Follower count on social media is the litmus test of one’s networking prowess. Your profile value simply depends upon the number of people following you and reacting to your posts. It is true for almost all social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. For example, although people mostly use LinkedIn for professional networking purposes, followership on this platform is especially important because you can connect with your readers and buyers directly via LinkedIn.
So, how does follower count affect your social media profile’s attractiveness? Let’s dig deeper in to the world of followership vs. real impact.
Is followership only vanity?
When we were young and social media was a toddler, follower count was a vanity. Right now, it adds real value to an account. Rule of thumb is, the number of followers directly co-relates to the influence an account has on people.
That may not always be true, unfortunately.
Especially with the rising incident of fake followers on Facebook and Instagram, finding human followers that convert into leads is becoming more difficult. Therefore, when on social media be very careful to find real followers, who contribute value to your social media profile.
Do numbers always tell the truth?
We always turn to the numbers when we have to determine the worth of a social influencer. Any famous brand will check your follower count and daily activity first, to assess if you are suitable to endorse them. How accurate if this assumption and assessment?
There are quite a few types of social influencers we need to talk about, to help you understand how you can stay online and influence people’s decision making –
- Some influencers know their followers individually and personally.
- There are followers, who find and follow an influencer through shared interests and activities.
- There are followers, whom the influencer has purchased from different sites and sources.
- There are bots, who do not contribute to lead generation.
- Following users and active profiles.
- Following profiles, who do not engage in activities?
- A mixed bag, which has all kinds of follower profiles.
Most of us, social media users, do not like to think of the possibility that some of our followers may be bots. These bots do not contribute to profile activity, engagement or conversion rates. They only add to the follower count and therefore provide artifacts in almost all reports.
Get your followers from reliable sources
There are many professionals, who buy followers from reputable sources. Buying followers can be quite smart if you are new in the social media marketing game.
Influencers need dedicated followers with similar interests, who will interact and possibly help in increasing the conversion rate. It is not just right for the social media big-shots. If you are a micro-influencer, you probably need keen followers more than the big guns do. You cannot afford to have 400 inert bots amidst 1000 followers. You will need to find your followers from someone like Social Growr.
Important tools for all influencers
Most reliable social media analysts have tools and algorithms to figure out the authenticity of the followers on anyone’s profiles. More importantly, these teams also have ways to find the right niche of followers for you. In social media, numbers do matter, but they are not everything. You need to find the correct niche to carry your message forward.
Without a common interest with your followers, you will find it impossible to share an idea successfully. For example – if you want to share the availability of Justin Bieber concert tickets to fans of Ramstein, you will not find much success.
If you wish to successfully market an idea or a product, you will need to approach the right readers. There are apps and social media consultant companies that can help you find the appropriate market. Finding the right audience will help optimize the campaign and increase the ROI.
It is very accurate for campaigns that target a particular demographic. For example – grocery stores and beauty stores that take online orders and deliver in a specific area. It is even true for food delivery services and dating apps. These direct business to customer service based models need to characterize the followers on the basis of region, age, social reach and spending capacity.
To become a successful influencer, you need to find followers who cannot only interact but who are also the target group of such companies.
Who is a great social influencer?
So, before you can dive right into the world of social media marketing, you need to understand the basics of an excellent social influencer profile. You need to conduct extensive research on the activities of successful influencers and find out what they did right to get such huge followings. Now, here are the primary 10 of every successful social media influencer, we have seen till date –
- Complete, realistic and relatable profile.
- A professional and winning bio
- Engagement with followers
- Reaching out to other influencers
- Staying active every hour of every day
- Following other users and influencers
- Posting great original content
- Using the correct tags and hashtags
- Keeping content shareable
- Re-sharing other people’s posts and content with courtesy mention (tags).
What kind of influencer content works the best?
Always stick to information sharing content rather than reiterative, complaining or self-centered content. When sharing personal experiences or “shower thoughts” use humor to create interesting and shareable anecdotes.
“Me now” contents are the easiest to come up with. Many celebrity influencers do indulge in these kinds of content, but then again, most people want to know what Demi Lovato had for lunch!
Always resort to humor, current affairs, and informative content while creating your day’s post. Do not engage in direct conflict with your followers and stay away from cheap controversy, although it may seem like an easy way to garner more followers.
Takeaway
These are not just “hacks” that will help you gain 100k followers in a week. These are tips that will help you create a genuine and loyal followership, who will follow you, read your posts and interact with you on social media. Growing your social media following slowly and steadily is the only way to keep bots out of your friend list.
Remember, any sensible company who wants you to endorse them will not just look at the size of your followership; they will also check your activity and engagement to assess your effectiveness as a social influencer.