You may be wondering who your audience is really following: you, your ideas, or your format. Knowing this helps you connect better and grow your brand. Watch closely your metrics for hints on your audience’s real interest. This article will walk through the indicators of each type of following and how they may influence your content creation strategy. At the end, please pay attention to what your audience appreciates more, be it you, your concepts, or your structure.
Signs People Follow You (the Person)
Your followership grows the more relationships you develop with your audience. They send you direct messages and reply personally, which indicates their familiarity with you. People tag you often or mention your name in conversations, too. Your followers respond well to any type of your post, implying a strong bond. Your audience may ask for your advice and even collaborate, which indicates trust. When your audience stands up for you to try to make your case in your absence, these are signs that people are primarily following you.
Signs People Follow Your Ideas
The concepts you create can have such a huge impact that others can adopt them. If someone shares your core ideas and mentions your name, you can consider your ideas to be gaining traction. Others may use your frameworks in their talks or your posts.
You can observe conversations with your ideas in the center, which help bring the change. When people start applying your advice to their lives or businesses and coming back to thank you, you know something of yours is sticking. This shift in thinking is a sure sign of strong idea-based followership in your audience.
Signs People Follow Your Format
The actual structure of how you present your content can attract some followers. You can see that many people are imitating the way you set up your posts or your secret template, which indicates by the way that the structure of your information is appealing to them. Others often replicate your captions, visuals, and layouts. Your followers stick to your content, also indicating that some are really just waiting for the next installment. You may note that the interactions of the followers are more based on the format than it is an open discussion, which can be a signal that your particular format is mostly what they like.
Social Proof and Growth Mechanics
Analyzing the context of your followers’ growth can reveal a lot of social proof. Rapid growth in followers, particularly if it is not accompanied by new engagement, should raise a red flag concerning the quality of these followers. You can compare the activity performed by the new followers in terms of their likes and comments being interested or not. When such increases do not translate into actual interaction, you might want to take a critical look. These increases might have occurred because of paid promotions or incentives to follow. Having a clear idea of your follower base will help ensure sustainable growth.
Simple Tests to Find What They Follow
Finding out the specific type of following can be achieved through straightforward tests. After changing only one variable among post voice, idea, or format, try A B testing to see which one gets more attention. To get a more accurate idea, ask followers to participate in polls regarding what they regard as more important in your work. Depending on the type of post, you might want to monitor which types attract the most shares, saves, and responses. You will also find a pointer when you notice how long the new followers remain active after that kind of post. Some in your audience might even be asked to act out your idea and report back.
How to Encourage Following of Your Ideas
Your ideas can be made to flourish and have an impact by actively spreading them among your followers. It is essential to explain in simple terms what your ideas are concerning what they can do in their lives or jobs. You should compile brief practices or guidelines that offer easy options for your ideas. Invite your community to assist in shaping your ideas so that they feel incorporated into them. Use case studies that illustrate actual results when someone applies your approach. You might also consider praising and giving invites to those people who are willing to take up your ideas, as this approach leads to deep connections.
Conclusion
In order to distinguish between those who follow you, your ideas, or your format, you have to analyze engagement. The next steps are easy to run some tests and analyze the results. Being solution-oriented pays better in the long term than getting a quick gap strategy that will have or follow others. You should also consider keeping a small record of observations made regarding what works and what does not.
