Social media is one of the best ways to share your business with the world. Showcasing your expertise, humanizing your brand and breaking into the social community is an essential part of marketing your business.

Gaining as many social media followers as possible is a common goal for every business. We hear “get as many followers as we can” a million times a day. While that’s all good and fine, the truth is, the number of followers your business has on social media is meaningless.

You read that right. The number of followers your business has on social media is meaningless.

Unless all of those followers are paying the bills, what matters is the quality of followers you have.

Why numbers don’t matter.

Honestly, it’s pretty simple. Would you rather have 10,000 fake social media profiles and bot accounts or 100 that are actual humans who engage with your business?

For us, that’s an easy answer.

The whole point of having your business on social media is to create brand awareness, maintain your reputation and eventually, sell products or services. With that, your goal on social media should be to gain quality followers that fit the demographics of your brand.

Quality followers that engage with your posts and buy from your business hold a much higher value than unengaged followers who will never do business with you.

Gaining followers the right way.

1- Trust the expert.

As social media experts, we know the best way to gain a following that actually benefits your business. We will always, ethically, follow best practices to encourage new followers.

We’re often asked if we can purchase followers. For us, this is a hard no. As with most things, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Right?

Most paid followers don’t engage with your account, are inappropriate representations of your business or are robot accounts. Not only is this pointless and unethical, it provides completely inaccurate social analytics.

2- Understand social media.

Remember that the original reason social media exists is to be social. Building a quality following requires “being human”.

Reflect on how you use social media. Do you obsessively post? Or do you scroll and move on? Most of the time, people skim and move on. Unfortunately, if all of your followers are simply “lurkers”, you’re not going to see an impressive ROI.

Quality followers requires quality time inside the platform. By writing thought out comments from your business to other accounts, you can gain quality followers that are learning to trust you. This practice is far more ethical than going on a “liking rampage” for twenty minutes.

3- Know your audience.

Research where your audience hangs out. Are they following other social media accounts? If so, making helpful, kind, quality comments on their posts can invite deeper conversation.

As your social media expert, we also understand the importance of seeking out top interactors and locations we’d believe to be a good fit for your business.

To gain a following on social media, it takes a well thought out strategy. If your goal is merely to stroke your ego, unfortunately, you’re going about it all wrong. If you’re looking to gain a quality following the right way, we’d love to help.