How are Followers Measured?
Our 88k RSS followers are about to wonder what happened to us. Photo by Meruyert Gonullu on Pexels.com. If you are a current RSS feed subscriber you will no longer have updates from us come June 2021. It’s not our fault. Google is the bad guy here. RSS Follower is a gorgeous news reader you even looked. Read, share, and search your news by using a clean and intuitive interface.
Last week I asked how do you follow non-blogger blogs? There are so many ways to follow a blog: GFC, Linky, NetworkedBlogs, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail subscriptions, RSS, you name it! So when we have so many different ways to be followed, how the heck do we measure how many followers we have? A BookNook reader submitted this question:
How are followers measured, especially on WordPress which doesn’t have a nifty GFC? Do you just add the Networked Blogs and Linky Followers together? Do Facebook/Twitter followers count?
- Click the RSS button (if found). Look at the far-right corner of the address bar (where you typed the URL). If you see an orange square with a white dot at the bottom-left corner and two white curved lines above the dot, click it to open the RSS feed.
- Finding great feeds to follow can be quite difficult. There are many great publications and blogs on the internet today. That’s why we have collected the most popular RSS feeds out there in this list. The list of popular RSS feeds. We have compiled a list of popular RSS feeds from our system. Click on the link to add it to your Feeder.
- RSS Follower supports the RSS 2.0, ATOM, and RDP standards. Multiple article list view layouts Choose one of the layouts: Large or Compact. Both layouts support imageless mode to display more text. Reading articles You can read articles in a built-in comfortable News Browser with a Summary and Full Story view.
As a general rule, I would say that Facebook and Twitter do not count.
The main reason is because Twitter and Facebook are dedicated social media sites and ways of communicating, so most of your followers will follow your blog AND follow you on Twitter/Facebook to stay connected to you. So if you count your Twitter/Facebook followers with your ‘normal’ blog count, you’re essentially counting everyone twice!
If we’re not counting RSS/e-mail in the equation (since it wasn’t mentioned in the question), then yes, I would just add my Linky and NetworkedBlogs followers together. The reason for that is because I assume my followers will follow me on EITHER Linky OR NetworkedBlogs—not both. People tend to pick one and stick with it.
But, if we do count RSS/e-mail, then it gets even more confusing! I think people are more likely to double up. Someone might follow you on NetworkedBlogs AND have an e-mail subscription.
So what the heck do we do?
I think at the end of the day, it’s up to you. Whenever someone asks me how many followers I have (like in a blog tour sign up or on my NetGalley profile), I always give them the individual numbers. I would say something like:
- 533 RSS/e-mail subscribers
- 829 Linky/NetworkedBlogs followers
- 1447 Twitter followers
- 809 Facebook fans
That way, there’s no confusion, and the person on the receiving end can decide for themselves how many ‘total’ followers you have.
Side note about followers…
After last week’s discussion, I decided that for my own blog, I was going to stop measuring ‘followers’ and start measuring ‘subscribers’. It became extremely clear to me that if someone wants to actually FOLLOW your blog and keep updated with new posts, they will subscribe to you through RSS or e-mail. Most (but not all) of your NetworkedBlogs and Linky followers are only ‘following’ you to enter into a giveaway. They don’t actually keep coming back for your posts.
How do you count your number of followers?
What the Heck is RSS?
While we’re on the subject of followers and RSS, here is another reader-submitted question:
If it is not a CDC-certified syndrome, then what is it? I am familiar with RSS-driven emails, but what about all that Google Reader stuff? How do bloggers even know people are reading their blog via RSS feeds?
Okay, I’ll break this into two parts: what is RSS, and what’s the deal with RSS readers.
What is RSS?
RSS (“Rich Site Summary”) is essentially a plain text feed of your blog. It’s a ‘plainly’ formatted list of all your posts. Because RSS feeds are in a plain text XML format, they can then be fed into a variety of third party applications, such as an RSS Reader.
What’s the deal with RSS readers?
An RSS reader is an application that allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds. In all honesty, it’s not much different from an e-mail subscription. You have a reader homepage and then a feed of all the new posts from the sites you’ve subscribed to. You can mark posts as ‘read’, scroll through them, unsubscribe, etc.
