To be BIG you have to think SMALL...

Want to build thousands of followers and have lots of people talking about about you?  Then start thinking small.

That's right, in the world today, if you want to build a tremendous following of the "right people" you must start by thinking small.  Social Media is most powerful when you start with a small group of "Advocates" and allow them to spread your message - true "Word-of-Mouth" marketing.   When we talk about "Word-of-Mouth on Steroids", many initially think we are asking them to "blast" their message out to thousands in the hope that someone will like it and talk about them.

That is OLD SCHOOL thinking and those that believe that are still clinging on to the last hopes of Traditional Media - it is either dead or dying very rapidly.  There was a great quote by the marketing guru himself, Seth Godin, when he said, "The Internet (Social Media) lets you take really good care of 100 people instead of harassing 2000."  We couldn't have said it better.  Find the 25, 50 or 100 people who are your Advocates and turn them loose with using social media to spread the word.  This will get you to the higher numbers of "real followers" faster than anything you have every used in traditional media.

Also, it is important to remember that people know other people like themselves.  If you go after the right group of people, those who you want as customers or donors or members, they will lead you directly to others just like themselves.  This is the closest thing to shooting fish in a barrel when you do it right.  People will spread the word about you to others just like themselves and they will then in turn start to follow you and hopefully become your advocate as well.

So the bottom line to getting thousands of followers is to start taking really good care of your loyal customers, turn them into your advocates.  This will pay off big time in your marketing efforts and is at the core of how social media really works.  STOP broadcasting and START building solid word-of-mouth.  This will get you to your goals a whole lot faster than harassing thousands.