What is the Follower Overlapping Feature and How to Use It

See the percentage of unique and shared followers in your lists.

Follower overlapping is a metric that’s measured when you create a list in your IRM. If you haven’t tried this feature yet, follow these instructions to create your first list

What is Follower Overlapping?

This feature actually includes 2 different metrics:

  1. % of unique followers - the percentage of an influencer’s followers that only follow this profile. They do not follow any of the other profiles in this list.
  2. % Overlapping - the followers this influencer has in common with the other profiles in this list. These followers could follow 1, 2, or 10 of the influencers included in your list, what matters is that they are not unique to one profile.

In this example, 52.05% of @arianagrande’s followers only follow her, while 47.95% follow at least one other influencer in this list. 

Follower overlap 2

Where Can I See My Follower Overlapping?

  • Go to Lists, and select the list you want to analyze.

Open a list

  • When you open your list, scroll down to Followers Overlapping.
  • Initially, the two columns on the right, % Unique followers and % Overlapping, will be blank.
  • Click Refresh to see the latest metrics. 

Blank Follower Overlap

Warning: Refreshing a list has the cost of 1 monthly analysis.

When Should I Use Lists with Low Follower Overlapping?

Lists with low overlap mean you’re reaching more fresh, unique followers. This is great if you’re looking to expand your reach to as many new users as possible, as your efforts aren’t repeated on the same audience members. 

In the sample below, each influencer is bringing over 99% new followers to your list, meaning that any campaign with these influencers would have a high reach.

Follower overlapping

When Should I Use Lists with High Follower Overlapping?

High follower overlap means you’re reaching many of the same people, but through different influencers with unique content

By impacting the same people with your brand, you’re creating brand awareness. For example, a paid post featuring the newest Adidas sneakers might not impact every user the first time. Perhaps they’re not yet ready to purchase and need more encouragement before committing to your product.

However, if they start seeing other influencers with Adidas sneakers, they become familiar with the brand. When done correctly, this awareness creates an association: a user thinks of sneakers and will automatically think of Adidas.

Brand Awareness:

How familiar your target audience is with your brand and with your product. A successful brand awareness strategy seeks to become one with consumer lifestyle and purchase habits, meaning that when they think of your industry, they think of your product. For an example of this, look no further than Google – the trademarked brand name that has eclipsed the generic name “internet search engine.”

High follower overlap can also help your retargeting strategy, a powerful way to re-engage customers by impacting them through different channels. Campaigns with high follower overlap can complement your paid advertising strategy as you would be targeting potential customers with unique content across various channels like TV ads, YouTube ads, and influencer marketing. 

This strategy generates more impressions than reach.

Tip: Optimize your brand awareness strategy by combining high overlapping lists with the Audience Lookalike metric!

 More About this Feature

Can I Compare Follower Overlap on TikTok and YouTube?

No, at the moment this metric is only available for Instagram.

Why Is My Follower Overlap so High?

In the example below, these influencers are bringing many of the same followers. This could be because their content interests the same type of audience, they live in the same city, have collaborated together in the past, or may even be friends. 

Follower overlap 2

Does This Action Deduct Monthly Analyses?

Yes, as we are extracting follower data from each profile in your list, 1 monthly analysis will be deducted each time you hit refresh. 

Will Refreshing a List Refresh the Profiles in My List?

No, this action will only update the aggregate data in your list. If a particular profile’s KPIs have changed, you need to refresh this profile individually. These influencer profiles will be marked by a pink dot.

Profile needs update

If you do not update these profiles, you will get this window when you go to refresh your list. 

profile not updated

Warning: You can refresh a list without updating profiles, however, the actual percentage of follower overlap could be somewhat higher or lower as any new followers would not be included in the analysis. 

How Do I Refresh the Profiles in My List?

You can do this from the same page by clicking on your influencer’s @handle. This will open a side window with the option to refresh data.

Refresh Profile from List

How Does Influencity Determine Follower Overlap?

We do this by analyzing a profile’s followers one by one and then cross-checking this data with the other profiles in this list. Any follower in common will count towards follower overlap.