“Why should I listen to you? You have under 1K followers.” You are right – on this account. But, I do have over five years of experience, a degree, and countless hours of continued education. But mostly, more hours than I care to think about when it comes to trial and error, as well as experience managing several accounts.
If you are someone who thought that, this is not the place for you. I say that with all the love in the world. We just probably won’t jive and, that is ok. Thanks for the read? Or maybe they have stopped reading?
Back to my point – STOP worrying about your follower count.
A few years back (dinosaur age in social media) follower counts were the most important. If you are an influencer, follower counts are a little more important to you. But, they are still not the most important.
The most important aspects you should be focused on are engagement rates and conversion.
Let’s discuss –
Engagement rates are the most important (IMPO) because they tell the algorithm what your followers want to see. If your followers are not liking, sharing, commenting, or saving your posts – it does not matter. It tells the algorithm, “this is not what I want to see,” and you will soon fall off of their newsfeed. A follower does not have to do all of those actions mentioned above – they can consistently do one of them or a mix between all of them.
Even if 100% of your followers do this (highly unlikely, please do not set your standards this high), you are bound to fall off their newsfeed at some point. The algorithm kinda sucks like that. Find a social media manager or social media account you follow then, dig somewhere in their account (or even just DM them), you might be able to find the latest in what Instagram prefers.
Conversion rates are just what they are called. When someone new finds your account, do they click follow? If you have a CTA, do they complete the task? If we are talking about a paid ad, are they clicking the button, engaging, or following? Is your goal metric being met?
Even though I specifically used Instagram as the example above, this information can span across all platforms. Your follower count is never the most important.
A solid tip of advice, make sure YOU are interacting with your followers and other accounts. The hardest task for me as a SMM is setting aside time to engage. Respond to those who have commented on my post, scroll through my feed and engage on other posts, and find accounts that make sense to follow. Making this a priority will make a drastic difference in your engagement rates and overall is likely to increase your follower count.
Oh, one last thing – stop focusing on your follower count. A follower is not a guaranteed sale. Anyone can follow your account but, are they the audience demographic you sell to? Are they buying your products or services?
all the love and espresso
kierst