Success on Facebook has thwarted some businesses, leaving them with what they consider to be an unacceptable number of likes and worse off, leaving them with a depleted sense of social media self-esteem. What these businesses may be forgetting, however, is that it’s not the quantity of likes that matters; it’s quality that reigns supreme.

Regardless of the quality-over-quantity mantra, businesses still feel compelled to strive toward bigger numbers. And who can blame them?

So, to encourage your Facebook counter to grow, take advantage of the sage advice from Get the Dash, the social media gurus that created the video above. By implementing these approaches, any business should be able to grow their friend-base – in an honest and sincere way.

Tip #1:

Review the businesses that you “like” on Facebook and ask yourself: Why did I like them in the first place?

Is it because you simply wanted to support their social media efforts? Is it because you truly love the brand? Was it because you received a special offer that required a “like” to obtain it?

By asking yourself these questions, you’ll be able to apply the answers to your own Facebook strategy.

However…

Tip #2:

Don’t simply mimic the efforts of others. Inject a little personality.

That approach will resonate with the individuals who have shown interest in your business. It’s important to remember that your “likes” are more than just a number; they’re living, breathing human beings who for one reason or another, want to interact with you and your business.

For anyone who’s noticed the dog-eared “view summary” paper icon located at the bottom of a tweet, you’ve probably wondered how it got there and why it only appears on some status updates. The same goes for the staggered “view image” icon.

As it turns out, the expandable content is what Twitter refers to as a card, an added-value feature that makes it possible for Twitter users to attach additional media to their tweets. To include a card on a status update, it’s necessary to add a few lines of HTML to the web pages where the original content can be found.

Twitter rolled out its cards in mid-2012, initially delivering summary and image offerings. This week, however, the social media giant revealed three new cards – one of which that will have a substantial impact for online retailers active on Twitter.

“The product card is a great way to better represent retail items on Twitter, and to drive sales,” explains the Twitter development site. “This Card type is designed to showcase your products via an image, a description, and allow you to highlight two other key details about your product.”

The video above walks users through the process of adding Twitter cards that will appear every time a tweet references some aspect of their website. Currently, however, Twitter doesn’t allow for just anyone to use the product portion of the service. Businesses and individuals will need to apply for the ability to do so. In the meantime, the video does a good job of explaining how to add meta tags to tap into the pre-existing portion, which will be similar to the functionality of the product cards when they become available system-wide.

When consumers hit that thumbs-up button, what do they get out of it? There’s the social aspect of it, of course, but then there’s also the exposure to new products, deals and news. Concerning the executives issuing the social media funds, however? What do they get out of a like? Beyond a growing collection of fans, sometimes the answer isn’t as clear-cut.

In the video above, those questions were posed to a handful of social media professionals from the likes of Edelman Digital, Cisco and the Altimeter Group. Unsurprisingly, the frustrations of the ever-elusive ROI made their way into the conversation.

Having the ability to track the overall customer experience is something that even the biggest brands have struggled with. When all of those consumers hit the thumbs up, there’s some level of proof that a social media campaign is gaining ground. However, at a certain point, executives need more – an incredibly palpable challenge for the person who has to defend social spending to a company’s CFO.

Thanks to software giant Adobe and its social media management platform, determining a return on investment is possible. Adobe Social combines listening and engagement tools to create a social measuring stick.

“With Adobe Social, marketers can monitor mentions for their brand on Facebook and Twitter, find out which customers are the key influencers on each of these networks and track how much revenue is being generated from specific social media campaigns and posts,” explained the editors of a recent Mashable.com article. “The platform also makes it easier to target ads to certain audiences, personalize a website based on how the user interacts with it and even build apps for Facebook, effectively making it an all-in-one marketing tool for companies.”

At NetSphere Strategies, we tout the value of the Adobe platform because it helps us link up your social media initiatives to tie them back to an ROI. Not only will it give you peace of mind, but it also serves as a way for us to validate that our work effort is producing business value for your company.