This brand has chosen to remain anonymous - and for good reasons. They do some really really cool stuff that’s while not technically illegal, definitely makes Big Pharma unhappy. Namely, they’re looking for ways to make American Healthcare 100x cheaper and more DIY.
It was a joy to do this project and I’m still in an advisory role there. While it’s weird to have clients that I can’t (or at least shouldn’t name), I’m gonna brag about this project anyways.
For the sake of narrative flow, ease of writing and the fun of it, let’s call this company “NotAnomymous”
NotAnomymous are somewhat well known in their spaces. Their key products are DIY medicine synthesis tools. Lots of people have heard of them in passing, but they’re struggling to get any reasonable traffic or social attention despite some news appearances. So we started diving deep into the why.
The key question for this research was “How do we find our people, who will actually follow our DIY manuals and re-plicate our results?”
So I dove into what makes the most sense with digital-first brands. I did digital-first research.
So below is my personal favourite technique to diagnose and understand communities. They only had several thousand followers - tiny for their fame. But their social profile immediately made a few things very obvious! Double-cliick for full-size
80% of their followers were there just for the message. With such a tiny audience and such an absolutely insanely cool technical product, that was clearly very wrong. So we started talking about their history.
The thing is, they went to a lot of events in more alternative communities - it resulted in praise, positive feedback and frequent cheers. 99% people there supported the cause - but not the execution. Simply said, they fell with the wrong crowd, as did most of the organizations they partnered with frequently! An exert below:
<aside> 💡 Both the space you’re in, and your own audience, can be divided into 3 categories. Obviously everything is a fluid spectrum, these are not hard binary groups. However, these 3 categories are a nice mental shortcut to thinking about the 3 pillars of your audience:
Introducing The Activists, The Geeks, and the DYIrs
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audience segments, size not up to scale
There is strong overlap between The Geeks and Activists. There is a very strong overlap between The Geeks and the DYIrs There is little overlap between the Activists and the DYIrs
They’re the vast majority of your cultural sphere. The love the aesthetics of activism, anarchism, underground movements and the alternative. They like the philosophy, the essays, the memes, the politics. They frequently follow many political accounts and a few localized activist groups in their area. Activism is an identity - It’s very social. Some of them engage in direct action but most prefer to stay online and make change via digital discourse (however un(successful) that may be)
They’re also active in local union chapters, workers right movements and closely follow international news. Most recently, they’re advocating for Palestine and are newly following dozens of groups and channels dedicated to the subject.
However, they rarely feel comfortable with more complex or demanding tasks. They will definitely re-tweet or post things online. They are likely to attend some protests or events or speak-up about injustice in their surroundings. They might even join some more risky events. But very few of them have the dedication or self-confidence to build something or take initiative from scratch.
This group is 70-85% of your audience currently. They’re responsible for re-sharing your content and are happy to see that something like that exists. But they’re most likely never ever going to use anything from your website or books.
The geeks are more tech-savvy, especially in the digital space. They live and breath GNU and open-source. Most of them are familiar with DefCon, some even attended. While some consider themselves hackers or inventors, most are humble software engineers or tech students. They enjoy the more practical and life-impacting parts of technology.
They don’t have a clear line of ethics - some still love Elon Musk. Others are extremely vocal about dangers of AI. Some love the idea of a gray-hat activists and Anonymous. Others are in love with puzzles and technology. However diverse their views and opinions, all of them are interested in how technology interfaces with people and definitely can’t resist the cool factor of it.
This group is 10-20% of your audience. They’re the ones who find the technicalities cool. While many align with your worldview, others are for there for the ‘Science!” alone. They might build something if it aligns with their current needs but they wouldn’t go out of their way to make the projects.
This group has “done it” or at least has a long list of manuals in a home-server on their self-sustainable household. Some are preppers. Some have been forced to ‘take things into their own hands’ due to financial stress or medicine availability. Some are “citizen scientists” in need of the right tools. Others are hardcore activists trying to change the world with tech. One thing unites them - the bravery and audacity (and the resources) to get things done! They follow a lot of open-source hardware, as well as keep a lot of knowledge handy “just in case”.
Politically it’s a diverse groups and while most are Geeks, few are true Activists - they just don’t find the appeal of those communities. They’d rather be doing than talking. While they might support protests or share about important events, they’re above the aesthetics and above just speaking about issues. Most are very left-leaning but do expect many libertarians.
This group is up to 10% of your audience and is the most likely to use your projects based on their past experience with open-source hardware as well as interest in very specific, informative channels in their respective niches (from ecology to biology to homesteading).
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So what did I do to help them find the right space?
Well, we looked at the idea space!
I’ve investigated 5 unique spaces in the world of DIY - from preppers to Arduino lovers, to right-to-repair to off-grid farmers. Unsurprisingly, we decided the biotech nerds and DIY chemists were the perfect fit. And there are a lot of really cool ones out there! So after looking at the top profiles in the space and analyzing their network, I got a few actionable points: