A new version of Twitter has been proposed that updates the look-and-feel of the website. One of the controversial changes is removing a user’s follower count from the main page when they log in and placing it elsewhere, so that it takes more clicks to get to it. Right now when you log into Twitter your follower count is front and center. The new change will partially hide the follower count, so that you have to go through extra steps to see it. The reason Twitter has given for this is the desire by the Twitter devs to make a person’s follower count less important.
This is a rather controversial move as for many people their follower count is very important to them. But how important is a follower count really?
For many a follower count is a point of validation. It shows them how many people like them or agree with what they’re saying. But when you post something, the real goal is to have that post read. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have. As can be seen on various social media sites, sometimes when you post something your post is read by far fewer than the number of followers or subscribers you have, and sometimes it’s read by many more.
With the goal being to have your post read, it really doesn’t matter how many followers you have. The number of followers you have is merely an indication of people that are more likely to read and interact with your content, but it’s not the most important number. It’s true that it can hold some importance if you’re trying to work out an advertising deal with a company, but otherwise, as far as getting people to look at your post, it’s not that important.
Create content that will be viewed and shared by people whether they’re followers or not and you’ll often reach a much bigger audience than your number of followers.
So while it’s understandable that people might not like their follower count being hidden at first considering so much emphasis has been placed on such things, it actually doesn’t matter. Just focus on getting your content viewed and read instead.