i fucking hate instagram growth hacks (except this one)

hiiii friend,

i’ll be the first person to tell you that you can’t shortcut or hack your way to growth on socials, and anyone who is telling you that you can is selling something.

even when i started this newsletter, i was adamant i would never share cheap tricks or algorithm ‘hacks’ and don’t worry, i’m not about to start now.

but i WILL say one thing that is going to sound obvious when i say it, but it’s also something you probably are not paying attention to enough when it comes to creating content on your channels:

when the platforms change something - like promoting a feature or content format - that is the time to PAY ATTENTION.

because that is them literally telling you what kind of content they are going to reward.

i’ve been posting for six years, and i have seen crazy success from riding the waves of platform changes whenever i can. a few examples of new things platforms have rolled out over the last few years:

every time i jumped on these, i saw a big peak of growth on my channels.

statics and carousels! just in the last few months we’ve seen instagram roll out unique captions for each carousel slide and expand carousels from 10 to 20 photos.

if you’ve been reading this newsletter for awhile now, you’ll know i’ve been trialling different static formats over the last month or so on my own channels, because the platform has signalled they are going to push these types of posts.

and i hate to say i was right ((the bane of alistair’s existence lol)) but, now statics/carousels are going through a seasonal MONETIZATION. IDK ABOUT YOU BUT THIS IS A HUGE STEP FOR SOCIAL BADDIES!!! WE GONNA GET PAID ON IG FR!!! OVER A DECADE IN THE MAKING YALL. ok excitement over - creators are getting rewarded for consistency with static posts. you have to hit the eligibility criteria which is what will get most of us but, the platform is moving forward with their push on statics. guys proof i’ve made like $50 from a way less resource heavy format.

today i want to share a step-by-step method to help you reap the benefit of this change, too. i’m also going to share some numbers from my own static posts at the end (-:

one of the best things about statics is that they are not resource-heavy. you don’t need a script. you don’t need to be on camera. you don’t need a lot of energy to produce them. literally at any given point in your day you can go and make a piece of static content.

what you do have to understand when posting statics is your storytelling is everything. i feel like i have harped on about this quite a lot recently, but that’s because it’s true. in a static post, you don’t have your voice to compel someone to engage with your post. all you have is your storytelling skills.

the truth is, if you’re a master of words, you will be a master of content. i will always stand by that.

so today i’m going to share my exact process for nailing that storytelling element plus a prompt for your llm so you can replicate it for yourself…..