• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Submissions
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • May 18, 2022
  • Startup
    • Creating a Plan
    • Funding a Startup
    • Franchise Center
    • Getting Your Office Ready
    • Making Your Business Official
    • Marketing Your New Business
    • Personal Readiness
  • Run & Grow
    • Customer Service
    • Human Resources
    • Innovation
    • Legal
    • Operations
    • Risk Management
  • Leadership
    • Best Practices
    • Communication
    • Green Initiatives
    • Open Culture
    • Strategic Planning
    • People Skills
  • Sales & Marketing
    • Advertising and Lead Generation
    • Marketing Innovations
    • Marketing Plans
    • Online Marketing
    • Relationships
    • Sales Activities
  • Finance
    • Budgeting and Personal Finance
    • Payments and Collections
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Pricing Strategy
    • Working with Investors
    • Working with Lenders
  • Tech
    • eCommerce
    • Hardware
    • Software
    • Security
    • Tech Reviews
    • Telecom
  • Shop

SmallBizClub

Helping You Succeed

Home / Sales and Marketing / Advertising and Lead Generation / So You Gained Thousands of Social Media Followers: So What?
So You Gained Thousands of Social Media Followers: So What?

So You Gained Thousands of Social Media Followers: So What?

1628 Views

Jun 3, 2015 By Elaine Fogel

I just finished reading an Entrepreneur post by Ann Tran entitled, “How I Went From Zero to 380,000 Twitter Followers Without Spending a Dime.” Yeah, and…?

 
No offense to Ms. Tran, but I’m simultaneously amused and dismayed when social media specialists emphasize social media quantity rather than quality or results. Although, to her credit, Ms. Tran says:
 
“People say quality over quantity? True, however, I would rather have both to maximize your reach. You must continue to build your community—whether online or offline.”
 
I agree to a point, but what’s it all for? What are your social media marketing objectives and have you reached any of them?
 
Related Article: 3 Tips on How to Monetize Your Social Media Following
 
Although Ms. Tran’s post includes good ideas to expand your Twitter network, here’s what I see are some pitfalls:
 
  • When you have thousands+ followers, your Twitter stream changes in seconds. In real time, it’s impossible to catch the tweeps and influencers with whom you want to engage. You would have to go to each of their Twitter profiles in order to reciprocate retweets and interact with them.
  • People easily forget that we are on different time zones. Unless you and your followers use scheduled tweet tools, you won’t necessarily see tweets that appear when you’re asleep in La La Land.
  • You may have a lot of followers but how many are inactive, having created Twitter accounts they never use? How many are slick salespeople spamming their wares? How many followers tweet in a different language or live in another country where you do not market your products and services? How many have stopped following you back? Get my point?
 
Ms. Tran ends her post with this:
 
“I hope that these ten points will help you grow your brand. Remember the more seeds you plant, the larger the harvest. An hour a day focusing on following will give you a robust community.”
 
I say it’s great to have a growing social media network and community, but you really need to identify the “why.” What are you trying to achieve? Sharing content with more people is a nice goal, but again, what are you trying to accomplish?
 
Are your followers (and their followers) in your target market segment? How many are good prospects for your business or nonprofit organization? Are you measuring your calls to action? Are you getting more newsletter signups? More website/landing page visits? More sales?
 
Social media has certainly given us an amazing way to market our organizations, but it can be a big time waster without a marketing strategy, associated tactics, and metrics.
 
Are you achieving your marketing objectives using social media? How?
 
This article was originally published by Elaine Fogel

Filed Under: Advertising and Lead Generation Tagged With: Elaine Fogel, Lead Generation, Social Media

Elaine Fogel

Elaine Fogel

Elaine Fogel is a marketing, branding, and customer experience evangelist, professional speaker, and author of Beyond Your Logo: 7 Brand Ideas That Matter Most For Small Business Success. People in 100+ countries regularly read her blog, Totally Uncorked on Marketing and her articles have appeared in many publications.

Related Posts

  • 3 Easy Ways To Generate Consistent Leads
  • 6 Easy Ways to Boost Your Brand in 2022
  • 5 Instagram Trends That Should Be Part of Your Social Media Strategy

Primary Sidebar

Random

3 Most Devastating Small Business Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)

May 17, 2022 By SmallBizClub

smile---personalization---customer-service-success

Consumers Want Personalized Experiences and Products: Here’s How to Do It

May 16, 2022 By Gemma Moss

7 Ways to Improve Your Fleet Management Workflow

May 16, 2022 By Eleanor Hecks

5 Crucial Things To Know About Paid Advertising

May 14, 2022 By Jeremy Bowler

Business Continuity: Everything You Need to Know

May 14, 2022 By SmallBizClub

Footer

About Us

Small Biz Club is the premier destination for small business owners and entrepreneurs. To succeed in business, you have to constantly learn about new things, evaluate what you’re doing, and look for ways to improve—that’s what we’re here to help you do.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 by Tarkenton Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Terms | Privacy