Is Engagement More Important than Followers?

What is it about numbers on social media that makes us feel good? Logging into your favorite platform to see all the likes, comments, and shares of your content—it’s like you’re doing something right!

We all know that engagement is one of the biggest social media metrics, but is it the best? And does it really matter as long as your follower count continues to increase? Let’s break down exactly why engagement is the biggest bang for your social media buck.

Hello? Is this thing on?

If there’s any way to interpret engagement, is that it’s active proof that your social media channels are alive and kicking. It’s easy to drift to your follower count as an indication of your success, but there’s a world of difference between having 1,000 followers, and 1,000 followers who engage with your content.

Social media algorithms are a tricky beast, and they respond to engagement above all other metrics. Constant engagement significantly increases your chances of being discovered by new followers. You might notice that when a post garners a significant amount of likes and comments, you start gaining followers too, but it’s hardly ever the other way around.

Engagement is the fuel that makes your social presence thrive. It’s what shows you’re doing well and that what you’re doing is the right thing. I understand that the accumulation of followers is the most tempting metric—really, I do get it—but the fact remains that to get followers who vibe with your content and aren’t just randos off the Internet, you want to focus on your engagement.

Living, Breathing, People Followers

You know how there are all these fake accounts on what seems like every social media platform? Those fake followers only serve to provide a nice “cushion” to your follower count, which is something of a vanity metric. You don’t want fake followers, you want people followers!

People followers bring on the engagement. People followers look at your content—and feel it. It’s true, some people look at content passively and don’t ever really engage, but fake followers don’t even have the capability of leaving a genuine comment.

Don’t let a vanity metric derail your social media destiny. Fake followers only draw in more accounts that don’t “click” with yours, and you don’t want to render your use of social media annoying or a chore.

Remember this: social media was created to be an enjoying, sociable experience, long before the days of fretting over metrics and daydreaming about how big you can grow.

Engagement or Followers?

When we ask just what is the biggest social media metric, we have to take into consideration a number of things. First off, beyond engagement and followers, there are so many other metrics, and they all can mean different things depending on what they do.

I’m of the belief that no matter what, engagement is the biggest and most important metric. It connects to other metrics and is indicative of whether those metrics are doing well.

If you’re really having a hard time accepting that engagement is good for you, let me leave you with one more reason: without engagement, social media is boring. Engagement consists of all your comments and likes, which turn into conversations and even friendships.

If you want to miss out on all that, that’s totally up to you. Somebody has to be the stick in the mud.

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