Followers - what is the benefit of followers? As sellers, how do you leverage followers?

[p9games]

I confess, I do nothing with followers.  Aside from a vanity thing of "wow I have xxx followers" i do not know how to leverage these followers.  

As a buyer, what does following a store on ebay even do?  As a seller, how do you leverage your follower base to grow your sales?  What is best practise in terms of communicating with or otherwise turning followers into commercial assets?

Just curious what others are doing.  I do zero ebay marketing.  Even had them ring me to offer me marketing credit which I refused, although I relented when the agent said they'd apply them to listings.  I see no need to promote listings, but as a marketing person I feel like I'm missing an opportunity with followers

[jellybirddesigns]

I think they've turned off the ability to actually see who is following you - these days you just see a number, not the individual people.

I'm not really sure if you can send followers unsolicited messages anyway.

[imastawka]

The main object for buyers 'following' a specific seller is that it's in their Saved Sellers list, for easy access, so they don't have to go hunting for you if they want to buy again.

[papermoon.lady]

Their items also come up in your feed, so you can be among the first potential buyers to see them.