Networking

Why I Don’t #F4F

Holly Jahangiri
4 min readMay 7, 2024

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It’s no longer about reciprocity — if it ever was — “follow for follow” is just a scam

Photo by Gil Ribeiro on Unsplash

Once upon a time, reciprocity was a good thing. But I never did the whole “follow for follow” because that’s a fast-paved road to Hell and always has been.

The only followers online who matter are those who do one or more of the following:

  • Become friends;
  • Really read and comment on your writing;
  • Help you solve a problem;
  • Buy your books or other products;
  • Promote your writing, books, or other products.

If you think it’s merely a numbers game, you are a fool marketing to fools. Most of the folks “winning” the follow-for-follow game are merely building a “following” in order to appear more popular or successful than they really are. No one is talking about them. No one is reading their stories or buying whatever nonsense they’re selling. No one is leaving them five star reviews or promoting them to anyone they don’t hate. The only thing these people are likely to sell is a course on how to appear more successful than you really are. Few have the work ethic or talent to become “paid influencers,” let alone successful writers, inventors, or “thought leaders.”

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