I've recently joined a hardware startup,the first shipping of their product -which is a cool gadget- will be around November, they have already gone through crowdfunding and all that and have around 150k in pre-orders. Few days ago the CEO of the company told me that they want to change their strategy and focus more on growing the number of followers on social media and the hype around the product until the manufacturing and launch in November and not the actuall sales because he thinks people dont like to wait,he even wants to stop any futther more orders.
i just wanted to see what you guys think,sorry if it got too long
Customers, not followers, are what makes a business. People are very accustomed to pre-orders these days. As long as you are transparent with them so they have the proper expectations (e.g., you will receive your product in December), then get the pre-orders. You can likely use the pre-orders to increase your followers at the same time.
There is nothing wrong with getting followers, but you need to have a sales and marketing funnel that converts them into buyers. A good product launch plan, as suggested before, should include such a funnel. However, followers for the sake of followers is self-deception.
