I spent last weekend with a blogger friend of mine… one of my oldest friends actually. She has been blogging for a while now and recently decided it was time for a blog makeover. Yes, my friend is a brand specialist (among many other things). So when I heard she was rebranding her blog, I was certain it must have been triggered by an ‘Eureka’ or a ‘Light bulb’ moment. In quiet anticipation, I waited until the relunch and during that time, I witnessed how my friend channeled her energy and resources into creating a more distinct lifestyle blog. In my opinion, it was indeed a 360-degree makeover – with a new name, logo and theme. She also created new social media accounts for the newly revamped blog just so that it goes with her blog’s brand (you all should go check it out @lifestylehues.com).
So whilst catching up on old times and all things new about her blog last weekend, I broached the subject of the rapid momentum with which she was gaining new followers – specifically on Instagram. This was because, barely a month after her blog’s Instagram account was created, she had over 900 followers. As a matter of fact, whilst she was still giving me tips on how she was growing her followership, readership or tribe (whatever it is called this days), she hit the milestone of 1,000k followers. You cannot begin to image the excitement of this feat that she had just accomplished. We screamed, laughed and giggled like secondary school girls who just got asked out by a boy whom we have been crushing on all term. I am sure we all can totally relate to that, right? Who doesn’t want followers numbering in thousands on all our social media accounts?
This got me thinking about how living in the New Age Media is turning us all into obsessive humans-of-social-media. As a result, having a large following and breaking-the-internet which comes with the possibility of making money and supplementing our income becomes our ultimate goal for being on any given social media platform. When it is not for the money, it is probably just for that sense of pride or joy we are overcomed by when someone we adore, like or admire on the internet (and have probably being following, commenting and liking all their posts for a while) decides to click the ‘Follow’ button. Let me not lie, I have had those moments myself (shamelessly covers left eye with one hand and continues typing with the other). Emoji developers, take note… you are welcome …lol.
Sorry I digressed. So where was I …
As I was saying, enveloped by the need to have more followers (even when our content is crap), we resort to begging, pleading and asking for people we like or don’t like to follow us back. Hence hashtags such as the ones below dominate our posts and comments alike:
#FollowMeBack
#KindlyFollowBack
#PleaseFollowBack
#LikeForLike
#FollowForFollow
While some people are polite, others can be rude with an undertone of aggression or just plain insolent. Whatever type of ‘follower-begger’ you are, I wish to indulge myself and use this space to ask you the following questions:
Why do you beg for followers?
Why do you feel frustrated when you boldly ask for someone to follow you back and they don’t respond?
Is this an act of desperation or are you unconsciously gravitating towards becoming a ‘social stalker?
Also, rather than begging for people to follow you, is it possible to find a better alternative to this unsophisticated and shameless act?
I believe this alternative to begging can be done by reclaiming ones’ dignity and following these simple steps some of which my blogger friend has adopted too. You never can tell, your social media fortune can turn for the better if you follow-through and not give up easily.
- Share what you like to read or watch
- Make yourself and post interesting
- Give positive feedback or comments whether or not they follow you
- Negative feedback or comments helps nobody but the ego of the person giving it. So spread love not hate.
- Think Quality not Quantity
- Visuals – videos, animations, drawings e.t.c. also increase hits, likes and followings
- Give credit when you share a content you don’t own or better still, use Repost Apps.
In case you don’t get the numbers you require in record time, try not to beat yourself too much about it. But whatever you do, PLEASEEEEEEEEE stop begging people to follow you. I don’t know about you but I always cringe anytime I read or see someone begging people to follow them or like their post.
In the spirit of social ‘contentmanship’, ‘postmanship’ and ‘keyboardmanship’ (its my blog, and I am allowed to come up with words as I see fit.. so just go with my flow… thank you), I leave you in the words of one of my favorite creative writers, Austin Kleon (who I follow religiously but who isn’t following me and has never liked any of my post even after tagging him… but he’s still a cool dude who inspires me… so im cool with it …lol!). He writes:
Do you agree?
Enjoy your weekend.
XX
My Chatty Mind 
Lola, it is sad. When I get such requests even from people I know, my first question is why? Because when I look through their posts, it adds no value. I believe the key to gaining followers is being consistent in creating value, or what do you think?
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So true Olamide. I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m learning to create value by posting what I’m learning and funny enough it attracting people who share similar values as me and most importantly, people I can learn from to. That for me is satisfaction in itself.
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