What is the value of having social media followers? - WeGrowMedia

In the past few issues of this newsletter I talked about different ways of considering using social media if you are a writer or creator:

One of the main point’s I’ve made is to stop thinking about social media as being just about growing how many followers you have. But today I want to talk about the opposite: why having followers on social media can matter to your goals as a writer. The context I’m talking about here is why could it possibly matter that you have 100, or 1,000, or 10,000 followers on a specific social media channel? What is the actual value in doing so, beyond just “big numbers are impressive?” (You all know how I feel about math.)

Let’s dig in…

Followers Can Provide Credibility

Having followers can help give you credibility. What is “credibility” in this case? Here’s one version: that you are a real person who writes about certain topics you care for deeply, and who is connecting with others in a professional manner. Let’s consider some simple use cases here. Let’s say you reach out to another author asking if they would consider writing a blurb for your book; or you pitch yourself as a guest on a podcast; or you query an agent; or you connect with an organizer of a local literary festival to see if you can speak on a panel. When you have followers, this is how it can help with establishing credibility:

They an understand who you are on a human level and a professional level. That you are somehow active online and show up as a real person. You get to define that in manner that feels safe and comfortable to you, but a simple way to consider that is that they see you actually are a real person, and not some bot. Maybe they see your face, and that you love books and writing, and that care as deeply about certain themes in books as they do.
They see that other people recognize and connect with you. This is a form of social proof that you are part of a community, and engaging with you is “safe” in this context.
They can see how you engage with others. The frequency, the tone, the style, and the way others do so with you.

I always remembered advice about going on job interviews from decades ago, things such as: look the person in the eye when talking, give a firm handshake, sit up straight, dress professionally, send a thank you note, etc. All of these were other ways of illustrating that I was a viable candidate, and this type of stuff seemed to matter just as much as what was printed on the resume.

Sure, having followers can attempt to put a numeric value indicating how big your network is. But it can also illustrate credibility in other ways.

Followers Can Hint That You Have Access

Who you have access to is something that others may be attracted to. For instance, if they can see that you are a part of a certain circle of writers, or that you speak to a lot of book clubs, or you do a lot of school visits as an author. Having followers can hint that you have access. Sometimes this is merely for social reasons, someone wanting to feel a part of a community that you are a part of, or seeing that readers like you and therefore they want to be associated with you. But it can also apply to professional goals: a podcaster may more easily book you as a guest if they see you have a lot of followers because they make some quick assumptions in their head:

This person is the real deal (see “credibility” above)
This person has access to a lot of people, giving me the social proof I need to trust them
This person can potentially share the podcast episode we record to their many followers, thereby making the episode a success, but also potentially helping my podcast grow

Sometimes people aren’t even consciously aware they are thinking these things when seeing how many followers you have. Other times they are. I’ve certainly heard of nonfiction or memoir writers who got a book deal very quickly because of how many followers they have. It was enough for a publisher to consider: “they have access to the exact right audience, this is a good business move for us.”

Followers Show You Have Reach

This is perhaps the most obvious thing that having followers shows: that you can reach a certain number of people. What is “reach”? That if you post something, it has a good chance of reaching X number of people. Years ago, this was very rare and highly valuable. One company I worked for had a (supposedly highly profitable) division that sold lists. What are “lists?” Lists of email addresses. So if you were a company that wanted to reach “C-suite executives in the refrigeration industry,” you would pay a lot of money to get a list of email addresses to reach them.

But now everyday I see individuals on Instagram and TikTok who post about books and reading, who have thousands of followers. That reach is still very valuable, and getting it is more accessible than ever before. In some ways, one could consider that having access to a large group of people has many benefits from a business standpoint, from a community standpoint, and a personal standpoint.

Reach can also indicate that you have the power to gather people. That if you held a meetup event for your followers, that people would be there. We can think of this in simple terms, like how back in the 1990s I would host parties with friends because each of us could invite 50 people, thereby guaranteeing that at the very least we would end up with dozens of people attending. The same holds true for hosting a book event with multiple authors, or doing an “in conversation” event, instead of just a book reading where you are the only author on stage. One is not better than the other. But the “reach” can be greater. Sometimes more is… well… more.

Followers Indicate You Can Sell Books or Monetize

Having followers can increase your chances of actually selling more books or otherwise monetizing your career as a writer. Now, I’m not saying “social media sells books,” because I have written about that in the past:

But having followers on social media can be a part of a larger ecosystem that can increase book sales. I mean, math can work here. We can math that if you post to social media with 100 followers that your book is on sale today, that you can get 2 sales, and that if you send that same message to 10,000 followers, you will get 200 sales at the same 2% conversion rate.

More followers can move more product. It can also give others the belief that you can move more product, even if the reality is different. Which is the same reason why a billboard in Times Square costs more than a billboard in Howell, New Jersey. The advertiser can assume that if it is seen by more people, it has more potential to sell more product.

But monetization can take other forms as well. Having more followers can allow you to monetize in additional ways:

Creating a paid Substack newsletter
Creating a paid Patreon
Hosting a paid event (online or in-person)
Creating a paid subscription to Instagram
Selling related products
Being a paid speaker

I want to be clear here: you do not need to have a goal of having thousands of followers. All of these same points from above matter if you have 50 followers. Or 150. Or 350. Having those followers can all result in the same benefit of providing credibility, access, reach, and the ability to sell books. I want you to feel good about each connection you have with a follower. But I also don’t want to dismiss the value of having a following.

I spend my days working with writers to grow their platforms, reach their ideal readers, and prepare for book launches. And in many of these strategies we do indeed focus on follower growth, subscriber growth, and how how they can reach a larger audience in specific ways. But I always want to be clear about why these things matter, how you can craft an experience that matters deeply to you, and that they should be in the service of meaningful connections with like-minded readers.

Thanks.

-Dan