Does Follower Count on Instagram Matter?
Followers, followers, followers we hear this every day in the social media world. Whether you are trying to grow your own brand on Instagram or you are a social media manager who is working on growing your client’s Instagram pages, odds are you have probably asked yourself “How many followers on Instagram is a lot” or “How many followers do I need to be considered successful on Instagram”.
We are here to answer this question and it is probably not what you are expecting. No specific number indicates whether or not it is a ‘good amount’ of followers. In fact, the Chief of Instagram just came out and said it is not a good indicator of account value.
Why Isn’t the Follower Count a Good Indicator of Account Value?
Above follower count, engagement such as likes, comments, and shares holds much higher importance. This is a much better indication of how engaged your audience is with your content.
Followers can be bought and can often not be a clear representation of how successful your account is. There can often be lots of ‘Ghost Followers’ that often scroll right past your posts.
Although the Chief of Instagram came out and said that follower count is not a good indicator of the account value, we wonder why it is so prevalent on user’s pages.
How to Hide Follower Count on Instagram?
The followers count on the top of your page cannot be hidden, unfortunately. Instagram provides limited options for privacy settings, such as making your account private or controlling who can send you messages or comment on your posts, but hiding follower counts specifically is not a feature they currently offer. Therefore, your follower count will generally be visible to anyone who visits your Instagram profile, unless your account is set to private, in which case only approved followers can see your content and follower count.
So when you tweaking and improving your Instagram strategy, take a breath on the follower’s aspect of your page and shift your focus to improving engagement on your page. This is a much better indicator of your Instagram’s success!
If you have been struggling with engagement on Instagram, we highly recommend giving our blog on Instagram Engagement a read where we give you some helpful tips and tricks to increase engagement.
