How To Grow Your Audience Fast
even if you have 0 followers
In this newsletter, I'll share the 4 best lessons I learned from gaining 150M+ views and 100,000+ followers across social media.
Building an audience is one of the best ways to get paid to do what you love.
But a lot of people get stuck. Many have great ideas and make great content, yet they struggle to grow. Maybe you're one of them. I know how frustrating it can be.
I was stuck for months. But once I learned how growth actually worked, I went from 283 followers to 10,000+ in a year. Around that time, I also hit my first $10K month. If you can build an audience of 10,000 engaged followers, you can make a good living online too. That’s what I’ll teach you in this newsletter.
Let’s dive into the lessons.
Lesson 1 - Understand what drives growth
Social media growth is a skill, not luck.
It’s about finding the actions that lead to growth and then optimizing them. When you get this right, you will start growing. It’s not magic. It’s cause and effect.
But to make this work, we need to know which actions actually matter.
The problem is that many beginners focus on the wrong things. They spend hours finding the perfect time to post, creating the perfect banner, and rewriting their bio dozens or even hundreds of times (I’ve been there).
These are low-leverage activities. They help a little, but they won’t drive most of your growth. They only give you a 0x or 2x return on your time. To grow fast, you need to find the high-leverage activities that give you a 10x return on your time instead.
This is what first-principles thinking helps us do.
It helps us identify the few things that actually matter.
Social media growth is an effect. These are the causes:
People need to see you → so you need to network or pay for distribution
People need to like you → so you need good ideas and content presentation
People need to follow you → so you need a professional profile and good branding
That’s it. Those are the first principles of social media growth.
If you optimize these things, you will grow much faster. That’s why the next lessons cover each of them in more detail.
Lesson 2 - Create content like a scientist
When I started, I posted 3 to 8 posts per day on X.
Every morning, I’d stare at a blank screen trying to come up with ideas. Then I’d spend hours writing posts, only for many of them to flop. It was frustrating and inefficient.
In hindsight, the problem was obvious. Most creators, including the old me, just post and hope it lands. Then they repeat that process. Big creators can get away with this because they have years of experience and a good feel for what will perform well.
When you're starting out, you don't have that advantage. I certainly didn't. That's why my content flopped for months. If you're stuck, this might be the reason.
The solution is to treat content like a scientific experiment.
Research high-quality ideas
Experiment by turning it into something new
Analyze the result to see what works for you
Double down on what works and quit what doesn’t
It’s simple but very effective.
The research gives you ideas. The experiments and analysis give you data. Over time, you learn what works for you, what your audience enjoys, and what leads to growth.
When I started batch-producing content once a week with this system, my growth started to accelerate. First 1,000 followers. Then 5,000. Then 10,000. Then 50,000. And now I'm on my way to 100,000 X followers this year.
I simply research what works, take notes, add my own perspective and ideas, track the results, stop doing what doesn't work, and do more of what does.
That’s how your content gets better over time.
Lesson 3 - Get people to see your content
On most platforms, good content isn’t enough to get the ball rolling.
On YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, a great video can go viral. But on writing platforms like X, LinkedIn, Substack, and Threads, you usually need to do more.
At the start, your organic reach is usually close to zero. People can't follow you if they don't know you exist. This is why you need to ‘force eyes on your content’.
That's where networking comes in.
Networking is simply sending DMs and leaving thoughtful comments on other people's posts. The goal is to get in front of their audience and add something valuable to the conversation. This could be a perspective, an idea, or a personal experience.
Networking is one of the best ways to escape beginner hell.
If you connect with other small creators you genuinely like, many of them will engage with your content as well. That's how you start building momentum.
Paid distribution can work too, but I wouldn't worry about it at the start. Start by improving your content and figuring out what works organically. Then, if you have the budget, you can add fuel to the fire later.
I recently spoke to the CEO of an 8-figure X growth agency that works with high net worth entrepreneurs. He told me that reposts don't do much for their clients unless they're below 10,000 followers. High-quality content remains the highest ROI activity.
I agree partly. It can certainly help in my experience, but quality content remains the most important thing. And at the start, networking helps people discover that content.
Here’s a simple way to do it:
Make a list of 100 creators: 20% big and 80% small.
Follow them and DM the smaller creators. Tell them something you genuinely liked about their content or brand.
If they reply, keep in touch. If not, move on.
Leave at least 30 high-quality comments per day.
Reply to all the comments you get on your own posts
That’s how you escape beginner hell.
Lesson 4 - Turn visitors into followers
Getting people to click on your profile is only half the battle.
The next step is getting them to follow you.
People only follow if they understand how it benefits them. That's why your profile needs to explain what you do and why they should care in 5 seconds.
At the start, my profile was messy, vague, and confusing, like most beginner profiles.
My profile conversion rate showed it: just 5% (10%+ is good). That means I only gained 5 followers for every 100 people who visited my profile.
The biggest reason is that it wasn’t clear what I actually did.
Your profile should make three things obvious within a few seconds:
What you do
Who you help
How you help
Bonus points for including social proof.
You don’t need anything fancy. Just keep it clear, clean, and consistent.
The goal isn’t to look smart. It’s to make it easy to understand how you can help them.
Just write a clear bio and create a simple banner and picture with your brand colors.
Pick a few brand colors that fit your style and stick with them.
Brand colors affect how people perceive you and how you make them feel. So it’s important to pick the ones that are aligned with your brand. Here are examples:
Here's what that can look like:
When people immediately understand what you do and why it matters to them, they’re much more likely to follow you.
So keep it simple. Clarity converts.
When you do this, you’ll be able to grow your audience fast.
Stijn
How I Can Help You
1. X Growth System. How I grew from 0 to 61,000 𝕏 followers, 100,000+ followers across social media, +100M organic X views in a year, and 6-figures.
2. Free Content. I backlog my best newsletters and articles on my website. I also turn them into video podcasts. Click here to subscribe so you don’t miss them. I also post simple self-improvement videos on my other channel. Click here to subscribe. You can also follow me on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Instagram for short daily lessons.