Why your Follower Count Means Nothing

Let’s be real, it feels great when our follower count goes up! It always feels good to see people decide to follow you and your content. In the good ole days, that meant something. We all remember the Myspace days when numbers meant you were somebody! Who remembers someone who was Myspace Famous?

Just like everything else in life, things change. The down side, or up side depending on your point of view, is that not everyone wants to change with the times. Or, simply put, they refuse to change until it is too late. The truth is, your follower count doesn’t matter any more. Not in the way it used to at least. Right now, you can go buy thousands of followers.

You can spend a way over priced amount, and buy 20K followers. That would be awesome right? Having 20K + followers would be great! The problem is they are not real people, and they don’t care about you, your brand, your product, your content, or whatever it is you do. Fake followers doesn’t sell product, make you internet famous, or bring in new clients/customers.

So what is it all about then? If your follower count doesn’t matter, what does? We are so glad you asked! Engagement is what matters. It is all about depth, not width. It is better to have 100 engaged followers, than to have 1 Million fake followers, or followers who don’t care about your content.

If you have followers who are not engaged with your content, you are not being payed attention to, and attention is the name of the game. If your content is just being scrolled past not being payed attention to, you become part of the noise. And we all know that Social Media can be pretty noisy today.

Why is engagement important? Because engaged fans care. Fans who care about what you’re doing will listen to you, buy from you, promote you, share what you’re doing, and tell their friends. Why? Because they care, and they trust. The trick is, you have to care first. You don’t just get engaged followers out of thin air, you gain them through hard work, and a lot of giving.

Learn about them, what they like and dislike, when their birthday is, when they get promoted. It is all about engaging first. Reply to every comment made on your posts. Like and comment on other’s posts, and pay attention to what they are posting. There is no better feeling to a consumer, than a brand that payed attention to them, interacted with them, and remembered something about them.

You may not change the world over night, but you will change the way people see your brand. You will change the way people interact with your brand, and you will make loyal followers who care about you, and what you are doing.