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Hit 1,000 real followers last week and it made me paranoid
I've been posting security tips on Twitter for like 2 years and finally crossed 1,000 followers. Thought I'd be happy but instead I got paranoid. Turns out like 400 of them are bot accounts that follow everyone in the cybersecurity hashtag. Another 200 are people selling VPNs or shady services. That leaves maybe 400 real humans who actually get my content. It matters because now I'm rethinking how I measure influence in this space. Has anyone else run into fake follower inflation messing with their numbers?
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the_patricia6d ago
the whole fake follower thing is just another symptom of how everything's been gamified these days, like people are more worried about looking legit than actually being legit. i see it all the time with local businesses near me, they'll have thousands of followers but you go to their shop and it's dead quiet, nobody actually buying anything. it's the same with your security tips, numbers don't translate to real impact if half the accounts aren't even real people. what matters more is if those 400 real humans are actually using what you're posting, maybe they're sharing it with their coworkers or applying it at their jobs. social media's turned into this weird numbers game where we forget the whole point is connecting with actual humans, not just collecting digital trophies.
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amy_reed796d ago
I look at it a little differently, Patricia. Those 400 real followers could be 400 IT managers who actually trust your advice because you didn't waste time trying to impress bots. The fake followers might be inflating your numbers, but they don't change the value of what you're putting out there. The problem with focusing on "real impact" is it assumes you can track a direct line from your tweets to someone's job performance. Maybe one of those 400 people screenshot your post and it stops a ransomware attack six months from now. You'll never know that story, but it still matters. So yeah, the numbers are fake, but the trust from those real people isn't.
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