How much is a follower worth?

The more followers or subscribers you have, the better, right?

But what is the true value of a follower? We think that thousands or millions of followers makes our content heard by more people – but those people are also following between 300-2000 other people. No wonder the social media algorithms aren’t showing your content to your followers. You’ve got to compete for their attention, which means your message is being diluted in a swarm of other content also vying for your audience’s attention.

If you read my last few posts, you’ll know I’m currently considering quitting all social media entirely. But wait, what about my 16 thousand Instagram followers? I’m just going to throw that all away?

I just want to examine exactly what having 16 thousand followers actually means.

As of the moment of writing this post, I have 16,598 followers, and it’s been stable in the 16k mark for about a year.

According to this engagement calculator, I have an engagement rate of 1.71%.

This is low, but not unusual. Most accounts my size have around 2.43% engagement:

Let’s do the maths:
1.71% of 16,598 is 283.

That means, if I delete my Instagram, I’ll be losing the consistent engagement of around 283 people in total.

Puts it in perspective, right?

One of my core values is connection. I truly love being with people (I score highly on the extroversion scale), and I value every single one of the people who connect with me on social media. It just happens to be that there’s fewer than you might think.

Unfortunately, because we think we’re more popular than we really are (well, I'll speak for myself), we let the social media machine run our lives. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we personally connected to those 283 people (or however many are truly engaging with you), and had a decent conversation with them instead of obsessively pumping out perfectly curated posts at them?

I think so. I’m on a mission to put the social back into my life – by deleting social media.

Social media is optional, and as a society, we tend to forget that. It feels essential.
The point is: whether or not you feel you need to delete social media to get back in control of your life, don’t let the numbers fool you.