You provide some great insight into this dilemma. We couldn’t agree more that a loyal core of fans is more important than numbers.

Like the Seth Godin link, perhaps you can spread this post and let’s see if we can’t go viral with it.

Thanks for the reply!

-Welt Branding

Social media is grabbing a lot of headlines right now so it seems like the right thing to do (almost like the dot.com era of investing). Also, social media is often thought to be free or at least inexpensive and is measurable. So cash strapped businesses, most of whom slashed marketing budgets in the recession, are flocking to it. And so it becomes very cliche.

The way to avoid this is, like you say, through your content. Be interesting. If you are interesting, you will never be cliche. If you cannot make your self interesting, facebook might not be the right platform. Interesting content will always resonate with users. The first adopters of social media started to join the conversation that was taking place online and to lead that discussion; not to simply advertise. Leading the discussion should be the mission. If you do that right, the numbers will fall in line.

Finally, not enough attention is paid to the type of friends or followers companies look for. Everyone is looking for the most followers, but having a small group of followers that are brand loyal and not afraid to share that is much more valuable.

Seth Godin did an experiment on this and the results can be found here:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/viral-growth-trumps-lots-of-faux-followers.html

Thank You