[Solved] I'm Losing Social Media Followers (Elon Musk Saved Me)

Hi, I'm Manabu.
I received the following reply the other day:

✍️ Translation:

I feel sad because your followers are decreasing. I know you switched your language from Japanese to English on social media. People who Like or RT your tweets, however, are almost Japanese, despite the fact that you tweet in English.

First of all, thank you so much for your kindness. I appreciate it.

However, I don't feel any problem with that. I explain why I'm not bothered by the fact that I'm losing so many followers.

This article is for anyone who struggles to get new followers and sometimes feels bad because of losing them. This is my marketing thesis.

😌 P.S. About me: Worked in the Philippines fresh from college → Quit in 11 months → Started my business but failed → Blogging for 1000days and earned $2 million → Became YouTuber(550k subs) → The next challenge is to go global.

🌎 Translation is Welcome: If anyone wants to translate my blog post, feel free to do that. I also will help spread your post by RT from my Twitter account. Please reply to me with your translated post. (🇯🇵Japanese)

Table of Contents

  • 1. Solved: I'm Losing Social Media Followers
  • 2. The Change will Happen from Twitter

1. Solved: I'm Losing Social Media Followers

Solved: I'm Losing Social Media Followers

The reasons are as follows:

  • (1) I changed my Target Audience
  • (2) I'm Developing my Knowledge
  • (3) I can create a Business in the future
  • (4) The numbers of Followers ≠ Trust
  • (5) I decided on the Mountain to Climb

I will explain them quickly, one by one.

(1) I changed my Target Audience

The reason is extremely simple. I changed my target audiences like so:

  • Before: Top 10% in Japan🇯🇵
  • After: Top 1% in Japan🇯🇵 + Top 10% in Global🌎

I always think about the pyramid when marketing, like below:

marketing funnel

The number of LIKES and RTs I receive is relative to the amount of your target audience.

Obviously, I changed my target audiences from "Top 10% in Japan" to "Top 1% in Japan", which will significantly decrease my followers, LIKEs, and RTs.

I know why, and that's why I am not having any problems. But if I don't know why I'm losing followers, that's a big problem.

*The number I have mentioned, such as "TOP 10% " or "TOP 1%" is not the intelligence index. I rank them according to their information sensitivity in the areas where I provide the information.

(2) I'm Developing my Knowledge

I study English these days for 2 ~ 4 hours every day:

  • 📖 Reading news in English: 1 ~ 2 hours/day
  • 🎧 Listening podcast in English: 1 hour/day
  • ✍️ Writing blog in English: 2 articles/week

There is no problem while I'm learning something for my future.

And definitely, I can say, today's blog post written by me on Apr 2022 will be kind of poorly made for the future me. That’s the evidence of my growth.

(3) I can create a Business in the future

The uniqueness of your life makes you strong.

In 2017, for example, I began my programming school in Thailand🇹🇭. The name is iSara, and it has become very popular among Japanese people who enjoy nomad life.

I could do that because I was living there and posting information about nomad life in Thailand, which attracts the Japanese people who want to do the same.

My Next Business Plan

I'm not sure, but I can create somewhat related to an English school for someone who wants to study English and Crypto simultaneously.

Again, I'm not sure if I will do that. But the uniqueness of my life will undoubtedly become a strength of mine.

(4) The numbers of Followers ≠ Trust

Are there any influencers that you really like?

For example, if your favorite influencer suddenly changes their language from your native language to another language, you probably feel depressed.

However, your trust in your favorite influencers will never decrease, right? What's more, if the influencers switch bask to your native language, then you probably follow them again. That's the thing.

The numbers of Followers ≠ Trust. It's okay to lose your followers. But, it's not okay to lose your trust.

(5) I decided on the Mountain to Climb

Finally, here is the word from Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder and CEO of Japanese holding company SoftBank:

登りたい山を決める事。これで人生の半分が決まる。

Decide the mountain you want to climb. This determines half of your life.

