Your Quietest Followers are Your Most Powerful
Written by Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller
Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field.
More times than I can count, I’ll be at an event, usually balancing a cup of terrible coffee, when someone I’ve never seen before comes up to me and says, “Annette! I love your posts. That one you wrote about how to get prepared to enter awards. Brilliant.”
Meanwhile, I’m thinking, Who are you? Where have you been hiding? How on earth do you remember something I barely remember writing?
That’s the invisible audience. They don’t comment because they’re busy. They don’t engage because they don’t want their boss, partner, or cousin Larry seeing they’re considering a rebrand or applying for an award. They don’t engage because they’re not sure what to say. They don’t like your post because they’re juggling 700 things.
But they’re watching. Closely. In the background. Following you without you knowing.
This has played out in my work for many years. Someone will enquire about an award submission and tell me, “I’ve followed your breadcrumb posts for ages. I knew you were the one to help.” They’ve never liked a thing. Never commented. Never shared. They’ve just been gathering proof, reading my stories, laughing at my humour, seeing my clients’ results, nodding along to my occasional rants, and filing it under ‘this woman knows her stuff.
One of my favourites was a woman who booked a strategy session and opened with, “You don’t know me, but I feel like I know you. I’ve read every story you’ve ever posted about journalists, deadlines, bad slideshows, and terrible bios.” She then rattled off a post I’d written two years earlier about how you can still promote entering awards even if you don’t win. Two years! Not a peep from her the entire time.
That’s the psychology we forget. People study us long before they talk to us. They want to see whether we stay steady when our kid is sick and our week goes sideways. They want to see whether we boast or whether we celebrate. Whether we blame or whether we own. Whether our stories match our actions. Whether our proof matches our claims.
The invisible audience is basically conducting a long-term background check without telling you.
Humans are wired this way. Long before LinkedIn existed, we were cave-dwelling creatures scanning for threats before approaching the fire. We observe and analyse, working out who’s safe, credible, and full of hot air. Social media hasn’t changed human behaviour, it’s just given us more places to lurk.
I realised years ago that people weren’t reacting in real time. They were tracking content and posts over months and following patterns. They were looking for the big arc. Every small win, insight, and project snapshot was another marker that said. Yes, this person does the work, this person shows up, this isn’t smoke and mirrors.
Despite what so many bang on about watching metrics, I’ve found visible audience cheers and then chooses. It means a lot of the hard lifting of building trust and credibility and managing expectations is already done before they make an appointment.
Most businesses only chase metrics, then wonder why momentum feels hollow. Numbers are important, but when it comes to being visible, we should be chasing visibility metrics, showing up consistently, even if you feel like you are talking to yourself. Influence, the kind that fills your pipeline quietly for months, comes from the people you never hear from. The people bookmark you for when they’re ready.
You’ll know them when they suddenly appear with a sentence that starts with, “I’ve been meaning to reach out,” and ends with a project that changes your month. Every win you share, lesson you unpack, and story you tell, you’re leaving tiny proof points behind you. Those crumbs add up and turn into a basket of credibility, and eventually, into commercial results.
If you understand this, you’ll stop panicking about likes. Your metrics lie to you. Silence never means nobody’s watching. Silence usually means people are gathering evidence.
Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field. She has shared her insights into storytelling, media, and business across Australia, UK, and the US speaking for Professional Speakers Association, Stevie Awards, Queensland Government, and many more. Three times winner of the Grand Stevie Award for Women in Business, gold Stevie International Business Award, and a finalist in Australian Small Business Champion awards, Annette audaciously challenges anyone in small business to cast aside modesty, embrace their genius and share their stories.
