Why your follower count is growing but your engagement isn’t
I have an agency and I’m trying to understand why some creators with 50k followers barely get comments, while smaller accounts have people constantly replying, saving posts and sharing their videos.
A viral post can bring you thousands of followers, but a lot of them might only care about that one video. Growing an audience and building an engaged audience are two different things, here’s what I discovered:
1)-Likes aren’t everything:
Likes are probably the easiest and weakest form of engagement. Comments, saves, shares and DMs tell you much more about whether people actually found the content useful or relatable.
A post with fewer likes but a lot of saves and shares can be way more valuable than a random viral video.
2)-Make content people would send or save:
Broad content is easy to scroll past, a specific content performs better because people immediately recognize themselves in it.
“Fitness tips” is vague “Things I wish I knew before joining a gym” feels much more personal.
Tutorials, checklists, comparisons and step by step posts also tend to get saved because users can come back and use tem later.
3)-Reply like a real person:
Ask a follow-up question, add some context or react to what they actually said in the comments, once people realize you genuinely reply, they’re much more likely to comment again.
4)-Stop using lazy CTAs:
“Thoughts?” or “Comment below” are so generic that most people just keep scrolling.
Specific questions are easier to answer, so ask people to choose between two options, share one experience or say what they would do differently.
5)-Don’t turn into a brand account:
People connect more with content that feels natural, you can plan your videos without making them sound like they’re ads
Too many sponsored posts can also hurt trust, if every other video promotes a completely different product, ur followers will unfollow you
The main takeaway is that follower count alone doesn’t mean much. A smaller audience that comments, saves, shares and trusts you can be much more valuable than a huge passive one.
I found a more detailed breakdown on the SideShift blog while looking into this:
https://sideshift.app/blog/how-to-grow-influencer-engagement