How to grow your content, your follower count - and your confidence

What does growth look like in content creation?

Does it mean blowing up your follower base? Maybe figuring out an effective content strategy that keeps engagement consistent? Or perhaps, is growth all about finding the confidence to just give sh*t ago and block out those embarrassment chemicals in your brain?

To get answers, I sat down with Jony Lee, a social superstar with over one million followers and the Head of Growth at The Attention Seeker (TAS). We chatted all about what “growth” looks like in both her role and personal brand, the effectiveness of creative risk-taking, and how perfectionism is a weed invading your personal brand garden.

Sup Jony! So, Head of Growth… what does that mean?

Honestly, it’s a wanky title for someone who likes talking to people, convincing them their stories are worth telling and igniting a flame for their social media presence. But I also have a very vast knowledge and understanding of social media and the intricacies of it. This means I love testing things so we can do bigger things and create better results.

So I talk to clients about how we can help them achieve attention, teach the team how to harness the power of social media, and then look ahead to the future for our team.

Does that involve your own personal brand too? And what draws people to that?

My role now requires me to build my brand so people can see another version of the company. TAS's brand is quite cheeky and more of an entertainment platform. Stan's is more from a business owner's perspective. And then my brand comes in from a marketing manager/social media lead kinda perspective, and talks more to younger marketers and students.

People follow me for the same reason they follow anyone else: the story they're telling. You could say people enjoy watching my personal content, which is like relationship-heavy, or they enjoy watching me talk sh*t to my boss, which is that underdog story. But at the end of the day, people follow along is because they relate, they see themselves in the scenario and they’re inherently entertained by that.

Is there fear or apprehension when you take creative risks, either for yourself or clients?

All the time. Not all of my content does well. And I think with the amount of reps I’ve done for both TAS and myself, I’m no longer scared to put out content. I still get upset from bad performance – albeit 10,000 views is “bad” to us – but it doesn't stop me from allowing myself to fail.

With clients, you’re building a relationship with another person, ideally to the point they’ll take on your insights and opinions. There's a lot of give and take, a little dance you have to play where you have to allow them to play out their concerns. And if they want to add boundaries, I have to create content within them so they can see we're happy to help them. And if it doesn't succeed, we’ve at least given them the space to fail, rather than just saying “no, I refuse to do that because this is how I think”. These are people with livelihoods, businesses and money, so you can’t force them into risks.

You’ve mentioned storytelling; what else is key to making content that sticks?

It boils down to a human truth and story structure. The human truth is something everyone can relate to, no matter your background. And story structure is just how humans best digest information. So for example, TAS’s content went off when it was about me being a brat towards my boss, asking for things that I thought I deserved, right?

There’s a human truth of hierarchy and being an underdog, which doesn't just manifest in a workplace. That manifests with your siblings, between a student and a teacher, with a parent and child. Our manifestation was me battling my boss in a story structure that is digestible for everyone. It’s essentially beginning-middle-end, with some nuance to it. Some people get confused because we say human truth, and they see being in an office as a Gen Z with a Millennial Boss, which isn’t always relatable. But the reason it went viral is because of the underdog position.

Is there anything you’d tell people on the fence about really leaning into social media spaces, either for their own personal brand or their business?

We all need to understand that social media’s still in its infancy. There’s so much more to come and it means we have time to fail and learn. If you’re a perfectionist, the whole landscape will have changed by the time you’ve mastered it. A lot of people make excuses, say they don't have time or that it’s not the “right” time to start. It's like, well, you just need to try first, if anything. And I get it. It's a scary world and you’re in front of a bunch of eyes, but you’ll quickly realise you have to fail and learn to become a bigger thing.

-Devin Pike, Copywriter