The Benefits of a Smaller Social Media Following

As an online health advocate for eczema warriors, it has often felt overwhelming for me to navigate the many online social media distractions of what is popular versus what content I truly want to make in my heart even if it does not go viral.

When it comes to creating online content, I often struggle with wondering what kind of content is the most relevant for my community at any given time. I see so many huge accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, so many likes, and aesthetic, curated feeds of content that have amazing graphics. And with this, I fall into the trap of comparing myself to those who are getting a lot more attention and feedback online and engagement online.

Should I use keywords and trending topics?

There's often talk in social media of using keywords and trending topics to increase followers and engagement on various websites and platforms. It's all very exciting and tempting for me to jump on the bandwagon and try to follow what the most popular trick or topic is to talk about at the time to seem up to date, relevant, and feel like I belong in the online space today.

For a period of time, I really tried to emulate other popular social media content creators in the health space and in general. I tried to copy the influencer business model and talk the way they talked and tried to design my script and content to look like others. But it often just felt like a lot more work than what it was worth and I did not enjoy the process or experience.

Eventually I got to a point where I felt like if it was going to be this much effort and work to put up content, I almost want to completely give up and not make any at all. I just did not feel as good, professional, or had strong branding as other health content creators online that I noticed.

But what kept me going despite this feeling was the loyal community of followers that I had built over the past several years continuing to thank me for the content I shared. Even if communication was sporadic, those messages meant so much to me that it was enough to keep me going and to want to keep creating and sharing my story.

Getting comfortable with a smaller following

My opinion of myself as an online content creator also shifted with the pandemic of 2020. At this time, the social media scene became very political and aggressive online with topics such as social justice and all types of -isms. It showed me the potentially negative side of having a huge following and being super popular and made me question if I even had the energy or capacity to handle a larger following that I already had.

I don't think strangers online should scare us off from having opinions and sharing our truths or growing a large following if we have the energy for it. Though, this side of the internet reminded me of the benefit of being a smaller, more niche content creator that not many know about, especially as an introvert.

With me not following trends and not being super viral online, I realized that there was a certain level of protection with that. And that the people who find me would be very specific and would find a special type of value to my kind of content and my type of delivery which is very specific to me and not trendy at all.

I was safe to express myself

What I found is that in my relatively small but loyal social media community, I felt very safe to express myself honestly and completely with my opinions on eczema treatment and—to a certain level—humanity. I realized that the few people who find me are those who truly get me and my idiosyncratic way of expressing myself which allows me a lot of freedom in the kind of content I feel comfortable sharing publicly. Instead of feeling unpopular and irrelevant, I now felt rare and special, like a diamond in the rough.

So now I just don't worry about the numbers at all and I just appreciate and greatly value the people who find me and stick with me over time. Followers will come and go but the true supporters will stick around and those are the ones for whom I'm creating my content.