Let’s Talk: How I Really Feel About My Follower Count

Hi friends & happy Fourth of July! Completely unrelated to the holiday (which happens to be one of my favorites), this is a topic I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while now but I never knew how or in what capacity I wanted to address it. I know this is something many of us feel defeated by on our bad days and I wanted to bring it to the surface. Bare with me — I’m getting vulnerable in this post by sharing how I really feel about my follower count after nearly three years of blogging, what milestones I’d like to have hit by now and some thoughts on why I am where I am.

I decided to write this post because it’s something I need to do for a release I think, not to mention I know for a fact it’s something so many of you struggle with too. We all become numb to our number while trying to find ways to obtain a higher one. I’m being completely transparent and real with you guys in this post, and I hope this comes across how I mean for it to.

MY CURRENT STATUS

To give you an idea of where I’m at, I’ve been blogging for almost three years, have kept up with a steady stream of posting (2-3 times a week on my blog and probably an average of 4 Instagram posts a week) and have yet to reach 2,000 followers on Instagram. As for growth, my daily average is +5 and my monthly average is +150. It kills me to see bloggers who post on their sites once or less a month and have 10x more followers than I do, but I’ll save that for another day. I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little embarrassed about my follower count at times, and I feel like my numbers don’t meet the amount of hard work and dedication I put into it all. It’s a lot of time and effort, and I don’t think my numbers reflect that. In my opinion, my numbers match those of someone who’s been blogging for a year or less, not three times that.

I’ve gotten so many amazing brand opportunities over the years that I sometimes catch myself feeling unworthy of, and I hate that. I think, “AWESOME, but why would they want to work with me vs. someone with 20k followers?” I let the numbers get to me on my bad days and I can be so hard on myself. On the other hand, I’m really proud of my blog views, but my follower count is still lacking in my mind.

I feel incredibly blessed that the people who do follow me take a genuine interest in me and my life, supporting me through everything I do, but it seems like you’re not succeeding if you’re not growing in this industry. I am growing, but it’s about as slow as it can get. This leaves me totally defeated at times to the point that I don’t even want to post on social media.

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

This is a question I ask myself far too often. Gaining followers is a daily struggle. They come and they go, many of which following you just for you to follow them — they have no genuine interest in you, they just want to grow their own number and unfollow you when they’ve got what they wanted. Getting people to take an interest in you and your life when you don’t see yourself as being that “cool” or “interesting” is so tough.

I’m not willing to do what others do just to get followers, like collaborating with others solely for personal gain, participating in massive loop giveaways or buying bots. That will never be me. I started blogging with the purest intentions, simply doing what I love and having so much fun with it no matter how many people were seeing it. I haven’t lost that love for blogging in the slightest and my love for it grows more and more everyday. I didn’t start a blog to gain popularity or influence others, I just wanted a platform to express myself. Coming from that angle, gaining a large amount of followers wasn’t even on my radar and wasn’t something I ever pursued — but as time went on, I found myself wanting to grow my audience so I can share this passion of mine with more people, help them and inspire them to be the best they can be.

I always have to remind myself that I’m not doing anything wrong and everyone’s path is different. This is advice I give to others that I usually take myself too, but some days I feel less positive then others, and I know that’s totally normal. From a business standpoint, I’m someone who preaches that your blog is so much more important than social media, and I still stand by that 100% — I just wish my numbers reflected my blog stats and the quality of content I strive to uphold. You can’t make people be interested in you and your content, and that’s a hard pill to swallow.

THE HYPE GAME

I’ve come to realize that getting people interested in you and your content often means overhyping it — constantly telling people what you’re working on and why they should be excited about it. It’s hard to see myself ever acting that way. I can only do this a little bit before it feels uncomfortable to me, but it’s something I’m working on. I’m not someone to think my own content is out of this world enough to constantly be hyping it up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my work and everything I’ve accomplished, but… what you see is what you get and I’m a bit more modest when it comes to my blog. I’ve always wanted to attract people strictly organically and it think that may have hurt me in the long run. I don’t shout my Instagram handle from the mountain tops and tell people I meet to follow me because I want real followers that have a genuine interest in me and what I post. The numbers on the screen don’t matter to me if they are from people who don’t love me and what I share.

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This was a lot, I know. Thanks so much for your support and reading through all of my vulnerable vomit (ew) today. If you’ve ever felt this way, I hope you find comfort in knowing myself and others are the same boat. I want you to know, no matter who you are, following along and engaging with me on my posts means the world to me! It allows me to continue doing what I do, grow my blog and gain new experiences that I get to share with you all along the way.

If you’re a frequent (or new) reader of mine and want to support me, you’re welcome to follow me on my accounts however you see fit. I truly believe doing things with good intentions will bring positive results, so stick with it and I’ll remind remind myself to do the same! We all could benefit from giving ourselves more credit for how far we’ve come. I kindly invite you to share your thoughts on followers in the comments to keep the conversation going.

Want more? Read all of my previous “Let’s Talk” posts here and check out last year’s festive Fourth of July post.