They swallowed fire, juggle while on unicycles, and even pass head to toe through the oval of a tennis racket, but more interesting than that was how they grew their audience and got people to put money in the hat passed around at the end of the performance.
Getting people to cheer attracted more onlookers.
* Get a child volunteer and ask them to clap for "Johnny" each time he does something—says his name, holds a prop, takes a bow, and so on.
* Ask them to boo if you make a mistake. Some of these performers intentionally missed the first two attempts, making success all the more thrilling when they nailed it. One performer that I recognized from my days as a student in London would take off one piece of clothing for each miss. Let's just say he wore many layers of underwear to make this a G-rated performance. The booing seemed to perhaps be more effective than the cheering, though it would seem like a risky measure.
* Ask the crowd to vote by cheering. Holding up the juggling balls [weak applause]. Holding up the live chainsaw [strong applause]. Asking fans to cheer if they'd like to see me mess up and see the chainsaw cut flesh off my bone [wild applause]. At each step, the crowd grew.
* Get sections of the crowd to compete. Okay—left side cheer now! Right side cheer! C'mon, left side, you're letting the right side shame you. And so forth.
* Amplify sound with a great speaker system, music, and props. Place knives and a gasoline can on stage. Clap according to the beat.
How is this like Facebook?
* The child volunteer is like featuring a fan of the day or perhaps a nominate tab. The National Guard has used this to great success over the last 3 years to get to a million fans. Yahoo Brasil told us about one of their tactics to get fans to tag friends in their comments. You see why that irresistibly draws responses? Leverage the egos of your fans to be your marketing fuel.
* Booing on mistakes invites controversy. Warning: this works with only some brands. For example, WWE for their built-in rivalry or SouthPark for being un-PC. But perhaps even credit unions can ride the Occupy Wall Street wave and get fans to voice sentiment about big bank fees.
* Voting by cheering is akin to asking fans to click like if they're happy it's Friday, successfully completed their holiday shopping, or whatever is a no-brainer to say yes to.
* Cheering by section is magnifying existing loyalty. Click like if you're a plus size woman and proud. Who's going to win, team X or team Y? Why build sentiment from scratch when you can leverage what they're already passionate about?
* Facebook ads serve to amplify the message. This is critical when you're just starting out. Covent Garden is a crowded spot on Saturday evening, so without speakers, nobody can hear what you're saying, no matter how great your content is. sponsored stories bring in new fans and amplify your organic wall posts.
![][3]Next time you see street performers, observe carefully how they build audience from just a few people walking by to a large, engaged crowd.
What made me sad was noticing how some of the best acts in terms of technical sophistication and skill weren't the most popular. One acoustic band had no amplification, so you couldn't hear the guitar solos or bass notes over the noise of the crowd. The Facebook news feed is a noisy place — are you getting your message through?
In the next couple months, with the public release of [timelines][4] and the new verb-based apps, auto-published actions will flood the feed, drowning out the folks who were just getting by posting content, but not designing for engagement. Don't let this be you.
_[Dennis Yu][5] is chief executive officer of [BlitzLocal][6]. _
[![][7]][8]
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[![][11]][12] [![][13]][14] [![][15]][16]
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[1]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/large-crowd.jpg (large crowd)
[2]: http://www.allfacebook.com/9-secrets-to-successful-facebook-viral-marketing-2011-07
[3]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/editedjuggler.jpg (editedjuggler)
[4]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-timeline-delay-2011-11
[5]: http://www.dennis-yu.com
[6]: http://www.blitzmetrics.com
[7]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mIIFAKTynynjhDfVCrDQ9QMGcJY/0/di
[8]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mIIFAKTynynjhDfVCrDQ9QMGcJY/0/da
[9]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mIIFAKTynynjhDfVCrDQ9QMGcJY/1/di
[10]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mIIFAKTynynjhDfVCrDQ9QMGcJY/1/da
[11]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=pnQdOprp5To
[12]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=xyNR30MGcDA:4cIzBs0Eh_0:pnQdOprp5To
[13]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[14]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=xyNR30MGcDA:4cIzBs0Eh_0:qj6IDK7rITs
[15]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?i=xyNR30MGcDA:4cIzBs0Eh_0:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[16]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=xyNR30MGcDA:4cIzBs0Eh_0:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[17]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/allfacebook/~4/xyNR30MGcDA
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/xyNR30MGcDA/facebook-fan-growth-2011-12
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