This is obviously a big question asked by many business owners and OMG I get it all the time! There are certain activities that are known to boost you to have massive amounts of followers. I noticed this a few years ago when I ran a Twitter campaign for film called Hercules. The actors RTed the channel and suddenly, huge spikes!

The 3 methods that tend to work best are:

Constant posting – a full-on content engine where you publish lots of articles a couple of times a day, link to them with social media posts which have hashtags and videos, use sponsored ad links for every 5 or so on various channels, to drive many more people to your channel and your blog. This works best for news and nich interest blogs that want to build a community.
Celebrity Endorsement: If someone who is a celebrity or an “influencer” is in your field and if it would be relevant to them, and if your content/design is appealing to their specific audience, then a mention from them would certainly give you a boost. This works best for retail businesses with an accessible product to sell.
A combination of many content best practices: A great constant flow and mix of video content, interactive content, content that makes people laugh or feel sad, shared user-generated content, co-branded campaigns and collaborations, and properly paying attention to analytics, best times to post, etc – this will get you the massive amounts of followers sooner – but it’s definitely a long-term marketing approach.

Eek! Should I give up now if the above seems unattainable?

I don’t think so.
Even if you run a small business with limited budget and resources to handle the above.
Even if you don’t have any relevant celebrities to contact or if in some businesses it’s just not appropriate,
If you have a community of just 100 followers who really like you, it’s still worth keeping them up to date with social media – it would be far more time to consume to call them each week!
Follow the basics and then consider going more advanced:

• a regular daily update on your social media channels
• a good mix of behind the scenes, tips, and insight into your business personality,

This in itself can lead to new opportunities that will make your activity worthwhile. It can help you build relationships with future stakeholders, collaborators, and clients. It helps to create a picture of you as a business that they wouldn’t otherwise get from just the pages on your website.
And if you can do it slowly, you can accelerate by increasing your activity, when time and budget allow.
I think the basics (as described above) is still worth it, even if you’re not getting the masses you’d like.
And in SME/B2B companies the relationships you can build even via social media can prove very fruitful!