I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately and considering writing a post about it. Then I saw that Ashley over at NoseGraze posted a discussion about Why “Follow Backs” Are Pointless and it inspired me even more. Ashley made some great points, but I actually don’t agree with her overall message – that soliciting followers is always a bad thing. I honestly think that, especially for newer blogs, follow backs are the best way to get your name and your brand out there – for people to know you exist and to stick with you.
But what does your number of followers really mean? Is there such a thing as too many? Too few? What are the best ways to get them (and keep them)?
I have over 2000 Bloglovin’ followers, but that doesn’t mean that over 2000 people are looking at all of my posts. (I wish!) So, does that mean that having a lot of followers is meaningless? I don’t think so. I believe that a portion of those followers are reading at least some of my posts – so it makes sense that the higher the number of followers, the bigger that portion is, right? Still, sometimes it can be disheartening to have a huge number of followers and only see a small portion of those people come visit my posts – I’m working on watching my stats to see what types of posts bring the most readers, and it comes down to two things: giveaways and discussions.
So, should I stop worrying about followers completely? Should I stop hosting giveaways that ask people to follow my blog? Should I stop reciprocating when people follow me? I don’t think so. First of all, having a high number of followers is just practically useful. (Want ARCs? Having a lot of followers will help you get them. It’s just the way things work – we can debate about whether or not it’s right or fair, but it’s definitely true.) Here’s a breakdown of the different followers I have and why I think they’re important:
Bloglovin’ 
Honestly, my Bloglovin’ numbers have been the most important to me for two reasons: Bloglovin’ is the only feed that I, personally actually pay attention to and I have the most followers via Bloglovin’. I try to get on Bloglovin’ and check my feed at least a couple of times a week (I also get a daily email from Bloglovin’ and always go through that). Even with all of that, I still only catch a portion of the posts that are put up by the blogs that I follow. Why? I follow LOTS of blogs and it’s impossible to get through all of their posts. But, I do go through and read a lot of posts that catch my eye – usually discussions or reviews of books I’m already really interested in are the ones that really snag my attention, but occasionally a pretty cover will do the job. 🙂 So, if I’m doing this, I figure that some of my followers are doing the same. My job is now to write posts that people will find interesting enough to click on!
Email
This is going to be my new focus, though, to be honest, I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to go about it. The only way I can think of to get more email followers is to make it a required entry for a big giveaway, and I’m not sure that’s the best way to go. But, I definitely know that the blogs I follow via email are the ones I pay the most attention to, for obvious reasons – I see all of their posts. That doesn’t mean that I necessarily comment on or even read every single post, but I’m never going to miss a post that I was really interested in because they’re all right there in my inbox! I also have a set of loyal followers who I’m fairly certain follow me via email because they comment on many of my posts (which leads me to think that they’re seeing them all!). These are the best types of followers, obviously – they’re people who I feel connected to because I “talk” with them often on my blog!
Twitter and Facebook
I have TONS of FB followers, but I honestly feel like these are my most useless numbers. The way that FB works, very few of my followers actually even see my posts – and I’m honestly not all that great at social media. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I’m not nearly as connected as I should be. I’ve been making more of an effort with Twitter (even though I have slightly less followers there) because I feel like you I can make more personal connections on Twitter. But, I have to confess that I still do it in fits and starts rather than consistently. This is one area that I’d like to get better in (or maybe add someone to the FYFA team that’s better at this – after all, we all have to face our weaknesses – I’ve been very seriously thinking of adding a blogger to my site and will probably post about it soon. Feel free to contact me if you’re interested!) Oh, and then there’s Pinterest, which I don’t really use for blogging, but I’m getting the feeling that maybe I should. And I don’t even have an Instagram account – like I said, social media is definitely my weakness.
GFC, Networked Blogs, Feedly, RSS, etc.
I don’t have GFC since I moved to WordPress, but honestly, it feels like GFC is kind of extinct now anyway. Is there anyone out there who still pays attention to their GFC feed? I also took off the Networked Blogs widget when I moved and I never did use Feedly. I do still have a way to follow via RSS, but I have to confess that I don’t really understand how that works and I have NO idea how many people follow me that way. I’m curious if any of you use these other following methods and if you find them effective. Let me know!
