Hey guys! I recently (literally a minute ago) realised that I finally 1,500 followers! This is a testament to my effort and commitment here on the platform... or is it?
Followers Contest
If you've been following me for a while, you'd know that I run a weekly followers contest. This was when I first realised that the majority of my followers are not active. I have picked 9 winners randomly, and they have all been either inactive or never posted in the first place. This is quite saddening considering I used to think my follower count meant something.
This contest will also likely inflate my follower count as all you have to do is follow and be active for a chance to win.
Who I Follow
If you look at my profile, you'd realise I follow less than 60 people. This is because I constantly look for people to follow, while also cleaning out my following list so I don't get cluttered with spam or stuff I don't enjoy. This means I actually read a lot of what's been posted by the people I follow and interact with some of their posts!
I think people should stick with under 100 followings, any more than that and you could be looking at over 100 posts per day! I aim to post once per day, but often post 3-4 times in a single day like on the weekends. A lot of people post more than once per day so be wary who you follow.
Bots
That's another issue with the followers metric, a lot of them are simply bots! Sometimes I randomly get like 5-10 new followers out of thin air. I assume they are all a bot trail that are trying to do follow for follows and promote to make their resteem services look more attractive.
Good Tool to Use
I find that SteemSpectacles is a good tool to use! I got introduced to it by someone in one of my comments before, and it provides some interesting metrics for me to look at! However, it doesn't seem to be working right now, I swear it was working yesterday haha
Take Home Message
The followers metric is no longer an accurate way to gauge how popular you are. What people should focus on is replying to comments and trying to gain long term supports through that! I try my best to reply to as many comments as possible but with exams coming up, I simply don't have the time right now. Hopefully, I'll be a lot more active as time goes on :)
