The Social Media Marketing & Communications guide for Natural Health and Wellness insiders.

Friends, Fans, Followers and Contacts – An Argument For LESS

Whether it’s Facebook fans or friends, Twitter followers, or LinkedIn connections – there’s an almost unchallenged belief that more is better when it comes to Social Media numbers.

If Social Media channels were simply free advertising, perhaps this would be true. After all, the value of any advertising vehicle has traditionally been determined largely by its reach – ie: The value (and cost) of advertising is proportional to the number of people it reaches.

But Social Media is a different game – a game where “advertising” is generally the least effective approach and where numbers can be misleading.

Tuesday Tweaks: How to keep your facebook fans happy even when they’re not

Call it the Triple-A protocol for Facebook wall interactions. (Every good system is better with a snappy name right?)

1. Acknowledge
2. Address
3. Accountability

The Triple-A protocol applies to both POSITIVE comments and NEGATIVE comments on your Facebook wall.

Here’s a recent example from a wellness retail chain’s facebook wall (edited for privacy and clarity).

Facebook Fans: What’s The Crucial Number?

Here’s the short answer right up front: Quality beats Quantity.

A thousand facebook “fans” who don’t actually care about your brand or you products are less valuable to you than one single, true fan who does. This probably isn’t news right?

So why do we act as though numbers are important?

Truth is, we’re usually trying to convince someone (or some part of ourselves) who doesn’t “get it” yet. And people who don’t “get” Social Media tend to focus on things like numbers of Facebook fans.