4 minute read
I once worked for a brand that believed its Instagram follower count was the measure of success.
Hitting one million followers was the ultimate goal. In fact, there were genuine discussions about flying the CEO to a remote island and videoing “1 million” written in the sand to celebrate the milestone.
What wasn’t being discussed was whether those followers were engaging with the content, which posts were driving meaningful interactions, or whether the audience actually cared about what the brand was sharing.
Audience size means very little if nobody cares what you post.
Follower numbers are a vanity metric. They look impressive in reports and make for great milestone announcements, but they rarely tell the full story. A large audience means very little if that audience isn’t paying attention, engaging with your content, or ultimately helping you achieve your business goals.
Why Follower Count Became So Important
Throughout my career, follower numbers have often been treated as the ultimate measure of social media success.
Historically, follower growth was a reasonable measure of success. Social media feeds were largely follower-driven, meaning the more followers a brand had, the more people were likely to see its content.
In that environment, growing an audience was a reliable way to increase visibility and reach.
Why Follower Count Matters Less Than Ever
Today, platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok increasingly serve users content based on their interests and behaviour, not just the accounts they follow. As a result, people regularly discover and engage with content from brands and creators they’ve never followed before.
Yet many brands still measure success as if social media worked the same way it did ten years ago.
A high follower count no longer guarantees visibility, just as a low follower count doesn’t necessarily limit it. Content can reach thousands of relevant users without them ever clicking the follow button.
The Problem With Chasing Followers
Despite these changes, many brands still chase follower growth at all costs.
Competitions are often used to boost follower numbers through entry mechanics such as following an account or tagging friends. While they can drive short-term growth, they’re also likely to attract people who are interested in the prize rather than the brand. Once the giveaway ends, follower numbers often return to where they started.
Similarly, I’ve seen brands celebrate viral posts that generated thousands of interactions and a spike in followers, despite having little connection to their products or services. Attention is valuable, but only if it helps you reach the right audience.
The Metrics I’d Track Instead
Engagement Rate
Instead of focusing solely on follower count, I’d look at engagement rate.
While follower numbers tell you how many people have chosen to follow an account, engagement rate reveals whether they actually care about what you’re posting.
An account with 2,000 highly engaged followers is often far more valuable than an account with 20,000 passive ones.
Click-Through Rate
While impressions and reach are useful awareness metrics, I’d also pay close attention to click-through rate.
Reach tells you how many people saw your content. Click-through rate tells you how many people were interested enough to take the next step.
Whether that’s visiting your website, reading a blog post, signing up to a newsletter or viewing a product page, click-through rate helps connect social media activity to tangible business outcomes. It provides a stronger indication of intent and can reveal whether your content is encouraging audiences to move further along the customer journey.
Shares
Shares are one of my favourite metrics to track.
While they’re not a new social media feature, the ways users can share content have evolved significantly. Audiences can now share content publicly by adding it to their stories or reposting it on another platform. They can also share content privately through direct messages, messaging apps, email or by simply copying the link.
What makes shares such a valuable metric is the intent behind them.
When someone shares your content, they’re effectively endorsing it. They’re telling their friends, family, colleagues or followers that it’s worth their time. That’s a much stronger signal than a like.
Shares can also help content reach audiences beyond your existing followers, increasing visibility organically and introducing your brand to new people who may never have encountered it otherwise.
For me, shares are often one of the clearest indicators that content has resonated with an audience. Whether it’s because the content was useful, insightful, entertaining or thought-provoking, people only tend to share content when they believe someone else will benefit from seeing it too.
My Preferred Metric
Follower count still has a place in reporting, but it should never be the metric that defines success. The most valuable social media metrics are the ones that tell us whether we’re building genuine relationships with our audience and helping the business achieve business goals.
Social media success isn’t about building the biggest audience possible. It’s about building an audience that cares.
Helen Northern | Content Marketing and Copywriting 