Does The Number of Twitter Followers Really Matter?

Last night was the premiere for one of my guilty television addictions… Celebrity Apprentice. Mashable points out that this season’s cast is the most socially connected casts the show has ever had. As if to prove it, the social media smack talk started within the first 30 minutes:

“When it degraded into who was “most recognizable” I was disgusted… Out of all the women in there I have the most Twitter followers.”
-Aubrey O’Day
Celebrity Apprentice aired February 19, 2012

So for the record, as of the writing of this blog post, Aubrey O’Day has 381,155 Twitter followers.

Fellow apprentice and one of those “women” she referred to was Teresa Giudice… who has 416,803 Twitter followers.

All bad mathematical equations aside, the real question we should be asking is does the number of Twitter followers you have really matter?

When The Number Of Twitter Subscribers Does Matter

Twitter excels at conversation, especially in the moment. It works extremely well for breaking news and providing up to date information on events happening because there are eyes on it at that time.

Because of this, calls to action in the moment are especially effective on Twitter, provided you have an engaged group of followers.

When The Number Of Twitter Subscribers Doesn’t Matter

There is a constant deluge of information for the average Twitter user. In order for you to get your message out the user needs to be looking at their timeline within an average of 30 minutes from your post. Because of this, Twitter has been traditionally weak in driving users to content such as videos, blog posts, and information about past/future events.

That 30 minute window is really key for another reason. What if those who do see your content do nothing with it? There is an engagement factor that also needs to be taken into account. Someone may read your content, which is fine if that’s what you’re looking for, but if it’s a link or a call to action they may do nothing more with it.

For these reasons, the power of the overall number diminishes dramatically based on the frequency of your messages and if your follower base is comprised more of casual readers than engaged and active users.

The Bottom Line

While the number of followers you have may seem impressive, may (falsely) make you feel above other users, and provides you a better chance to spread your message further… ultimately the number doesn’t really matter. Varying levels of engagement and the constant stream of information before them nullifies any power in quantity in the long run.

What matters most is, as with most social media content, the quality of the content.

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