Slow and steady wins the Facebook/ Twitter Fan Race

When first staring out, like most I wanted to build up my facebook and twitter numbers quickly. I mentioned this to a friend who sent me the following  excerpt:

“ Internet marketing is about building relationships and gaining visibility within your target market. Unfortunately there is something inherently important about fan counts, and it is human nature for people to check out your company profile on Facebook or Twitter and instantly judge them based on the metric of followers, friends or fans. But having many fake or uninterested followers does not help your business. So although growing your Facebook fans or Twitter followers organically seems tedious, those who follow you may actually care about and support your business. Using a service to quickly add 2000 fans only hurts you in the long run if you plan to do anything to market to these fans or followers.” **

 I didn't heed her advice, I went ahead and paid for a facebook promotion and quickly found the few people that were liking my page had also liked 1,500 or more other pages.  I realize then that this excerpt holds true - I would rather have 50 great supporters and friends as fans than 1,000 fake.

From my own personal on line experience, I would be leery if I went to a facebook page that had 2,000 likes with no interaction on the page.

I find it an important marketing tool to engage with my fans - have fun, be silly, be complimentary and appreciative. The best way to see real success in social business and in life is by investing in people. By this I mean real people and real relationships! Building a community takes time and investment. You can never go wrong by investing in people.

Slow and steady works, my friends.

I am building, growing, and learning.  My Star Dog T-shirts for Charity company is a labor of love and my passion.  I would love to hear what you think about a business page that had fake followers and any of your internet marketing tips for small business.

**Excerpt sent to me from:  http://socialmediatoday.com/node/1422666