Right off the bat, I’m just going to say that follower count is worthless in and of itself. If you think follower count is a badge of honour or a status symbol, then you’re doing it wrong.
That being said, gaining more followers does have value, and here’s one reason why.
More followers means more retweets.
Or more shares. Or more likes. Or more repins. And so on. The more followers you have, the more chances your content has of being reshared.
The main reason you’re on social media is probably to get more clients. More followers don’t necessarily equal more clients. 1000 more likes on Facebook will not equal 1000 more sales. But the greater the number of followers, the greater the number of eyeballs seeing your content.
It’s not much of a leap to say that if more people see your content, then more people will share your content. That is particularly true if you share engaging content, which we’ll touch on next week.
People love to share content that engages them. The more your followers share your content, the more well-known your brand becomes. Even though your initial reason for joining social media might have been to get more sales, social media targets another important aspect of business success: brand recognition and brand loyalty.
If you use social media to improve brand recognition and loyalty instead of trying to increase sales, you will find that it will indirectly improve sales. People won’t buy something from you because of a single clever Facebook post or a snappy YouTube video. However, those things over time will strengthen your image in their mind, and when it does come time to purchase, they will likely think of you first.
So, more followers leads to more views, which leads to more shares, which leads to better brand recognition and loyalty, which eventually leads to more sales.