Few people know this about Instagram growth.
Hook + more than 1 USEFUL tip = followers
Hook: nothing surprising.
Useful tip: nothing surprising.
More than 1 useful tip: has compounding effects.
Example 1
This single video is responsible for 18.7% of my Instagram followers.
This single video got me 43,170 followers out of my 229,000 total.
It is hook + useful tip 1 & benefit + highly relevant useful tip 2 & benefit.
Example 2
While not as dramatic, this single video is responsible for 4.4% of my Instagram followers.
This single video got me 10,201 followers out of my 229,000 total.
It is hook + useful tip 1 & benefit + highly relevant useful tip 2 & benefit.
What to do with this
- Mix and match successful hooks + useful topics.
- Track hooks that have worked.
- Any hook from anybody in your niche.
- Track useful tips people have liked.
- Any useful tip from anybody in your niche. Keep a spreadsheet of evergreen subject matter.
- Mix and match them within the formula.
- Track hooks that have worked.
- Add product recommendations to the ends of content within the formula – like I did in both examples above.
- Reuse the exact same hook + useful topic combo. If people like it once, they’ll like it again.
- Use this formula across social media. Threads on 𝕏 are a good example. This single thread (hook + many useful tips) got me a substantial percentage of my early following on my new 𝕏 account. AND I added the product recommendation at the end.
We need to stress this
Hook for attention + 1 useful tip = common. Lots of people on social media do this.
Hook for attention + multiple useful tips = you demonstrate MORE value than everybody; you stand out.
And because you can go to anybody’s profile, including mine, see their high-performing videos, and mix and match hooks + tips, literally anybody can recreate this.
It’s more fun to be original, of course, but this is something anybody can do.
Benefits
Some people might say, “So what, Edward? That’s vanity. What will it do for you?”
More frequent useful content and more growth means:
- People are more patient with your new content: “This person always posts good stuff, let’s see what this is.”
- More trust, so more sales.
- Algorithms are more forgiving of experiments or off-topic posts.
- More top-of-mind awareness for your niche. People think of your niche, they think of you, then they come to you.
- Evergreen traffic.
- Lower churn as you social proof yourself.
- You can charge more.
- You can get into rooms you couldn’t previously get into.
- Meet with people you previously couldn’t meet with.
- People will go out of their way to help you when you’re bigger.
- You have a platform to launch stuff and make your voice heard.
- You can take your followers to get started on other platforms, diversifying your marketing; if one channel stops performing, you have the others.
Stick to a niche and:
Hook + more than 1 USEFUL tip (and explaining benefits) = followers.
More
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