Help me get followers please

December 3, 2011 10:12 AM

I have been tasked by my boss to look into legit vendors of services to: increase our facebook fan page likes, and increase our twitter followers. Take it as a given that I have already tried to dissuade him, and help me at least execute the task as best as possible. Ideally, i am looking for services that actually help you get real people and not fake accounts or spam bots, etc.
posted by Zinger to computers & internet (9 answers total)

Focus on social media consultants who will help you actually manage your presence on those platforms -- developing a strategy for writing content, throwing contests, etc, so that you become an interesting, useful place for people to visit and grow your visitors that way, rather than any service that simply promises to get you more likes/followers.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:21 AM on December 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

Jacquilynne is correct - you need someone to manage your strategy. That could be a consultant or a full-time employee, depending on how integral to your marketing strategy this is. Actually connecting with customers is the point here, and that requires some different tactics than just getting as many followers as possible.

Are you a marketing person? Do you have a marketing department? This should probably fall under that aegis either way. You're looking for a Social Media Manager (or specialist, or consultant) or possibly an Online Community Manager.
posted by restless_nomad at 10:48 AM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Speaking as someone who tweets and Facebooks for a living, the above esteemed Mefites are absolutely correct. There are two ways to do this: the trashy way and the right way. If it's a service that just focuses on numbers, it's probably the trashy way. If it's a person developing a content, growth, and engagement strategy, I believe that's the right way, for both your business and your customers.

Social media enthusiasts are pretty darn savvy. If there's no there there (if you know what I mean), no meat and no purpose on your social channels, they aren't going to stick around and your business isn't going to see meaningful return on your investment.

If you want your customers to give you their numbers and (more importantly) their attention on your social channels, it's crucial to know what those channels are giving them. Someone has to determine what the purpose of your channels is and a plan for making that purpose real. "Because it's cool to have a Twitter and a Facebook" isn't a good enough rational. Social media can be a really fantastic and effective way to connect with your customers and grow your brand presence, but only if it's used like a tool and not like a gimmick.
posted by mostlymartha at 11:22 AM on December 3, 2011

Why are you trying to dissuade him? For Twitter followers, you have to have something worth following. If you're just going to put out "hay we got new pencils!" then you might as well not have a Twitter account at all. Facebook followers? Well, unless you're going to be creating actual content similar to Tweeting above (reasons to visit your site or page or business), like a restaurant who puts out a link to their daily menu. Most Facebook company pages are E M P T Y, and any that go beyond that are 99% similar to putting a company sticker on your car or binder. Unless you're putting something out there, it's only going to show up in Liker's profiles under "Shit I Like" (or whatever it's called). I guess the underlying question to this, that a social media consultant might be able to help you with, is what does the boss want as a result of this? Just bigger numbers?
posted by rhizome at 11:55 AM on December 3, 2011

We have a strategy and my role is to handle engagement, contests, content and so on. So a consultant is not what we need. However, the boss wants to jump start the numbers, so we have short term and long term plans in place.

As i said, take it as a given that i know how to do social media in general, but that i have a mandate based on numbers as well. I need some legit places to look at. Advice on vendors is what i need here
posted by Zinger at 12:58 PM on December 3, 2011

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Metafilter, but there was an article posted in MetaTalk not that long ago that may cover what you need: a terribly written but still pertinent Businessweek article on social media moderators that included the name of several prominent companies in the field. You could certainly contact them and get rates and whatnot.
posted by librarylis at 4:05 PM on December 3, 2011

You're are saying "I understand the sky is blue, but I have a mandate for green sky. Please point me to people who can sell me green sky." There are no people or services who can sell you followers who are real people. You will be buying bot accounts. If all you want is the numbers, why do you care if they are legit accounts?

On the other hand, if you have a social media strategy that isn't pulling in the numbers you need organically, then the thing people are being too polite to say is that maybe you do not, in fact, know how to do social media in general. You can spend money to fix that, but not in the way your boss is instructing you to.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:50 PM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

"If all you want is the numbers..."

I think I was fairly clear in my original post that *my boss* has tasked me with this.

"...why do you care if they are legit accounts?"

As I said, I have a long term strategy written up (we're just getting started on this account), and in previous jobs I have built up numbers before over the longer term. So yes, I know how to do social media in general.

However, my boss wants to jump start the numbers, and I have never engaged in this sort of purchasing before. *I* care that they are legit accounts so that I have half a chance of getting some engagement and keeping some of them. I may not agree with my boss, but I want to execute as well as possible.

So if anyone has any good experiences with vendors, that would be great.

@librarylis thanks, I'll check that out.
posted by Zinger at 6:05 PM on December 3, 2011

Try Twiends for Twitter
posted by LittleMissItneg at 1:20 AM on December 4, 2011