by Mona Hellenkemper — May 16, 2017 (updated February 1, 2018). Discover effective strategies for follower growth on social media platforms.
In influencer marketing, everyone talks about quality over quantity — and for good reason. Dormant accounts and bots don’t watch Stories, don’t save posts, and certainly don’t buy. Still, numbers do open doors: brands scan profiles at a glance, and a channel with a tiny audience rarely makes a media plan. What quietly matters even more than the absolute number, though, is the pace of follower growth. A channel that keeps attracting new people week after week signals momentum — the currency that brands care about.
What is “follower growth rate”?
Follower growth rate is the share of new followers you gained compared to the size of your existing audience. In practice, that means looking at how many people joined you over a specific period and dividing it by your follower base at the start of that period. In our tooling at InfluencerDB, we look at growth over the last four weeks, which smooths out one-off spikes and gives a fair view of ongoing traction.
“Why chase new followers if mine are loyal?”
It’s a fair question. Over time, longtime followers tend to settle into habits: they scroll faster, skip more, and only pause for what truly surprises them. That’s natural platform behavior — the longer you live on a social network, the harder it becomes to impress you. Loyal fans remain valuable, but they don’t always keep engagement growing on their own.
New followers, on the other hand, are in their honeymoon phase with the platform. They explore, they tap through your Highlights, they read captions to the end. Bringing in a steady stream of fresh eyes helps you avoid the slow drift that turns lively communities into quiet timelines.
Why follower growth matters for brand collaborations
From a brand’s perspective, momentum equals relevance. A growing account tells a simple story: this creator is still discovering new audiences and is likely to deliver reach beyond the same core fans next month, too. That’s crucial for long-term partnerships and testimonial-style campaigns, where content rolls out across weeks or months. A flat or declining curve can suggest that the content no longer travels beyond the inner circle.
Example of steady follower growth
Example of stagnant follower growth
Growth as a proxy for potential customers
The same logic applies to brand-owned channels. A sizable follower base makes it easier to reach people, yes — but mix matters. If you only ever speak to the same loyal crowd, you limit discovery. A channel that keeps welcoming newcomers feeds the top of the funnel, keeps comments fresh, and constantly introduces your products to people who haven’t made up their minds yet.
In short: keep nurturing your community — and keep earning new followers. The combination is what sustains engagement, broadens reach, and turns your voice into a brand asset rather than a one-time spike.
If you want to understand how today’s trends in follower growth fit into the bigger picture, check out our article A Brief History of Influencer Marketing (with a Side of Social Media ROI) for a look at how the industry has evolved over time.
