It is a challenge to change the thinking about what makes a successful social media program. Facebook trained us to equate quantity (Likes) with popularity. Aside from the boost your ego gets to a 4-figure+ following, assessing the quality of those follows is essential for two reasons:
The time you invest in creating quality content is diluted by feeding the need (or serving the marketing mission) to produce non-targeted quantity.
Quantity without relevance to the target audience diminishes the value of those communications and leads to a disengaged following.
Email Lessons Learned
While the importance of email communications continues to grow, the amount of SPAM and junk email expands exponentially. If you are playing a numbers game and have no investment in protecting or enhancing a brand; what's to worry about? You will get your .003 percent return.
However, for most marketing professionals, we are much more interested in building the value of a brand and developing a relationship for the long haul.
Defining Quality
Let's agree that celebrity brands (sports, entertainment, even some business leaders) are excluded from this conversation. For the organization wanting to leverage social media, a quality interaction brings value to the follower. What can you share with your audience that will improve, enhance, inform, or educate?
What can you share with your audience that will improve, enhance, inform, or educate?
In your social media communications, what are you bringing to the table? Why visit your Facebook page, follow your Twitter feed, or click a link to your website? If it's true that "content is king," then surely, quality content trumps everything.
Timeliness Controls Quantity
If your social media feeds are bringing value to readers, there's no limit to how often you can post. But get honest about the value of your communications. What are you sharing that makes a difference in the reader's world: Provide real information that solves a problem or answers a question.
An event or particular promotion certainly justifies more content if you are moving the story along. Think of single-subject multiple communications as chapters in a book that lead to a conclusion. Plan incremental posts.
A Meaningful Exchange
A follow is an agreement, that you will make the time and effort invested, pay off for the reader. In exchange, the reader will absorb your message, consider your proposition, and share it down the line. Seems like a fair arrangement.