Now that the dust has settled on this whirlwind fortnight, let’s pick apart what happened.

That headline is not an exaggeration. Between 10–24 September 2022, I received 101,053 new Instagram followers. My account, which publishes content on graphic design software tips and freelancer advice, grew from ~6K to well over 100K, and is now sitting comfortably at more than 140K followers.

Most importantly, this follower base has turned into real client work. My logo design business is now booked out for the next three months, with clients from all over the world.

I’ve also been offered a number of brand partnerships, where I’ll be teaming up with some notable accounts to create some paid content.

So how did this happen?

Turn that camera around.

If you’ve read my stuff before, you’ll know that earlier in the year I found a modicum of success from posting on TikTok. Back in January, I decided to force myself to get comfortable on camera and started making video content targeted directly to TikTok users. One of my posts went viral, and since then my TikTok account has grown to more than 60K followers in the space of about 6 months.

My focus has been on giving back to my audience wherever possible. I post videos around logo design case studies, software tips and tricks to speed up your workflow in programs like Illustrator and Photoshop. And also advice on running a freelance business; how to win more clients, dealing with negative feedback, etc.

I have posted more than 200 videos to TikTok, and by this point I have a pretty streamlined production process. I can create quality video content extremely quickly using nothing but my phone, a lapel mic and a copy of Premiere Pro. Because of this, I can respond quickly to trends and comments with reactionary videos, and it leaves me enough time in my week to actually focus on client work.

My TikTok success was so good in fact, that around 80% of my new business leads were directly from this app. As a result I was asked to speak at the Designer Boss Summit on my success, and following this I made a short course on building a client base through TikTok.

But my Instagram account had never really caught up with the TikTok hype. I was stuck on around 6K followers for what felt like months, repurposing a lot of the short-form video content that was originally made for TikTok. But those videos weren’t performing as well and the content never seemed to show the same traction it had garnered on TikTok.

Enter Abi.

In early September, I stumbled across a graphic designer called Abi Connick. What Abi has managed to achieve in her short career as a brand designer is simply staggering. She has a diverse income stream from sources like affiliate marketing, online digital sales, YouTube advertising and client work. And her videos around the business of design put mine to shame. Abi has a strong community and her partner works in video production, which means she has the capacity to churn out some seriously great, longer-form YouTube content.

When I found Abi’s social accounts, I found myself spending probably an hour watching all of her content. It’s one of those accounts that is just so jam-packed with great advice and it gives so much value, that you just can’t stop watching. Partly out of jealousy. Because her content is so good and her digital products are so prevalent that her passive income streams must be pretty lucrative.

While watching one of her time-lapse videos of her working in Adobe Illustrator, I spotted her doing something with the pencil tool that made me rewind the video.

If you’ve never used Illustrator before, the pencil tool is used for pretty much what you think; drawing lines and shapes. But it’s a freehand tool, so it doesn’t get much use unless you’re an artist who uses something like a Wacom tablet, or an iPad with a stylus. Using it with a mouse is tricky, but in Abi’s video she used it in a way I’d never seen before. She was manipulating existing shapes and paths by shaving and adding material.

“15 years using Illustrator. Never knew that.”

I stitched her video on TikTok, and did a little “What?” reaction video where I tried to perform the little step she had just done. When it worked, I said, “15 years using Illustrator. Never knew that.”

It turns out that the rest of the design community didn’t know either.

The video got around 60K views on TikTok, but when I posted it to Instagram, it went viral. The video is currently sitting at 11M views. I also posted a follow-up video detailing some settings tweaks you need to do to get the pencil tool to work so smoothly. And this video also went viral, with nearly 2M views.

I’ve talked about going viral before, but one of the most common themes I’ve seen is that unless the content on your account is consistent (i.e. in the same niche) and adds value, then going viral doesn’t necessarily lead to followers.

But in the same way that I couldn’t tear myself away from Abi Connick’s content, people were having the same experience with mine. And the value people were receiving from my helpful, quality content, lead to an immediate follow.

And this is the moral of the tale.

Do. Not. Stop. Creating. Content. That. Adds. Value.

If you build it, they will come.

Sometimes it might feel like you’re shouting into the void when you make a video that nobody watches. And it can feel a bit embarrassing or even demoralising when your video flops.

But you need to reframe your mindset about creating content.

What you’re actually doing is building a brand. That one video that flopped is part of a body of work that is your online presence. And that is why people will follow you. The cream will always rise. It’s about being consistent, and you focusing on giving back value to your viewer, not individual video results.

Keep this up and you too will be like Kevin Costner standing in a field. And when that one video takes off in an unexpected way, you’ll have a plethora of content behind you to encourage that follow.

Another point to note is that you can cram so much great advice into a one-minute video. And this is one of the reasons why short-form video is such an attractive medium to a user.

When you go to YouTube to get a software tip, you’ll often have to sit through more than a minute of, “Welcome to my channel. Don’t forget to subscribe.” plus video titles, before getting to the 30 seconds of content that you actually need. With short-form video there’s no time for that, and by being succinct and to the point, you spoon-feed your viewer into instant gratification, where they feel like they have just grown themselves as a person by watching your content.

And that is why they come back for more.

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to know more about some of my video production and content generation tips (specifically for creatives/designers) then I have a short video course and eBook available. It’s geared for TikTok growth, but now that Instagram is pushing reels so hard, the tips totally apply to Instagram too. 👍

Also, my logo design packages are at barnard.co/packages. Please check them out and I’d be happy to talk you through them.

And finally, please follow me on TikTok, Instagram, Medium, Dribbble or Behance.