[#017] Follower Counts Don’t Pay Bills
Dec 20, 2025
This week I saw a brand announce a partnership with an "influencer" who had 340,000 Instagram followers.
Impressive, right? Getting there must have been a long drawn out process of posting lots of content or doing silly dances right?
I ran their account through an analysis tool called SocialBlade. Three months ago they had 2,300 followers. Then their growth chart shot up at a perfect 45-degree angle. Straight line. No variation or quiver in the line.
How? There have no notoriety. No website. Google them and there’s nothing here. To me this screams fake growth and purchased followers.
The brand didn't do their homework. They'll wonder why any campaign they engage with will now flop.
And it got me thinking about something bigger...
The New On The Bonnet Of A Lambo
Do you remember the early internet marketing days? Every guru was photographed sat on the bonnet of a rented Lamborghini. Standing outside a mansion they didn't own. Flashing borrowed watches.
The message was clear… "Look how successful I am. Buy my course and you can have this too."
We saw through it eventually.
But the con hasn't gone away. It's just evolved.
Today's version is the follower count. The subscriber number. The view count on the latest TikTok.
Same tricks, different decade.
For $100 you can buy 10,000 followers. For a bit more you can buy views on every video you post. Services like this exist to try and make you look like the next big thing overnight.
The perception remains the same though… "Look how many people follow me. I must be worth listening to."
Some are chasing metrics that mean nothing. And it's costing them everything.
People are just faking themselves!
The Comparison Prison
Here's what happens when you buy into the vanity game.
You post something and immediately check how it's doing. Five likes while your competitor got fifty. You feel rubbish about yourself.
You spend hours crafting the perfect Reel. It gets 100 views. The guy who dances in his kitchen gets 200,000. You question whether you should just quit.
You're trapped in a comparison loop.
Theodore Roosevelt said “Comparison is the thief of joy.” He wasn't wrong.
There's always someone ahead of you. Always someone with more followers, more subscribers, more views. If that's your measuring stick, you'll never feel successful.
The Values That Actually Win
Social media has created a culture built on ego, pride and narcissism. Look at me. Look at my numbers. Look at my lifestyle.
But something's shifting.
People are exhausted by the performance. They can smell inauthenticity. They're craving something different.
The values that will win in 2026 are simpler…
Service, Integrity, and Genuineness.
(and yes, that is a word, I had to look it up, it simply means being Genuine)
Service means focusing on helping your audience, not impressing them.
Integrity means saying what you believe, even when it's not popular.
Genuineness means showing up as your true self and being the same person online that you are offline.
Yes, your follower growth will be slower. You won't go viral. Your content won't get millions of views.
But here's what happens instead.
You carry a message directly to the people you're actually trying to serve. Not just trying to attract as many onlookers as possible. The ones who find you will be the right ones.
They'll stick around. They'll engage. They'll buy.
As a side note here, you might wonder why I chose genuineness instead of authenticity. There's a difference.
Authenticity is a label people give you. It's what happens when your content resonates and someone thinks "this person feels real." We all know that you can appear authentic without actually living what you teach. Plenty of people have built audiences by saying the right things while doing the opposite behind closed doors. Their content feels authentic. But they're performing, they are not their true self.
Genuineness is different. It's not a perception. It's a practice. It means being the same person when the camera is off. It means your private life matches your public message. You can't fake genuineness for long - eventually the cracks show. And right now, people are getting better at spotting them.
The Only Metric That Matters
Stop measuring your social following.
Stop obsessing over whether your content goes viral.
There's only one metric that matters in 2026… your…
Engagement to Customer ratio
How many real conversations are you having in DMs? How many of those turn into discovery calls? How many discovery calls become paying customers?
This puts all the vanity metrics to one side. It focuses on two things that actually build a business…
- Real Relationships
- Real Revenue
Everything else is the noise of what other tell you is successful. Likes, follows and view, - they don’t fill bank balance, they don’t create impact. Relationships and revenue do.
If your social following grows organically after this shift, that's a byproduct. It means you found people who genuinely resonate with your message. That's the result of being visible, being consistent, and staying on message. Not chasing vitality.
The Simple Shift
Here's what I want you to consider this week and as you move into 2026.
- Are you trying to impress or trying to serve?
- Are you measuring followers or measuring conversations?
- Are you chasing numbers or attracting the right people?
This year ahead, think about how your content Shapes your expert positioning, Engages your specific audience, Echoes your actual values, and Delivers something people can use - the SEED Marketing framework from my book - click here to get your copy and FREE resources.
Remember - a follower count does not build a business.
Ask yourself this week, what would change in your business if you stopped checking your follower count for a month and showed up as genuinely the person your ideal customers need to hear from.
