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Consistency and audience fit beat buying followers long-term.
What worked for me was a 30‑day sprint: pick 2 content pillars, batch 12 clips, post 4x/week. Nail the first 2 seconds (clear hook + on‑screen text), write native captions, and add a simple follow CTA on your best posts. Track three things: average watch time, saves/shares, and follows per 1k views. Kill what underperforms after 3 posts and double down on what gets saves. Do a 20‑minute engagement window around each post (10 before, 10 after) commenting in your niche. Aim for one collab a week with a similar‑size creator (duets/stitches/shoutout swaps), and go live weekly to funnel people to Stories.
Buying followers looked good for a minute, but my reach tanked and brands could tell. If you need tools: I use Later for scheduling and CapCut for quick edits; Path Social is the only growth service I kept for IG discovery targeting to reach runners in my area-helped, but only once my hooks and captions were tight.
Stick to a simple test‑and‑iterate routine; consistency plus focused collabs beats fake followers.
