Social Media is becoming an ever prevalent figure in today's society- numbers of followers, likes, retweets and shares far outnumbering any other measure of popularity. But the credibility of this is something which is to be debated. I, for one, know that if I were shown two fashion sites on twitter and I were to find one had 12.1K followers and the other had 100, I would be far more likely to follow the first, simply due to numbers. Surely that many people couldn't be wrong?
I would then exit the two, no further thought gone on to the subject matter.
But is this just shallow?
Is this judging something based on an initial impressive performance? I could find that the brand I followed - whilst having such a vast number of followers - actually receives no interaction from any of these. Their "Fans" just skip straight past any communication they put out there. Or perhaps that whilst the initial look is impressive, they produce poor quality clothing and inadequate customer service.
Brand two however - the one with 100 followers, whom I did not interact with, could have 100 followers, yet 90% of these are loyal. They could all be super interested in the brand, love the clothing and speak with them on a regular basis. Their clothing could be of superb quality, customer service second to none, but their pitfall is that their social game is not as strong.
Does this make it a reliable measure?
And how about as a brand. Whether a retail company, a blogger, an online magazine (like me)... is it more important to have less followers but those which are more loyal, or high numbers which look impressive?
With an ever-increasing number of people purchasing followers to look 'more successful' but then receiving no engagement, is it really worth the money? I see it as paying to speak in a room of 3,000 people that couldn't care less about your services, or in a room with 100 dedicated fans. Which would you prefer?
Is it about time we stopped caring about quantity and put quality back at the forefront of our judgement?
With a social world that moves so quickly, we need to learn to accept that not all journeys will be fast. Whilst it could happen, it is highly unlikely you will rack up an overnight following of a multitude of thousands. We need to focus on being patient and nurturing those followers we do have, rather than shunting them in favour for meaningless quantities of uninterested numbers.
What are your thoughts?
Are you more likely to trust an account with more followers? Does it influence your purchasing decisions? Let me know in the comments below...