How to fight your way to 1,000 followers
Scrappy ways to build up your social proof.
Ever click on someone's profile and see they have 100K+ or even 1M+ followers and find yourself hitting the follow button without much thought?
But if you go to someone's profile and see they have 300 followers, you probably never hit follow.
This is normal. We're herd animals.
The ice cream place with the line around the block must be the best, right?
We model our behavior based on the behavior of others.
If we see someone with many followers, we assume we should, too. If we see someone with only a few followers, there must be a reason more don't follow them.
Social proof is a powerful motivator. This is particularly true on social media, as social proof is baked right into it.
The person with a small following has to WOW you to get a follow.
The person with a huge following can post a platitude, and you’ll be impressed.
The same applies to a post.
A post with 10,000 likes is exponentially more likely to get a like and a comment from someone than a post with 10 likes.
Particularly from someone other than a die-hard fan.
So a lot of audience building is about growing the number of die-hard fans that like basically everything you post, increasing the odds that strangers will follow the herd, and also liking your post.
And building up a follower number that makes people take you seriously.
If you're early in your audience-building journey, you must be super scrappy. Every new follower matters a ton.
(And writing really good hooks is a great start:)
Psychological Thresholds
There are a few “psychological thresholds:”
1,000: This is where people go: “Okay, they're not completely new.”
5,000: “Not a complete nobody.”
10,000. “Hmm, maybe they do have something to say.”
50,000. “Oh, okay, this is a creator on the rise.”
100,000. “This is a legit creator.”
500,000 or even 1M+. “How do I not already know this person?”
If you're early on, you must fight to 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000.
Here are some scrappy ways to get there:
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