I can't tell you how many times I've yapped with a business owner who opens with some version of this:

"I just need to figure out Instagram."

And I get it. I really do. Instagram is loud, it's visual, it's where everyone seems to be making things happen while making it look easy, and the algorithm is constantly dangling the promise of exponential reach in front of you like a sweet treat you're sooo close to earning.

So the obsession with and hyperfocus on the platform make sense.

But here's what I want to lovingly push back on if you're sitting in that boat right now.

Instagram is not the goal. The platform (no matter what it is) should never be the goal.

And the founders who figure that out early? They stop white-knuckling their way through content creation and start building something that actually compounds.

I'm going to use one of my clients as an example.

When we started working together, Kate had zero social media presence. Not as in a neglected account or a dusty profile that needed a new bio. Truly, no social media profiles because years earlier she'd been hacked on Facebook, lost everything she built, and the whole experience was traumatic enough that she walked away from social completely. (And honestly, can you blame her? I'd have done the same thing.)

So while she didn't currently have any social profiles, she DID have: a thriving blog, a loyal email list, and an online community full of thousands of sourdough bakers who genuinely loved her recipes and wisdom.

All she was really missing was a content format to reach the visual learner and short-form content to consistently stay top of mind with her audience, regardless of whether their sourdough starter was ready to bake with or not.

So we built a new Facebook page, a new Instagram account, and a new TikTok account from scratch. And within 90 days? We hit 8K+ followers on Instagram, 2K+ on Facebook, and 1K+ on TikTok.

Fast forward six months, and we hit 23K followers on Instagram, 26K on Facebook, and 6K on TikTok.

Today? Nearly a year and a half later, we're rocking 64K followers on Instagram, 76K followers on Facebook, 17.4K followers on TikTok, and 11.4K followers on YouTube.

And growing an audience is great, but my personal favorite part of adding these platforms to her content strategy was the comments, because it was clear as day this type of format is exactly what her content strategy was missing:

"OMG you're finally on social?! Yay!!!"

"I've loved your blog for years, but these videos are a game-changer for a visual learner like me."

Now stay with me here, because this is the part I actually want you to take with you.

Kate launched three new platforms with zero followers, yet her audience still found her.

Not because we posted at the perfect time with the perfect hook and the perfect trending audio. But because the brand was already seen, heard, and felt. The trust was already there with her audience. The platform was almost a technicality.

And that's what a strong brand does. It doesn't just perform well on the one platform you're already on - it travels with you.

It gives the people who already love your work a new place to find you, and it makes it easier for the people who haven't found you yet to finally do so.

The founders I see spinning their wheels on social media are almost always trying to solve a brand problem with a platform strategy.

They're tweaking their posting schedule when what actually needs attention is their positioning. They're A/B testing their captions when what's actually unclear is who they're talking to and why those people should care.

And I say this with love (truly) because I've watched it happen enough times to know that no amount of Instagram optimization is going to fix a brand that hasn't been built yet. So before you spend another week obsessing over your content calendar or your posting frequency or whether b-roll reels are still the move... ask yourself this:

If you vanished from your current platform tomorrow and had to start over somewhere new, would your audience find you? Would they show up for you the way Kate's did?

If the answer is anything other than a confident yes, optimizing your brand is where your effort is best spent. Not on cracking the code to winning Instagram.

Catch ya next week,

Marissa

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