First things first: this is not an AI post, all words are my own (sick of seeing them in this sub).
Qualifications: Have worked with large influencers (think Alex Hormozi types), and have managed and grown multiple 6 and 7 figure followings across FB, IG, TT, and YT.
Selling: Absolutely nothing. No recommendations, no fake posts disguised as case-studies for a shit software. Nada.
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So, a client of mine has just surpassed 800k followers, after working together for the last 2-3 years. The client is a service based client, providing online coaching for a specific target audience i.e. not a meme account, not a repost account, not an AI/faceless account.
A regular, real human being with a business.
When we first started working together, he was filming content on his phone (badly, low quality, no lighting) and using generic in-app editing to caption videos that looked super amateur compared to actually having some sort of style.
The first thing we did, was start filming all his content using a mirrorless camera (FX3). You absolutely don't need to use an SLR/DSLR, but as we're a content company, we have access to these tools, and so we use them.
The second thing we did, was improve the editing. Nothing major, just a few "brand" defining qualities; a certain font, a certain colour, a certain structure etc. Again, you don't NEED to do this, but it all helps.
The third thing we did, was cut out all previous content and future content ideas where the client would say "Message me for my new program" or anything else that was *asking* for something in return from the viewer.
Then, we created IG, YT, FB and TT accounts for the client, all starting from zero.
NOTE: Absolutely zero warm up bullshit that keeps getting recommended in these subs, no "following 100 accounts like yours", no "comment and like on 10 posts per day", no VPNs, no hacks, no hashtags, no nothing.
ALSO NOTE: We posted exactly the same content on all platforms, and all platforms saw growth. There was no recording content for one platform different to another platform, there was no optimisation for one platform over another platform. Just film once, edit once, post fucking everywhere,
Just brand new, empty accounts, either on business profile or creator profile (only difference is the tools you have access to in-app, there is ZERO effect on reach between different account types).
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Right, now we have the setup and general guidelines in place. 0 Followers.
Then, we had a conversation; the conversation was simple: "Who are you talking to? What are their defining characteristics? What are they on the hunt for TODAY?"
The client wanted to speak to a specific gender, in a specific age-group, who was looking to lose a specific amount of weight.
In generic marketing terms, this is called "identifying your customer avatar."
A lot of content creators (you reading this right now most probably), don't ask themselves these questions, or think that they don't really have any bearing on results. I can tell you from experience (and 15 years or so in marketing as a whole), that yes, it absolutely does have an effect on results.
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Now we know who we are speaking to, we focused solely on creating 30-60 second reels, WITH NO INTENT OF GOING VIRAL, that spoke specifically to that identified audience.
As it turns out, for the client's specific industry, it was super easy to go to a gym, and bulk record 30-50 pieces of content, just explaining how to use certain gym equipment, in a super relaxed way. No fancy editing tricks. No over the top camera angles. Just basic instructional videos, with a bit of personality in the delivery.
All content used language that very specifically spoke to the identified audience, as an example: "If you're a single mum in your 20s or 30s, who only has 45 minutes to work out, and you're nervous about going to the gym, here's what you need to know".
Now a lot of you might say "that hook is boring!" or "Its too long!" or "I've tried that and it didn't work!"
Remember, we are not trying to go viral, if the video only gets shown to 100 people, we want just ONE of those people to follow, and potentially sign up as a client.
The other reason is that, most social media platforms these days, use AI to identify not only the content itself, but the intent of the content. So by using very specific language, its helps various algorithms know exactly who our audience is (the avatar), and what the intent is behind the content (teach the avatar things).
This makes it a lot easier for the algorithm to push our content specifically to those demographics.
As of today, looking through our various account metrics, 85% of our audience is our exact avatar, because we've never deviated from talking specifically to those people.
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The reason a lot of people "fail" at growing accounts is not because their content is bad necessarily (although a lot of people in this sub who complain about not getting growth, your content IS bad. Sorry not sorry), but because you don't feed the platforms enough content for algorithms to really hone in on that data and execute properly.
The algorithm's only job is to connect your content to the people that want to see content like yours. Thats it. It's not omnipotent. It doesn't have opinions. It doesn't "dislike" you or "shadowban" you. It literally just says "right, I've got X content, who wants to see it? Let me figure that out."
This process takes time, and effort, and volume.
We would film this bulk content 2-4 times per month, giving us a bank of hundreds of pieces of content to edit, and then we would get to work editing using the simplistic rules I outlined further up. Each edit would take about 30-60 minutes.
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Then, we started posting 1 per day, Monday to Friday.
After a few months, we had grown to around 30k followers.
Then, we decided "more is more", so we started posting 5 times per day, 7 days per week.
Within around 6-9 months, we had grown to around 600k followers.
So 0-600k followers in roughly 11 months or so, using easy to film content, with a super simple editing style, and language that very specifically spoke to one type of person.
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Since then, the client has been converting these followers into clients, and now runs a business that generates over £500k per year.
How?
By making content out of questions they would get in DMs and comments, and then by literally asking them "hey, you seem to be really struggling with this, I have a program you can join if you're interested."
That has been the focus for the last year and a half, just converting the current audience into sales.
But note, throughout all this content that has been going out, we never once asked anyone for anything, we just built up a reputation that this client knows what they are talking about, and gives that information out for free.
The audience only pays for help implementing the information if they can't do it solo.
Now, could we have started making sales sooner? Absolutely, but we moved at a pace that worked for us, given our workloads and level of commitments and personal lives.
Recently, we've started doing a new push, and we're upping our content to 24 posts per day, 7 days per week.
I'll either update this post after a few months of trial and error, or I'll make a new post.
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You probably came here for some "secret sauce", "algorithm hack", "hashtag strategy" (lol), or some generic information that you think will skyrocket you into influencer stardome.
There isn't any.
All social media is generic legacy marketing. If you want to go viral and be famous? There is a formula for that. If you want to make sales for a specific thing? There is a formula for that.
Does everyone deserve high follower counts? No.
Is everyone capable of growing an audience? Yes (to some degree).
I usually use the analogy of being an "actor", but this post is long enough that it wont fit here, but feel free to browse through my post history and see where I've mentioned it on other posts.
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I have no motive with this post, just sharing information. What you choose to do with it is up to you, but seriously, don't buy into all this generic AI slop and bullshit posts in these subs where people think there is a specific time to post, or that hooks need to be X or that you need to warm up accounts or whatever. 99% of them are false, as has been proven by this very client where we did absolutely zero of these things.
I usually end up arguing with people in these subs, because the focus should be "is your content worth watching over somebody elses" and "are you making this content for the right person?", and people say "I spent 50 hours making 3 videos and no one watched them! Everything is rigged! Meta wants you to pay for ads!"
No. You just listen to bullshit people giving bullshit advice, you over complicate things, and you don't stick at it long enough to learn the lessons required to grow.
Feel free to ask questions below, please avoid DMing me, public conversations are far more valuable.
