In his blog “Viral growth trumps lots of faux followers,” Seth Godin aims to debunk the myth that when it comes to social networking, the more followers you have, the better.

Godin reminds us that in the new climate of social networking, producing quality content is still a better method for success than simply striving to have the most followers. Just because you have 200,000 followers does not mean that any of them are actually paying any attention or visiting your page.

Rather, Godin argues a better strategy would be to start with a small number of followers who are actual fans, then produce quality content that those fans be excited to pass along. This should not only cause more long term growth, but result in a move valuable type of follower that is not just a number.

There continue to be an ever increasing number of online outlets to get yourself out there. However, while this leads to more opportunities to promote yourself, it also leads to a massive amount of content for users to sift through making it harder for users to find the worthwhile content that is out there. Godin’s article provides a strategy for getting yourself noticed and for gaining fans that are actually paying attention.

What is going to work for you to cut through the noise, capture the attention of real fans, and get them to pass along the information to new fans?

Only you can answer that, but spending your time to figure that out is a much better use of your time than trying to play a numbers game on the social networking scene.