The experiment was successful in terms of getting a number of followers in a relatively short time, and if numbers are what you want, using a service like Socialkik can be a good start. But there are other things we learned from this experiment:
- You can buy followers, but you cannot buy their interest - if what you have to say is not compelling enough, the numbers are just numbers. There will be no real interactions, no "social networking" in the real sense.
- You cannot speak about having a community when its members are silent and don't interact with you or with each other
- Having a large number of followers has a psychological effect on others who will follow automatically, even when they don't really have any interest in what you have to offer. However, these followers are again just numbers.
- A Facebook fan page only makes sense if it creates a community interested in your business. If that community also contributes to your ROI as a business, the purpose is achieved. If it doesn't, it's just a waste of time and money.
- Creating a community, nourishing it, making it grow and, in the end, making it participate and help you grow your own business, takes time. Nothing happens over night (sure, unless your name ends in "utcher."
- A community will not interact with automate messages. They need to know that there is a person there ready to talk to them. If you don't provide that kind of dialogue, everything else is meaningless.
