10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Reselling [More Followers Doesn’t Mean Shit]

When I first dabbled into IG as a platform to sell sneakers 5 years ago, my first impression was like damn…how can I increase my follower count?  I won’t lie…it was mad discouraging at first when I had like 100 followers vs the other sellers with 50k and some with 300k+ followers.  However, the longer I’ve been in the business, the more I realize that there’s no grand slam right off the first pitch…and building from nothing is truly a process you learn to enjoy.  Of course all of you out there wants to be making 6 figures reselling on your first year…I mean who wouldn’t, right? I didn’t reach this goal till my 4th year in the business, but the importance here is really about learning what you’re good at, who your customers are AND most importantly what they want that only you or only a select few can provide.  I’m not saying that having more followers doesn’t translate into a more successful business…to a certain degree it does, BUT my point is…how many of those followers are REAL paying customers or people that are actively engaged to your posts?  I could have 100k followers, but if that follower count doesn’t translate into revenue your business isn’t really going anywhere.  If you gave me a choice of 5k followers where everyone is a legit paying customer VS. 100k followers but only 2% of the people are actual customers, then I much rather choose the prior.

Don’t get me wrong…having a high follower count is great for people that don’t know anything about you because it gives credibility to a certain degree, but what does it mean to them when you post something and it only shows 50 likes and 0 comments?  I never went to school for social media or business, but even I learned from experience that having a small engagement is better than none.  If you’re not getting any engagement from your posts, then you are doing something wrong.  Hence today I’m always thinking of new ways to get people more engaged rather than how to get more followers.

Here’s the critical question I think you all have to ask yourself when it comes to using social media to your advantage.  What value can I provide to followers that will get them to follow me without me even asking?  If you can answer this question, the stars will align themselves – I promise.  It’s not an easy question to answer and the truth is… 90% of you will never be able to solve this question because it’s a proven stat over the years. However for the 10% of you out there that are…you will be a successful business over time.

Putting things into perspective from my point of view…how did I do it?  When I first started off everyone was selling shoes so I knew 2 things.  I either had to sell it for cheaper OR sell something that no one else was selling.  So I did BOTH!  I picked a niche where not many people were doing and I sold it for cheaper.  How?  Because over my many years of experience in the culture I was really good at looking everywhere on the internet for the best deal.  It wasn’t easy and it was extremely time consuming, BUT I was always able to find the best bang for the buck when it comes to deals on sneakers.  As part of being a business, your revenue must be greater than the cost, but I wasn’t greedy.  I was ok with just making $50-$100 a pair and giving people an incentive for people to buy from me.  Things only get difficult when you are greedy because not only can you not move product, but you deter people from buying from you right from the getgo.

To sum up today’s point…Don’t look to increase your follower count just because having a higher count looks good, but rather look to increase your true customers that will propel your business in the future.  Give them a reason to follow you and make them feel if they are NOT following you they are actually missing out because humans are naturally – FOMO.  Always ask yourself…why should anyone follow you?  If you can answer this…you’ll be gucci.