To begin, here’s a very basic question.
Have you ever followed someone and then followed up with a purchase?
Now think about the opposite, can you remember the last time you made a purchase from someone who was not following you?
That's the switch.
Many people are taught that the number of followers they have is an indication of their success. Having a large number of followers looks impressive, feels good, and can be easily measured. But if you stop for just a moment and consider it, you might come to an uncomfortable conclusion: Having followers does not ensure you will get noticed. And if you are not getting noticed, then you cannot create any type of success.
Launch the Instagram app.
Scroll down for a little bit.
Do you see posts by people that you follow only?
Or are you also seeing posts by people that you don’t know at all?
This exemplifies the change from follower-first to content-first on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
They don’t care about how many followers you may have.
They care about whether or not your content deserves to be shown to more users.
Now consider this:
If two users upload on any given day,
One user has an incredible amount of followers but has pretty standard work.
And the other has almost no followers but has extremely captivating content… .
Who do you believe comes out ahead?
If you’ve paid attention, then you already know.
The fascinating part of this topic is the way we act towards something on social media.
When you engage with something in your own way and have never clicked the ‘Follow’ button, how many times have you done the following:
- Watched a complete video
- Saved a video
- Sent the video to someone without following
And there are so many people that build for visible engagement without realising that the true opportunity has actually happened with invisible attention.
Let's bring it to life.
Consider the following:
A massive following that scrolls through your posts and does not positively respond
Or a small, engaged audience who follows your posts. An audience that trusts you & reach out to you
Which would you rather have?
Because in certain industries (like real estate) the value of several meaningful interactions (e.g., 1 person) may exceed the total value of your entire social media presence.
So, have you ever found somebody after seeing an initial piece of content (e.g., a video), watching multiple videos (6+), developing trust, and then reaching out to them without checking their following size? This is how people are making purchasing decisions today.
What’s really important now is emotion and action…not the number of followers you have…
Attention?…
Solution to a Problem?…
Does it leave you thinking “They really know their stuff”?…
If that’s the case, you are winning!
Then you have the silent audience.
The people who:
- Don’t like anything
- Don’t comment
- Don’t interact openly
- But they are watching.
Always.
In silence.
When they are ready, they will reach out.
They do this not to the person with the most followers. Rather, they reach out to the person they remember.
So perhaps the bigger question is not “How do I gain additional followers?” but rather “Would a person have confidence in my product after viewing my video for thirty seconds?” This certainly has become the new game
Followers are nice for your self-esteem, but attention builds your business, and trust secures the sale.
