Hung up on your follower count? Don’t be! Here’s why that number doesn’t mean much.

Follower counts are a tricky thing. The real truth is, your follower count says nothing about your business. I check accounts for established businesses that I know are brilliantly successful, and they have a few hundred followers. Other accounts can have 1000s and not be doing anything for the business they were set up for.

It isn’t how many people are following you that counts, it is what they are doing when the follow you. I manage Facebook pages with followers in the 1000s and get better engagement (likes, comments, shares) on posts for another client who currently has around 200 followers. The quality of your audience is what counts. Are they your right customers? And if they are, are you using your social to show them what you do and how they can get involved/work with you?

Setting aside the fact that some accounts have bought followers (never buy followers, I can explain why on another post but in the meantime just don’t), the accounts that have great success across all platforms are the ones that use social media as a chance to engage. They are posting but they also make time to like, comment and share other content they come across that fits with what they are doing. They are on the lookout for ways they can work alongside other businesses and accounts to bring something new for their audience. They are not just posting and hoping to be followed.

And it’s consistency over time. There are no shortcuts to growing an engaged authentic audience. You post, engage and enjoy your little bit of social, and a few followers becomes more, you gain momentum, you find what works for your audience and you start to see real results. It takes time, and yet we often expect to find followers straight away.

So take heart. We all feel a bit rubbish when we look at our follow count sometimes but just take a moment, pause, and tell yourself that what matters is your business as a whole, not just a number taken in isolation.

This post was originally a caption on my Instagram account for Digital Deconstructed. Come, follow me on Insta and get more captions like this as well as pretty picture to go with them. Or head over to another page on this site to see how working with me might work for you.