It’s part of human nature.
We are always wanting MORE. MORE money, MORE friends, MORE followers, MORE customers.
Sometimes, that’s okay. Numbers are an excellent measurement of how we’re doing, how far we are reaching, how many people we are impacting.
But is that all that matters? What is a number really worth?
This is the age old debate of Quality vs. Quantity.
So what is more important?
Well, think of it this way: If you had the choice of ten decent friends or three great friends, which would you choose?
While ten good friends may sound tempting, which is going to get you farther in the long run? Are they going to be there when times get rough? Are they going to help you improve? Give you advice to be the best you can be? Maybe. Maybe not. But your great friends, they’ll be there no matter what. They won’t abandon you if you screw up. They’ll help you become a better person.
This is an important lesson in relationship building. To throw in another age old cliché, it’s not always about how much you know, but who you know, who those people are, and what they can do to benefit you. This includes customers, website visitors, Twitter followers, just about anything.
Now of course having all of these things in large quantities doesn’t hurt. Obviously the greater your reach, the greater your potential of reaching awesome people. The key is not to obsess over it. The last thing you want is to be running in a popularity contest. Sure, being popular never hurt anyone, but no one can survive on popularity alone. If you do, you just end up with millions of people who know your name, and don’t care much about anything else.
Great numbers don’t mean a great image. Just ask Lindsay Lohan. (Though, she does seem to have a pretty loyal following from the paparazzi). So what do you do now?
1. Understand what your numbers represent.
Say a thousand people visited your company blog today. Great!
Now what did they do while they were there? Did they comment? Did they make a purchase? Did they share your site with others? How many were truly engaged? How many are returning visitors? Did they come for one thing and then leave? Or did they hang out for a while to see what else is around?
These are the metrics that matter. These are the people that matter.
2. Lock them in for life!
OK, that sounds a bit intense. But these people, these “lifelong friends” are essential to the continued success of your business. They will be the ones that stay loyal to you. They will spread the word. They will be the ones that will help you increase your numbers, so you can focus on the more important things.
So talk to them. Respond to comments and emails. Let them know you’re listening and take action on their suggestions. Let them know they matter.
3. Start focusing on those more important things:
Work on building your brand. Make a business plan. Start creating those awesome products and coming up with ground-breaking ideas. If you excel at forming a loyal fan base, the word about your business will spread itself and you can spend less time promoting and more time innovating.
Moral of the story: relationships are key.
But not just any relationships; strong and meaningful relationships. Build a quality relationship with one person and you can trust that they’ll spread the word. Those few meaningful relationships, will be there to help you become a better person, a better brand, or whatever goal you are trying to reach.
So take a break from the numbers game for a bit. Find some great people, build some great relationships and the numbers will begin to build themselves.
Choose QUALITY over quantity.
Over to you – where is your focus in building your audience? Do you focus on numbers, or do you focus on relationships?
Brittany is a blogger, web designer, social media nut and creative junkie, determined to make a mark on the digital universe. She loves pop culture and viral media and is passionate about innovation and technology. You can find her rambling away at brittinspired.com, or tweeting up a storm @brubinstein
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Danny, great topic! I’m with you on quality over quantity. When we started the blog my coach said, “You may have just one reader but you’ve got to give them all you’ve got.” or something like that! I try to keep that thought in front of me. I try to treat each comment as if it’s the only conversation I’m having. It wasn’t always easy to do that – I didn’t know how to handle the comments at first. But as my blog evolves, I evolve too!
We don’t have a large following but we’re lucky to have an involved one. Amazing people come and share (like you) and I am very grateful for each and every one!
Happy Monday!
Lori
Hey Lori, that’s really great advice, and really hard to do. I try to treat each comment as a conversation, but it’s very hard, and I probably don’t succeed nearly as often as I’d like.
I saw your new post, and plan on spending some time reading and interacting later today (right now, clients await)… I’m lucky to be part of your involved community.
Have a great week, Lori!
Good post! I’m definitely a relationship focus-er (is that a word??)
. I think this blog, in particular, has bagged the quality/relationship department quite well! Actually, Lori and you are masters at this and inspire me to build stronger relationships as well. Quality is where it’s at; otherwise, how can you sleep at night!
As always, thanks so much for the super posts!
Much kindness,
Elena
Elena, I love the way you’ve captured this: “Quality is where it’s at; otherwise, how can you sleep at night!”
