I realized this after 500 days. If you stop making an effort to get known, your note will stop growing.

Hello, this is Iguchi.

As a sole proprietor, I am exploring web marketing and sales promotion methods that can be practiced even with a small budget, and I am repeating hypotheses and verifications every day.

In this note, I focus on marketing terms that you might have heard of but are often used vaguely. Based on my own research and practical experience, I summarize them in the simplest language possible.

I hope that even those who are not comfortable with technical terms will be able to think, 'I see, that's what it means.'

Today is my 500th day of updating my note daily.

As of August 14, 2026, my note follower count has exceeded approximately 18,000.

In the note total follower ranking, I am ranked 504th.

It was officially announced that note reached 12.48 million members as of May 2026. Being ranked 504th among them means, by simple calculation, I am in the top 0.004%.

Weekly views are 60,000, monthly views are 220,000, and all-time views have exceeded 1.7 million.

Of course, I don't mean to say that I am amazing. Rather, I feel that with the current note, it is quite realistic to aim for 10,000 followers over the course of about a year by continuing to operate it steadily. So, why do I continue to follow even now? I will talk about those three reasons this time.

Reason 1: First, to break through the 'Who are you?' barrier.

On social media, no matter how good the content you post is, it's meaningless if no one sees it in the first place.

You are writing useful information.
You are thinking hard and posting.

But from the perspective of a first-time visitor, this is how it inevitably looks at first.

"Who is this person?"

Unless you break through this, they won't even reach the content of your articles.

At that point, one factor for judgment becomes the number of followers.

For example, even if you are posting the same content, if there is someone with 100 followers and someone with 10,000 followers, which person's story are you more likely to be interested in?

I think most people's eyes will go to the person with 10,000 followers.

In marketing or psychological terms, this is close to the halo effect or social proof.

For example, if I were talking about baseball with the exciting major leaguer Shohei Ohtani, most people would want to hear what Shohei Ohtani has to say.

That is because he has a track record and presence.

On social media, I feel that the number of followers accounts for a part of that first impression.

In fact, as the number of followers increases, it is not uncommon for people I have followed to send me comments or DMs saying,

"I am honored that you followed me."

This is something I felt again over these 500 days, but

people are indeed influenced by numbers.

That is why I continue to follow others, first and foremost to get people interested in me.

"Effort to get known" might be a better way to put it.

Reason 2: Because many people quit social media

Not limited to note, many people start social media but don't continue.
I understand this well because I am actually operating it.

Even people who were posting with high enthusiasm at first, before you know it, their updates have stopped.

When I think, 'I haven't seen them in a while,' they aren't even accessing note anymore.
That kind of thing happens normally.

In other words, among the 15,000 people who followed me, there must be a certain number of people who are no longer opening note.

If that happens, even if the number of followers increases, the number of people coming to read the articles will decrease.

That is exactly why you need to constantly connect with new readers.

The reason I continue to follow is also to keep meeting active readers.

Social media is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.

Someone you connected with today might read your articles starting tomorrow.

Someone you followed today might become interested in your posts for some reason.

To increase those small triggers, I try not to stop following.

Reason 3: To increase the base of fixed readers.

The third reason is to increase the base of fixed readers.

On note, I have the feeling that after you post an article, if you get a certain number of 'likes' and comments, it becomes easier to get on the popular or trending articles list.

In my experience, if you get about 20 likes within an hour of posting an article, it seems easier to get on the trending articles list.

Of course, this is not an official rule, but just my own operational sense.

However, the more fixed readers you have, the more people will read your articles immediately after you post them.

More people will press the like button.

More people will leave comments.

As a result, the possibility of the article being listed as a popular or trending article increases.

And when it gets on the popular or trending articles list, the chances of the article reaching people other than your followers increase.

This is quite significant.

If you want to connect from note to email newsletter registration or LINE registration, I think getting on the popular or trending articles list is quite important.

For that purpose as well, I increase the base of fixed readers.

As an entry point for that, I continue to follow.

The more followers you have, the easier it is to get followed back

I started operating my current note account in earnest on April 2, 2025.

From there, it took about 6 months to exceed 5,000 followers, which was on October 18, 2025.
Next, it exceeded 10,000 followers on March 24, 2026.

It took about 5 months to go from 5,000 to 10,000.
And this time, it exceeded 15,000 in June 2026.

It took about 3 months to go from 10,000 to 15,000.
As you can see from these numbers, the more followers you have, the easier it is to get followed back.

Of course, the upper limit of people you can follow hasn't suddenly increased.

I have been steadily continuing to follow in the same way all along.
Even so, the fact that the speed of increase has changed means that the impression from the other person's perspective has changed because the number of followers has increased.

Not limited to note, on any social media, you cannot reach over 10,000 followers without operating it accordingly.

In other words, the number of followers is not just a number, but also leads to credibility for first-time visitors.

In summary, there are 3 reasons why I continue to follow

There are three main reasons why I continue to follow on note.

The first is to get people interested at first glance.
The number of followers greatly influences the first impression.

The second is to keep connecting with active readers.
Since many people quit social media, you need to constantly create points of contact with new readers.

The third is to increase the base of fixed readers.
When fixed readers increase, it becomes easier to get likes and comments, and the chances of getting on popular or trending articles increase.

If you feel that your note is not growing, it might be good to look back at whether you are following every day.

Even around me, people whose note is growing are indeed steadily continuing to follow every day.

Of course, following alone does not solve everything.

The content of the article is also important.
Continuity is also important.
It is also important to post things that are useful to readers.

However, I feel that following is a very important measure as an entry point to get those posts seen.If you have stopped following now, it might be good to review it once.

So, today I talked about the three reasons why I continue to follow on note.

I will share again if I notice anything else.

Thank you for reading until the end.

I would be happy if this article led to a small realization like 'I see, that's what it was!' or a hint for your ideas.

It would be very encouraging if you could follow me.
I will also follow you back ^^