4 Reasons Why This Social Media Growth Strategy is Unattractive
New bloggers, old bloggers, it doesn’t matter.
We all get caught up in the numbers sometimes. Whether it’s the number of visitors to our website, the number of blog posts written, or most importantly, the number of followers we have.
When you are first starting out at ground zero with absolutely no social media followers it can make you feel, well, less than. Posting on your ripe Instagram account with 50 followers (who are your closest friends and family) can make you feel small and unimportant when you are first starting out. This cliche saying rings true: you have to start somewhere.
When you are in the first stages of social media growth, doing your research on how to grow rapidly, you may come across a few quick, but undesirable, strategies. But there is one, in particular, you might want to stay away from.
Have you done it?
The Follow for Follow Method.
You may not realize it at first, but this strategy can actually hurt you in the long run. This is one of the easiest ways to grow a following quickly which is why so many of us succumb to it to jump-start our growth.
When you are a brand new baby blogger you are just so excited to be a part of this whole new world! (Keep that excitement!!) You may not even know what direction you want to go in and you just want to be the person who follows everyone and anyone.
Love the idea of supporting everyone. That is amazing and keep that mindset for every part of your life.
But before you start following anyone under the sun just because they will follow you back, read these reasons explaining why this is actually an unattractive growth method.
It creates quick, but shallow, growth
The follow for follow method is ultimately a strategy that will get you followers quickly. Some of those followers may turn into leads or readers but most of them probably won’t.
This usually results in surface-level followers. Meaning, they are less likely to engage with you and less likely to follow your call to action. These are not the type of followers you want! It may look like you have the numbers but in reality, it’s all just a facade.
It could lead to the Follow-Unfollow method
The one method that is an absolute no-no if you want any credibility and is highly frowned upon is the follow-unfollow method. This is when you follow someone, with the INTENT to unfollow them soon after. This is also a way to gain followers quickly, but will most likely not result in leads and engagements.
I believe this is scammy and untruthful. Larger accounts may utilize this strategy to reach smaller accounts that haven’t followed them yet. You may have gotten a follow from a larger account and thought, why are they following me? Chances are they just wanted to get their name into your mind and will unfollow you soon after.
(Not AT ALL saying all larger bloggers/influencers do this, there are so many awesome and authentic people out there!)
Smaller accounts may also try this method to get their numbers up quickly, and will then unfollow 80% of those people. (You’ve probably heard the statement that having a higher follower count than your following count is more ‘attractive.’)
Starting with the follow for follow method could lead to the follow-unfollow method. As your numbers go up you may start to just naturally fall into the follow-unfollow game and that is not what you want!
Follow people you actually want to follow!
After months of quick growth with the follow for follow method (and by quick growth I mean to around 500) I started to realize something.
I would be scrolling through my feed and I would see tons of mom bloggers. I have nothing against mom bloggers (they are honestly rockstars) but I am not a mom! I could not relate to their content, no matter how amazing it was.
To keep your sanity, and to grow authentically, follow people you actually want to follow!! It is OK to not follow everyone who follows you. It is OK for you to follow someone and they don’t follow you back.
You will whole-heartedly enjoy scrolling on social media when you are following other amazing girls that you can relate to and have the same interests as you.
Remember, it’s not about the numbers, it’s about the experience and the people that you connect with!
Focus on strong, reliable growth methods
If you want real, sturdy, growth on social media then slow and steady wins the race. Actually, sometimes it can all happen really fast, and other times it’s like a lazy river.
The kind of follower you want is someone who will benefit from your content and want to engage with you. You can attract these people by posting quality content, posting honest content, and showing up!
Make friends! Don’t just ‘like’. Go the extra mile and comment on people’s posts, watch stories and vote on the polls. What you give, you’ll get. Just make sure you have honest intentions.
Most importantly, be you! Show your personality, share your interests, and do not, I repeat, do not fake it till you make it. You don’t need to do any special methods, just be yourself and people will love it!