Welcome back! Another week gone already. Last week got a bit technical, so this week I wanted to stay firmly in the comfort of the social media realm, and share my understanding of content algorithms, early social media growth, and my strategy so far. If you're new or haven't read in a while, I'm in the early stages of growing an online presence around building technical products, and am studying and applying all of the latest and greatest strategies to do so. If you're interested in entrepreneurship or solopreneurship, or just having more people to talk to, then this is for you.
So picture the scene, you're starting out, literally zero followers and also possibly zero allies on the platform you're looking to grow on. Welcome to the rat league. You are joining an army of the 99% of social media users who don't post regularly, don't enjoy massive engagement with the things they do post, and it all round feels more being a spectator than running a race. The problem is, it is a race, and it's important to frame it that way for your own sanity as you take your first steps transitioning from consumer to creator.
So, why does it feel like nobody is listening and nobody cares? Partly because they aren't and they don't (but remember that's not usually a reflection on you), and partly because the content recommendation algorithm which decides what to show people doesn't score your account and its content highly enough to be promoted. So you are crafting passionate and insightful words which are then sent straight into the bin when you hit post, pretty depressing stuff.
The solution then is to increase your score. You do this by publishing things and engaging with people in a way that the algorithm will score as positive. If you put yourself in e.g. Meta's shoes (owner of Threads), they want to find and promote the accounts that make Threads fun and interesting to be on. So to become one such account, simply aim to post 3 times per day (morning, noon, and afternoon/evening), and reply to as many other posts as you can stomach.
There is a darker side here which I won't get into too much, but the reality is that it's not about making 'fun' content. It's about making engaging content. If I were seeking to grow at all costs I would create two oppositely aligned political accounts and post and respond to only the most toxic/false/rage bait type content in order to grow via engagement. But, that's not the route I want to take. I want to post interesting tech findings, help junior developers and aspiring computer scientists on their journeys, and find a substitute for the office memes chat from my corporate days.
Speaking of engagement, an easy 'hack' is to target much larger accounts and simply respond to their posts. For context, one of my posts with 141 followers will get roughly 100-200 views. My reply to an account with 500k followers will get anywhere from 500-5,000 views. The views here are a vanity metric, but with the right tagline and profile picture a fraction of these views will convert into followers (or haters, at this stage both are welcome).
The main strategy I'm using to systematize the growth process is to cast a net around key accounts in the space I'm interested in. In my case that means following and turning new post notifications on for accounts like Alex Hormozi, Simon Sinek, Steven Bartlett, Richard Branson, Marie Forleo, and 25 more. Then as soon as a notification for one pops up, think of something witty/interesting to add and that's it. With around 30 accounts in the net and following this approach mindlessly, it's fairly simple to build a modest audience.
There are many great books about systems thinking, and growth in the social media world is no different. In order to make it less of a manual daily task for me and to instead convert my aspirations into a system, I created a very simple tracking tool which I use to store how many engagements I've made on any platform on any day. If you're interested you can use it too, it's free!
The routine is simple, log in, post my plan for the day, share to Threads and X (click click on the tracker), then throughout the day if I learn anything interesting or build something cool I share it (click click again), and so on. And whenever my phone pings spend a max of 30 seconds writing a reply (and click), and that's it! I will of course keep you updated as to how this system is progressing, but having spoken to a few sages and studied the ancient texts, I'm 95% confident this strategy will see reliable growth in the first few months, and I'm already seeing early success.
There are so many things I've learned this week as a result of engaging with the entrepreneurship community across social media, and reading several books. One set I wanted to share is Alex West's series of books (currently on #6) which tells his story of going from nothing to many failed products and eventually great success. Not all stories have happy endings, but reading through his series so far has been extremely valuable for me personally in terms of prioritising my tasks and maximising my time, and if you're interested in the entrepreneurial journey I strongly recommend (and they're free too!).
Another hot take from my time online is that the X account of Louc Berthelot is a goldmine for independent developers looking to build and scale products. I'm following one of his playbooks (the social media push is part of that process) and again it's free advice, he's not selling anything, and it's very useful as a newbie to this game to have resources like this available.
Anyway, this one started out social and ended with some recommended reading, but I hope it's been useful! Some final other news is that I'll be spending Christmas and New Year in Malaysia, and then to Georgia in 2026 which is exciting, if you have any recommendations for either please let me know!
Thanks and all the best from hot and sunny Vietnam,
Oliver
Previous Episode: Building Bad Products