Whatever your level of social media expertise, you’ll be aware that the follower count is one of the most important metrics of social media success. Without lots of followers, there will be nobody to see your witty posts or beautiful photos, nor will there be anyone to comment on your work and offer constructive criticism. It should go without saying, then, that social media followers are important, especially if you’re looking to break into the competitive world of being a social media influencer. Here are just some of the reasons that social media followers are important.
Only followers can see your posts in many cases
While it’s not always true that only your followers can see your social media posts – it depends on the settings you apply to the post in most cases – the default setting for most platforms is to send posts only to followers. This means that if you’re trying to go viral or send out a post that will be seen by the wider user base, you won’t be able to do that until it goes through your followers first. Nobody is going to share your hilarious or concise post if there isn’t anyone to see it.
With followers comes engagement
The more followers you have on social media, the more comments you’re likely to receive, especially if your content is controversial or provokes debate. Without a wide range of diverse followers, you won’t get those comments and you won’t be able to take advantage of a broad range of perspectives in order to enhance your content and create even better work in future. Engagement, as they say, is key, but without followers, your posts simply won’t receive any engagement.
Brands often use followers as a measure of success
If you’re an influencer and you’re looking to partner up with brands in order to make some money and promote their products, you’ll need a robust following. Brands will often look at your follower count as a measure by which to judge your social media success, and if you’re not showing a lot of followers, you may be overlooked in favour of another influencer who does have a larger following. That means that if you want to be successful at attracting brands to collaborate with you, a large following is essential.
A steady growth of followers indicates good content
If you’re consistently getting followers and don’t just get a spike followed by an immediate dip, that’s a good indication that the content you’re creating is good. Your existing followers will tell others about your content if it’s of sufficiently high quality, and those followers will tell others in turn. More followers means that your strategy is proving successful; you’re attracting more people who want to view your content and engage with you, which is a strong measure of your success.
Followers help you to promote causes or businesses
Let’s say you’re an influencer and you want to promote a charitable cause. Alternately, you might be a non-profit yourself and want to reach out to an influencer to help you to spread the word. Followers will take that message and ensure that others hear it, but if you don’t have followers, then the cause you’re trying to promote will, unfortunately, go unknown. The same is true of business endeavours; without followers, there won’t be anyone to avail themselves of your products, and your marketing strategy will sadly fail.
Your followers keep you in check
There may be times when you deviate from your stated intention as an influencer, whatever that might be. At those times, it’s helpful to have followers to bring you back on task. If you’ve pledged to complete a creative endeavour, for example, or if you display behaviour that doesn’t befit your brand, then your followers will be very quick to upbraid you for it. In those moments, you’ll be grateful your followers were on hand to keep you on the straight and narrow.
Followers act as organic advertising
If you’re a brand and you’re looking to promote your business, your followers will organically promote and advertise your products for you. The benefits in terms of exposure and profits should be obvious, and it’s always better to get organic marketing like this than to pay for advertising campaigns. People respond better to word-of-mouth advertising than they do to organised marketing, so the more followers you can get to tell others about your products, the better.
More followers makes you look more trustworthy
If you’re a brand, business, or influencer, then having a higher follower count is a good way to appear trustworthy and authentic to those who might doubt you. When you’re advertising a product or a website, some might be hesitant to click or follow external links because they might not trust that your account is legitimate. With a high follower count, that problem all but dissipates, leaving you free to advertise your products without the shadow of doubt being cast over you.
