Follower Vs. Following Ratio: How To Get Ideal Ratio

On social media sites like Twitter and Instagram, a user's follower vs. following ratio is the proportion of followers to accounts they are following. 

Your "follow ratio" or, in some people's perspective, your "Instagram Cool Ratio" is another name for this. 

Instead of a social media indicator like interaction rate that is helpful, your follow ratio is more of a vanity metric. 

Your Follower Ratio And What It Implies About You 

Your number of followers is supposed to give users a fast impression of how "cool" your account is. 

This is because popular accounts typically have a much larger following than vice versa. 

As an extreme example, let's look at Justin Bieber's Instagram. Despite having more than 145 million followers, The Biebs only follows about 450 profiles. This demonstrates that he is significantly more interested in having others follow him than they are in having him follow them. 

Compare this to a "typical" Instagram account, which has 150 followers and follows about 1,000 profiles. They consume stuff more often than they create it by taking a brief look at their account. 

Additionally, your follower ratio provides an overview of:

1. How well-liked your content is; 

2. How picky are you about whom you follow 

3. Your likelihood of returning the favor 

Some accounts, however, will employ deceptive strategies, such as following you to compel a follow-back and then unfollowing you to boost their ratio. As a result, the following ratio is only sometimes a valid indicator. 

How To Determine The Follower vs. Following Ratio

Divide the total number of accounts you follow by the total number of accounts you follow to find your follower-to-following ratio. 

Follow Ratio is calculated as follows: Followers/Followed Accounts 

Your follow ratio, for instance, would be 10 if you have 10,000 followers and follow 1,000 accounts (or 10:1, if you want to use a true ratio). 

Your follow ratio is 0.5 if you follow 2,000 accounts and have 1,000 followers (or 1:2). 

With 145 million followers and 450 accounts followed, Justin Bieber has a staggering follow ratio of 322,222. 

When you follow the same amount of accounts that follow you, your follow ratio is 1. 

If your follower ratio is greater than 1, you have more accounts following you, and if it is less than 1, you have more accounts following you. 

Key Takeaway From A Good Following Benchmark 

There is no standardized follow ratio benchmark to aim for because various people take different approaches to how discriminating they are with the accounts they choose to follow. 

However, you can utilize some standard benchmarks to gauge the account quality when assessing a brand's follow ratio: 

• < 0.5 = Spam: Probably trying to increase their following through follow-back strategies are brands that follow twice as many accounts as those that follow them.

• 0.5-1 = Low Quality: This ratio doesn't scream spam but doesn't point to an account you must follow. 

• 1:2 = Average: A new but expanding account has a favorable follow ratio. 

• 2:10 = Quality: This variety of accounts has demonstrated their merit as a follower. 

• 10:300,000+ = Influencer: A profile in this range is quite popular and significantly impacts the social media landscape.

As online marketing continues to mature, vanity metrics like Instagram's follower-to-following ratio won't weigh as heavily as other metrics. 

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