ENGAGEMENT OVER FOLLOWERS



As a full time blogger a large portion of my job requires social media activity, I'd probably guess it around half. Whilst the likes of Instagram and Facebook are a bit of fun for most people, it may seem that it's the 'easy' part of the job, but you'd be mistaken for thinking that. Posting a quick photo with a seemingly fitting caption isn't the hard task, though capturing said photos can be, it's building a loyal and engaging following - that's the difficult part. There may be a small amount of social media influences who gained a following quickly and authentically for one reason or another, but the majority have to work hard at it day after day, and it can be a pretty gruelling task, especially today in a era of bots and fake followings.

Over the past six months I've noticed a small shift in the way a lot of brands are working and ultimately what they're looking for from a blogger or influencer in terms of social media. I'm still regularly asked what my following is, but it's often proceeded by (for me) the most important question, 'What is your engagement rate'. I think engagement rates are so key now moving forward and any savvy brand should be looking far more at that, than any follower number, especially if they actually want people to see what they're looking to promote. I sent myself off on a quick test along Instagram and immediately noticed that bloggers with smaller followings, tended to have a much higher engagement level than those with sometimes ten times the amount of followers. Something that a couple of years ago I wouldn't have thought anything of, because it was drilled into everyone when working with brands that their follower number was what mattered. Now, it's a different story. What does this tell us though? I'm not sat here saying that those with large followings and low engagement have bought their followers, far from it, but we all know that in the blogging world followers can flock for a variety of reasons and in my eyes, giveaways are one of the most obvious causes for the stark contrast in followers to engagers. Compers will follow a blogger in order to potentially win a prize, but their account is being used for nothing other than to enter competitions and therefore will never engage with the blogger again unless it's for that purpose. What I like to call a 'ghost follower'. Then we look at the follow, unfollow game. With apps like socialblade disappearing into oblivion, it's on the rise now more than ever and again see's a huge increase in followers but quite often these followers wont engage and it ultimately results in the same problem, low engagement rates.


Engagement is so important and I really wish more brands looked into it, because in truth the people who engage are truly the ones who are seeing the content. A blogger may have 18,000 followers but if only 120 are interacting with their photos then that influence isn't over the 18,000, it's over the 120. I liken it to having a gardening magazine on the shelf in Tesco, that store might see 50,000 customers walk through the door weekly and thus you'd be impressed, expecting a large amount of sales but in reality you're getting less than 100. If you put it into a garden centre where you're only seeing 10,000 people each week, but 500 are grabbing up the magazine - it makes more sense to opt for the garden centre right? Even though the flashy supermarket has the big numbers, it doesn't really have the people who are interested and looking in the right direction. The same works for blogging.



I know engagement isn't always genuine, with comment pods, instant threads and every kind of social media promotion tool there is out there, you're bound to wonder how you can really trust the figures you see. The truth is, you can't. But bloggers who participate in those threads in my mind aren't truly cheating the system, yes the engagement is forced BUT, it's still engagement. Those numbers are real because each one of those likes or comments has been typed or clicked by another human, looking at that photo and genuinely interacting. The motives might be questionable but it's still there. I can honestly say from comment pods I've participated in previously, I've seen so many products or heard about a variety of places that I never would have otherwise. So even when I haven't been looking to be influenced, I still have, which is why for me engagement will always be top dog in the numbers game.


11 comments

  1. This is something I struggle with too! Especially Instagram. Tons of followers with little engagement. Ugh.

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  2. Such an interesting read. I totally agree with everything you've said about an engaged following being far superior. I find Instagram by far the hardest social media platform and yet it's the one brands seem to care most about. Building an engaged following is such hard work and I can understand why people take shortcuts, as counter productive as that might be!

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  3. Great post babe, it can be so hard with Instagram, I'd rather have less followers but better engagement personally, but it's nice just to know people are enjoying your content xx

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  4. Yes, engagement is so important, you probably don't realise how important if your not in the blogging world! Very interesting post.

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  5. Brilliant post and so true! I hate the fact people can buy followers and 'fake it x

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  6. Agree with all of this - engagement is such a big part of influencer marketing now, which is always nice to see that shift rather than just followers. What’s the point in having 100,000 followers if only 50 of them actually care about what you are posting?

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  7. 100% with you on this! I don't think a lot of people realise the amount of work that goes into building an ENGAGED following. But the rewards of creating a little community are immeasurable and is a huge reason why I blog in the first place. I think those with smaller followings do benefit from the algorithms when it comes to engagement, but you're right that the lower amount of ghost followers must help. I think we'll continue to see a trend towards who brands are working with - but it'll be a slow transition.

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  8. I think part of the reason is just that follow count is an easy measurement to source and target and unfortunately people abuse that (buying followers etc) I hope that brands will start to realise this too and pick up more on engagement than big flashy follow counts.

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  9. Yes yes yes. I hate that more brands don't look into this. The amount of emails I've sent, put effort into, to be told I don't have enough followers.. okay then. Nobody has ever asked me for my engagement rate and I am sad about that because I feel like I do have really good engagement, especially on Twitter. It's difficult to see people who have bought followers succeeding so much in collaborations, but I am just glad I have my dignity instead X

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  10. I’m all about conversations and engagement! That’s why I absolutely hate the Instagram (and twitter sometimes!) follow unfollow thing. Yes by all means follow to boost your numbers but then don’t just sit there not liking not talking! It’s all about relationships! The better your engagement is the more people trust you as your own brand - having worked in sales and b2b I think I’ve approached blogging in the same way 😂😂

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  11. Your sonright that engagement is key and I’m so glad that brands are finally starting to realised that it is just as good as huge followers!

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