What about follow backs? Here’s the thing – Feed Your Fiction Addiction is a very follow back friendly blog. What do I mean by that? Well, essentially, I try to reciprocate whenever possible. That goes for comments as well as followers. If you comment on my blog (and leave me a link to your own), 99% of the time, I will visit your blog and comment back on one of your posts (I’m not perfect – I do occasionally miss someone). Let’s face it, we all love books – even if you don’t typically love the same types of books that I do, I can find some type of post on your blog that interests me to comment on. If you follow me via Bloglovin’ I automatically follow back (as long as you have a book blog – I’m just not interested in reading fashion or other random blogs, I have to admit). If you are one of my most loyal followers (meaning that you comment on my blog A LOT), then I follow you via email – I figure that if you make the effort not to miss my posts, then I can do the same for you! If you follow me, I follow back. Who knows – maybe your blog will be one of the ones that catches my eye often! I can’t know for sure unless I follow!
So, what are the best ways to get new followers? If you’re a newer blogger, I still highly recommend things like Feature and Follow Friday – you’ll get some people with eyes on your blog this way. Hosting giveaways will also help you gain followers – just include at least one entry for following your blog. Some of these followers might only visit for the giveaways, but I actually think that’s okay. You’re providing something great to your readers – the chance to win – while also spreading the news about fabulous books! Another good way to build followers is by participating in memes. Now, here’s the thing – in order to keep those followers (and to build even more), you have to put yourself out there – write great content for your blog, go out and comment on other people’s blogs, reply to your comments and visit your commenters’ blogs – basically, be present. We don’t do this in a vacuum. What fun would that be?
Do you think that number of followers is important? What ways do you follow blogs and which ways do you pay the most attention to? I want to know!
Great post-so much here to go through!
For me, the numbers really aren’t that important (I blogged about this a few weeks ago and I discussed my thoughts on this). I have around 150 followers and I’m averaging 30-60 hits a day right now (my discussion post about Kathleen Hale earlier this week got me 70 hits that day, woohoo lol). What I pay the most attention to though, is how many comments I’m getting, in relation to visits. For the Kathleen Hale post, so far I’ve had 22 comments left on that post. The day before I had 35 visits to my blog, and the post I did that day has 15 comments so far. Not all the comments were left on the day I posted, but it shows me that even though my numbers are low, the interactions I have with my readers/followers are quite high 🙂
Since those interactions are one of the main reasons why I blog, I feel that my blog is a success, even with low follower/hit numbers, compared to others.
This is why I don’t compare my blog to other blogs. Comparing numbers just doesn’t mean anything. We all have different measures of success, use our blogs for different things, have different goals etc etc. As long as we’re getting what we want out of our blogs, that’s all that matters 🙂
I don’t do ARC programs, so the actual number of followers I have doesn’t mean anything. I also don’t do giveaways on my blog (I’ll be blogging about my thoughts on giveaways soon).
As for follow backs, nope don’t usually do those either 🙂 If someone puts it in their comment I always check their block out (I do this for every comment left on my blog though), but I only follow a blog if it’s something that I’m actually interested in reading on a regular basis. I do go through my entire bloglovin feed at least once a week and I read/leave comments, so every blog on my list has to be one that I actually want to read :p
Hmmm, what else…I only use bloglovin and then email subscription. I have 142 followers through bloglovin (and I currently follow 157 blogs myself there), and then I have like 10 email subscribers. I only follow 3 blogs via email myself. I much prefer bloglovin for myself.
I don’t do any other kind of social media for my blog-no fb, twitter etc.
I’ve gotten the majority of my followers by just reading other blogs and leaving comments. I frequently check out other bloggers who leave comments on blogs-I’ve found some great new blogs to follow this way, and I’ve also acquired new followers from these interactions. I do occasional readathons and one meme (Sunday Post), but I don’t think I’ve really gotten followers from them-they’re for me, because I like doing them 🙂
One great following opportunity though, is the A-Z April challenge. This is THE blogging network opportunity, hands down. Last year around 2,000 bloggers participated and it was a mad dash of networking/visiting/interacting with other bloggers. I started following several bloggers through that event, and I know that at least four of my current followers are from us meeting during the challenge :)They’re regular commenters on my blog too, even though the challenge has been over for a while now. I’ve already got next year’s challenge dates plugged into my blogging calendar!
wow, i just wrote a book here oops 😛
You make some really good points here. First off, I totally agree with you that comments are the best indicator of how your post is “doing” – and the best part of blogging!
