It’s been years since I’ve posted anything in the category of Poshing. What’s interesting is I didn’t completely stop, I just dabbled here and there. My life season has made Poshing almost imposhable (haha get it 😂). No but seriously, my favorite guy and kiddos have been the priority for now and even though I miss it, I still get the questions about when I’m coming back full fledge.

While I hover in the queue of my decision making process, one thing that has not stayed the same with Poshmark is my followers. Even though I haven’t posted a new item in weeks and haven’t had the time to engage the app like before, my numbers keep going up.

What is happening? From the looks of it, it would seem that a large crowd equals success…but is that really all it’s cracked up to be? I’m going to give my opinion and say why it’s a resounding no. Ok y’all years later I’m going deep. Let’s talk about it.

My following has grown from the small double digits to now over 200k. When I first started Poshing back in 2010 I would see individuals with these monstrous followings in comparison to my peon sub-legion of 50 and tell myself things like “I need to get my following up to have a bigger impact here and make sales.”

What’s fascinating is now being on the other side as the person who has that massive following, it definitely doesn’t feel the way I thought it would back when I was looking through my “grass is greener” lens. I actually thought it would be easier for me. I saw myself listing brand new items only to see them snatched up in seconds by my crowd of eager buyers. I told myself if I made it to 100k I will have really accomplished something, but that’s all in theory…is it true?

I’ll be the first to say it is NOT so. In fact, it almost feels about the same as having 50 followers. The only major difference is that my items are in front of a larger audience, however I didn’t see a big difference in how quickly people might purchase something from me. But how can that be???

Let’s take a look at how followers get to me on Poshmark in the first place. In my humble opinion there are 3 main types that make up a Posh following: assigned followers, shop my closet followers, and authentic followers. I’ll list my definitions of these in the following paragraphs.

Assigned Followers are the ones that Poshmark “makes” you follow when you create your account. These people are found based on your personal brand preferences and likely other attributes to increase visibility to things you will most likely save to purchase and ultimately buy.

When I go into my news feed and see a new follow, it generally looks like the below. It’s a newer user with their own “About Me” listed and a handful of their own followers and around 100+ closets they’re already following.

You don’t choose these individuals, they are chosen for you by Poshmark. You can go in and unfollow them if you like, but initially they pre build it so when you look at your news feed you’ll have some foundational closets to look from to purchase based on your interests.

Shop My Closet Followers are not bots to my knowledge. They do have a rather robotic tick in that they can be identified as the closet that follows more closets than are following them. My personal experience with these types of closets is a strategy that seeks to gain my attention by following me hoping that I’ll click on their closet and purchase from them. The strategy can be quite “shop here” in nature and that’s how sales are made from people who otherwise might not have noticed them.

Authentic Followers are the followers who might see something I’ve listed as they’re scrolling a category page and then click on my closet and genuinely rock with my closet vibe and follow me because they want to bookmark my style so they can purchase 🙌🏾

I’ve known these individuals to be really great repeat customers and will drop in casually when they’re looking for something they know will be their own particular style.

So as you can see it’s a little bit more complex than a simple following relationship and what that means for being successful on Poshmark. I have 200K followers, but of that 200k who are the followers that will truly engage my closet??

What’s additionally interesting is that this whole process seems weirdly familiar. I mean in the sense that before I got here, I thought it would be such a huge deal to obtain it. Have you ever got what you wanted only to find out it wasn’t as amazing as previously supposed? Somehow getting to the “top rung” in this way has left me strangely unfulfilled 🤔

In the last few weeks I have been studying Ecclesiastes with some ladies in my church group. One of the interesting things about this particular book of the Bible is the “keeping it real” effect it has throughout its verses. In fact it kicks off pretty early in verse two stating:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?Ecclesiastes 1:2-3 ESV

Well if you’re me (man) I gained a huge following and to what shouldn’t be my surprise, this is “vanity and grasping after the wind” because the 200k people who make it appear that I’m “killing it” in my closet actually are no more than a numbers game designed to inflate how it REALLY is.

So in light of all this, what valuable lessons can one take away?

1. Everything isn’t always as it seems. Just because someone has a huge following doesn’t mean that person is making huge sales. Don’t be like me and make those assumptions especially if you’re just starting out.

When I was at my best sales wise, I was actively on the app, sharing my own closet like a madman, and investing huge chunks of time to develop my unique brand…THAT’S what got me sales.

2. Don’t get wrapped up in the “someday” effect thinking that if you can just make it to 10k, 50k, 100k followers then you’ll be satisfied…you won’t (womp). And what’s more is that there is ALWAYS someone with a bigger following anyway, so might as well get familiar with how to sell to an audience of 100 because I can tell you from this end, it doesn’t feel much different 🤷🏽‍♀️

3. Enjoy it. If you’ve got 5 followers, enjoy them! Rather than focusing on the following numbers like a carrot dangled in front of a horse, just have fun doing the work. You’ll meet some great people along the way and knowing what you’ve read here will help you Posh your heart out with less regret.

How about you? Have you found yourself in a smoke and mirrors situation on Posh? Maybe we can gab about it lol.

As always I hope this read has been insightful. I’m looking forward to posting other topics in this category so be on the lookout. That’s all I have for now, but wishing you well and ‘til next time, happy Poshing 😇