Chasing Followers is Hurting Your Brand's Social Media Growth.
Social media has changed how brands connect and interact with their customers. Its accessibility has bloomed many new businesses and brands growth worldwide, but its oversaturation has left many stuck in a rut. Especially when you look at all the successful brands with a high follower count within a short time, their product could be more interesting, or their content could be more engaging! You might be tempted to buy followers since they’re doing it – why shouldn’t you? STOP! When you start to think like this, you’ve already lost the social media game. Mindlessly chasing followers can hurt your brand’s social media growth. A raw follow count shouldn’t correlate with the focus of your brand’s primary objective.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying “quantity over quality”. What is the point in a high pool of followers when only 2% of them regularly engage with your content? The people who don’t engage with your content are- what we call… ghost followers. You may be asking yourself, “How can this hurt my brand? The more, the merrier, right? Well, fellow reader, here are a few reasons they hurt your brand and staggering real growth.
Social Media platforms have advanced algorithms that rank your profile based on how many likes and shares your content gets. If your profile has a high follower count but a low engagement rate, the algorithm won’t know who your audience is. It’s essential to make it clear to the algorithm who your content is for. These social media platforms have financial incentives to push content people will engage with because it keeps their users on the platforms more often. Chasing followers doesn’t align with these social media platforms’ objectives. If no one engages, these platforms will intentionally keep your content in the back end. Think of social media as a giant shopping centre and profiles as shops. If your shop isn’t driving traffic within the shopping centre, expect them to give you the boot.
1. Legitimacy
People are smart. They will question the brand’s legitimacy when they encounter a profile with plenty of followers but low engagement. It’s like the American Candy stores on Oxford Street in London. The shops look exciting, but once you enter, you’re greeted with expensive, expired and cheap-looking candy with fake labels. Social media aims to build trust with your potential audience, and chasing followers will blind you to that. On average, consumers will spend at least 7 hours interacting with a brand online before they make a big purchase. It’s time we focus on creating long-term quality content.
2. Comparing followers
I alluded to this earlier, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing your follow count to a similar brand. This attitude will distract you from the primary goal. Generating real customers that will engage with your brand. You may come across A page with a 15k follower count, but ask yourself – How many of those followers have been converted to actual customers or engaged with that brand’s content? Followers will lead to customers if you create engaging content that will drive them to engage with your brand’s channels consistently.
Building your brand on social media is a complex process that requires experimentation, dedication, research, and lots of patience. But you’ll discover it improves your overall brand SEO, credibility, and success.
3. You Lose Sight of Real Strategy
When follower count becomes the goal, content becomes reactive instead of intentional. You start posting just to keep up — chasing trends, tweaking your tone, or mimicking competitors — all in the hope of gaining traction. But in doing so, you lose touch with what makes your brand unique.
Without a clear strategy rooted in your mission, audience, and goals, your content turns into noise. And audiences can tell.
The result? Inconsistent messaging, shallow engagement, and a feed that may look active — but doesn’t actually move your brand forward.
What to focus on instead:
Build a long-term content strategy that reflects your values, solves your audience’s problems, and builds genuine connection. Follower growth is a byproduct of clarity and consistency — not the starting point.