It amazes me how many businesses and companies are so devoted to increasing likes and gathering followers. Many individuals, and worse still, marketers, are obsessed with the goal of ‘numbers’ that they get completely distracted by the business goals that they should be striving to achieve.
The amount of social media numbers of course have value, but by making this your sole objective in your marketing efforts is completely missing the point.
Facebook is not a popularity contest!
The number of likes you have is just a figure of how many people have been persuaded to click a little ‘thumbs up’ icon. In increasing cases this is by acquiring fans by other than natural and organic means. We’ve all heard stories of shady ways to increase your likes and marketing departments that have spent large amounts of money through promoted posts and adverts to achieve an impressive number. This means that all that money you’ve spent has achieved little more than making yourself look a little more popular. If you are operating a Facebook page for a third party, then you can go to the boss and say ‘Look what I’ve done, we have X amount of followers for our social media efforts’. Ask yourself: Where’s the value and ROI in that?
Are these the likes we wanted?
It’s one thing to get hundreds, or even thousands of likes for your Facebook page, but are these people your target audience that you would like your business to engage with? Sadly, if you’ve been adding likes through unnatural means it’s possibly the last time you will ever see them. These people are unlikely to share, promote or engage with you even though they’ve clicked the like button. The whole point of having a large following is to get them to do something.
Provide quality content.
Now, in these days of Facebook EdgeRank, those who work hard to provide quality content for their fans to appreciate are rewarded. The genuine people who have liked your page are your biggest asset and should be treated as brand ambassadors to share and drive your message. Rather than focusing on the numbers, focus on providing value by delivering engaging content to your audience. Don’t become obsessed with the misguided goal of increasing numbers as this isn’t the important part of your overall strategy. Make sure your social media efforts are more about the quality bottom line than immaterial pointless numbers to brag about.
Are the amount of likes, fans and followers important to you?
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