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!
View the single list of all 2000 items at this location.
2000 Things to Generate 20,000 Fans Challenge
30. Offer Branded Email Address
I have done this a number of times, give fans their own email address on your domain. Example user@u2.com. You can give them the email address as part of membership; paid or free. It is a cool little value add. This may be better suited for more established acts, or acts that have a support team and some income. Setting up and configuring the service may be more than what most musicians can handle alone and there could be cost involved. But the results could be worth it. Your fans will come back to your site to log in and use your webmail interface.
Loving your lists! This interesting that you’d include this. The artist that I work with actually brought this up a few weeks ago and wants to add it as a fan club perk. I do like the idea of bringing back fans to the artist website in order to access the email account. However, I’m wondering if this is something fans would actually want/use? About eight years ago when I was still a Linkin Park fan, I was a member of their fan club and they offered this feature. I thought it was cool and I did use the email. But nowadays, do fans still find it cool? I personally wouldn’t want one and wouldn’t find any use for it. I would rather just stick to my main gmail address. I don’t know…any other thoughts?
I think you are correct is saying some fans will not care or use it. But, I look at it this way… you need to do a variety of different things to attract and keep fans. Each one alone may not generate a lot of fans, but together they could add up. In addition this could add perceived value to a membership fee. A cost that might be nothing to you, but a value that the fan could justify.
hmm, true! All little pieces of a puzzle!