Why Solopreneurs Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Hit That Follow Button on Social Media
Networking > Authority.
I have a word of advice for anyone trying to build a personal platform online.
Here it is: if you have a small following on social media, don’t worry about your ratios.
Following/Followers
I think there’s a general perception that following more people than are following you on any social media platform damages your authority.
But think about it.
If your following’s small, so is your reach.
And if your reach is small, your authority’s pretty limited anyway.
So if you’re just starting out, my advice is simple: follow other people in your niche.
Networking > Authority
When you’re starting out, strengthening your social network is more important than building your authority.
Nurturing your network helps you:
Create connections
Develop friendships
Gather support as you journey together
And if you end up following more people than are following you for a while, who gives a flying fudgesicle?
Honestly, nobody cares.
Don’t sit around hoping the algorithm decides to show your content to someone (the algo doesn’t want to help you), and then hoping they decide to follow you as a result.
Maybe they don’t want to hurt their ratio, either. Maybe neither of you take a chance and hit the follow button.
That’s a recipe for a lose-lose situation. A missed opportunity.
Try this instead
Find people in your niche (usually in conversations under posts from big creators, or by using the good ol’ search bar)
If you like their stuff, talk to them about it
Give them a follow, just because
Expect nothing in return
Grow your following in the early days by networking with others.
After a point, your content will start to do the job for you.
To sum it up…
Too many social media users are reluctant to follow others, fearing an unbalanced follow ratio will damage their authority.
When starting out as a solopreneur, networking is more important than authority-building.
If you want to grow, don’t be afraid to follow other people on social media.
Perhaps I am demonstrating my naivety, but I never even considered this! I guess, thinking about it now, that ratio does make sense if you assume that your followers number grew organically to the point it over takes your following number. But no one ever grew on social media without someone somewhere sometime following them before they were the big authority in that space. What's the harm in some reciprocity? Unless your ego is so fragile that part of your worth is that ratio be as skewed as possible. I would rather be the one who raises others up, than the one that denies "follow-ship" to protect a metric.
Yes, creating connection with others is amazing!