Why Writers Shouldn’t Care So Much About Numbers of Social Media Followers

Are you overly concerned about your number of social media followers?

Writers used to think that to sell more books, they had to increase their number of followers on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

But actually, the number of followers you have may not mean very much when it comes to selling your books.

Here’s why.

Why High Numbers of Social Media Followers May Not Matter

Look at how many followers you have on your social media accounts. Is it a lot?

Now look at how many books you sold on your last launch. Did that number reflect the number of followers you have?

In other words, if you have 6,000 followers, did you sell 6,000 books?

If not, you can see what I mean.

Having a lot of followers means nothing if those followers aren’t engaging with your content.

Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck agrees: “Let’s say you have 20,000 followers on Instagram and 12,000 of them buy ten copies of your book because you posted about it. That type of conversion means you have an engaged audience consuming your content. That’s valuable.

“On the other hand, let’s say you have 200,000 purchased fans. When you post something and it gets zero engagement, those followers have zero value because (1) they either don’t care about your content or (2) they’re not real. Either way, your follower count does not represent their real value to you.”

Creative Agency Spark & Pony adds that “simply evaluating your success based on a vanity metric like your follower count is incredibly short-sighted.” They go on to say that having a lot of followers isn’t the key to growing your [author] business.

What is?

Having the right kind of followers.

How Many Fake Social Media Followers Do You Have?

You don’t have to purchase fake followers. These days, they seem to be rampant on several social media platforms.

I joined Instagram not long ago. I’ve been bombarded by fake accounts following me ever since. I mean, every other day I have more “followers” that are clearly fake or created by bots.

I could simply let them be and let my follower count go up, but I don’t like having fake accounts distorting the real picture.

So I remove them. That gives me a more realistic picture of how I’m doing.

How can you tell how many fake or disengaged followers you have? Compare the number of followers you have to the number of likes, retweets, or comments you receive. If they’re way out of balance, most of those followers aren’t engaged with you.

There are other ways you can check. Werner Geyser, the founder of InfluencerMarketingHub, recommends looking for these signs:

1. An account has “unusual” numbers, like following thousands of people without having followers in return or having few posts of their own.
2. Inconsistent action, such as following lots of people initially, having a burst of followers in a short time, or posting a lot for a day and then doing little to nothing after that.
3. Fake-sounding bios with few details or hidden posts. Also, a lack of a profile picture or “too perfect” picture (taken from a photo site).
4. Clueless comments that sound generic or are too salesy.

You can also use tools like FollowerAudit, SocialAuditor, and SparkToro to check for fake followers. There are many of these tools out there, so take your time to find out which ones may work best for you.

The Number of Followers May Not Matter with Email Newsletters Either

Just a side note here—the number of email subscribers you have may not matter as much as you might think, either.

I regularly go through my audience list (for the Writing and Wellness newsletter) and remove those subscribers who are no longer engaged. If they haven’t opened a newsletter in a year or more, clearly they’re not interested in what’s inside. So there’s no reason to keep them on the list.

It may feel painful to trim the numbers, but you’ll end up with a higher engagement percentage which is great for your author business. (For tips on how to keep your subscribers more engaged, check out this post on Writers Helping Writers.)

It’s not about numbers—it’s about whether the people on your list are truly interested in what you’re sharing with them.

What Matters More Than Social Media Numbers When Building Your Author Business

A high follower count is often described as a “vanity” metric. It looks good, but it doesn’t really mean a lot.

So if the number of followers doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to building your author business, what does?

1. Engagement

If your followers are engaging with you, that’s a good sign. They are commenting, liking, reposting, and otherwise involved in what you’re doing. In your email newsletters, they are the ones opening the emails and clicking on the links. They will share your books when they come out may even buy and read a copy.

2. Shares

Shares are part of engagement, but here I’m talking about people who take more effort to share your stuff. Instead of just retweeting, they’re asking to repost on their blogs, resharing in separate posts on their feed, or sharing a review of your book on their own. These are your staunch supporters. Take care of them!

3. Clicks To Your Website

The people who follow your posts to your website (or other locations of your work, such as to your Amazon page) are valuable followers/fans. You can track the number of clicks to your website with tools like bitly.com, which enables you to not only shorten your share links but then see how many people clicked on those links.

4. Relationships

The real benefit of social media is that it can help you to create relationships as an author. Over time as you post and comment on others’ posts, you engage in conversations that nourish connections. These can be connections with readers, but they can also be with editors, agents, and other authors who may help you along the way.

Bottom Line: Don’t Obsess About Numbers of Social Media Followers

Even the New York Times says that though publishers may look at your social media accounts, “they are increasingly seen as unpredictable gauges of how well a book is actually going to sell.”

According to Times writer Elizabeth A. Harris, “there is also an increasing awareness in the industry about the difference between the number of followers and how engaged they really are. Do they comment? Do they share?”

Focus instead on the quality of the content you’re putting out there, and on whether your followers are finding it valuable. Then be sure to share and comment on other content that you like. That’s the best way to gradually grow a readership that’s real.

What do you think about your number of social media followers?

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