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If These Awful Visibility Rates on Social Media Don’t Convince You To Change Your Focus, Nothing Will
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If These Awful Visibility Rates on Social Media Don’t Convince You To Change Your Focus, Nothing Will

3.1% from almost 100,000 followers? Geez.

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David McIlroy
May 16, 2024
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If These Awful Visibility Rates on Social Media Don’t Convince You To Change Your Focus, Nothing Will
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Have you ever wondered how many of your social media followers actually see your posts?

I was under the impression the number sat somewhere around the 15% mark. So if you post something on one of your social media accounts, 85% of your followers won’t see it. I thought that was bad enough.

And then I read a tweet by Josh Spector (linked from his superb newsletter).

It’s a long one, but it’s worth reading:

Justin Welsh, who has almost half a million followers on X/Twitter, had the highest level of visibility at just 21.9%.

Roberto Blake, with just under 100k followers, sits at just 3.1% on the platform.

While those numbers may seem shockingly-low, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.

I tweeted a quick reply, which was instantly buried in the conversation because I’m not a Premium subscriber:

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Email all the way, indeed.

“Social” Media

Social media is a good entry point for your audience, but it has to move them somewhere else. Followers on Twitter/X or Facebook or Instagram aren’t enough anymore. I have over 20,000 followers on the former Bird App and may as well have 20,000 blades of grass.

The primary purpose of social media should be to grow your email list. Your email subscribers make up your real audience.

Some of the replies to Josh’s post were pretty interesting, too.

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Clearly, I’m not the only one who’s increasingly frustrated with X/Twitter, and social media in general.

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