[Social Media Growth - October 2023] YouTube shows some hope
I’m back with my monthly update for the social media growth project. In June, I started to post consistently every day on Instagram and cross-post the same videos on other platforms. It’s been 5 months and I’ve learned a lot.
This month has been fairly quiet with no big viral videos. I put more effort into making longer videos for YouTube and there was some growth there. I honestly still have no idea how TikTok works—the stats were getting worse.
September’s Highlights:
The best-performing video on Instagram this month got 48K views.
My YouTube channel crossed over 200K views. That same video above crossed over 50K+ on YouTube Shorts.
TikTok views have fallen down to around 300-400 views per video with some odd ones crossing 1K.
Follower Growth
Instagram: 10.7K followers (a 4% increase from 10.3K)
TikTok: 594 followers (a 6% increase from 562)
YouTube: 809 followers (a 14% increase from 707)
Insights and Conclusions
This month has not been the best month. I feel a bit frustrated with myself as I have not been able to produce any new viral videos. But at the same time, I want to make videos that I enjoy making, not just for views. I need to find a way to balance this. At the moment, I don’t make money from social media, so to a great extent I want to be able to serve my own interests.
I came across a TikTok creator who just blew up within a week and she made lots of content about having money and intimate details of her relationship, which caused controversy and led to virality. I know I do make relationships content but I do keep certain things private. I don’t like the idea of turning everything into content for views or sharing things I don’t need to be sharing just for shock value. I don’t value turning your personal life into entertainment for strangers and feeding an app’s algorithm. Without a strategy and goal, it seems like a slippery slope where you’ll end up exploiting yourself and your real-life relationships for dopamine and money.
Yesterday, I tested a new video format that had two halves: 1) me speed drawing Mario and 2) me talking about relationships. It didn’t perform as well as others, but I enjoyed making it. Drawing was fun and relaxing. So I made another drawing-related video but this time it had a narrative to it. It did better than the previous one (over 2K views on YouTube Short). Still, it’s all about retention.
I’ll try to be more creative with video production even if there aren’t many people watching yet. I want to do it for anyone who is watching and for myself/my younger self. I want to put out content that I feel proud of. I don’t want to do it just for virality. I like the idea of having a small, engaged community that I know I can make an impact on.
I don’t know how I feel about TikTok. I think the platform is just really saturated right now. It’s really hard to grow. A video could do well on Instagram and YouTube but absolutely flop on TikTok. I’m thinking of using TikTok to post videos longer than 1.5 minutes and less than 5 minutes. But then again, I’m thinking… do I even need to be there? I don’t see myself as an influencer doing sponsorships or selling products there so it’s kind of pointless.
On that note, I got one collaboration offer on Instagram from a spa. They asked to give me a complementary treatment in exchange for a review reel on my profile. I said no.
On YouTube, I only post videos longer than 10 minutes. I like making long videos. Is that a millennial thing?
Overall, I’ve enjoyed my experience creating content on social media. The responses have been mostly positive, some very heartwarming. It’s rewarding so far. I can’t believe I’ve been posting every day for months without skipping! What? It helped me become more efficient at video production and more creatively fulfilled.
See you next month!
