Part four in a series on social media sins; this is my fun way to impart sage advice for avoiding some of the pit falls which have a way of sneaking up on you. Thus far we’ve covered Envy, Sloth and Wrath. Today I am going to talk about Greed. Greed is the obsessive desire to obtain something. And in relation to social media, that easily translate to the numbers game.
Questions often heard:
- How many Fans do you have?
- How many followers?
- What are your monthly visits to your site/blog?
Running after numbers for numbers sake is bad strategy. Sure you may obtain a 1000 new followers overnight, but how many are going to stick? You can get people to come to your site, but how many are going to come back?
I like what the guru of niceness (and kick-ass blogger), Liz Strauss, has said several times, “Numbers have to have a label before they mean anything.” She has also said things like “Count your value as a human by links, stats, and number of comments” that was from a list of Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger from 2006!
Not to talk about numbers, but just to put things in perspective, Liz’s blog has over 80,000 comments, but you know where she had to start? Yes, with comment #1, just like you! As I mentioned in my envy post, most of the super stars of social media started out in the same place you did, the beginning. And with slow and steady determination, good content and a whole bunch of good intent, they made it to where they are today. Social media is a long term strategy that takes a time investment and participation.
If you are looking to constantly “fill the funnel” and make the sale (and add a number) then it will not be sustainable. Success is for you to decide, and although it may include numbers, don’t limit yourself by chasing after them needlessly.
