Trying out Instagram + TikTok + Shorts

video first as the top of funnel

What’s good young and eager mind?

Been trying out video as a top-of-funnel marketing channel.

X is so rigged. The only way to grow is to do giveaways & pay for RTs or engagement.

All your favorite creators grew by paying $1K-$10K for “coaching” or for some cohort program (which is essentially an engagement pod with extra steps).

All of that stuff is fine were it not for the fact that they then proceed to make content like this:

But they never grew because they took their own advice, they grew because they bought engagement which then becomes social proof.

So it’s the equivalent of men giving fitness advice while pretending their results came from natural training instead of their steroid use.

Training is table stakes but the steroids are what’s responsible for 90% of the results.

Similar thing with women who had a butt lift and then sell squat workout programs.

Anyway, don’t wanna continue to repeat myself.

You can read more of my thoughts on this here:

X growth gurus are full of shit

If at some point, I decide to play the game, you’ll be the first to know cuz I’ll share all. the learnings & results with you.

Having said that, I’m playing around with video content.

Right now, I’m just shooting content without being strategic about it.

rj_youngling

A post shared by @rj_youngling

My first job is just to build consistency.

In order to optimize something… there first has to be something TO optimize.

-RJY

Here are my findings so far

Reels get no views initially

My content definitely sucks (which is normal when you’re doing something new).

And, just like I understand the rule book of X, I’m sure there are all kinds of rules you need to know to start to grow on IG.

Fortunately, I do have Jennifer (a friend who grew to 70K in a few weeks) who I can turn to for advice. Her feedback was to just focus on making engaging content and then let the algo do its thing.

I don’t know if I need to play the engagement game on IG but as always, when I know more, you’ll know more.

Btw I can’t stress this enough, I used to be the type of guy to figure out everything myself. That’s so dumb. Just get help from an expert. It’ll save you a ton of money and more importantly time.

Most of the engagement I have comes from a few followers. My views are higher than my following so that would seem to indicate some organic traffic. And then there’s also stories, where you can view who’s seen them. So that shows me the non-followers who viewed my stories/profile.

Anyway, I know you guys like analyzing data but as you always hear me say, science is hard, and with these low numbers it’s all guesswork.

Shorts are doing significantly better

YouTube shorts’ algo seems to push shortform content better than Reels. At least for the moment.

Again, none of the content is optimized & I’m also trying to find the right fit between what people wanna watch and what I wanna make.

But TikTok is by far the best in terms of reach

What I’ve noticed here is that it’ll push my content to a few hundred people to see how it does.

So I get all my engagement in the first 30 minutes and then it completely dies.

Unlike YouTube shorts which is more gradual.

I take that to mean that it’s very similar to Reddit in the sense that you get lots of reach fast and then the crowd decides if you live or die.

Also hit my first 1K :)

If I’m right then that means the content isn’t holding people’s attention.

But I’m fine with that.

I’ll be eating my own dog food and will do what I tell you guys to:

Just get in the game and then improve 1 thing every day.

So I won’t be judging the first 100 vids too much.

Will keep you in the loop.

RJY

Wood & Water