Followers matter far less than they used to. Today’s feeds show content to people based on their interests, not on who they follow, so reach and meaningful engagement are better signs of success than follower count. A small account can reach millions of people, and a big account can be seen by almost no one.
It’s one of the first things clients ask us, and our answer is always the same. At Monarch, we treat followers as a vanity metric. If follower count is your main goal, we’re probably not the right agency for you.
That isn’t us being difficult. It’s because we’ve watched the platforms change. Someone following you doesn’t mean they’ll see your content. And plenty of people who will never follow you can still discover you, trust you and buy from you.
What we focus on instead is simple: getting your content in front of more of the right people, making sure they see it more than once, and getting them to engage in ways that show they’re actually considering you.
This is post two in our Monarch Social Media Mindset series. In post one, we explained why every business should think like a media company. Here, we look at what that means for how you measure success.
Because feeds aren’t built around who you follow anymore. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook now decide what to show each person based on what they’ve been watching, saving and engaging with. Marketer Gary Vaynerchuk calls this shift “interest media”: content finds its audience, whether or not that audience follows you.
That changes what a follower is worth:
Our goal for every client is to keep their content surfacing in the feeds of people who follow them and people who don’t follow them yet.
Yes. We see it regularly with our clients. Here’s a real example from one of our clients.
Monark Wild Rice, one of the food brands we work with, has 971 followers on TikTok. Under the old rules, that would sound like a brand nobody’s watching. But look at their top three videos:
| Video | Views | Views compared to followers |
|---|---|---|
| Top video | 1.7 million | About 1,750 times the follower count |
| Second video | 383,000 | About 390 times the follower count |
| Third video | 91,000 | About 94 times the follower count |
That’s well over two million views across three videos, all from organic delivery, meaning no paid ads behind them. Nearly all of those viewers didn’t follow the brand. TikTok showed them the videos because the content matched what they were interested in.
If we had judged this brand by its follower count, we would have missed the story completely. The real story is that people are seeing, watching and engaging with the brand at a scale its follower count would never suggest.
We focus on numbers that show awareness (are people seeing you?) and consideration (are they thinking about buying?). Here are the three we watch most closely.
Impressions are the number of times your content appeared on someone’s screen. One person seeing your post three times counts as three impressions.
This matters because people rarely act the first time they see a brand. The well-known marketing “rule of seven” holds that people need to see a brand around seven times before they act. Impressions tell you whether you’re building that repetition.
Reach is the number of different people who saw your content. If impressions show how often you’re showing up, reach shows how far your message is spreading. We want this number climbing steadily over time.
This is the most important of the three. Engagement is where viewers stop scrolling and actually respond, and it’s the clearest sign that someone is moving from “I’ve seen this brand” to “I’m interested in this brand.”
But not all engagement is equal. A quick like is nice. The engagements in the next section are what we really look for.
| Number | What it tells you | Why it matters more than followers |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | How often your brand showed up on screens | Builds the repetition people need before they buy |
| Reach | How many different people saw you | Shows your message spreading beyond your current audience |
| Meaningful engagement | Who is actually interested | Signals people are considering you, not just scrolling past |
| Followers | How many people clicked follow | Doesn’t guarantee anyone sees your next post |
A save, share, comment or direct message is worth far more than a new follower. Each one tells you something specific about how a person feels about your brand. Here’s how we read them.
We’re looking for genuine comments that show how people feel, like “This is really interesting, I have to check it out” or “I have a question about this.” Those comments are valuable because they let us keep the conversation going and nurture someone from a curious viewer into a customer or community member.
A save means the content was valuable enough that the person doesn’t want to lose it. They plan to come back and watch or read it again. That’s a strong sign of trust and usefulness.
A share means the content was interesting enough that someone sent it to a specific friend, family member or follower, usually to talk about it in their direct messages or because they thought that person would find it useful. Your brand just got a personal recommendation.
A repost goes a step further than a share. The person found the content so valuable that they wanted all of their followers to see it, putting their own reputation behind your brand.
This is the relationship-building side of social media. We will take direct message conversations over followers every single day. A private conversation is where questions get answered, trust gets built and real human connection happens.
| Engagement | What it signals | Value to the business |
|---|---|---|
| Direct message | A personal conversation has started | Highest: a real relationship and a path to a sale |
| Comment (genuine) | Interest, questions, sentiment | High: a chance to keep the conversation going |
| Repost | “My whole audience should see this” | High: an endorsement to their network |
| Share | “This specific person should see this” | High: a personal recommendation |
| Save | “I’ll come back to this” | High: content valued enough to revisit |
| Like | “I noticed this” | Low: nice, but easy to give |
| Follow | “I might want more” | Low on its own: no guarantee they’ll see future posts |
Strip away the numbers and social media marketing comes down to one thing: human connection. People buy from brands they feel they know. They recommend brands that made them feel something or helped them solve a problem. Followers can’t tell you whether any of that is happening. Comments, saves, shares, reposts and direct messages can.
That’s why we’d rather a client have 1,000 followers and a steady stream of real conversations than 100,000 followers who never say a word.
If you’ve been measuring success by follower count, here’s how to start changing that:
Less than they used to. Platforms now show content based on people’s interests, not just who they follow, so follower count doesn’t reliably tell you how many people see your posts. Reach, impressions and meaningful engagement are better measures.
Because a high follower count looks impressive but doesn’t prove anyone is seeing, trusting or buying from you. Followers can be inactive, and following an account doesn’t guarantee its posts appear in someone’s feed.
Reach is the number of different people who saw your content. Impressions are the total number of times it was shown, including repeat views by the same person.
Direct messages, genuine comments, shares, reposts and saves. Each shows real interest or trust, and they’re far stronger signs that someone is considering your brand than a like or a follow.
Yes. Monark Wild Rice, a food brand we work with, has 971 TikTok followers, and its top video has 1.7 million views, all from organic delivery. Content that matches people’s interests can travel far beyond your follower count.
Create content people want to watch, save and share; post consistently; reply to comments and messages; and make every post understandable to someone seeing your brand for the first time.
Followers were the scoreboard of an older version of social media. Today, your content can reach millions of people who’ve never followed you, and your followers may never see your next post. Measure what actually moves people toward your business: how often you show up, how many people you reach, and whether they save, share, comment and start a conversation.
Next in the Monarch Social Media Mindset series: how your best organic posts can tell you which ads will work before you spend a dollar.
Want social media that builds real conversations, not just a follower count? Book a discovery call with Monarch Social Media.
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