The Formula for Successful Followership

It already exists, and it's time to jump on the bandwagon. Everything has a formula, from the modern modes of social media to the great literature of our time.

So without further adieu, I would like to take a moment to talk about The Lightning Thief, or as he's known to us mortals, Percy Jackson. Percy is your 12 year old, average, run-of-the-mill kid. Except Percy can make strange things happen, and one day he finds himself whisked away to a secret place just for magical kids like him. But Percy isn't your average magical kid either. He's special. He's the One. And there's little downtime when you're the One. Before long, he and his two new friends (a comic-relief sidekick and a braniac girl) are off on the adventure of a lifetime to fight the forces of evil and ensure that good prevails.

Perhaps the plot sounds a little familiar. Perhaps some of you have heard of a little book (7 little books, to be exact) that follow the adventures of a boy named Harry Potter. And by some, I mean all, because unless you've been dashing through hyperspace for the past ten years, you've heard of Harry Potter. And you know exactly how it begins, how it ends and who dies in the middle. You know enough to know that The Lighting Thief is The Boy Who Lived reincarnated, right down to the nerdy names and comic/brainy sidekicks. Oh yeah, Percy Jackson deals with Greek gods, not wizards. The key (and only) difference.

Lo' and behold, The Lightning Thief is a smash hit. People can't get enough of Percy. And as a die-hard Harry Potter fan, I'm not ashamed to admit that I myself am a new Percy fan too. As obvious as it may be that Rick Riordan (author of said book) is a major J.K. Rowling (who needs no introduction) fanboy, no one really cares that the basic plot and premise is the same. They like the plot, they miss the premise, and they're willing to buy anything that will suck them back into someone else's fantasy-land. The book is just different enough to make the story its own, and that's really all an audience needs.

Now lets turn back to social media. Think of all the facebook pages and twitter feeds you've ever seen. How different are they, really? Besides the fact that all pages and feeds are programmed to look exactly the same, you might notice that most of the really successful ones follow the same formula. Formulas they picked up from other pages (retweets, @'s anyone?) that have proven successful. Same with blogs. Every social media guru runs to Seth Godin first, and bases their blog off of his uber-successful example. No shame in it; if it works, why not? There's countless examples of multiple blogs, twitterers, whatever, pitching the exact same idea with an almost identical angle, and the successful ones are those that take that angle and deliver it in a fresh, interesting way.

See the connection? Substitute gods for wizards and people will be intrigued all over again. Put a sarcastic voice on a blog pitching cereal and you'll pique the interest of those bored with their bran.

So take a leaf out of The Lightning Thief's book, and steal.