How to Get More Twitter Followers and Facebook Likes. Fast, Cheap and Relevant.

Tonight while I was browsing around a freelance job site, I noticed a number of "jobs" listed seeking a candidate who could get the client more social media followers. The demands were outrageous. I need 500, 1,000 or 5,000 new Facebook likes and / or Twitter Followers. Of course, they appended "must be relevant" and the budget was always something like $10 per hour.

I never bid on these jobs and no self respecting internet professional would. There is no such thing as fast, cheap and relevant followers.

If you want fast and cheap followers I will tell you how to get them right now. You don't need to hire a US based "professional" to do this for you. Go to Fiverr.com. There, you can hire someone to send you hundreds or thousands of fake Twitter followers or Facebook likes for $5. Presto! You've got a following.

You can do that over and over again until you have thousands of likes and followers and it will look like your brand is super popular. Now, If that is the kind of thing you're looking for then by all means, off to Fiverr you go. But just for the record, I think you are missing the point of social media marketing if you resort to these tactics.

Buying Followers like that can in some cases be beneficial, I suppose. For example, if you want to create the illusion that your brand is so awesome that thousands of people from Bangladesh to Brazil think you're great then purchasing followers may help give you a boost. That will be a hard sell if you are a beauty salon in Houston or a dog groomer in Denver, though. If you have a wider consumer base, I suppose this could give you an air of credibility as long as people look at your follower count and not at your actual followers. So, yes you can buy followers / likes and you can get them cheap. And fast.

But, you can't ask someone to get you followers / likes that are fast, cheap and relevant. That is not possible. It is possible to get cheap and fast followers. It is possible to get relevant followers. But you cannot have all three. Period.

You may be asking yourself why it matters if you have relevant followers. I guess the answer here is to evaluate the goals of your social media campaign. The goal of most social media campaigns is to encourage repeat business, get customers to recommend you to their friends and control your online presence. You will not get any of those things from your fake followers. I can guarantee it.

The reason no self respecting "professional" would bid on a job asking for "fast, cheap and easy followers" is because it is dishonest. It is not what we do. People who utilize social media to make a living do not do business in "cheap and easy" - because a social media manager is supposed to build relationships with your clients in order to improve your business. In other words, we go for relevant followers. The cheap is also easy. If someone is promising you 500 likes or twitter followers for anything more than $5 then that person is just trying to make a quick profit.

There are straight edge ways to purchase relevant followers. Unfortunately, these tactics take time and patience. The best way to build twitter followers and facebook likes is organically. That means spending a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter.

Barring that, there are a few things you can do to speed up the process of gaining relevant followers and likes. The first is Facebook Advertising and event promotion. The good news is that Facebook advertising is still one of the best bargains on the internet. Twitter advertising and promotion is also insanely cheap. Read my article about throwing a Twitter Party.

If all of these things confuse you and you really wish to gain value from social media, then you should hire a social media manager or strategist to assist you. Twitter and Facebook (and other social media channels) take time, strategy and knowledge of the audience. It is more than just getting "likes" - it is about getting people to like you. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for.

It is frustrating, but gaining followers on Twitter and Likes on Facebook just takes time and patience. You need to post every day, get your customers to engage, run specials, coupons and encourage people in store to follow your social media channels.

Social media has been billed as a "cheap and easy" way to build your business and increase sales. That is not entirely true. Social media certainly can accomplish these things. But you have to commit to them. If you refuse to commit because you think everything should be free or cheap or immediate, then you will not see promising results and you will not have success.

If you aren't willing to invest in your social media campaign, then you will not be successful and you may as well stop while you are ahead. An unmonitored Facebook page or Twitter account can actually do more harm to your business than good.

Do not go into social media believing that everything will be free and easy. It won't. Managing social media relationships is hard. That is why people get paid to do it. It talkes time and effort. That is why $5 won't cut it on twitter. Go social or go home. The expenses are far more than free, but they are still cheaper than traditional advertising. Keep in mind that social media is social, and if you cannot commit to that, then you have no business trying to get on social networks.