Vanity followers + aging profile = failing marketing campaigns. 馃拃
Why new accounts can outgrow a 10+ year profile in a few months?
Historically, age has been a leading factor in establishing credibility.
1. Old domains in SEO outranked new ones.
(I still shop Godaddy’s auctions for expired domains but it no longer makes a difference besides ad compliance).
2. Facebook pages pre-2016 were about reach and community.
Post-Cambridge Analytica, Facebook’s organic reach tanked – and that has been a trailing effect up until 2020, with a rise during stay-at-home and a withdrawal again.
3. Email lists were gold.
Email still generates 40 to 1 ROI according to most studies. But Google’s Promotions tab update in 2013 changed the game. And every couple of years, algorithms reduce reach and open rates, tracking opportunities, and real-time calibration of email marketing efforts.
It’s now possible to:
– Launch and rank a site in 6 months (AI still ranks high)
– Create a Facebook page/community that grows viral in no time
– Grow a new email with beehiiv boosts + SparkLoop and Meta ads to 8K subs in 2 months (Taylor from beehiiv just shared a case study this week)
Even worse – historical accounts can damage your reach.
I removed nearly 4,000 contacts this quarter that I’ve added in the past 16 years on LinkedIn. Almost all of them were inactive, no longer using LinkedIn, haven’t been updated in years, and completely irrelevant to my field of work.
Social algorithms rely on engagement rates 100% of the time. Number of engagement per number of views in the first hour or two determine how your content performs after.
While inactive contacts won’t see your content…
1. Many semi-active contacts are read-only. No engagements 99% of the time.
2. Old contacts from a decade ago may not be your target audience today.
3. Algorithms calibrate new reach based on your existing network and current interests – but the ratio may end up being 80-20.
4. Likes from irrelevant accounts distribute views to their contacts – just as irrelevant.
Scrub your list and clean up your contacts.
Housekeeping is just as important for your digital properties – social and email included.
Don’t let deliverability slip away – vanity isn’t worth the trouble.
