Why do you need followers on social?
I bet you saw a few followers thread i.e. Hack your Twitter, Hack your Product Hunt, etc...
We're not here to define good or not. I joined a few too :)
But, why do you need followers?
Is it because...
- You're building up the audience for future opportunities?
- You're trying to boost numbers, yes, just numbers?
- You wanted to see notifications coming?
- other, ______ please specify :p
I like to see my followers count increase too. And I will celebrate.
However, I'm also thinking in this way -> make my social presence more comprehensive:
- Are your followers (a.k.a. network) relevant to what you do?
- How would you measure the activeness of your social network?
- Are we going to extend a conversation beyond the following and follow?
What I did
-
Over 70% of my connections on LinkedIn are either Growth Marketers, Venture Builders, the rest of them are friends, ex-colleagues, etc. I often decline invitation if the person did not incl. any personalize invite or obvious spam. I will make sure to chat (sometimes call) with my network at least once.
-
Over 90% of my connections on Twitter are Indies (all of you awesome people :DDDD), Nocode makers, and same as above, friends, ex-colleagues, etc. And I tweet and RT geeky stuff all the time.
-
Facebook, Instagram for leisure only. I talk about food, sports, Marvel, families, and friends. And I AM NOT ON Snapchat and Tik Tok
In short
Having relevant followers is very important. Imagine if you've 100K people in your social handle but not active?
Would love to hear what you think!
My focus is on building relationships or learning from others.
All of mine are related to the worlds I live or have lived in: Brighton (where I live), Testers (from my previous company), indie hackers (current gig), community builders (Rosieland + indie hackers).
I care little for followers, though I appreciate all of them.
I don't have issue with the Hack your Twitter posts, they should be used as a way to discover people and choosing to follow people if you feel they are relevant.
I do have current issues with lots of Twitter people becoming obsessed with followings and tweeting out nonsense, all in the name of lots of likes/followers, whatever. As mentioned in the Tweets below from @momoko and Lacey.
There's also a trend of people trying to turn their Twitter feed into a perfect Instagram-esque feed by deleting tweets that don't gain traction. I absolutely hate this. 🤢
Tweeting out nonsense. Ha. So true.
Totally agree with the situation.
There's nothing you can control how people build their social media presence. But sometimes it's just "funny". Thanks for sharing these tips @rosiesherry @dansiepen
Love and agree with this answer!
Monica's tweet could not be more accurate haha :)
exactly. unfollowed a bunch of those smart profiles.
lol i think i attracted all the grumpy tech twitterers as followers, not sure it was a good move 🤣
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Let's be honest - whether you call it an audience, or followers; if you have a great product, you want to make sure that it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
That's a no brainer. So that makes sense.
But the real interesting aspect that gets lost is this -> upvotes and followers aren't a proxy for your bottom line.
Engagement is.
Example? @mikeslaats of upvoty.
c1000 twitter followers.
But $6k MRR.
Engagement. He is speaking to customers all the time. Directly.
And he doesn't need 10k twitter followers for that.
Totally big up for this.
Engagement is the most important element we should measure.
🙌
I agree that there's no point having big follower counts, they are just vanity metrics.
The key to building an engaged following is to:
Respond to others when they reply to your comments.
It's much better to use social media to make friends & build relationships - that's why it's social!
My goal is to build meaningful relationship, but it's difficult, at least on Twitter.
I tried to understand it (and social media in general) for quite some time. All I see is a spectrum of narcissistic behaviors ("Look at me!"), often coupled with rejection of others ("Everybody is bad... but look at me!").
It's a generality. Not everybody is like that, but to me it's the majority. I'd love to be proven wrong.
So, now, I just answer people who have genuine questions trying to help a bit, posting stuff which could be useful (links, mostly), using it as well to show what I'm doing (trying to not be intrusive), and that's all.
It's not perfect, maybe I'm doing like "everybody" else, but at least I try not to.
I try to limit my consumption as well, because if I stay too long on Twitter, I don't feel good.
This comment deserves 100 upvotes. Would be awesome to connect and read your content :) Let's chat on Twitter, here's my link @MatthieuCneude https://twitter.com/felix12777
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The main reasons why I'd like a large following on social are:
Although a large follower count is gratifying, I only want genuinely interested people for the same reason inactive newsletter subscribers are a liability. A ballast rarely does any good.
By the way, I'm only on Twitter.
Suddenly thinking about this. Would love to hear opinions from friends too @rosiesherry, @gordon, @dansiepen, @logicalicy, @Michael_Andreuzza, @Primer, @PaoloAmoroso
Doesn't hurt to have more followers 😊 but, yes certainly, quality followers over non-relevant followers, any day! It's like any performance metric I suppose: you can bend and twist a metric like "followers" to make it seem like it's working out for you. It's only a top-of-the-funnel metric too, so it may miss the mark with getting a real, engaged audience (more towards the bottom of the funnel). Metrics aside, what I like to look for is a more holistic picture and a genuine conversation, whether that's on Twitter or here!
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It's absolutely an upvote @Primer
Spot on! It should be on every social media bible
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https://gum.co/ZYjiG
Hope this will work for you
I think these platforms are for the celebrities in the real world. I would be surprised to find anyone who created following on just being on twitter.
For growth, Network effect really helps. But it doesn't have to be yours.
Getting high quality followers (experts in the space who others follow) could work as social proof and really help in spreading your ideas/product faster. Drive referrals as well.
How you get high-quality followers is the million dollar question :)
One success story i can share is about a friend of mine, who was was regular microsoft conferences. He was able to create good relationship with thought-leaders in the space (offline first). It helped him get initial subscribers (5k+ in one weekend) when they retweeted his post.
I think these platforms are for celebrities outside in the real world. I would be surprised to find anyone who created following on just being on twitter.
Network effect really helps. But it doesn't have to be yours.
Getting high quality followers (experts in the space who others follow) could work as social proof and really help in spreading your ideas/product faster. Drive referrals as well.
How you get high-quality followers is the million dollar question :)
One success story i can share is about a friend of mine, who was was regular microsoft conferences. He was able to create good relationship with thought-leaders in the space (offline first). It helped him get initial subscribers (5k+ in one weekend) when they retweeted his post.
I've recently put this thread which says a few words on why I'm playing the twitter game
I'll tell you a secret, I aim to have higher reach, not higher follower base.
It's a thread, so open it for other details
First point.
Also, I go through the followers now and then.
My main focus is to add value in my content so the people who follows me can learn something.
Another point is to have enough people so you can make them participate into polls or other decisions you're are making in your business.
Here is an example 👉 https://twitter.com/teodora_dobre/status/1300412552795566083