an interesting and different business book than I've read before. I especially liked the resources you could download online with the passcode in the back of the book. Here's to participating & building fandoms.

As an aside, I think a podcast called Fanocracy with each episode dedicated to covering different fandoms & their unique traits & customs would be so fascinating and I would be an avid listener. Someone please create this or tell me if it already exists.

[Victoria H · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrators were good and easy to listen to. I always like it when authors are the ones to narrate their own book, especially for adult nonfiction, since the goal is for us to trust that the author is an expert and knows what they're talking about. David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott accomplish that goal - they very much seem to know what they're talking about. They also speak quite clearly; there's no difficulty in understanding if you want to speed it up a bit.

As for how useful I think the information is, that's mixed. The stories are interesting and told in a compelling way. They tell you *why* fandom is a great marketing and business tactic. They explain how and why building a relationship with your clients is important. On the other hand, they don't really tell you how to leverage fandom for your own purposes in a really specific, practical way, so for those of us who went into this looking for that, it's not really laid out clearly. I would have appreciated more exercises or something specific for you to figure out how to do that with your own brand, even if I know that's difficult because it's a bit like catching lightning in a bottle. So they can tell you all these stories of how other people did it, and it might inspire you, but there's still some extra steps for you to figure out on your own.

This audiobook was given to me by the publisher as an Advanced Listening Copy via NetGalley with the expectation that I'll leave an honest review.

[Mandy Lehti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott is a bold, insightful deep dive into the most powerful marketing engine on earth human connection. Moving far beyond algorithms and ad spend, the Scotts reveal how brands that thrive today do so by transforming customers into passionate, loyal fans.

Drawing on neuroscience, real world case studies, and their own professional experiences, the authors show how emotional resonance drives long-term growth. From MeUndies’ community centered transparency to Hagerty’s classic car culture and HubSpot’s fan-fueled conferences, every example underscores one truth: when people feel seen, valued, and included, they don’t just buy they belong.

What makes Fanocracy stand out is its heart. The father daughter duo blend research with storytelling, creating a framework that’s as emotionally intelligent as it is strategic. Their approach bridges business and humanity, urging organizations to replace transactional thinking with genuine connection.

For entrepreneurs, marketers, and leaders ready to grow not just a customer base but a community, Fanocracy is a masterclass in turning love into loyalty and loyalty into limitless growth.

[Angi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't worked in the field for a couple of decades now, though my background is in public relations and then advertising, so I was curious to see what updated guidance looks like. I found the book helpful and relevant in its advice, including the portions written by the daughter. (They have a different narrator; I was originally confused about the change in voice for some chapters, but ultimately found it helpful.) There was a portion of the book I personally found grating because it talked about how "all people" want to be surrounded by crowds of like-minded others--and as a solid introvert I kept thinking it might be true for most people, but wildly inaccurate for others--but by the end of the book they showed a broader mindset indicating different audiences have different preferences, and the guidance generally passes the common sense test. The book overall includes a handful of lessons that are well worth thinking through, though I don't know that I'd use it as a primer for marketing in general, just a deep dive into the specific angle of cultivating fans among one's customers (which is, after all, what the book sets out to do).

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NOTE: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for a review expressing my personal opinions.

[Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking to add value to your product or service? The future of interaction in an increasingly dehumanizing society.
The book Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott divulges into the importance of developing meaningful relationships and fostering a unique connection amongst consumers. Some lessons I learned from completing this book include:

• Get to know your customers by taking advantage of what you have in common.
• Long term relationships with consumers are more influential than the product itself.
• Fandom brings people together that normally wouldn’t be acquainted.
• Deeper connections serve as the forefront for a successful business.
• Creating channels for easy human interaction is vital for fans and businesses.

I would recommend this book to any business looking to add value to their business by creating meaningful relationships. I would also recommend this book to anyone looking to learn about the importance of human interaction.

[Katherine Blanco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generously giving it a solid three stars

If you're from Red Sox Nation Reiko's simultaneous claims that she's from Boston and the Red Socks are *just*a baseball team are going to leave a bad taste in your mouth and you might find yourself swearing passionately. Just a warning in case there are kids around...
As for the rest of the book, each chapter opens with an example of fandom that is totally overlooked and not discussed for the rest of the chapter. Pointless anecdotes that you didn't need to buy this book to know they exist. Turns out, that when people are passionate about things, they talk about it. I knew that already... I'm three chapters in and I haven't learned a thing about turning consumers into fans.
If you've studied anything about markets and marketing (for example, you are aware of the difference between the two) this book might not be all that helpful.

[Bargain Sleuth Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ALC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

As someone who worked for one of the most rabid fans in the country, I was curious about this book. There's a lot of anecdotal stories in the book, which I appreciated, but no real turn-around into how to parlay that into increasing sales or fandoms. I also felt the book was a little long given what it turned out to be.

The authors did a good job of narrating the book. For some nonfiction books, that could be a big mistake, but the Scotts sound almost like they travel and do public speaking on this topic. Very smooth delivery.

In the end, not the book for me, but it might be for others.

[Arathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think I liked this book. Though there were very many anecdotes/cases, it felt very scattered and didn't have a unifying framework, I think. The cases were interesting, but I just couldn't tell why they were included. What exactly are you trying to say? That you should create something that other people will market for you? Okay, but how? Unfortunately, I have to say this wasn't for me. It's more a series of good customer service story that the authors got rather than anything coherent and useful.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Mary Mondragon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains useful reflections about different elements of businesses that help turn customers into fans. However, throughout the book we are forced to look at the authors’ experience and interpretation of situations and accept them as the “only way”, because they have not completed their thoughts with published research from others to help confirm or discuss their own views. That part was lacking.

[Laura Skladzinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and the conversational style in which it was written. The authors used a lot of different examples (though some where a bit repetitive), and I found it to be a nice storytelling compilation of case studies; however, there wasn't really a solid summary of overall advice, and some of the examples seemed a bit lucky (i.e., there were probably other stories of companies who took the same tactic but failed to build a fanocracy).

[Gladys Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

First audiobook I have explored. Also first time I schedule time for daily professional development during work time. I enjoyed lots the book and it’s more 3.5 stars as it gives great examples of Health sciences that I can apply engaging with people that also works on this field.
The most valuable tip I keep from this book is the link between passion and building a fanocracy “your relationship with your customers starts with the curiosity you have about them”

[Melanie Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fanocracy looks at a simple idea that many organizations overlook. People are far more likely to stay engaged when they feel a genuine connection to a brand, company, or community. Rather than focusing strictly on traditional marketing tactics, the authors explore how businesses can build loyalty by creating meaningful experiences and relationships. I found the examples engaging and appreciated that the book draws from a variety of industries rather than relying on a single type of business.

[Stef Garvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authors David and Reiko Scott master the art of storytelling to fan the flames around creating a fanocracy. While the term might seem a bit like hyperbole, the stories and concepts shared throughout the book reveal building real connections between customers and businesses is not only valuable but also attainable.