Social media is a tough game. It’s also a game that is getting harder and harder as companies like Facebook and twitter contour their products in order to prompt their users to spend money to increase their engagement. I’ve had the privilege of watching our Per Sources following grow year after year across several platforms.
I’ve played the ‘social media game’.
When you are as ingrained in the social media world as I am, you’ll eventually find yourself facing two decisions; “Do I sell out or do I let what I built die?”. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. If you’re not playing by Instagram’s rules, for example, you’ll find everything you worked so hard to build disappear.
I like to think that I walk a fine line in between the two.
I also wanted to share with you guys some of the lessons I’ve learned through my social media success.
First, let’s discuss how I grew Per Sources.
I first started on Twitter, then Facebook, and then finally Instagram. My goal was to build a social media platform to help push traffic to our website.
I was 22 and hungry for success. On a weekly basis, I would google best practices for social media growth. My desire to grow an online company made me relentless about obtaining as much information as possible. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and was constantly executing best practices.
Eventually, I didn’t need to follow & unfollow people any longer. Instagram was finally rewarding my hard work after two years of begging people to follow us. In less than 6 months, We grew from 40,000 followers to 123,000 followers. All free, organic, and through hard work.
And then it stopped.
For the past two years, I have been experiencing the dark side of social media.
About a couple of years ago, I discovered that our Instagram account had been “shadow banned”. One of the online tips was to log out of Instagram for a few days in order for my content to be visible to the world again.
I did it. I logged out of Instagram. Did it remove the shadow ban? Yes. Did it also permanently kill any momentum our Instagram handle had? Yes.
At least I thought so.
Turns out, right around that time, Instagram had made algorithm changes which, long story short, were designed to prompt accounts like mine to spend money in order to experience the thrill of gaining followers.
Pretty sure this tactic has been well documented with casinos if you look into it. Small rewards that trigger your psychology and hook you to it.
Some kids will ask why our page hasn’t grown. Others will say it’s dead. Most use it as an opportunity to attempt to cyber bully.
My perspective? I know how to grow social media pages. I’m also aware of something a lot more valuable than follower count.
Here are some of the most important lessons the good and bad sides of social media marketing taught me:
Build a community, not a following.
People want to belong to something, not follow some one.
Diversify your social media following across several platforms.
Let people in to your life and they will care about you.
Strangers will support you more than most people you know.
Those strangers will become your friend.
Remember your original goals, before the social media success.
Write those goals somewhere so they can help remind you when you need it.
Ignore the wanna be bullies, they don’t know what you know.
Do not make follower count your ultimate goal.
You cannot beat social media platforms and their algorithms. Play your own game, not theirs.
An online community of 5,000 loyal members is worth more than 124,000 followers.
Do not sacrifice your morals or ethics just to grow followers.
Take care of the followers you already have rather than focus on getting new ones.
Engage the community you already have, and they will help increase it with quality instead of quantity.
Here are my thoughts on what is next for the Per Sources Instagram.
I’d be lying to you guys if I told you that our stagnant growth on Instagram didn’t bother me at times. However, our community is still growing with our without Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It’s also stronger than ever and I feel like we are building a bond that goes beyond just the NBA or social media.
I care about our existing followers. While new followers are always welcomed, I am truly focused on engaging our current community as it is.
However, I will still be trying new things. As always, I will be deploying content through trial & error. Some ideas will be crazy, fun, and/or funny. Others you may not like and we’ll have to learn from.
Either way, the lessons I have learned through social media success will only help our existing Per Sources community have the best season yet.
You are also more than welcome to share any of your ideas or thoughts with me via Twitter, @TPRx11
p.s: We’re just getting started.
Per Sources Misses Nothing