When it comes to numbers in your business is 10k such an important number? 10k is spoken about a lot in the online world and recently I realised it featured a prominent place in my business goals too.

 

This post may include affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

 

 

I love to write my goals down for both my life and for business. The other day I was writing down my goals and I noticed something…

10,000 Instagram Followers

10,000 YouTube Subscribers

10,000 Email Subscribers

 

Now I’ve written before about why you should get obsessed with vanity metrics. You can read the full post here.

 

However, in essence, the idea is to not focus on numbers of followers, subscribers, visitors etc and instead focus on how those people are actually engaging with your website, social media and emails.

 

So imagine my horror when I realised I was obsessing over vanity metrics. But on further reflection, I realised that 10K wasn’t just a vanity metric, but a very powerful business number.

 

10,000 INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS

In the world of online marketing if you mention the word 10K I would bet that most people would follow that with 10K Instagram followers or $10K months.

 

Instagram is very clever. Rather than letting everyone have access to all their features they decided to limit some of their features and there is one feature, in particular, I would love to get my hands on – THE SWIPE UP FEATURE. Unfortunately, the swipe up feature is only available to Instagram accounts that are a business account and have over 10,000 followers.

 

There is one way to get the swipe up without having 10,000 followers. All verified accounts have access to the swipe up feature regardless of their follower count.

 

 

Why is hitting 10K and being able to swipe up so important?

 

TO AVOID THE DREADED LINK IN BIO – Unlike other social media platforms that allow you to contain a link in your post, Instagram doesn’t. Technically you can include a link in your caption, but it isn’t clickable. Instead, Instagram allows you have just one link in your bio. As you can imagine this is very restrictive. This means if you are making a story and want to direct people somewhere you have to tell them to click on your ‘link in bio’. This means that someone watching your story will have to go back to your profile and then click on the link in your bio. This is problematic in its own right. However, that link isn’t just being used for your Instagram stories. It is also being used for your Instagram feed. So you will have to always take that into consideration.

 

Now the frustration of only have one link has resulted in some people creating a workaround. there is a way of getting out of the one link thing. You can have a link that goes to a page that has multiple links. To do this you could use a service like Linktr.ee or Linkin.bio by Later or Smart.bio by Tailwind. Or if you really want to be professional you can make your own links page on your website.

 

Having a page with multiple links enables you to be able to have multiple links, but that means you are adding another click into the journey (which isn’t great). And if you aren’t careful you can end up with so many links no one can find what they want.

 

Also, the great thing about stories is that you can add them to your highlights. So you could have a highlight from something ages ago that includes a swipe up to that relevant link no longer needs to be in your bio. This makes the swipe up feature great for affiliate marketers like me. For example, over on my Instagram (you can check me out at @charellegriffith) I’m constantly sharing books I’m reading. If I had the swipe up feature I would be able to include a swipe up with the relevant Amazon Affiliate link.

 

Hopefully, by now, you can see that being able to have the swipe up feature and the ability to add a link into every Instagram Story is very powerful.

 

 

 

 

10,000 YouTube Subscribers

Whilst I imagine lots of people dream of having 10,000 Instagram followers, I don’t imagine there are as many people who are as fascinated with having 10,000 YouTube followers.

 

In 2017 I had the opportunity to go to the YouTube Space London for a #YouTubeBlack event. I instantly fell in love with YouTube Space London. If you’ve never heard of YouTube Space. They are spaces across the worlds that can be used by YouTube creators, but not all creators. You guessed it. The space is only accessible to those with 10,000 subscribers.

 

 

Now not only would 10,000 subscribers allow me to be able to access the space in the day, but it would also allow me to access the range of amazing events they. In both instances, I would have the opportunity to meet other YouTubers and grow my circle of content creators.

 

 

10,000 Email Subscribers

When it comes to email list size it is easy to fall into the trap of bigger being better. However, it definitely isn’t. Think about it for a minute – Would you rather have 10,000 subscribers with a 10% open rate or a 20,000 subscribers with an average 5% open rate? Both would result in you having the same number of people opening your emails. As you can see size really isn’t everything when you are selling. However, one area where list size matters is affiliate marketing.

If you are new to the world of affiliate marketing you can find out 3 ways to get started with affiliate marketing by clicking here. Now for most affiliate programmes you have to fill in a questionnaire and there is always a question around email list size, and often it is a checkbox situation. Now whilst most of the programmes don’t state a minimum email list not having 10,000 subscribers definitely gives me email list shame.

 

 

VANITY METRICS AREN’T ALWAYS BAD.

Whilst I previously said you shouldn’t get obsessed with vanity metrics I take it back. The fact is sometimes the number of subscribers and followers you have does matter. The key is to only obsess about the metrics that bring opportunities. In all of the examples above my desire to hit 10k was less to do with the number and more to do with access new features, building my network and having the opportunity to sell affiliate products and/or services.

 

Thank you so much for reading this post. I would love to know in the comments below if there is a magical number that you are trying to hit in your own business.

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