Followers allow you to see what the people, groups, and tags you are following are doing through your activity feed. They give you nothing and don't mean much since people don't actually tend to follow people because they want to see what they do. Some people give them a made up value that makes them feel superior, I'm not sure why. I think if the activity feed was used more it would be better, or if people even knew about it. It's not even on the app.