The only real difference between an RSS reader and an e-mail subscription, is that your RSS subscription doesn’t get sent to your e-mail. Instead, everything just gets funnelled through your RSS reader dashboard. This is good for people who like to separate their site subscriptions from their personal e-mail accounts. If you already get 100 e-mails a day, you don’t want to be boggled down with an additional 20 e-mails from blogs you’ve subscribed to.
And finally, the only real way you can see that people are reading your blog via an RSS feed is by seeing your subscription counter. If you channel your RSS feed through a site like FeedBurner, you can see a tally of how many subscribers you have.
This number is the combined total of RSS subscribers and e-mail subscribers. FeedBurner also allows you to see a more specific break down, which divides up the RSS subscribers and the e-mail subscribers. Other than seeing “I have x amount of Google Reader subscribers”, you don’t really know much more about who your RSS subscribers are. However, you can usually see a few other statistics, such as your “reach”.
You may have 500 subscribers, but odds are not all of them are actually reading your posts in their RSS reader regularly. In fact, what if they subscribe to you (like, for a giveaway) but NEVER check their RSS reader? This is where the reach comes in. The reach gives you an estimate of how many people have viewed or clicked on the content of your feed. This number is usually significantly lower than your subscriber number.
Presented by SocialFox
With over a billion active monthly users, Instagram is a natural platform for reaching a nearly unlimited number of potential customers. Making the most of your social media marketing opportunity doesn’t have to be rocket science — as long as you approach your strategy with determination, curiosity, and the right Instagram analytics tools.
The right tools will differ depending on your industry, your audience, and your budget, but knowing who you want to reach, how they respond to your content and what your competition is up to is a great place to start.
The following list includes a little something for every business, whether you are looking for just the basics, or you want the best Instagram analytics software that does it all.
1. SocialFox
Getting more followers isn’t just a popularity contest. It’s also about strategy. Your brand may be one that everybody would love if they see it. But no one will see it if you don’t know how to get your Instagram account in front of people.
That’s where Instagram analytics tools can really make a difference. When you’re first getting started, it’s important to do plenty of research to understand the audience you intend to reach.
After you’ve had an Instagram account for a while, you need to know who you are reaching so you can make adjustments to your campaigns or take advantage of the inadvertent development of a new audience.
SocialFox is a trusted source that helps businesses grow. It does this by providing you with the data you need in order to make the right decision about your next steps, from picking perfect branded hashtags to deciding which filters to use on your next post.
Use SocialFox to track your account’s engagement with other accounts, and learn which categories of followers are most involved with your posts.
This tool will give you insights into which hashtags resonate with your audience, help you understand every click on every post, and show you which times of day are best to post for the people you want to reach.
SocialFox’s customizability means you can choose from more than 25 individual metrics to tell the story of your company’s social media progress. The metrics are all fully customizable for a clean, branded visual presentation of the results.
2. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is great for larger companies that handle several different social media accounts because of the ease with which you can organize your data.
Look at your entire network of accounts to see how your company’s social performance is doing as a whole. You can analyze how each team is doing, how each campaign is doing, and how each post performs.
You can monitor social conversations to make sure your marketing department is keeping engagement rates up, and keep tabs on any issues or opportunities.
Preparing regular posts is a snap with Sprout Social’s scheduler. You’ll know the best time of day to share your content, which kinds of posts will get the most attention on which days, and which hashtags are trending in real time.
This tool offers unlimited access to reports and is highly customizable. You can create branded reports that are automatically sent to your team, giving you up-to-the-minute stats and showing the analysis you need to make every campaign pop.
Sprout Social also offers a wealth of resources that teach you how to reach your audience in a meaningful way. They will enable you to make the most of the tools at your fingertips and start seeing those likes turn into conversions.
3. Hootsuite
One of the most popular social media management tools out there, Hootsuite makes creating engaging posts second nature, helping you attract more followers.
The makers of Hootsuite practically wrote the book on social media, and they even offer certification courses to train savvy professionals in the field.