And you also make a very good point about goals. If you don’t care at all about getting ARCs or interacting with authors, then numbers are probably much less important to you and that makes sense. While I don’t think that those are my biggest reasons for blogging, they’re definitely high on my list. I also just love the idea of spreading the word about awesome books, and I don’t mind having giveaways as one way to do that (I usually include a review with my giveaways, though and only occasionally post a review for a book I haven’t read – only if it looks really good to me! 🙂
What you say about commenting on other people’s blogs is definitely true. The best way to get active followers is to interact with the blogging community. I just don’t completely discount all of my less active followers (meaning followers who don’t always read my blog or who never comment). Some people like to lurk, and that’s okay too.
I’ll definitely have to check out the A to Z challenge – sounds like a great networking opportunity and lots of fun!
Oh my gosh, I had no idea my other comment was that crazy long, feel free to delete it!
Delete your comment? What kind of blasphemy is that?! 🙂 Like you said, comments are the best sort of interaction we have on our blog, so feel free to write as much as you want!
And wow, did I use an inappropriate amount of smiley faces in my other post lol. Definitely check out the A-Z challenge-they don’t have it set up for next year yet, but here’s the site and you can see how last year was set up. The challenge is to do a post a day, following the alphabet, for the month of April. Last year 2,009 bloggers participated-wild!
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/what-is-blogging-from-to-z.html
I think you’re like me – if I’m expressing an opinion that’s slightly contrary to the person’s stated opinion in their blog post, I feel the need to pepper in smiley faces to show that I’m only disagreeing in the most friendly of manners! 🙂
Thanks for the link to the A to Z challenge. I’ll definitely check it out!
Great post. I think a lot of people “follow” blogs just to get a follow back, which doesn’t generally happen anyway.
That is definitely true. I do follow back, but you can’t assume that people will. I think I might be an anomaly. 🙂 So, I guess the key is to follow blogs you’re really interested in and then interact with those bloggers – build up a relationship with them, and they’ll want to follow back.
I really agree with pretty much everything you’ve said! To me, it is kind of a vicious cycle: If you don’t have any followers, no one will know you exist. SO you have to get at least SOME followers to get more followers. Otherwise, aren’t you just typing to yourself? I had my blog for about three months before I actively jumped in and started linking up, doing giveaways, commenting to others, etc. And do you know how many people read my blog until I started interacting? Yeah, zero. Maybe my mom read it, or a few friends, but otherwise, not a soul.
And, if you don’t have followers, you won’t have access to ARCs and such, so you will be basically only reviewing books after pretty much everyone else. Which, of course is fine sometimes (I love to see varied posts- old books AND new or unreleased books being reviewed!) but if every single book you review is five years old, no one will be interested. So I agree- it matters.
Like you, I am a pretty generous Bloglovin follower, and I do love to peruse my feed when I can. I wish I had time to read every blog every day, but obviously no one does. And I do only follow back if it is a YA book blog that has some content that I enjoy (which, as you stated, isn’t hard- we probably have a few books in common!) Like you said, the blogs I request emails from are the ones I pay the most attention to. By far. Because they are just THERE in my inbox!
As for the “just numbers” followers… yeah, they probably don’t care that much. But, if a few of them end up coming back, and engaging, then that is a huge win. And if not, then at least maybe that “just numbers” person allowed me to share something with my followers that I may have otherwise not had access to. For me, it is a win-win. As long as you aren’t just churning out random, useless content to get ONLY numbers, then I think having a few “extras” isn’t such a bad thing. In fact, it is kind of inevitable. No one is going to be interested in the same blogs all the time.
GREAT post, I think you are definitely spot-on with your assessment!
