The term “followers” refers to internet users who subscribe to or follow the profile or page of an individual, brand, or organization on social media platforms. These users choose to follow an account’s news and interact with the content published by that profile. The more followers a page has, the bigger its community; the more likes, comments, or shares it gets from users, the more influential it is.
It’s thanks to social networks that this term appeared, and the follower has become a symbol of this era. Influencer marketing was born of this transformation: it’s a social media strategy where brands collaborate with accounts of influential personalities, who are followed by a large number of followers on social networks, to promote their products or services.
Often referred to as “Instagrammers” on the Instagram platform, for example, influencers have a large number of followers who see them as benchmarks in fields related to their main centers of activity, such as fashion, travel, gastronomy, etc.
For a brand, the choice of collaborating with an influencer is often based on their number of followers, but also on their engagement rate, a metric that translates the interest of their community in relation to their follower volume.
Influencers have succeeded in building a loyal and engaged audience of followers around their content. Brands see in them an opportunity to reach a targeted audience in a more personal and authentic way than with traditional marketing methods. Thanks to their proximity to their followers, these personalities will be able to influence them in what they decide to buy, what trends they choose to adapt, and even their opinions.
Influencers are individuals who share their passions with their followers for their own accounts; on the corporate side, these functions are handled by the community manager to manage and develop their online presence. These social networking experts are responsible for creating content, interacting with followers, and managing the brand's online reputation. An effective community manager knows how to engage followers and turn them into brand ambassadors.
Followers are therefore much more than just fans or passive spectators: they’re vectors of engagement, they’re active, and they have the power to influence the success of a brand or an individual.