This software ties everything into one package and lets you manage everything from the same place. You can really get to know every detail about every single campaign, including how successful you were in gaining the attention of your audience and where you can improve next time.
One of the best things about Hootsuite is its content-management features. Add posts to the calendar based on the suggestions made through your analytics; then Hootsuite will post across all your platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.
You can manage up to 10 accounts for one low price, but there are plenty of custom options to fit your needs as a growing company.
4. HypeAuditor
We can’t have a real evaluation of Instagram analytics tools without taking a look at at least one tool geared toward companies that are using influencer campaigns.
Influencers are the latest version of word-of-mouth marketing; they’ve built a reputation and a following. Micro-influencers do not have to cost an arm and a leg, and smaller influencers are generally more engaged with their audience anyway.
When you have influencers doing your outreach for you, you don’t have to do much more than sit back and watch the followers and the likes roll in. The key is having good software.
HypeAuditor helps you find the people who will be most effective at reaching your target market. These are the people who will not only resonate most with who you want to reach, but who will also engage just the right amount to get others to take notice of you.
HypeAuditor will even rate the authenticity of engagement with your influencers, so you know they aren’t just automating likes and comments.
HypeAuditor offers a free trial, and this tool would be an excellent addition to consider if you are looking at adding influencer marketing to your repertoire.
5. Later
Later is one of those tools that just does everything. As far as Instagram analytics tools go, this one is going to give you just about anything you could want in order to make your social media stand out.
Made for individuals and teams, Later helps businesses find out precisely what their audience likes most about their accounts. You can view and rank your posts by impressions, engagement, likes, and comments. The posts you want to keep replicating are the ones driving the most sales traffic, and Later gives you the power to keep track of that as well.
One of the best things about Later, though, is the ease with which you can keep your audience coming back for more. Its drag-and-drop feature lets you pull your posts together in no time. The calendar tool will tell you when to post, and it automates publication with the click of a button.
Don’t be intimidated if you don’t have a huge budget for Instagram analytics tools. The basic service is absolutely free. You can use features that are perfect for an individual account at no cost forever.
Rss Followers
Later is worth your serious consideration if you want to make your Instagram account pop.
6. Socialbakers
Geared toward businesses that have 10 or more social media accounts, Socialbakers gives you everything you need for an outstanding social media presence. It is made for team collaboration, and it will certainly smooth out your workflow.
Use Socialbakers to analyze and strategize across all your social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Publish on every account from one place, and even approve and oversee your posts from your mobile device.
One unique feature is its image search tool, which will scan the web and tell you which images are trending in real time.
You can also see how you stand against your competitors, using benchmarks to let you know exactly what you need to work on.
7. Keyhole
Keyhole is one of the most flexible Instagram analytics tools on the internet today. It gives its customers an à la carte approach to its services, so you can tailor your software to meet your business’s precise needs without overspending.
The more features you add on, the less expensive each one gets.
The service is simple to learn, and you can quickly get people on your team up and running to manage your Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts all from one location.
Keyhole’s social listening capabilities will notify you any time your company is mentioned on thousands of websites, news outlets, and blogs, so you never miss an opportunity to boost the sentiment surrounding your company and generate leads.
Save money, boost your brand presence, drive sales, and stay on top of your reputation with Keyhole.
8. Buffer
There are not currently very many Instagram analytics tools that can comprehensively help you boost your ecommerce success and your social media account popularity. Boost is one of the few that does the job and makes it look easy.
You can customize all your reports, and Buffer doesn’t just offer the data; it also offers suggestions for how you can improve every element of your social media presence.
Rss Followers
You can pick and choose your services to make sure you are not paying for more than you need. Go with just the analytics, or simplify your campaigns by adding on the publication tool.
With Buffer’s publication capabilities, you can easily manage your content across all channels, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Buffer even offers a mobile app that lets you manage your calendar on the go.
As far as customer support goes, the Buffer community is always there to lend a hand if there is anything you are struggling to figure out. Buffer also has an extensive knowledge base full of tutorials, articles and how-tos, so you can access information to support your social media goals.
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