What is follower growth rate?

Use net growth (new followers minus people who unfollowed), because that is the change in the audience you can actually reach.

1. Note your follower count on the first day of the period.
2. Note your follower count on the last day of the period.
3. Subtract the first number from the second to get net growth. It can be negative.
4. Divide net growth by the starting count and multiply by 100.
5. Use the same period length each time (for example, calendar months) so the rates are comparable.

Most platforms show follower changes over time, though few show the percentage, so you will usually work it out yourself from the counts.

• Instagram: in Insights, Total followers shows growth (followers gained or lost), top locations, age range and most active times once you have at least 100 followers.
• Facebook: the Overview tab of Insights in Meta Business Suite includes Follows, the number of times profiles followed you, over the past 28 days.
• LinkedIn: go to your Page admin view, click Analytics in the left menu, then Followers. It shows total followers, new followers and follower changes over time.
• TikTok: Analytics in TikTok Studio shows net followers. In the app, tap Profile, then the Menu button, then TikTok Studio.
• YouTube: in YouTube Studio, select Analytics from the left menu. The Overview tab's key metrics include subscribers.

Growth rate shrinks naturally as an account gets bigger: 50 new followers is 10% for an account of 500 and 0.5% for one of 10,000. So compare your rate with your own past months rather than with other accounts.

Track it for three months to get a baseline, then look at what changed in the months that beat it: more reels, a collaboration, a local press mention, a run of useful posts.

Follower growth is easy to game and easy to over-value:

• Buying followers or joining follow-for-follow schemes. The count goes up but these accounts don't engage, which drags down your engagement rate.
• Celebrating growth that came from a giveaway without checking whether those followers stayed.
• Treating followers as customers. Growth matters only if the right local or niche audience is the one growing.