Actually, your blog is a perfect example for me. I recently started following your blog via email on a whim due to a giveaway (which I never do – you must have been giving away something I really wanted! LOL!). I remember glancing around your blog and thinking, “This is a blog I would really like – I think I’ll just go ahead and do the email option.” And guess what, I now visit your blog practically every day. So, I can be your perfect case study on how sometimes random giveaway followers become true followers. There’s no harm in trying! 🙂
That is my thought too! I have done the same- followed someone because I REALLY wanted something, then actually ended up being a loyal follower! I am so glad you posted this topic! And I must confess, you totally made my day with your comment 🙂
I wish I saw a post like this when I was in the beginner stages of blogging.At that time, I was really concerned about followers.When I felt like I don’t have enough followers, I was so disheartened. But then, I learned that the number of followers you have doesn’t actually matter, it’s the pageviews that does.After I realized that, I became a happy girl:)
My favourite following method is by email. That way, I never miss posts.And when I go on commenting sprees, I just go visit all my favourite blogs and check out whether anything catches my eye.
This is SO true. I used to think that if someone had thousands of followers, they MUST have close to that number of readers every day. But that’s not how it works. Those follower numbers are good for some things, but they aren’t the end-all be-all! Once you get some followers, you have to keep them interested – and page views is definitely the more important thing!
What a great discussion! Your is one of the blogs that is one my email list. I love your post and you read slot of books im interested in as well! I didn’t start to get a higher number of followers until i started hosting giveaways. That’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. It’s so easy for huge bloggers to not worry about they since they most likely have already developed relationships with the publishers or been put on auto-approved list for arcs. This is why I decided to start to build my follower base. I tend to fall into the mainstream YA genre nmeaning I usually am one with the popular opionion. That also mean I need to get those arcs to review them so people will see it and come visit me. That is the whole reason I started blogging, I want to share my opionion about the latest and greatest out there. Is also mean I have to try harder to keep up my follower base and yada yada yada since I have to be able to request those ever elusive arcs. I’m getting ther I still have a long way to go but I’m just shy of a year so I’ll get there I’m sure. I also feel like the YA blog world is much more saturated then it used to be so its hater to stand out and get noticed so it takes work. I didn’t want to originally participate in memes like waiting on Wednesday since I felt everyone did it but now I underrstand what a brilliant way it is to connect with other bloggers and get some killer recommendations as well. This is just one of the many things I’ve leanrd on my blogging journey so far. I still struggle with discussions since I feel like I’m simply regergating something someone else posted but u know what so what, my opinion is still original. I used to do the feature and follow Friday until I started to only see a few follow back when I would put out like 20. Well I kept track of is for 2 weeks and realized less than half of those I followed were following back which sucks since it’s totally based on a honor system. Now I just spread the love with my giveaways. I’m lucky to get the books I do and love to share them now that I have way more than I can house or read myself. It’s really great to see that more established blogger will follow back based on content this makes my heart happy and makes me feel like I can get noticed the way I want to in the future. Thanks so much for this post Nicole ❤️ Sorry to ramble lol.
❤️
Sorry for my horrific typos as well.
I also hope I didn’t come off as disrepectful or belittling to bigger bloggers that was not my intention at all. People just have different motives for blogging was my point 🙂 last one I promise
Ok so I totally fibber but I fogot one more point I wanted to make. Comments are the best way to speak to potential followers. I feel like it’s a much more personal connecting instead of just saying follow me be use of this giveaway or whatever. Also then I know that they are actaully reading the content and have given it enough time to comment back. I don’t like in giveaways when they say comment for points bc it’s just fluff comments…ok not I’m done hehe
Ha! This seems to be the type of discussion that inspires rambling (just look at the length of the post itself!), so I’m good with that. 🙂
And I do agree that sometimes some of the “bigger” bloggers let things slide a little more – don’t respond to comments as much or comment back, for example. Certainly not all of them – there are plenty of people with established blogs who make a real effort to connect with their readers – but I get what you’re saying.
You’re totally right about commenting too – best way to make friends in the blogging community!
When I first started blogging, I was frantically trying to get as many followers as possible, but now, I’m a lot more relaxed about it.
I have some blogs I visit every day (apart from when I’m on vacation, or during exam sessions…) and others I check out every week. I don’t automatically follow someone back ‘just’ because they followed me, though. I have to be interested in their blog-posts, and feel like we have something in common more than just the fact that we both love reading.
