Happy?photo © 2008 Peter Dutton | more info (via: Wylio)Author David Meerman Scott made a honest and realistic quote, “if you want 20,000 fans you must do 2000 different things that each generate 10 fans.” This was my favorite quote from 2010 and I am going to take this on as a challenge for 2011 for an ambitious project to give you 2000 different things you can do to generate 20,000 fans.

Some of these items will apply better for larger acts, some items will work for any act. Some may work for you, some may not… not yet. Some these can be done with little effort, some will take some web development, some might even require some significant development. Some of these have successfully worked for me over the years. The point is to create a list of items that would cover a wide range of acts and abilities.

The end result of all this will hopefully be more Facebook likes, Twitter followers, email list subscriptions, more sales and more traffic to your website… more fans!

Here are three more things that this time focus entirely on creating a environment where fans are always contributing to your website and you are obtaining new content without any expense. These will work for any size band, unsigned or international star.

2000 Things to Generate 20,000 Fans Challenge

12. Wish Your Fans a Happy Birthday – I love this tip so much I am posting it by itself. Marcio Teixeira made a very simple suggestion that fit perfectly with something else I was working on, wish your fans a Happy Birthday. We all love it when someone recognizes our birthday. I am also always impressed when every year Southwest Airlines sends me a birthday card. No other business does that. A very simple action that always makes me think just how much I like Southwest Airlines. You need to do the same with every one of your fans. I already hear the comments… how! We have 1000s of fans I can’t write every one of them personally. Here are two tips on how you could do it.

1. As part of your sites user registration ask for date of birth. Then get yourself a developer to write a simple script that every day looks for birthdays that day and sends out a email message. You should have a little admin that allows you to change the birthday message as often as you like. Don’t send the same message out for months. In that message you could even include maybe a discount on a purchase in your store, or maybe a link to download a special mp3 file. I keep saying this, but trust me… your fans will love it that you thought enough to send them a message.

2. I REALLY like this idea… on Facebook create a Facebook ad campaign. When you are building the ad you can set up who you want to target, meaning who in Facebook do you want to see the ad. Set it up to target only users who are connected to your Facebook Page AND on their birthday. That targeting means only fans who Like your Page and on their birthday will see the ad. Yep, Facebook lets you only display a ad on someone’s birthday. Create the ad with a short personal birthday wish and link it back to a special birthday page on your website where they can get a discount or a free download. This is only going to work if you have enough fans on your page. If you have 50 fans Facebook is going to say the target audience is too small. Once you have built up a nice fan base on Facebook try this out. Yeah you will have to spend a little money on the ads… but it is a great investment to really win over your fans.

I would love to hear from you, got any things that worked great for you? Leave me a comment.

View the single list of all 2000 items at this location.