Obtaining Google+ Followers The Correct Way, Passively

I previously wrote about the importance of Google+ pages because of Google’s integration of Google+ with their search results. Recently I have heard more and more concern about how to get Google+ Page follower. This became evident while participating in #inboundchat where the same question kept coming up over and over again: how do I get more Google+ followers?

While this might seem like a very important question to ask… after deeply thinking about exactly why people are asking this question I would like to offer some advice. Don’t actively try to obtain Google+ followers, obtain them passively.

Please keep in mind this applies to any social network (Facebook, Twitter, ect) and not just Google+ Pages.

Active vs. Passive

Actively Obtaining Followers – consists of an active attempt to get users to add you or follow you. This can be done by offering a promotion to users e.g. a customer will receive a $25 discount if they follow our twitter account. Or exploiting reciprocal following e.g. I plan to follow 100 people, wait 3 days and unfollow those who didn’t follow me back, rinse and repeat until I have 100,000 followers.

Passively Obtaining Followers - consists of employing a passive strategy that will make users want to follow your profile. This can be achieved by providing content (or value) that is unique and targeted to a specific type of person (your followers or your target market).

Why are passive attempts better?

You need to understand that all followers are not treated equal. Followers are not interchangeable. A follower is a person, a customer. I don’t care if you have 100,000 followers or 1 million followers... what I do care about is WHO your followers are. Quality is much more important that quantity. You need to obtain followers who are REAL people (not bots), who care about what you have to say, and who can actually be clients (for the most part). For instance: if you have a local pizza place and you just started a Twitter account you need to understand who you want to follow you and you need to think about how valuable a follower that is that lives 100 miles away.

By their nature active attempts at obtaining followers usually result in low quality followers who are not very interested in your content. Passive attempts result in high quality followers and a much higher CTR for any links you post. Remember: passive users will always care more about what you have to say.