A reader of my newsletter recognized me at an event.
He runs Instagram accounts for famous athletes.
I asked him what’s the #1 thing he does that causes athletes to grow on Instagram.
(We’re about to get an IG hack that the highest-paid athletes get).
His response: “Repost.”
Sounds too good to be true.
Too fast.
Too easy.
So I tried it on Tuesday last week.
I:
- Took a high-performing video from TikTok.
- Cleared the metadata by uploading it to Google Drive and then downloading it onto my phone.
- Put it on Instagram with a new description and slightly altered hashtags.
- Used a cover for it.
- Manually set the location for where it was shot.
- Made it so it only showed on Discover and not my main IG feed. This only works with Reels. Toggle off “Also share to feed.” The way to get this is to save as a draft, then go back into the draft through the Reels tab on mobile.
- This has the added benefit of making it so few, if any, of your existing followers will see the Reel (so you can keep recycling content, and nobody will know).
- Posted.
The results
First day: Reel hit 27,000 views.
Second day: Reel hit 150,000 views.
Third day: Reel hit 500,000 views and more than doubled my followers.
Fourth day: Reel hit 1,000,000 views and 3xs my original followers. Tons of people reaching out to me. Tons of people joining my newsletter.
On the fourth day, I also tried another piece of high-performing content from TikTok – my first viral TikTok, from back in January.
First day: 27,000 views, just like the Reel before.
Second day: 150,000 views.
Third day (today): It’s the afternoon when I write this, and the Reel is up to 310,000 views.
Pretty incredible.
Most people think a video or image goes viral only once.
Nah.
Viral content is now evergreen.
Every couple of days, I will repost one high-performing TikTok to Instagram. And I’ll keep reposting the same pieces repeatedly with just a few months in between.
And within those few months, I’ll generate even more pieces of viral content.
And because I’m not posting to my Instagram feed, my new followers won’t get tired of the duplicate content – they won’t see it!
It will only be in the Discover section – for the people who don’t already know my brand.
What is a growth hack?
- Something that’s fast.
- Something that’s easy.
This checks off both.
So, if you have a piece of well-performing content – keep reposting it FOREVER. And keep growing.
