A video I posted to Instagram on a whim hit 110,000 views this month.
I originally made it for LinkedIn as part of my content pillars: a simple video on where to find remote jobs. Somewhere in the middle of exporting it, I thought, why not just post it everywhere? So I did.
And Instagram was where it really took off. Which was strange, because I’ve been on Instagram since 2016. That’s 10 years of birthday carousels and travel photo dumps, and never once treating it like somewhere I could actually grow.
If you’ve been following my Proof of Concept series, you know I’ve spent the last few months trying to grow on Threads. I had a plan, complete with a follower goal, a deadline, and the results of applying all the rules I recommend to other people.
I didn’t get to 1,000 on Threads by December 15, 2025. And after one accidental crosspost, I’m not sure Threads is where I should have been trying to grow in the first place.
So here’s what has changed.
A quick recap on Proof of Concept
If you’re new to the Proof of Concept series, here’s what you need to know: after hitting 20,000 followers on LinkedIn, I wanted to get back to experimenting with content the way I used to, before I knew what “worked.”
The first platform I tested was Threads. My goal was to grow from 366 followers to 1,000 by December 15, 2025, organically, through consistency and curiosity.
I’m at 824 today. Not quite 1,000, but close enough that I’d probably have gotten there if I kept going. But I’m not trying to close that gap anymore because I’m no longer sure it’s the right platform to test this on.
So why am I pivoting? A few things happened at once.
The first was that Threads is faster than I’m used to from LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, I’m writing for people scrolling between meetings. The pacing is slower, and a post can afford to wind up before it lands. Threads is the opposite: the posts that travel there are reactive and short. I was constantly translating my thinking into a format I hadn’t built real muscle for yet, which meant I was figuring out what good looked like in real time while also trying to grow.
The second was that I didn’t have enough fluency with the platform to form a good hypothesis in the first place, never mind test one. A Proof of Concept works best when you already have enough intuition for a platform that you can actually test something. I was still learning Threads. That’s a different project.
And then the third thing happened, which I didn’t expect: Instagram started working. One of my cross-posted videos hit 110K views, and suddenly I had an actual recipe for virality on a platform I could play with. That got me excited about Instagram in a way I hadn’t been about Threads in a while. And at some point, I had to be honest with myself that the energy was pulling me somewhere else.
I’m not done with Threads. I still have a profile, I still post, and I’m still curious about it. But it’s time for a pivot.
Why I’m pivoting to Instagram (the platform I’ve avoided for 10 years)
For years, there was a voice in the back of my head going, “Whoa, the people who actually know you are going to see this.”
That’s a bit embarrassing to type. But it’s the truth.
I made my Instagram in 2016, back when the platform was still mostly doing what it originally promised: a place to stay in touch with friends and family and keep your people updated on your life. That’s how I used it, and for a long time, that’s all I wanted it to be.
When people started turning Instagram into a creator platform, I felt a lot of resistance. I couldn’t fully explain it at first, but I recently figured it out.
My LinkedIn, TikTok, and Threads accounts all came after I was deep into my career and already sold on the idea of becoming a creator. Those were creator accounts from day one. Instagram was the only profile I had from before any of that, and the people who followed me there were people who actually knew me: friends, family, people from school, old coworkers, the girl I met in the bathroom at a bar, and so on.
So the thought of posting creator content into that feed made me shy, in a genuine way I didn’t expect.
I also had a mental block about what starting on Instagram would have to look like. I assumed I’d need to build a whole new profile, or if I kept this one, I’d have to unroot ten years of personal history to make it “on-brand.” Either way, it had to be a production.
Turns out, it didn’t.
What actually happened
I made a couple of videos for LinkedIn: one for my Buffer work anniversary, a couple about what I do at Buffer, and one about where to find remote jobs. I was experimenting with hooks on screen, different video styles, all the things I’d been telling other people to try. Then I thought, why not crosspost them to Instagram and TikTok? So I did.
Cross-posting the videos on TikTok helped me pass 1,000 followers, which was nice. But Instagram was where something actually happened. One of the videos hit 110,000 views, and I grew from about 1,200-ish to 2,319 followers in a matter of weeks.
And it all happened because I was finally applying all the advice I had been sharing with other people.
I’m Instagram-native, I just haven’t been acting on it
I’ve been on Instagram for a decade. I know what a good reel looks like, how to identify trending sounds, and what to put in a photo dump to make it nonchalant. None of that came from (just) observing and studying creators, but from being a regular user for ten years, building intuition I never thought of as a skill.
That’s different from where I was on Threads. On Threads, I was still figuring out the language. On Instagram, I already speak it. I just hadn’t been using it to say anything.
