【Following】 ,  【clientele】 ,  【public】 ,  【audience】  are comparable when they denote the body of persons who attach themselves to another especially as disciples, patrons, or admirers.

【Following】 is the most comprehensive term, applicable to a group that follows either as a physical train or retinue or as the adherents of a leader, the disciples of a philosopher, the customers of a salesman, the admirers of a young woman, or the fans of an actor.

【Clientele】 is chiefly used of the persons, collectively, who go habitually for services to a professional man (as a lawyer or physician) or who give their patronage to a business establishment (as a hotel, a restaurant, or a shop).

【Public】  basically denotes a group of people with a common interest and may come close to  【following】 in many of its applications (as to adherents, disciples, customers, and admirers); often, however, it distinctively conveys the notion of a group making active demands rather than one passively or admiringly 【following】 .

【Audience】 is applicable to a 【following】 that listens with attention to what a person has to say whenever he addresses them (as in a speech or a book).

【Audience】 , rather than spectators (see SPECTATOR ), is also the usual term for designating the body of persons attending a lecture, a play, or a concert on the assumption that they are there primarily to hear, only secondarily to see.