The thing about social media marketing [and associated trends] is that the future is private, and as your resident introvert? … I’m here for it.

I am so here for it.

I’ve held a longstanding belief that introverts are too often overlooked on social media, and so their true power? … also overlooked.  The reason being? A lot o’ you are out there chasing vanity metrics: follower growth, engagement on your content [via the obvious, i.e comments on posts], and when you consider the psychology of how we consume social media? … your introvert ain’t gon’ comment on any of your posts.

They just don’t.

It’s not how we operate.

Promise.

Take me for example? One of my [very] favourite insty-accounts is @meganluscombe_ [an incredible Melbourne-based confidence coach], and every-single-piece-of-her-content? … makes me feel like I’m a better person for having consumed it.  But the thing is this, I don’t engage with her content the same way an extrovert would. Simple reason being? Introverts consume content so differently: we read > we read slowly > we take every word in > we sit and digest that sh*t > we consume every single piece of content > it stays within our memory > we are highly engaged [but not in the overt way that your ego is seeking online via 100’s of comments per post etc.], and whilst you’re often our favourite person to follow online? … our introverted approach to life is that … we point-blank don’t wanna add to your “noise”.

Sidenote? We consider commenting on pretty-much-anything online as “noise”, ha!

So, our favourite account? You’d literally never know.  Because my engagement is something that is still seen and seriously valued by social platforms [from a back-end algorithm perspective], but it’s just not as overt and obvious online via comments etc.

That said though, I’m still booking in for regular confidence coaching with Megan [aforementioned favourite Instagram account], because I just … rate her *so* highly [and yes, it’s been as a direct result of having consumed the large majority of her organic content.  And no sir, we’re not even talking paid ads here].

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Let’s throw a TDP example down now, shall we?

Last year I was workshop’n with this incredible crew, and I had a beautiful attendee sitting at the back of my workshop [in true introverted fashion, ha!], and she rattled off posts that she remembered TDP sharing up until five years ago.  As in, she just remembered them all [and to such incredible detail].  I said to her, “I’m so sorry, what’s your IG handle? I’m sure I should know you given you’ve followed us for such an obviously lengthy period of time” and to that she said, “oh no.  I’ve never engaged. Not once. You wouldn’t know my IG handle”.

And that right there? Is the power of your introvert follower.

After the workshop, I searched for her in our database and she’d bought every online program we run, as well as a spot in that in-person workshop that day … but she’d never [overtly] engaged with us online, and it reminded me of this: your introverted followers are powerful.  They won’t give you the stuff that your ego needs [i.e 100’s of comments in a comments thread], but that are so genuinely highly engaged in ways that the social media platforms you’re on can recognise, i.e dwell time on your post [how long are they spending there], time spent reading a caption from start to finish, viewing every IG story and not skipping through them, sending your content to their friends in private messages / direct messages [and having lengthy – private – back and forth conversations about your content], and ultimately? … winding up so incredibly engaged with your brand [and for all of the right reasons].

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Have faith though, that Facebook and Instagram [as examples] see the less overt interaction.  They see our beloved introverts stopping the scroll. They see them pausing on posts. They see them reading from start to end.  They see them privately sharing that content with friends. And to that they deem this activity to be the kind of activity that indicates to them, “this follower is highly engaged with this brand”.

Thanks to this, your content builds affinity, and you don’t drop out of this person’s news feed … and if you continue to show up with consistent, high quality content? The more introverted folk within your followers list are gon’ love you.