That's it. I made my own decision. No regret. Even though I made a failure and lost my money, it's no problem for me. I will be disappointed in myself if I don't take a risk. I climb the mountain I want to climb🏔

Okay. That's it for the first half. Quick summary:

Reason why no problem with losing my followers:

  • (1) I changed my Target Audience
  • (2) I'm Developing my Knowledge
  • (3) I can create a Business in the future
  • (4) The numbers of Followers ≠ Trust
  • (5) I decided on the Mountain to Climb

Let's move on to the later chapter. It's a fun part.

2. The Change will Happen from Twitter

The Change will Happen from Twitter

I love thinking about the future and change because that will bring us new chances. Let me explain the future of social media.

The Problems of Social Media

Here are the examples:

  • 📰 Fake News
  • 🧠 Algorithmic Biases
  • 🤡 Prankster YouTuber

I was one of the above-mentioned victims. There is so much fake news about me on the internet and on YouTube because I have many followers on social media. The same is true for the other influencers.

For example, when I was a YouTuber in Japan, I had hired employees to delete the slanders on my YouTube channel. What a waste. I could not do that by myself because it would depress my feelings.

The Core Problem: Ad-based Business

People create fake news and post videos for slanders because it's profitable. Actually, you can make a living by posting fake news about celebrities and famous YouTubers. That's the problem. So how to solve this?

The Solution: Open Source + Token

Let's talk about Crypto. It's my favorite. In short, Twitter should become a Base Layer. It is something like the below:

layer

It's the same with the Ethereum doing in the Crypto world. Ethereum is the Base Layer of Crypto, which securely save the data.

Ethereum-layer

The idea is that Twitter saves data (ex: tweets, followers, and followers), and then developers can build apps on top of Twitter without requesting any permissions.

Truth Social + Twitter

For example, after being banned from Twitter, Donald Trump launched Truth Social, a new social media platform.

Instead of doing that, Donald Trump can create Truth Social on the top of Twitter. If so, he doesn't need to lose his followers when he moves to Truth Social.

In this day and age, the number of followers is a form of capital💰 for people. So it's not good that Twitter can arbitrarily ban someone. Social media should be public good and open.

How the Developers Make Money?

Twitter should be open, and the developers can create their apps on top of that. But how to earn money doing that? The answer is a Token.

For example, Twitter creates a Token, and the company that manages Twitter will distribute it. It is similar to a stock, as you can imagine.

And then, the developers who create the apps on top of Twitter can earn the token because they contribute the Twitter's ecosystem.

The Twitter company will be happy with that, and it might increase the value of the Twitter token, which is almost the same as the company's value.

As developers, they are happy that they can get the token, and they can monetize their apps by themselves as well. It's up to them whether they sell their token or hold it with expecting price increases📈

It's possible to happen because Elon Musk bought Twitter and made Twitter a private company. No other big social media can not do that because they are a public company. Creating and distributing tokens is a conflict of interest with shareholders.

The change will happen from Twitter

Here is also another idea:

If Twitter becomes open, there will be many apps on Twitter.

Someone might create an extension of "Hiding followers, Displaying engagement." The idea is simple: the number of followers is less important than engagement.

And if many people accept this extension, then the value of the number of followers will massively decrease. Instead, it will visualize the community, which has small members, but high enthusiasm.

It's just an idea. But, I suppose, we will see this type of change in the near future. The shift creates a new wave of money flow💰

Essential Actions produce Long-Term Benefits

When I was a blogger, I saw many people who struggled with Google algorithm change. If you largely depend on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the algorithm change is likely to cause significant damage.

In my case, I never struggle with that because I have been focused on the core value, which is trust. You should concentrate on building trust rather than SEO.

I have been doing that for more than 5 years, so even though I have almost not updated my blog in 2 years, I can still earn more than $10,000 per month from it. The key is trust. Not marketing techniques, not SEO. It's trust.

Social Media is for Trust Making

Lastly, it's the same with social media. Even if you are losing your followers and the number of LIKEs/RTs, it doesn't matter. But if you are losing your trust, it's critical.

Okay. That's it for today's blog. Thanks for reading. Again, my next challenge is to go global. I will study English and Crypto, and I will create some web services or businesses in the near future. Life is like a game. It's too long to be lazy.

Live a life you will remember😌