Do Social Media Followers Help Your Business?
Since social media began years ago, many people assumed that the more followers you had the better your business would do on social media. But is it still true today?
Let’s take a look at the data to see if social media followers help your business.
Social Media Followers Can Be Helpful To Your Business
The answer, according to recent data, is that social media followers do help your business… to an extent. A study by Hootsuite and We Are Social found that businesses with 1,000 or more followers on social media platforms saw a significant increase in web traffic and customer acquisition.
However, businesses with 100,000 or more followers saw only a marginal increase in web traffic and customer acquisition. This suggests that there is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to social media followers.
Reach and Engagement
But why is this? The answer likely has to do with reach and engagement. Once a business reaches a certain number of followers, its posts have a greater chance of being seen by more people.
However, engagement (likes, comments, shares) starts to level off after a certain point. So while social media followers can help your business, they’re not the be-all and end-all when it comes to social media success.
Social Networks Changing
Most of social networks have changed a lot since they rolled out over a decade ago. Today, groups and circles have evolved, and posting something to the main feed may not give you a lot of engagement or reach.
But how do you know which direction to go in? Which groups to join?
Smaller Networks Do Well
Oftentimes, a small network of people does better than a very large network. People feel more comfortable with fewer people around too.
This seems to be the reason why “groups” on most social networks perform better for people than being on the main feed of a social network.
Facebook Groups
Take Facebook for instance. Groups are formed to connect with others and engage. Whereas a page is more of a news service about your business. You must pay to get leverage with a business page today.
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn has had groups for years. 7 years before Facebook began with its groups. Some are more active than others but again if you post on them, you get more engagement there than on the main feed in most instances.
Gab Groups
The alternative social media network Gab has fabulous groups that get a lot of engagement. Most days when I post on the Gab groups I get more engagement than with my 29,000+ followers on Twitter! It always amazes me but that’s the power of groups today.
https://rumble.com/embed/vkmf4i/?pub=3rbbd
MeWe Groups
One of the oldest social media alternative networks, MeWe has had groups for years as well. They work similarly to Facebook as it’s the Facebook alternative.
Twitter Communities, Spaces, and Circles
Even Twitter is becoming more fragmented with its spaces and circles. You can choose who to tweet to via being in the main feed. I’m not a fan of it but I can see why they have changed after seeing the power of groups on all social networks.
However, I’ve also noticed that many communities got started but did not stay active on this social network.
Instagram Closest Friends
Even Instagram got in on the act with the “closest” friends where you can share posts with your favorite people and see their posts first. Another way to get rid of the main social media feed from its site.
Quora
Even Quora got in the act with its pages and “spaces” in the past few years. Quora is more of a forum but it began to look like a social media network with these types of formats on the website.
Conclusion
Have you found more social media followers helpful to your business or blog recently?
