It can sometimes be a struggle to discuss with clients that it generally doesn’t matter how many followers you have within your Twitter account(s). Getting a mass of people to click on your “like” button on Facebook isn’t going to make you an instant success either. Neither of these will nail the issue of trust, either.
When it comes to doing any kind of business online where you use social media as a channel for connecting with your followers, it’s much better to have a small following of loyal fans than a massive following of people that generally don’t care about what you have to say. There is a stigma that people feel “bigger is better”. It’s more a matter of showing off for some business owners and it hurts them in the long run.
If you want to be successful in your marketing, you have to have a target audience. For the record, under no circumstance is “the world” your target audience. If you think you should be marketing to everyone, you need to quickly reevaluate your direction.
That kind of thought process is what sends business owners and marketers straight for bankruptcy. You cannot cater to everyone, and your products and services do not appeal to everyone. They appeal to a specific lot of people that are interested in those specific products and services. Therefore, it makes sense to find out who those people are and target them.
When you take that concept and apply it to your social media accounts, it makes sense to see that you do not want everyone following you. You want people following you that are interested in you and will engage you in the work you’re doing. If you have to engage a lot of randoms through social media you know what you’re doing?
You’re wasting valuable time and money marketing to people that don’t care.
Popularity doesn’t breed sales, and it certainly doesn’t breed influence and trust. Influence and trust develop through relationships, and the chances of you developing a consumer relationship with people that have no interest in being a consumer with you are slim to none.
It’s truly OK to have 100 followers on Twitter or a small community on Facebook. In many cases, it’s better. You’ll have a select group of followers that adore you and will spread your name around as opposed to a thousand followers that… well, don’t care about you or your company and have absolutely no reason to talk about you.
If you want to build a community with substance, then keep something in mind: Social media is just a medium for communication. It will always come down to your honest intent to connect with and engage your target audience. If your intentions are solid then people will realize that you honestly want to talk with, learn from and share with your audience. This will inspire people to communicate with you and overtime develop trust.
That comes from relationships – not numbers.
