Follower count is just a vanity metric, right?
Revenue is what really matters.
Besides, there's no guarantee Instagram (or any other platform, for that matter) will show your content to your followers anyway.
Right?
Well, not exactly.
Yes, earning followers for followers' sake can be a fool's errand if you do nothing with it.
But when you leverage your follower count as a means of building trust, the game changes entirely.
And for that, few things are more powerful.
Where vanity metrics win (and lose)
The biggest argument I see against followers is that the algorithm prioritizes engagement over everything else.
More often than not, your followers don't even see your posts anyway, so it makes more sense to put your energy into views, likes, saves, and shares.
Or so they say.
Here's the truth: if you have no intention of doing anything with the social proof of having a built-in following, there's really no need to put much energy into it.
If going viral is the only goal, followers don't matter all that much.
But if your effort is to scale a business built on trust, followers are crystal-clear proof of work.
What followers actually communicate
If your business is built on trust, every metric helps.
So when a stranger lands on your profile and sees 50,000 people who care about what you have to say, you instantly prove authority without saying a word.
Because why would 50,000 people care what you have to say if you weren't saying something worth listening to?
This is when followers truly matter.
It's not just about having built-in attention so your next post gets seen more easily—that's a benefit too. It's about showcasing instant credibility to people already looking for it.
It leads to more views and engagement, because people are more willing to take a chance on someone new if others have already decided it's worth it.
Whether we like it or not, it's human nature to follow the crowd.
We are all, in some way or another, followers.
Putting it all together
Growing your following with no end goal behind it is ultimately a waste of resources—time and money.
But skipping the metric altogether and going straight for the sale is a mistake too.
Followers aren't just vanity—they're infrastructure.
And as such, they're a core component in any wise creator's system for earning attention and converting it into income.
So don't chase followers just to make yourself look good.
But don't ignore them either.
Social proof builds trust.
A high follower count can earn that instantly.
P.S. If you want to dig further into earning followers on Instagram with ads, be sure to check out this week's YouTube video.