Do social media follower numbers actually matter?

Often, as business owners, we focus a lot on different metrics. There are some that are obviously really important, like income and outgoings, and others that are helpful to know, such as website traffic and social media follower numbers.

Wanting to have more followers online can often be seen as a bit of a "vanity metric", meaning it's something that we think looks good, but doesn't really mean anything.

I'm inclined to agree for the most part, but there is one number on Instagram that I've recently hit on my @iamkateclifton account, which has unlocked a few new tools for me, and that's the magical 1000 followers!

In case you're still not at this milestone, I wanted to let you know which tools you have access to once you hit 1000 followers, and how I got there myself in 7 months with my new account.

Firstly, the tools that have been unlocked for me now are:

1. Channels - I can now set up a broadcast channel and send messages out directly to anyone who signs up.

2. Live - You can only go live on Instagram if you have over 1000 followers. Honestly, this was the main reason I wanted to make sure I crossed the 1k threshold, as I think this is such a great tool for business owners.

3. Notification filters - Once you have 1000 followers, your notifications are split into categories, so you can more easily find new followers, comments, tags and mentions, etc.

OK, so now for the interesting question of how did I reach 1000 followers?!

When I first set up my account, I did the following:

1. Told people on my Kate Languages account that I had set up this new account and to follow me if they're interested in building an education business. I know this isn't a tool that's available to everyone, but you can still ask people you know with bigger accounts to recommend following you.

2. I followed lots of tutors and resources sellers who are my ideal clients. Often people will follow you back, plus you get recommendations for more people to follow based on that. If you don't know where to begin, go to a bigger account who shares your ideal client (such as my Kate Languages one) and look through their followers and following. This will get the ball rolling and give you ideas for who to follow.

3. I shared a lot of reels, which are great for reaching people who aren't following you yet. I invited people to follow me in the captions, such as in my first reel on this account, which you can watch here.

4. I created a boosted post that specifically asked people to follow me if they found it helpful. I spend just £1/day on this post, it's reached over 14k accounts so far, and has gained me 481 new followers. Apologies if you wanted to hear that I did it all for free, but I'm afraid Instagram (and business in general) just doesn't work like that these days! If you want something, you need to invest in it 🤷‍♀️

Join the Teaching Beyond the Classroom community here: https://www.katelanguages.co.uk/offers/R2rZ937C/checkout