Lots of Followers, Likes, +1’s, Circlers, Retweets and Pins are indeed good – as long as they are real. Don’t fall into the trap of forgetting there are real people looking at you, not just search engines and social platforms.
 

Be real, be yourself.

Some people seem to believe that marketing your business online starts with trickery – fooling the very people with whom you wish to establish a good business relationship. Believing myth that the web and social media are “the wild west where anything goes” has led to lots of wasted time and resources, and even the demise of businesses. Looking “authentic” will never be as good as really being what you want your customers to believe you are.

Buying social media endorsements like Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers or Tweets makes you look deceptive, and the social media platforms and search engines are wise to this scheme.  If you have a small business that is not likely to serve more than a handful of people a year and your site doesn’t have a lot of exciting things to share, but you have 20,000 likes on Facebook, people will recognize that you are not exactly trustworthy.