How my son gained 60,000 followers in 90 days

And what this teaches us about sharing online

In the past few months, my 14-year-old son has launched three social media channels online, posting videos every single day. He now has 60,000 followers altogether, and what he shares gets tens of thousands of views a day, and hundreds of comments. Today I want to talk about what he did, why it’s working, and what we can learn from it about sharing online.

I’m going to be a little vague about details because I want to allow him to be mostly anonymous online if he wants to be. He has given me permission to share everything, but I’m going to be cautious and not share links to his channels.

Okay, here is the short version:

• 3 months ago he created a channel on YouTube on a specific topic, and has been sharing a daily video ever since. It took off immediately, and he now has 28,000 subscribers there. Each video receives between 5,000-10,000 views on average, and 100 comments.

• 2 weeks ago he started an unrelated Instagram account where he began sharing videos featuring two famous cartoon characters talking about a specific topic. Overnight he had 3,000 followers, and now has more than 30,000.

• About a week ago he created another Instagram account featuring the same characters discussing a completely different topic. That channel now has more than 3,500 followers. He has posted two videos so far, each with more than 170,000 views, 10,000 likes, and hundreds of comments.

In the comments, people make suggestions, share reactions, and give feedback constantly. For each of these channels, he started with no following, and simply told a few friends who don’t have a big following online.

Every day I help writers and creators learn how to share their creative work in a way that is meaningful and authentic, and to truly develop a platform of fans around them. I’ll try to share lessons and advice throughout this post that may be helpful.

This is my son editing a video:

I want to start off by addressing the biggest elephants in the room when it comes to discussions like this. Okay, let’s dig in…

How did he get so many followers so quickly?

So how on earth did he get such fast growth on each channel so quickly? Well, quite a number of decisions he made led to this:

• He aligned to a trend or vibrant community. For his YouTube channel, the daily videos focus on a topic that has a huge following there. This community shows up on YouTube. For his Instagram accounts, he is started the channel just after a trend began with a specific format of conversation between those two cartoon characters. He chose a topic of interest that no one else had been using, and went from there.

• He used media formats that truly reach new people: Reels and Shorts. So many people still think of Instagram as it was in 2016, primarily focused on square images. Or they think of YouTube from the same year, which was all about the typical horizontally oriented videos. But if you want to grow on either platform, you have to focus on vertical videos: Shorts on YouTube, and Reels on Instagram. That is what each platform promotes. He has put all of his energy there.

• He posts frequently and consistently. This is classic “how to succeed online” advice for years now, and he is following it. For his YouTube channel, he posts every single day. That means he is not only evolving his craft more quickly, but he has 100 videos in the algorithm already, and for his actual fans, they look forward to seeing his videos each day. Plenty of them leave comments saying things such as “I was here on day 1!”

• He produces high quality videos. This has been the most fascinating aspect to watch: how hard he works on his videos, how he improves over time, and how he is proactive about changing things and trying new ideas. When I talk with him about why he thinks he’s succeeding, he always talks about craft first.

• He creates content that encourages reactions and engagement. For years, I have talked about this for writers, with the advice to “leave room for the reader.” Meaning, consider allowing space where people can easily comment or engage. What he posts gets lots of comments, each YouTube video gets more than 100 comments. The first video on his new Instagram channel has more than 400 comments. He creates videos that ask for audience feedback, or shares a viewpoint that will naturally have people siding one way or another.

For the most part, these are editorial and marketing strategies that have worked well for decades online, but also work offline. For instance, if someone wanted to open up an independent cafe that had a stage for music and poetry readings, they would align to each of these tactics: rent a storefront in a vibrant community, serve beverages and food that people already want, have frequent specials and events, have coffee so good that people talk about it, and train your staff to be personable and encourage engagement with customers.

I imagine, some of you may see this list and think, “That is too many things to become good at, I’m a writer, not a marketer.” Yet, if you were to hold a book reading, I imagine you would employ every single one of these tactics and not even realize it. I’m not trying to give you more work, I’m considering how sharing and connection is a very accessible craft open to all of us.

