Why I Dislike the Word "Follower", and You Should, Too

As a business person, and a lifetime student of mentors and influencers, I often think about simple marketing flaws that companies make, and completely miss their mark because they underestimate the size of their audience. All messages that come out of your account, be it twitter, Facebook, blog, YouTube, Instagram, or Pinterest speak to MILLIONS of people, even if the majority of your audience seems to have a very small following. Many companies and public figures refer to their audience, customers, and fans as simply "followers". I dislike the word "followers", and make sure it doesn't creep up into my lexicon. 

Let's look at twitter. My biggest mentor and influencer, Gary Vaynerchuk, for example, has 126K tweets • 1796 photos/videos • 1.12M followers, and follows 7,624 people. I am one of his 1.12M followers, and (amazingly so) he is following me back. In fact, Gary Vaynerchuk and I follow each other on Twitter  since I met him at his #jjjrh book signing. My personal twitter has 1.3K subscribers, and my business twitter has 10.5K, but I don't like to call these people "followers", I prefer to call them "like-minded people". Every time you say a word, or write something, you are connecting to "like-minded people", who gravitate towards you because something you believe in resonates with them. I don't see a reason anyone would subscribe to my blog, Pinterest, or Twitter, other than receiving information they believe will resonate with them, and that is why these connections matter. 

Businesses and public figures who connect with their audience on a human level are always more successful and more influential than those who send out generic messages to "followers" and never reply to fan comments and questions. We are all people, when you connect with like-minded people, they will feel compelled to re-tweet, re-post, or otherwise share your content with their group of like-minded people ("followers"). Someone finds out about your philosophy or product from a friend, or someone they are subscribed to on twitter, they like it and re-post to their network, and all of a sudden you are exposed to a whole community of people who think what you have to say is valuable to them and their audience. This is how things work on social media - it's just like the old concept of "word of mouth", but this time, you are reaching millions of ears and making valuable connections no ads can rival with.