Follower numbers don’t matter.

It’s so easy to get hung up on how many followers you have on your social channels; and see that as a crucial factor to your success as a yoga teacher, pilates teacher, PT, studio or any business in the wellness space. I totally get it’s easy to see “oooh she’s got 200k followers, I bet she’s making BANK”.

I’ve been in the world of marketing for around about 16 years or so now, have been a Head of PR & Social for an international car brand, and won awards for social media presence - so, I think I’m pretty well placed to bust this myth once and for all…

Your number of followers DO NOT MATTER. Totally irrelevant.
What matters is the RELEVANCE of those in your community & how engaged they are.

I’m a really good example of this, I actually have under 1,000 followers on Instagram. Yet, I’m booked out months in advance and make more money than I ever did in an employed PR role.

Followers is what we’d call a vanity metric. It’s just a number that doesn’t tell us anything about who that person is, their intent to purchase, or their relevance to the business they are following.

Relevance is one of the key things to consider about your audience and followers. It’s super common to start up a business, ask friends or family to follow you - who have zero interest in what you offer and no intention to ever buy - to boost your count so you optically look like you’re worth following. It’s also super common for other people in your sector to follow you i.e. other yoga teachers, pilates teachers, PTs because they like your content. But they aren’t your customer, either.

I always say to clients - remove followers who aren’t your ideal clients. The bots, the sugar daddies, the people doing the same thing as you. I do this ALL the time, I remove other business coaches, the yoga marketing people (who aren’t qualified 99% of the time and they just wanna steal my content eye roll - I actually block them…) because they are adding zero value to me by being there. And if your Auntie Emma is the same, not giving you any value… get rid!

The problem with having an audience packed with people who have no intention of ever buying is that it tanks your engagement.

These people like Auntie Emma (or the other teachers) don’t interact, they don’t save your content, DM you after they’ve read a post, watch your stories and click through links. So, social platforms don’t push your profile at all, or it gets pushed to people who aren’t that dream person you spend your time thinking about.

When your audience is relevant and engaged - it actually helps tell the algorithms “hey, this is who will LOVE my page and work” so your stuff gets in front of the right kind of people. You’re doing yourself a favour.

Big accounts have this exact problem; they actually have tiny engagement rates and struggle to convert those eyes into people buying from them. According to research from BazaarVoice, accounts with over 1M followers have a 0.7% conversion rate, whilst brands with under 10K have a 1.3% conversion rate.

When you have a smaller account, it’s a lot easier to keep on top of engagement - replying to comments and DMs, sharing polls and interactive content, chatting personably with your community there. That engagement is the thing that helps your audience get to know you, what you do, how you could help them which develops trust - and in turn, intent to purchase over a period of time.

Followers are the last thing to be worrying about. Honestly.

Prioritise building a community, sharing, helping, showcasing your expertise and the sales will come with time.