Dear Alex
I run my own small business and I’m extremely confident about my work
But I recently took some time away from the business to raise a family and since I’ve come back everything has changed
I’m not able to go out to face 2 face events as much as I used to because of my young family and I’ve noticed a worrying trend in seeing businesses being hired on the number of likes / followers they have
Is this a thing? Do people get really hired on the number of followers alone?
Can you shine a light on this?
Anon
Thanks for asking this – it’s a really interesting question and one that many people will have a different opinion on
Let me stop some of that worry 1st though
Talent and skills are important and if you don’t have those you’ll soon go out of business – an audience amplifies real life and exposure
So if there is someone who can’t do their job or do what they say they do, but they have a large audience, then they will simply speed up the chances of them being caught out
You said that you are confident about the standard of your work so hold your head up high and put your best foot forward. Be proud of your work
And now on to that question of “Do people get hired on the number of followers alone?”
Social Media is massively important and having a large (but targeted) audience will open you up to more opportunities
You don’t have to be an “influencer” to build an audience
A person with 10,000 targeted engaged followers on social media will find more opportunities come their way than someone with 100 targeted engaged followers
Re read that last line – notice I said targeted and engaged followers. Those words are important
From personal experience (and we’re slightly different in that we’re a social media company) I can say that the size of our audience, we have 30,000+ local followers across social media, certainly helps us win more business. To our audience it shows that we walk the talk and 100% deliver on audience growth, engagement and actually winning business from social media
A larger audience also works for our Social Media Management clients as great ideas have a place to land
For yourself who I’m presuming doesn’t work in social media, I want you do think of it this way
A person won’t get hired on the number of followers alone – but all other things being equal (such as price, quality of work, relationship, convenience), the number of followers could play a part in the decision making process
It could be a point of different which encourages people to work with you or your competitors
I’ll give you 3 different examples so you can see how this works in real life
* You’re a business looking for a graphic designer and leaflet delivery company, my best friend is Mark at Altrincham Design Studio and he creates brilliant work. You have several businesses to go with and all areas mentioned previously are pretty much the same except one. Mark has 4000+ social media followers that he can talk about your business and his design work with and the nearest competitor has a couple of hundred. It’s an easy choice – you can win extra exposure and potential new clients just by going with Mark
* Let’s say you’re a new startup business looking for an accountant. Every accountants website says the same thing, but one really stands out as they inject personality into social and help retweet some of the clients they work with. They also support those clients offline at networking meetings. They provide something called extra value
* You’re a model looking to break through in the industry and you need to get a professional portfolio together. Nobody knows your name, but you’re looking to make a name for yourself. You’ve looked through about 30 different photographers and have got the choices down to 2. One photographer posts at least once a day to 17,000 followers and the other posts once a week to 250 followers. Both get engagement and encouraging comments, but the one with 17,000 followers gets more likes and comments on each post due to the audience size
You can see from just those 3 examples how the number of followers bring extra value to customers
Because the business has dedicated their time to build up a community on social media who engage with their posts they now are able to provide extra value to those that work with them. And that’s why people are buying from them. Not the number of followers, but the value those followers can bring to the table
If you focus on how social media can bring value to your customers then followers will grow and business grows
You can provide value in many ways from supporting your audience with retweet / shares, likes and comments; talking about those customers and suppliers; blogging or producing content that helps your ideal clients; referring work to clients; keeping in touch with your clients
It might be worth an audit of your 3 nearest competitors and ask the question of why you feel they have so many followers? What are they doing on a regular basis that encourages people to follow them (and importantly what can you do differently or better than them)
Hope that helps – don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need more help
Alex
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
We offer Social Media Training on
* Twitter
* Facebook
* LinkedIn
* Instagram
* Blogging
We can do this
* 121
* Corporate Workshops
* Group Workshops
* Face to Face or Via Skype
Or Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk

Alex McCann is owner of Altrincham HQ – a social media management and training company based in Altrincham, Cheshire that has worked with 100s of local business developing their social media strategy. Alex has 500+ LinkedIn testimonials and is Ranked Number 1 for Social Media Marketing in the UK via independent customer reviews on Freeindex.
Archives
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- November 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
Hi Alex, A good response and well thought out, I would add a link back to Mark’s website, I am sure he will be grateful.