I’m talking about Twitter here, people. Your follower count does matter. Admit it – it’s addicting and you want more.
In a recent post by Mack Collier titled “The fast food approach to social media,” he stated:
Getting 5,000 fans on a Facebook fan page is NOT a social media strategy. Getting 200 followers on Twitter is NOT a social media strategy. Facebook and Twitter are tactics used to execute a social media strategy, getting on Facebook and Twitter is not a social media strategy.
Mack worries that a shady agency or consultant will take any willing candidate who just wants a lot of followers and wants them now and that many assume follower and friend counts on Twitter and Facebook are the metrics to determine a successful social media strategy.
I completely agree with Mack here. My “XYZ” client having 20,000 followers doesn’t mean a thing if they aren’t the “right followers” (as Mack says: “But unless those 500 followers either do business with you, or have some level of influence over the people that WILL do business with you, then they are all but worthless to you.”).
What Mack’s post did get me thinking about though is how tired I am of hearing the “it’s ok that I only have 800 followers (even though I’ve been on Twitter for 2 years). Numbers don’t mean a thing.”
Whatever.
There is a reason certain people on Twitter have 30,000 + followers! Seems it’s an art form for some! They are obviously doing something right.
Do I believe that at some point people simply follow thinking “well they must be good if they have 30,000 followers…?” Yes – the number is essentially inflated with those half-interested followers. But I, for example, am definitely not the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don’t have 80,000 Twitter followers. But I do have some followers. And yes I want more. Thus, I try to tweet remotely useful (that’s a stretch) and/or semi-funny (at least funny to me and maybe @daniellecyr) information.
🙂
Give me your input. I’m expecting “it’s not all about the numbers, Kate.” In the end without engagement and community, 30,000 followers is useless to anyone. But 30,000 trumps 800 when it comes to anyone actually seeing your message.
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