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Is using paid promotion on social media, potentially a very bad idea?
Hi,
Can anyone corroborate a theory that I have, that using paid promotion on social media might actually be a very a bad idea to assist with growing a YouTube/Instagram account. I say this because could it be true that once the Algorithms know that you’re willing to pay, even if it’s only a small amount, you’ll find it very hard to ever stop paying, because the Algorithm will then restrict your growth to try and force you to start paying again?
I’m a musician whose plan was to initially put out covers and remixes to gain growth and then follow this up with my own songs. I started posting on YT & IG in early 2019 and used some paid promotion for about a year. This enabled me to gain around 10 subs per week on YT and to grow my IG page from a few hundred to around 4500 followers. As I was only 16 at the time and still at school, I eventually ran out of money that I’d saved up from a summer job, so had to stop paying YT/IG and rather than then having a base to build on, I immediately found that I only gained a sub or two per week on YT and started to lose around 30 IG followers per week. It’s almost as if someone at IG lowers my followers by this exact amount each week, as the loss is very consistent even now.
I completely accept that it’s a long hard struggle to grow on the likes of YT & IG for everyone and I also accept that there is always room to improve my music/videos, come up with novel ideas and stay on top of what is trending but I can’t help thinking that if I’d never used paid promotion, my posts might have been pushed out that little bit more on both YT & IG. I must stress that this is not a rant or bitter comment, as I feel very lucky to have parents who support my music and who’d bought my instruments for me, but I was just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience using paid promotion on the likes of YT & IG?
Alternatively, If anyone can suggest something else that I might be doing wrong, I would really appreciate the feedback (my YT/IG links are in my profile bio)
Thanks very much for any thoughts on the above,
Shona