This may encourage you to challenge some assumptions you have. For instance, some writers want to launch an email newsletter, but strongly feel that sending one every quarter is best. They justify “I don’t want to bother people, I don’t have that much news to share, and besides, no one loves email.” Yet, many of the most successful newsletters out there post weekly or multiple times per week. I mean, I’ve sent out an email newsletter every single week for 20 years.

As you approach sharing online, consider a series of small actions you can take to help you get better at the craft of sharing, improving your chances of reaching your ideal audience.

Is he good at this because he grew up on screens?

I assume that plenty of people will read this and think, “Well kids nowadays grow up on screens, navigating the online world is in their blood. That’s why he is so successful.” But the thing is, my son didn’t grow up on screens.

He never used an iPad or iPhone when he was young. He didn’t have access to a computer, and I was pretty annoyed when his school gave him a laptop in the first grade. We delayed TV for years, and when we did allow him to watch a show, it was highly curated and very closely monitored. Most of the kids he knew had a phone long before he did.

As best we could, we tried to focus on real-life experiences and tactile objects for most of his childhood. Did we loosen this up as he got older? Absolutely. We want him to fit in, and there are amazing ways that technology allows him to connect with friends and learn new things. Nowadays, he’s on screens all the time. The difference is that he is now mature enough that I can have deep and honest conversations with him about it all.

I feel his efforts, his intentions, his skills have been a core part of this, and that is largely open to most people. And honestly, some of my favorite channels online are people who started them in their 50s or later.

He doesn’t appear in the videos, so he’s not performing, and you don’t even hear his voice. He uses AI voice over, and either films the images or creates them in video and photo editing programs. Let’s dig into his craft…

Developing his craft

What my son really seems to care about most is creating really good videos and improving his skills. I watch him working on videos, utilizing multiple programs to create them, from a video editor, a voice over creator, AI tools, graphics programs, and more. Around the holidays, I bought him some lights, tripods, and other equipment to give him more options for filming.

I’ve seen him work on his scripts, creating different thumbnails for videos, logos, cover images, and more, constantly testing and improving.

On the marketing side, I’ve really enjoyed seeing his awareness of what engages people online. Awhile back I noticed a typo in the headline of one of his videos, and told him so. A big smile came across his face, and he said, “I know. It's helping the video. People get so angry in the comments.” I asked if that means he gets more comments, and that in turn, helps the video in the algorithm? He replied, “Yes!"

Throughout this process, he definitely seems to have a big sense of humor, and is just enjoying some of the silliness of it all. But he’s serious with his craft. He has worked all of this into his routine, going to school, running track, coming home and eating dinner, making a video or two, then getting to homework.

It’s been amazing for me to see him integrate this into his life in such a natural way. Yesterday he uploaded three brand new videos, all amidst an otherwise busy day.

What can we learn from this?

I assume that if you are reading this, you are a writer or artist, not someone who wants to make videos every day. So what can we learn from this? Some things I’m considering:

1. Start with passion. Share because you feel your work matters to you, and will matter to others. Don’t just do the minimum, or copy the same expected best practices as everyone else. Channel your passion for a topic into how you share about your work.

2. Approach sharing as a craft, not as some task you want to do as quickly as possible, then run away. This should be a process of discovery and connection, helping you to understand how to share in a manner that feels natural, and truly moves people.

3. You have not missed the boat. I talk with so many writers and creators who bemoan that they missed the boat for growing their platforms online. They justify the marketplace is now to crowded, or that someone can only grow a following from scratch on Instagram back in 2016, etc. I not only look at the metrics of my son growing a following quickly, but the fact that he is truly having fun doing it.

Please let me know in the comments: do you think it is easier to reach people nowadays, and develop a following, or more difficult? Why?

For my paid subscribers this week, I shared mini-case study: curiosity can be your platform. See a preview here.

Reminder: if you want to explore working with me, there are two ways I collaborate with writers and creators:

1. One-on-one consulting

2. My Creative Shift Mastermind, whose doors open up again in April

As always, thank you for being here with me.
-Dan

Kids of the Week: My 7yo working on a book he is writing about astronauts. He is writing it on this pad, then has me copyedit it, then he types it up on his typewriter:

A typical day in our living room:

Making a shadow puppet: