"When you first start playing in the social media sandbox, you feel compelled to collect," says Mark Goren in a post at the Daily Fix blog. "Subscribers. Followers. Friends. The more the merrier—at least that's what it feels like at first."

But consider this:

• Just because someone subscribes to your blog, that doesn't mean she reads it religiously. "Consider how many unread items you have in your own newsreader," he notes.
• A Twitter follower, meanwhile, can easily miss your thoughts unless you tweet at the precise moment he happens to be reading the stream.
• And how many times have you become a Facebook fan without ever returning to that specific page?

In other words, it's a mistake to assume your large network automatically equals a large audience. Rather, you earn "must-read" or "must-view" status by engaging your subscribers/followers/friends with content they actively seek.

And if that content is compelling enough, they'll further expand your potential audience by sharing it with their networks.

"[T]he real win," argues Goren, "is when you entice people to share, no matter the network they're sharing on or the method used."

The Po!nt: It's not the size of your potential audience that counts, but how well you engage them. "Don't fool yourself by counting people if you're not connecting with them," Goren says.

Source: Daily Fix. Click here for the full post.

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