I’m flattered to be considered in the same group as a master engager like Lori – thank you for the compliment!
And I agree with you – kudos to Brittany for a great post.
Hi Brittany,
The enjoyment of life is a function of how you use your time. If you aren’t focusing on the things that really matter then you are squandering your most valuable resource – time. So I’m for quality over quantity.Riley
Very well put, Riley. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Well said. Life is too short to focus on the little things you’ll forget. People need to focus on the people and memories that will mean something 20+ years down the road
Good life lesson!
I completely agree! Relationship-building should be the primary focus for brands, not showing off unearned “popularity.” It’s shocking how many social networking users still believe that purchasing fans/followers is the only way to go. A million fake friends won’t do you any good if your content is inadequate or spammy in the first place! I’d rather have a handful of real, engaged friends who can actually provide helpful feedback for improvement.
The key is to find people with compatible interests and form legitimate ties with them through interaction – not to hit the “buy” button and instantly have hundreds/thousands of people pretending to like you. What’s the point of that? It takes time and effort to truly connect with others and it’s a shame that people try to take the easy way out instead!
Yes. Looking for popularity is so “high-school”! It’s so much more rewarding to work for your relationships than pay for them! Thanks for the great input!
More profitable, too…
Aw man you know how to talk my language!
I agree with every point you made Brittany, and love the Lindsay Lohan reference!
So many people have far too much reliance on numbers, instead of metrics and real, meaningful relationships that take EFFORT and TIME to build. Personally I think that anyone who says “I want 10,000 subscribers after twelve months! has a flawed perception of blogging. I have spoke to some great bloggers over the last few months, one of them being Danny, and none of them gave me numerical aims or targets, instead they just said that they “want to keep growing” their blogs.
You can’t put a price on real, strong, lasting and meaningful relationships – they are KEY to every bloggers’ success.
You share some great tips at the end on what people should be doing to prepare for these good relationships, like getting business ideas in order – powerful stuff. When people come to look at your blog they’ll also see what you’re up to and that you’re serious about what you do.
Great job, awesome post! Thanks Brittany!
Thanks for featuring it Danny, hope you are well
Hey Robert, thanks for adding so much value to the conversation!
You’re right – you can’t put a price tag on real relationships. It’s like Gary Vee says: “What’s the ROI of your mother?”
Great to see you here, Robert, and I think we’re due to catch up!
You’re welcome
. LOL that is an awesome Gary Vee quote, one of his best!
Definitely, look forward to chatting soon Danny.
LOL.. lock them in for life! Yea, a bit intense, but we get it
I certainly believe quality is the emperor in this situation. I never really look at Twitter followers, or even comment popularity on a blog. Obviously Danny doesn’t either! When there was 100 people on Imark a month, you were there commenting D!
Super post Brittany. I’d choose quality any day.
You’ve got it, Ryan, I’m all about quality and conversation.
HI Brittaney! Great stuff! You know, I think most people will agree that building lasting and meaningful relationships is key in any business endeavor but I have noticed that people use automation software and tools to communicate with folks.
I am sure you’ll agree that you cannot automate relationships and I think that is where a lot of people have the disconnect. People are not willing to work for those relationships. We have such an “instant gratification” society that some people want 100,000 Likes on their facebook page the ay they roll it out. It’s ridiculous.
The point is, relationships are key – Yes. The question being, are people willing to work for them?
That’s exactly right. I remember a client meeting where we met with a “social media specialist” who tried to sell us a “Facebook friend boost” of 10,000 people instantly, and then tried to backtrack and convince us that it wasn’t a scam.
Relationship building is the most important thing when you want to build a sustainable business or grow in life. I think as we keep on solidifying our relationships and nurture them all the other numbers will fall into place.
Thanks for sharing.
Ashvini
Hey Ashvini, welcome to Firepole Marketing. Yes, I agree with you completely: if you do the right things and put the right infrastructure in place (relationships, connection, etc.), the numbers will fall into place.
Excellent advice here Brittany!
I guess the reason why we focus on numbers is because it gives us something to hold on to. It’s hard to get a grip on ‘developing relationships’ or ‘building a community’. However, we’re often focusing on the wrong numbers: website visitors, twitter followers, facebook fans,…
When you’re running a personal brand or a business it’s first engagement, then conversion you want to measure. How much comments do you get? Did you get any e-mails? Did people like your content so much they were willing to share it with their friends? These are the metrics that matter.