I use feedly for RSS feeds, so there’s a big chance I follow you on feedly. I enjoy the way it’s organized, it’s easier to check out different kinds of blogs than Bloglovin’, at least I think so. You can go to feedly and type in your own blog’s URL, then you’ll see how many followers you have there 🙂
The most fun I have with my own blog is when I have lots of comments! That’s what makes me happy – because reading posts is one thing, taking the time to comment is something much more.
Great post, Nicole 🙂
I agree – I used to work really hard at getting followers, and now I don’t stress about it too much. I do want them, of course, but I don’t go out of my way. I DO still follow back, but that’s just my own personal thing – I like to! Totally agree with you about comments – they are the real indicator of whether or not you’re providing interesting content! 🙂
I’ve always been a little inconsistent about this topic… On the one hand, follower count is important in terms of blog popularity, I guess? But on the other, I appreciate comments and regular visitors much more than a number on GFC. I like to know that people actually *read* my posts.
You also make a good point about follow backs. I don’t join “Follow Friday”-type memes because I don’t want to obligate people into following my blog; I want people to follow me because they like my content. However, I like to read through comment sections and memes because they’re also a great platform for finding new blogs that actually turn out to be great.
You’re definitely right that follower numbers alone aren’t the overall indicator of your blog’s health (or even popularity). Comments and visitors are way more important.
I agree that Bloglovin’ and email are more important in numbers than other options. I, personally, don’t pay that much attention to my Bloglovin’ feed (I really only look at my weekly email), but I know that a lot of people (such as you) do. If I REALLY care about a blog and want to see all of their posts, like you said, I subscribe via email. So, in my opinion, email subscription numbers are the most important.
Yes, email followers are the best!
Wow this post generated a lot of opinionated comments! I do like followers but really know that it is the comments and blog traffic that means more.
Great post!
Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings
Well, it is sort of an opinionated post (though hopefully not in a bad way!) – it expresses my opinions on the subject and asks others for their own, so the fact that it’s generating a lot of discussion is great in my book! 🙂 I agree 100% that comments and blog traffic are more important than pure numbers (though I’m still of the opinion that building up your numbers if that’s what you want to do doesn’t hurt!).
I like to think that it’s okay to have lurkers (I’m a bit of one myself really!) but it’s also nice to interact with followers who are genuinely interested in what I blog about. I’ve got lots of followers and I interact with them a fair bit, usually outside comments because I run a Tumblr blog and people can send me messages personally. I blog because it’s fun, the same reason I read. If it wasn’t for books I wouldn’t be a part of the community.
I know followers help publishers decide to give ARC’s out to bloggers, but really, if you’re not getting interactions and no one’s reading your post it doesn’t seem like it would continue to be a fun thing to do because you’re basically talking to yourself.
I tend follow by email for the blogs I like to check on and I’ll visit their blogs regularly just to jump through post and see if I missed anything. It’s always interesting to talk to people and find their opinions about different things, from books to games to, well, anything really! 🙂
Yes, I agree – nothing wrong with lurkers. Of course, we all prefer to have visitors who comment all the time and it’s fun to have discussions with people. But if there are some people who like to just read a review or enter a giveaway and then quietly slip away, that’s okay too. We’re not all big participators, right? But, of course, interacting with readers is a big part of what makes blogging fun! 🙂
[…] Nicole asks: are the number of followers you have important to you? […]
Most days I’m indifferent about the amount of followers I have because I do recognize that many of them are probably just follow-backs, and it’s doubtful they actually read my blog. Still, I do get a little giddy when I see that number increase. I understand the appeal of follow-backs when you’re a blogger trying to get ARCs or book mail, but I don’t actually try for those sort of things. I’m so terrible at getting posts up on times that I feel like I would end up abusing the privilege. So for me, it’s all about the connections I make with other bloggers. I would be satisfied with a small amount of followers if we interacted with each other over having zounds of followers that didn’t interact with me much at all.
I don’t do follow-backs either. Does that make me mean? I love taking the time to read posts and comment, but not all bloggers generate content that appeals to me. I don’t want that cluttering my feed reader. More power to you if that’s your M.O. though. The book blogging community is a biggun’.
I know, it’s kind of hard not to get at least a little excited when you see your follower numbers go up. 🙂
There’s nothing that says you have to do follow-backs. I think I’m a bit of an anomaly in that I follow back most anyone with a book blog. I find that generally I like most book blogs (unless the person reviews ONLY political thrillers or something like that – but then, those people generally aren’t following my blog, so I haven’t really run into a huge problem with it). But I certainly wouldn’t say that everyone has to follow back – it’s totally a personal choice – for me it works, for someone else, it might not.
