Vanity Metric: Your Followers Are Ghosts

Follower count created a false economy of attention: a vanity metric that mimics popularity but rarely guarantees quality, trust, or conversion. The numbers fluctuate with feeling, hype, or algorithm shifts, not impact and yet they’ve hypnotised us into valuing scale over substance.

Sure, brands are catching on, micro-influencers drive real action, and niche engagement often outperforms raw reach. But in the branding world, follower count still reigns as shorthand for visibility. That works… until it doesn’t. Because after the initial wave of sales, those bloated media buys often fail to sustain real momentum.

Media value is split into the following categories:

Reach
Easy to buy, easy to fake. Eyeballs don’t equal impact.

Engagement
Comments, clicks, saves, shares. But still surface-level.

Trust
Built through consistency, honesty, and impact. This is where influence lives.

Conversion
A sale. A signup. A shift in mindset. This is when your money's worth with media pays off.

I guess my point is…impressions don’t equal influence. And not all eyeballs are worth paying for.