Which changes what this next Proof of Concept is testing. The Threads hypothesis was whether consistency and curiosity could get me to 1,000 followers organically. The Instagram hypothesis is more interesting to me: what happens when you lean into a platform you’re already fluent in?
For other creators reading this: the platform you’re avoiding might be the one you’d grow on fastest. The resistance you feel toward it is probably what’s kept you from noticing how much you already know.
My plan for Instagram
I’ve set some rules for this pivot to Instagram that are purposefully looser than the ones I had for Threads. I’m leaning on intuition for the creative calls and on the proven tactics from Sabreen’s growth playbook for the mechanics.
Speaking of, you can check out Sabreen’s full list of recommendations here — she’s grown her own account past 15K followers and Buffer’s past 100K, so she knows what she’s talking about. I’m borrowing from it liberally.
The goal
I want to grow from 2,319 followers to 5,000 by the end of Q2 2026. That’s about 10 weeks from the day this article publishes, and yes, it’s a bigger jump than my Threads goal of 1,000 (from 366), but if I’m right about the Instagram-native thing, the growth rate should reflect that.
The posting cadence
Sabreen’s data-backed recommendation is 3–5 posts per week, which grows followers 2x faster than posting 1–2 times. That’s the cadence I’m aiming for. But I’m not setting a daily minimum, and I’m not going to feel bad about skipping days. I want this round to feel like play, not a checklist. If I hit 3 posts a week while staying in play mode, I’ll take it.
The approach
If I see a trend I want to try, I’ll try it the same day. If I have an idea, I’ll create it in whatever format feels right and figure out after the fact what landed.
I’m using the full format mix Sabreen recommends: Reels for reach (they get 36% more reach than other post types), carousels for engagement (they drive 12% more engagement), and photo dumps when the mood strikes. Kirsti, who’s also been growing on Instagram, gave me one more recommendation I’m taking to heart:
“I now always create two slightly different versions of the same content and post them as trial reels 24 hours before I want them to go live. Then I see which one performs the best. My theory is that trial reels force Instagram to push your content to people who may actually be interested in the specific reel, rather than just your followers. It’s a great way to help you reach the audience you want rather than the audience you have.”
I’m definitely going to try her approach, which she’s also expanded on in this article. Trial reels also let me experiment without committing a post to my main grid, which fits the “treat this like play” energy I want.
The content pillars (for now)
The topics I’m leading with: what I’ve learned growing on LinkedIn, how I’ve landed brand partnerships there, remote work advice, and my career journey. I’m leaning on what I already know works. These are topics my existing audience trusts me on, so they’re my on-ramp to Instagram.
I know I can’t lean on them forever. Instagram is not LinkedIn, and eventually, I want to figure out what my pillars are native to the platform. But right now, this is what’s resonating, so I’m going to ride it until something more Instagram-specific clicks into place.
Engagement as a growth tactic
One more from Sabreen’s list that I’m making a real habit: replying to comments. Her data shows it boosts engagement by 21%, and more importantly, it’s how you turn first-time viewers into people who actually stick around. For an account that’s been mostly passive for 10 years, this is the shift that will feel the most different.
What success looks like (beyond the follower count)
Hitting 5,000 would be great. But I’m defining a few other wins for myself too:
Building Instagram-native fluency while my topics still lean LinkedIn-adjacent
Most of what I talk about, i.e., remote work, job hunting, career stuff for early-to-mid career professionals, doesn’t look or feel like the Instagram content in my feed. It’s not the fashion, food, or wellness content that dominates my feed. I want to see if I can make my topics Instagram-shaped without stripping the substance out of them. If the 110K-view video is any indication, the answer might be yes. But one video isn’t a pattern, so we’ll see.
Build visual taste as a skill
On LinkedIn and Threads, the craft is mostly writing. Instagram is a different craft. Pacing, framing, color, sound, all things I haven’t had to think much about on the other platforms. I’ve always had a good eye for aesthetics, I just didn’t point it at my own content. I’m curious whether leaning into that changes how I think about my content on the other platforms, too.
How much of this is the platform, and how much of it is me finally trying?
This is the one I don’t have a clear answer for. I’ve been on Instagram for 10 years and never tried. It’s possible that any platform would start to work once I actually showed up for it, but I’ll know for sure in a few months.
And then there’s the thing I’m not going to hype up just yet, so let’s keep this between us: if I hit 5,000 followers, the next Proof of Concept is probably about turning an Instagram audience into income. Brand partnerships, specifically. I’ve done a handful of paid partnerships on LinkedIn over the last two years, but Instagram is where the real brand partnership money lives. I want to see what it looks like to build it intentionally, as a smaller creator, and share the numbers.
But that’s a story for another article.