Don’t Listen to Huge Influencers

Although they probably mean well, many large social media profiles represent anomalies and are unable to recreate their success under different circumstances. Their marketing advice is questionable.

I’ve been working in online marketing, SEO and branding for about 17 years. Consulting and managing presences with millions of followers. And while the media landscape is ever evolving, over the years the same patterns emerge again.

Here are the 3 types of influencers to look out for:

Famous in Real Life

People who are already famous attract followers and engagement regardless of their marketing expertise. Elon Musk once insinuated that because he has the largest account on Twitter, it automatically follows that he is the best social media expert as well. Personally, I doubt that.

The same holds true for people surrounding big accounts like that; they get pushed by proximity, and algorithmically, they are all anomalies. Schizoposting memes and hot takes on life won’t get your personal brand or business anywhere. Neither will the greatest advice of all: “Just be yourself.”

Great marketers can replicate this kind of success from scratch and for anyone because they have actually conducted A/B split and multivariate testing across multiple accounts, enabling them to achieve repeatable results. Everything else is just an opinion.

First and Lucky

There are other circumstances that make having a large profile not necessarily the best source for marketing advice.

People who were first in a particular niche, such as AI art, often rose to the top by default. They typically don’t know why their methods worked or why they might eventually become ineffective.

Being in the right place at the right time or getting mentioned by the media once can be advantageous, but it doesn’t necessarily make them great marketers either.

Hard Work and Longevity

For great advice on building a presence on social media, look out for profiles who have proven that their methods work, without falling into the two categories mentioned above. These are the people who truly understand how this works.

When I returned to Twitter a year ago, I only had a few hundred German followers left. Half of them hadn’t posted in years, while the other half unfollowed me after my topical pivot. My initial posts received zero likes. No one assisted me, I never went viral, and certainly wasn’t among the first. Yet, I managed to build a loyal following of over 5000 people, whom I consider to be the coolest people in my niche.

I don’t necessarily want to sell you anything here either. Just make you aware of how to assess if people know what they are talking about.

Of course, every rule has exceptions. There are people who understand how it works despite being anomalies, but a big number alone doesn’t automatically make it so.