3 Reasons to Stop Chasing Followers
#2 — A follower will forget you
The message came through on Twitter while I shoved down a sandwich:
“Hey Todd, I just wanted to thank you for writing this post. It meant a lot to me.”
I wiped peanut butter off my face and stared. I refreshed the tweet. Had I missed something? This person was not posturing. They weren’t trying to capitalize on what I’d written. In fact, the message was a direct reply to me, which meant this person’s followers never saw it.
Even though I’d grown a following of 10,000 by late 2015, I’d never gotten a message like this. For a while, I just sat there. Then, a thought clawed its way to the surface.
“Oh. My. God. This is an actual person.”
It never occurred to me that my followers were real people.
The Follower Deception
Here’s how it starts. You’re scrolling through your feed and stumble across some guy named Gary Vee. You check the follower count: 2 million. You want that. Who wouldn’t?
You start your own channel. You figure out what to write. You push publish. You wait in anticipation. Sure enough, you get your first follower in a matter of hours.
This is where the problem starts.
What should be a glorious and wonderful moment soon turns to a tally mark scratched on the wall. You do not see this person as “Sarah from Indiana.” You see her as “Number 1.” Number 1 is so small. Insignificant, even. You still need 1,999,999 to reach your goal. Ugh.
Not for a second do you think about Sarah for what she really is — a person. A person — with hopes and dreams and ideas. A person — with their own circle of influence. A person — who also has work to share with the world.
This person will never be enough to you. That’s because you see them as a nameless, faceless, voiceless follower.
Do you remember how this word was handled before the Internet began? A “follower” was a person who diligently served a religious text or philosophical ideal. That is, they lived by a set of instructions that could not speak back to them.
Sadly, many people who publish work on the Internet approach content in this manner: as a messenger sent from God to enlighten the masses and then disappear into the clouds.
All praise to you, the Internet King!
The Three Problems With Chasing “Followers”
There are many more than three, actually. However, most of them are internal. These psychological hiccups are best left to my friend Nick Wignall. Since he’s smarter than me, I’ll stick to the practical problems. Here are three ways I see chasing followers destroy people:
Problem #1: No number will ever be big enough
Guess what happens when you get to that 2 million number? Gary has 10 million. You will chase goalposts that keep moving.
When you chase numbers, it’s not possible to reach the end. Numbers keep going forever. You just keep counting. The 2 millionth follower will feel no different than the second. Any finish line will elude you, along with any real satisfaction in a job well done.
Problem #2: A follower will forget you
Do you remember that first follower? Sarah from Indiana? She could have been a lifetime fan. On the day she began following you, she really did want what you have to offer. You neglected her. She moved on. She started learning from someone else who cared.
The enormous irony is that when you chase followers, you really will attract people who want what you have. Don’t ignore these people. Go deeper with them instead of trying to go wider with the world.
Problem #3: You get trapped in an echo chamber
Imagine you’re six months into your online journey. You have created 45 posts in this time, but now the well is running dry. What should you make next?
You have a few options.
- Copy what other people have written
- Try and write the same posts in a different way
- Listen to what people are saying about your work
Tara Blair Ball recently wrote an excellent post about this concept. Why gut yourself for new ideas when people are telling you what they want? The wicked secret of paying attention to people is that they will give you an endless pipeline of topics to write about.
If your communication is one way, how will you know what to create? Followers won’t tell you their problems. People will.
I’ll admit “chase people” is not a very metric-driven goal. Maybe you need a more concrete mark to take aim at. If you need a number to function, try this one:
150.
This number is the limit to friendships we as humans can have at one time. Instead of focusing on 2 million faceless followers, what do you suppose your life would look like if you chased 150 true, authentic relationships with people who want what you have to offer? What if you stopped seeing yourself as a savior? What if you poured everything you have into real humans?
Don’t collect followers. Gather people.
Then, watch the magic happen.