One of my goals this year was to comment more on others blogs. I think I’m doing better than I was last year by far, but I know there are opportunities that I am also missing. That’s something I want to make a better effort to do.
Last year I went on hiatus, and it was easier to stay gone because I felt that I didn’t have a reach with my blog. That was my big motivator this year: to increase my visibility and to become more involved in the blogging community. I will admit that seeing blogs with huge hits and followers and then seeing my measly numbers was depressing. My FB has exploded from where I started from, and I attribute that to giveaways. Like you, I’m really bad with social media. I prefer to receive emails so I am consciously looking at and commenting on posts, so I neglect social media. And I really don’t know how to use Twitter to my advantage, at all. I have put Bloglovin on the back burner. :/
I have been looking at my followers at the end of each month, and the numbers are increasing, but I think I’ve come to terms that for me that doesn’t matter overly much. For a while I forgot why I was blogging, and I’m trying to remind myself that I do this for me. Yes, I like to know that there are people out there reading and commenting on my posts (and far more who are reading or viewing and not interacting). It validates my efforts. I try to respond and comment back, but I’m really bad about making the effort to go follow someone else. That’s also something I need to work on.
This was a great post, Nicole!
We all go through stages where we’re able to be more or less active in the blogging community. It’s all a matter of priorities and blogging can’t always be right at the top! I agree that the best way to get involved in the blogging community is just to go out there and comment! The more present you are, the more return you’ll see on your own blog!
I’m still fairly new to blogging, so I haven’t got a massive amount of followers, although the number seems to be creeping up slowly! However, I get quite a lot of page views from Bloglovin, which must mean that the followers I do have are reading my posts, and I have a few followers who regularly comment on posts which is great, because they must have an interest in the books/topics I’m writing about. I also find that I tend to get a lot more page views than unique visitors a day, which surely means that those who are visiting my blog are sticking around for a bit! Part of the reason I don’t think I have lots of followers is that I’m not too great at the whole social networking thing, as Twitter is the only one I use on a regular basis, and even that can be a little inconsistent! However, I don’t mind so much, as surely having fewer people following your blog who actually read it, is better than having loads of people following you and just skipping past your posts when they show up in their feed! Sorry for the essay, but this definitely seems to be a topic many people have opinions on. Great post!
Isn’t it nice to feel like you have a group of people that regularly visit your blog that you get to know in some way? I LOVE that! These are the best types of blogging relationships!
It seems to me that the number of followers is only beneficial in indirect ways. For publishers, they’re onto the follow back strategy so they want your unique monthly visitors number instead. I like high follower numbers too just because they make me feel good, but the only ones I really care about are the ones that’s actually read my content and hopefully chat with me. I stopped following back a while ago because I found my feed so full of content I just didn’t care about and had to majorly cull. I do think it’s a good way to get new blogs out there and known, but there comes a point when it probably doesn’t help much more. I also like to have a non-mandatory follow option for giveaways not to make people follow me but to say thanks to those who do by giving them an extra chance 😉
Yep – you make a couple of really good points here. I probably should have pointed out that I don’t actively seek out followers much anymore (though I still like to see the number go up, like you said), but I definitely did when I was a new blogger. And, like I said, the most important thing is your interaction with people, so you’re definitely right that just numbers aren’t the end-all be-all!
I think that having loyal followers who read most of your posts is definitely important. These people are the ones who are most likely to promote your blog to their friends etc. so the more followers you have the wider your reach. I started my blog for me as a way to encourage myself back into reading after a slump but I think now after three months if I had no followers I wouldn’t have the same motivation.
Yes, I started out writing a blog to myself, which got old fast. What fun is a blog if no one’s reading it? 🙂
Isn’t it awesome that you’re talking about followers and you have all these comments??!!! 🙂 I’m pretty much with you. I pay attention to the blogs I email subscribe to (my favorites, which is a handful of blogs) and bloglovin’, which doesn’t mean that I always go there or comment, but I do still get a view of what’s going on.
