445 people.

Or so says Baekdal.com, who put together a fascinating analysis on the "Power and Value of a Fan.”

It’s definitely worth the read. I am impressed.

I don’t agree with everything there…for example, it would depend on your Twitter strategy before I’d count everyone there, but this is a GREAT cut at the idea of actually quantifying the value of a Raving Fan.

It’s inspired me to do an analysis of my own which I will share, of course, when it is done.

Particularly interesting was his experience where the strangers shared more than Fans. Of course, we don’t necessarily know HOW those strangers got to his site in the first place (e.g. was it through Fans?)

For example, my post on Influencers vs. Fans reached (by my estimates) over 500k people…the bulk of which was generated by strangers, not Fans, but it WAS fans who kicked it off for me.

We’ll be seeing a lot more of these in the future, as we should.

I often tell people that “Raving Fans are so valuable they should be listed as an asset on your balance sheet.”

Now, we’re getting closer to being able to do that.