Today, no business can survive without having an online presence and having a social media account for business is now more of a necessity to reinforce the online identity that can bring positive business outcome. Taking business online can help to gather more contacts. Still, the purpose of being on social media goes much beyond it because it can create much-needed engagement with the audience that goes a long way in promoting brands that leads to successful business endeavours.
When you get your voice heard on the social media and develop close interaction with the audience, it helps to generate a loyal band of followers who become the ambassadors of the brand and help to multiply its popularity. Therefore, nothing will happen without followers who carry the brand and business on their shoulders. You must stay closely engaged with them and ensure that they not only enjoy your company but also derive some excellent value from it.
The importance of followers on social media
Creating a business account on social media is just the beginning. Still, followers will not come on their own unless you take efforts in developing contact with them and turn them into your followers. First, you must identify your prospective audience and reach out to them with posts, photos, videos and other content according to their tastes so that they consider you as a reliable entity for information that is useful and relevant to them. As they engage with the brand, they gather valuable insights about it that brings them closer and increases their loyalty towards it. In due course, they propel the brand forward by reposing their faith in it which deepens through higher engagement. Besides working on growing your following organically, you can also buy followers that will help to boost your social media presence.
Are followers a vanity metric?
Since the number of followers depicts the popularity of any social media account, many consider it as a vanity metric. While it is true to some extent, there is a greater role that followers play in enhancing brand value which is why more and more business are including social media into their marketing strategy. Indeed, popularity might seem very satisfying at least by looking at the numbers. Unless it translates into a meaningful business that brings in more revenue, it does no more than stoking your vanity. Numbers will only matter when it adds value to the business, and for it, you must have the right type of followers instead of focusing too much on getting too many followers who are like showpieces. The right number is that which consists of the right people.
Discover the real worth of followers
Followers are all but only those matters most who add some value to the brand or business. Therefore, you must do good research about the audience that you want to target so that you can engage with them meaningfully that results in business betterment.
Here are some reasons why followers are not mere numbers but can play a bigger role in helping you meet your business goals.
Followers add real value
It is a mistake to label social media followers as a vanity metric automatically. When you can attract followers who take a high interest in your products and willing to engage with it, it should make you very happy because you can engage with them meaningfully. Your followers will consistently stay attached to your profile and view posts, like them, comment on it and even share it. As a result, it creates new avenues of reaching new customers organically and expands the reach without additional efforts. In addition to engaging with your content, they would also become your customers too. Although calculating the ROI of a new follower is not easy, the more they interact with the brand higher will be the conversions.
Followers can provide audience insights
By researching the audience, you can gain valuable insights that help to plan a highly effective marketing campaign. From the list of followers, you must analyze the traits and look for patterns. Besides, you can also explore the areas of interests, and by looking into their accounts, you can find they are posting products of other brands who could be your competitors. The information you gather from the research can help you to fine-tune your content strategy. Your research of the audience can help to identify influencers and micro-influencers with whom you can work and boost your marketing efforts.
Identify the marketing strategies that work
Looking at the number of followers does not have any meaning unless viewed in the proper context. When you look at the number of followers in the appropriate context, it helps to gauge your marketing performance. How many followers you gained at a certain time is a good indicator of the campaign performance, and you can find out the effect of specific influencers on the growth rate. You can also understand how the posting of some content influences the number of followers that either increases or decreases. Whether your marketing strategies are attracting the right type of followers also become clear from the research.
How effective is the content?
The effectiveness of your content reflects in the follower count. Some social media platforms like Instagram allows you to figure out the rate of engagement for each follower. By counting the number of likes and comments of any post, you can calculate the engagement for that post. As you know the number of followers you have, dividing the engagement figure by the number of followers and multiplying it by 100 will give the engagement rate.
This then becomes the benchmark for comparing the engagement rate of other posts. A decline in the engagement rate will signal the need to refurbish the content to make it more effective but if you notice an increase in the engagement rate you know that the content is resonating with the audience.
All this can happen when you have followers who take an interest in your business and brand.