Unlike Twitter which may reward niche wit, Instagram virality depends on broad shareability. A product management meme account grew to 55k followers by focusing on relatable tropes (e.g., the PM vs. engineer dynamic) that professionals in adjacent roles would share with their peers, expanding the content's reach beyond its core audience.
Businesses with passionate but niche audiences, like the UFC or F1, can break into the mainstream by producing "on-ramp" content. A human-interest show (like F1's "Drive to Survive") provides an accessible entry point for new fans, demystifying the niche and driving massive growth by solving the discovery problem.
Getting users to reply directly to your Instagram Stories is a powerful signal to the platform's algorithm. It identifies your content as interactive, leading Instagram to show it to more of your followers. Use this for promoting events, guides, or other offers to increase organic visibility.
Instead of spending big on trendy mega-influencers, Gamma found success by scaling relationships with thousands of micro-influencers in niche, high-trust "echo chambers" like education. These smaller, authentic voices spread like wildfire within their communities, driving more effective growth.
Morgan Housel finds that the content that performs best is often basic and seems obvious to the writer. Readers resonate with ideas they already intuitively feel but have never seen articulated. This connection requires less mental bandwidth than processing a completely novel concept, leading to wider sharing.
Don't dismiss the success of celebrity brands as unattainable. Instead, analyze the core mechanism: massive 'free reach' and 'memory generation.' The takeaway isn't to hire a celebrity, but to find your own creative ways to generate a similar level of organic attention and build a tribe around your brand.
Obsessing over a visually perfect Instagram grid is a waste of time that harms reach. Since the vast majority of users discover content in the feed, creators should focus on making individual posts that perform well, rather than sacrificing engagement for a curated grid aesthetic.
In the 'interest media' era, algorithms prioritize content based on user interests, not just their social graph. A collectible campaign featuring specific IP acts as a creative overlay, allowing a brand’s content to be organically surfaced to relevant niche audiences who otherwise wouldn't see it.
When you run out of industry-specific ideas, post about personal interests. A video about bowling might go viral, attracting a broad audience. A potential customer within that audience will then discover your professional services through your profile, creating an unexpected lead.
Many creators struggle with choosing a niche, believing that's why they lack traction. The real issue is insufficient commitment to producing high-volume, engaging social media content, which is the true engine of growth and attention.
Similar to email marketing, getting users to reply directly to an Instagram Story is a powerful engagement signal. The algorithm interprets this interaction as valuable and shows the story to more people, exponentially increasing its visibility.