I do love arc’s, a little too much actually, so followers is an important number for me. Although, I have found that unique visits is much more important and doesn’t really have anything to do with followers except in getting your posts and blog out there so people will stop on by or click on one of your links.
Social media is a time trap, but a necessary one. I post to FB, but I’m not super active there most of the time. I have found Twitter to be helpful though in communicating with others quickly and in a friendly way.
In the end though, it’s the comments and the friendships, when I recognize names and other blogs and readers that feels meaningful and worth all the time. And promoting fabulous books that I want others to read! 😉
The number of people who actually interact is much more important to me than just the number of followers. However, unless you have a high number of followers, for some reason other people won’t take your blog as seriously. So you kind of need both? Great post!
[…] Feed Your Fiction Addiction asks, Are the Number of Followers You Have Important to You? […]
Such a great post! So when I first started blogging I was a bit obsessed about my numbers. I checked daily and participated in things like Feature & Follow Friday. Then, at some point, I just stopped caring about my numbers. I’d have to go look it up, in fact. I honestly don’t know. I think that happened when I found my space in the book blog community. I have a group of blogger friends that I visit regularly and I never have a post without several comments. I don’t limit myself and I try really hard to visit anyone who comments back. My go to list of bloggers changes and grows frequently. I think, though, that my way of blogging (not caring about numbers) has a lot to do with the type of blogger I am and my goals. I thought I wanted to blog for ARCs when I started, but now I realize I just love talking with this fantastic community. Sure, every now and then I snag an ARC and get super psyched about it, but I tend to buy or check out most my books from the library. So as long as I’m getting interactions out of my blog, I have enough followers. Not that I’d ever turn any away LOL!
I think that’s also why I stopped doing the Feature and Follow. Even though my number of followers was increasing, my interactions weren’t. Very few of the blogs I met through the feature and follow actually stop by and comment (and I’m guilty of the same for them). I do think it was great for me at the start, though. It taught me to connect with community, and I never hesitate to comment on a new blog, something I used to do all the time. So it served a great purpose for me, just the same.
Oh and as for RSS – that’s something that was really a mystery for me for quite a while too. But then I decided to check out an RSS reader app on my phone and I love it! I follow the blogs I love the most with it, so I can check on them anywhere, super easy. I’m not sure how many people use them, but I’m addicted now. Anyway, great post! Really made me think 🙂
I agree that the further you get into your blogging, the less important those numbers seem to be. I don’t really participate in Feature & Follow any more, but I definitely still recommend it to newer bloggers – and I actually do still interact with a lot of the bloggers that I connected with there because they’re still in my Bloglovin’ feed. Now you’ve got me really curious about the RSS thing – I just might have to look into that!
Hi I came to your site thru bing wondering about my number of followers (I’ve been a blogger since Sept. 2014). great information. I’m an interior decorator so I know you won’t follow my blog LOL but I love Alan Bradley’s Flavia deLuce series. Don’t know if you’ve read the series yet, his latest will be out Jan. 6. Thanks for the article, I love reading too!
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, a lot of these tips can be used for any type of blog, so I’m glad you found them useful. I haven’t heard of that series, but I’ll have to go check it out!
[…] that instinct – that desire to please all the people. Awhile back, I put up a post about getting followers and following back. After I posted it, I noticed my Bloglovin’ number go down for the first time ever. Can I […]
Oh dear, this is so up to interpretation to be honest.
I haven’t paid much attention to my Bloglovin follower numbers before, because I personally didn’t use it much. I always thought of GFC to be the best way for me, but then I realized what you’re saying – nobody actually looks at their GFC feed. I don’t know, the most logical way to find out what’s best for me would be to look at my own habits, but mine are really all over the place.
If I discover a great blog, I usually memorize their URl either way or start talking to them on other platforms and I won’t ever have the need to even look at a blogger feed. Maybe I should pay more attention to Bloglovin, you’re probably right. I think follower numbers don’t matter but what does matter is your relationship with your followers, no matter how many you have.
If they love what you’re saying, or hate what you’re saying, if they comment or if they ignore all your posts. I don’t know, I’m fairly new to blogging, so I’m still trying to find out for myself.
Thank you for tips! I will try to get a minimum of 100 followers next month for my blog https://ilcroatia.com/!
Good luck!!!