Eventually it’s about conversion of course. How many of those website visitors, followers or linkedin contacts did you convert into loyal friends, business partners or customers?
Maybe the best tip of all is not to focus too much on the outcome. Keep producing content, making connections and helping people out. Give and you shall receive!
Wim
That’s a really good point, Wim – whereas with hard numbers you can quantify your progress, it is a lot harder to quantify your progress with relationship building. Of course, just because it’s harder to measure doesn’t mean it is any less important, but it can present a challenge, and that challenge often leads to focus on whatever numbers are available, which are often not super-relevant.
I think you’re right about the metrics that you recommend: comments (good comments, to be specific – like yours!), and email interaction. Phone calls and shares are good, too.
I wonder if you could speak a little more about your last point, though; you say that conversions are the end-goal (which I agree with), but you also say that it is best not to focus too much on the outcome. Why is that?
Hi Danny, I’m sorry it took me a while to reply to this one. I’m not very good yet at keeping up with Disqus conversations
It’s my experience that when people focus too much on the outcome, they’re much more likely to develop a mindset where the focus is on what’s in it for them (instead of their customers). Shift your focus on others instead. Provide value and show true care and attention. It might take a little longer to make that first sale, but you’re building a reputation which is everything in this connected world of reviews and recommendations.
Wim
Ah, yes – I agree with you completely on that. Thanks for clearing that up, Wim.
Nice post Danny… it can’t be said enough – relationship are key to long term blogging success… Numbers mean nothing if there’s no substance to support them.
Quality of quantity and solid relationships are the only way to build anything successful.
Thanks Mark, Brittany really did a great job with this one.
Great to see you here, man!
Whoops! Pardon my manners Brittany… Great post miss : )
I totally agree that building relationships matter because without them, your just a picture on a wall that everyone walks by and looks at, “but never speaks to”. Who wants to be that? Starting a blog is never easy and beginners all over the place looking at other blogs reading what works and what doesn’t, but getting the wrong impression about quantity can be overwhelming. You hear about blog hops and other stupid stuff to get “followers”, but what happened to just writing quality content and gaining followers through the relationships you build over time?
In regards to “real friends”, growing up you always have tons of “acquaintances”, but how many people really know who their “real” friends are. Get into a bind and you find out real quick. With anything, it takes time, you have to be patient, persistent and have real goals.Nice post Brittany…sorry I tend to ramble!
Right on, Sonia – what happened to just writing quality content, and gaining followers through the relationships that you build over time?
I got approached by someone the other day who wants to outsource everything – not just the design and coding, or even the keyword research, but the content writing, too! I tried to explain that you can’t outsource quality content writing without paying huge amounts of money for it, and you can’t pay someone to build an audience for you – it just doesn’t work that way…
Hey Brittany, pleasure to meet you!
More, more, more. Such a horrible way of looking at life, but it’s accepted as the ‘norm’ in society now, more’s the pity. Sure, we can make things better, but we can also get rid of that which no longer works!
Instead of accumulating stuff, I like to think of it as ‘upgrading’; upgrading to better things, that work better for me. Out with the old, in with the new
Hey Danny!
I like your attitude, Stu – not accumulating, but upgrading. Very timely insight for me, as I’m moving into my new condo next month!
@britskee03:disqus this was a great. I’m all about the quality. The numbers, without substance simply don’t mean anything. They have to no benefit. And the substance is the quality!
When I think of what I want to be for others, I think this:
I want to be a person of value or quality to others…not just another person!
PEACE
Hello Brittany, this was some useful reading! In this world I think people still more emphases on quantity which I believe is wrong. Quantity might bring you the short-term goals but from the long perspective you need a personal and quality relationships.
Hey Adam, welcome to Firepole Marketing – it’s great to see you here.
You’re right, and we agree with you 100% – it’s all about quality and personal relationships. Thanks for stopping by!
I totally agree with you that Quality is more important than quantity.
I’m getting sick of repeated junk that people post, but when I find one awesome article, it feels like I found gold in a hay stack.
Good article and good looking website, I found your blog through ProBlogger, keep up the Good Job
If anyone want to follow me too, my username is Tintations on Facebook and Twitter
Hi Vladimir, welcome to Firepole Marketing.
Yup, I agree with you and Brittany – it’s all about quality, and it’s getting harder and harder to find between all the noise that’s published out there in the blogosphere.
I’m glad you found your way here, and I hope to see you again!
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