Do LinkedIn Followers Actually Matter Anymore?

Ninja Reddit said:

Hello


LinkedIn profiles with huge follower numbers but their posts get very little engagement.

At the same time some people with much smaller audiences seem to generate real conversations, leads and opportunities. It makes me wonder if audience quality matters more than audience size.

What would you rather have on LinkedIn: 5,000 highly relevant followers or 100,000 general followers? Curious to hear your thoughts.

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it is better to create a smaller community that is really interested in the theme. the most useful linkedIn opportunities appear when u have some discussion that means something not bcuz u have the highest number of followers. some people who know that uh are an expert in the sphere can be more benefficial than thousands who do not read ur publications.

Honestly, followers still matter — don't let anyone tell you they don't. A strong follower count is social proof: it's the first thing people see, and it builds instant credibility before they ever read your posts. Nobody trusts a page with 50 followers, no matter how good the content is.

Engagement and quality matter too, sure. But the two work together — a bigger, active audience gives you more reach, more visibility, and way more chances to land the right people. Size opens the door; quality closes the deal.

I'd never downplay follower count. It's the foundation everything else is built on.

I've noticed the exact same thing. It seems like a lot of people just inflated their numbers over the years with connections they never actually interact with. Engagement rate is definitely the metric that matters most now. Having 1,000 active connections who actually comment and share is worth way more than 50k ghost followers when it comes to getting visibility in the algorithm.

In my opinion, the number of LinkedIn followers is quite important nowadays. Having more followers helps boost your profile's credibility and increases engagement on your content.