Engagement Follower count... Your opinion?

Question

It seems that the follower count 👥 is not so strong anymore. The number of followers looks great (if they are not bots, so even better! 😀) BUT... there is a big "BUT"... When you do not have their attention and they do not listen to what you talk about → it is useless. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, partially Reddit and YouTube (with their Shorts) shifted the exposure of content to strangers who do not know you. This era is not about earning followers but about earning attention. 👏 We all will be having a glimpse at follower count (eg 35k) BUT we also check the content of that person and see engagement (2 likes) yuck. 😶 What matters to you? P.S.: Even today I am waiting for a response from some bots here. 😀 https://x.com/BusMark_w_Nika/status/1787490087858516146

Felix Scholz · Accepted Answer

Yeah, engagement is much more important than followers.

It's important to keep two things in mind:

- sometimes people got a lot of followers posting about a specific topic or niche and then pivoted, so while they have a lot of followers from the old topic they likely won't have lots of engagement on the new one

- sometimes people grow out of an audience (I remember Arvid Kahl referreing to it as "graduating"), eg. when you're a developer learning to code you might consume different content than once you're a good dev yourself. you might still be following your early teachers, but you don't care about the content as much anymore

I find it interesting that people on social media never really prune their audience, which is super common for lets say newsletters, where you always want high open & click rates so you actively remove people who are not interested anymore

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@mehtab__faiz yeah, on IG they labelled these influencers and to be an "influencer" means to be a swear word. 😅 so some companies started to pay attention to creators with fewer followers. 🙂

Kabir · Answer

So true. I have 1K followers on X but only a handful engages with me and I do the same. I have been pruning out dumb followers and rather have a small ratio of followers and following.

Michael Shver · Answer

@busmark_w_nika I'd say that a lot of support comes not because of the product itself 😅 But there are definitely some people with whom we talked about the specifics of the industry in other discussions, so I think there is definitely a percentage of supporters who are actually here to talk soccer.

I'd say that overall, my product is pretty specific for Product Hunt because it doesn't cater to the general audience here, who are mostly different kinds of entrepreneurs, developers, and marketers, mostly interested in SaaS. But it's still an interesting experience to launch here and see the results! We definitely have other channels of acquiring users that we are working on, but PH is an interesting one to try too 😄

Michael Shver · Answer

Yes, I've noticed that quite often, profiles with a relatively small number of followers (e.g., 100) can have higher engagement rates than profiles with thousands of followers. Building a genuine connection with your audience is crucial. By fostering a "core" group of followers who actively engage with your content and are interested in interacting with you, you can create a strong foundation for your online presence.

I am, by the way, checking today how my followers work with the launch 😂👇
producthunt.com/posts/steerer

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@jgani I didn't think about it that way. Interesting view. 🤔

Mehtab Faiz · Answer

@busmark_w_nika there was a time when people with a huge following were considered the most influential on the digital landscape, even brands used to hire bloggers who displayed a significant no of followers on their profiles irrespective of the engagement that is why buying fake followers was a thing then.

But I guess the trend has changed now, people now know the difference between real engagement and mere numbers!

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@fscholz THe hardest part for previous followers is the "evolution" of content creators. So if they do not have a very strong relationship with you, at a certain point they start to be less interested and unfollow you. The deepest connections happen on a personal level. Some of my followers on Twitter started a chat with me, even we had calls.

Teddy Atkins · Answer

In the Music space, we are seeing this shift unfold in the form of “superfans”, where artists (and new products) are refocusing their efforts on doubling down quicker on more highly engaged (fewer) fans with deeper connections (and deeper pockets) rather than increasing follower count (top of funnel). It am interested in how products will adapt to these new strategies in the near future.

gionata capasso · Answer

Engagement means real activation and real interest. The rest is passive

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@michaelshver Thinking about that – do you do any research about their engagement? If they upvoted because they were interested in the product or because they like you as a person and want to support you. Because personally, I am not a person who watches football. But I want to support you as a person. 😀 And it is tricky because your users should be more interested in your product than in your personality. (Even if your personality created your product) you know what I mean 🙂

Eduardo E Sierra · Answer

Hi Nika, engagement > vanity metrics

Jonni Gani · Answer

Followers are still crucial to give you the early signals (likes/comments/votes) that will kick off virality, I reckon

Gong Zijian · Answer

Absolutely, engagement reflects a genuine interest and interaction from your audience, which is far more valuable than just the number of followers. It's the quality of connections, not the quantity, that truly drives meaningful results in business marketing.

Engagement > Follower count... Your opinion?

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