Why do social media followers and engagement matter more than just follower count for sponsorships?

Companies can see through fake followers - when an account has a million followers but very little interactivity, it's obvious those are fake accounts. Interaction between you and your user base is really important. Brands look at social media more than anything now when evaluating athletes. The real value comes from authentic engagement. Through measurement tools, you can quantify the ripple effect of all racers, race teams, fans, and companies involved - which often reveals that social media value far exceeds what television coverage provides. Athletes now have more power than they've ever had throughout history to control their own value.