"I want you to get 200 people to like this new page." he said to me, and he walked away.

I gave it a few minutes and I followed him to his office and sat down at his desk. 

"How?" I asked

"How, what?" he said.

"How do you want me to get these people to like the page?"

"Just get them to..."

I walked out of the office with no more information than I walked in with. I knew that I could make a few phone calls to friends and family members and get a few dozen likes. But would these family members and friends really care when I would post updates on this page having absolutely nothing to do with what they're interested in?

No.

It wouldn't matter how many people liked the status, if you're not reaching your target audience, then you have very little chance of converting any of these contacts into customers.

One thing I refuse to promise to clients is the ability to get them thousands of likes. Sure, I could go onto Fiverr (where anyone will do anything for $5, including getting you 10,000 followers), but other than this being a pure impressive #, what is it giving you.

The answer isn't number of followers; it's quality of followers.

I could end this right here, but really the next logical question would be "How do I get these quality followers?"

Follow. Quality. People.

Then,don't just  like their content; react to it

I'm not talking about scrolling down your Facebook page and Twitter feed and liking and retweeting everything you see. But I mean true, authentic engagement.

I take the "Don't hit and quit" approach. If I like your status on Facebook, I'm going to leave a comment. I don't like a facebook status unless I really like it. I guess you could say I'm a true-blue Facebook follower. 

By taking the time out to REALLY engage with your Facebook friends, you should that you are someone to follow. 

Sure, it's about sharing quality content - stuff people would like. But it's also about how you react to the content that is shared.

Target your followers with custom content.

Is Bob Smith one of your top target followers? Does he love going to eat at local Thai restaurants? Share a link to one you just went to, and call Bob out. Not just to dominate his Facebook page, but to show that you're a thoughtful, quality follower of Bob's. This will make Bob's friends click and check you out. It's human habit, after all. Soon, you'll realize that Bob's friend Mike is resharing your link, and so on. 

Yes, Facebook and Twitter are both fantastic advertising tools. But just with anything else, it's important that you're putting the effort in to be the type of follower that you want to attract.

All the best, fellow dE'ers!

Katie Colihan

Car Chat 24

"Helping Car Dealers Sell More."