5,000 New Followers on Threads in 2 Months | The Effortless Growth Strategy I Actually Wanted to Keep Secret
Everyone, are you using Threads?
In fact, over the past two months, my Threads account has gained 5,000 followers, and the other day, I finally surpassed 15,000 followers. I have used various social media platforms before, but I have never experienced growth at this speed.
I imagine some of you may have come over to note because of Threads. Thank you so much.
Because of that, I received many questions asking, "What did you do on Threads?" So, this time, I would like to talk about everything regarding what I was actually doing behind the scenes to make my Threads account grow so significantly.
I think it is a platform where it is very easy to grow right now, so I would like to share some "versatile advice" on what I was conscious of and how you can apply it yourselves.
What I did for Threads management: A thorough "reuse" strategy
Over these past two months, instead of constantly creating new things, I focused entirely on reusing content by "analyzing the cards I hold and the engagement data, then consistently continuing what worked".
I will introduce four specific actions I practiced.
1. "Consistency" at a sustainable frequency
There is actually a major reason why my numbers moved so drastically in these two months. It is that I diligently continued "daily posting" for the six months before the buzz happened.
I decided on a posting frequency of twice a day.
I live in France, but I post about every 12 hours, aiming for around "6:00 AM" and "6:00 PM" Japan time.
Furthermore, I also did two "ghost posts" (a feature like Stories) per day that disappear in 24 hours. In total, I maintained four posts a day, keeping something visible at all times without putting in too much effort.
(When I want to try a new angle or if something isn't getting much reaction, I use ghost posts that disappear in 24 hours for test marketing.)
By the way, from the time I opened the account until I reached 5,000 followers, there was a long period of trial and error lasting nearly one to two years. During that time, especially in the last six months, I posted every single day without fail, and I kept collecting data on "what kind of themes and wording tend to go viral" and "what kind of angles increase reach or gain followers."
I didn't just blindly keep posting new things. It was because of this steady period of "daily posting," where I checked everyone's reactions to my posts one by one using analytics and kept running small PDCA cycles, that the strengths of the cards I held became clear, leading to the explosive growth in the final two months.
The perspective when looking at post numbers is:
"What kind of themes tend to go viral?"
"Is it easy to reach people?"
"Which posts gain followers even if the reach isn't great?"
What is important here is that
you need to distinguish between "follower growth" and "reach growth".
2. Use "viral posts" over and over without changing the wording
This is the most important point.
Once I found a post that performed well (hit content), I repeatedly posted it every 3 to 4 days, swapping only the photo without changing the text.
You might think, "Won't people get bored if I post the same thing?" but SNS timelines are constantly moving. As you can see by looking at the "Analytics," you aren't reaching every single person who follows you. Even if something goes slightly viral, it doesn't reach everyone. The golden rule of growing on SNS is to stubbornly keep repeating what went viral.
3. Identify and utilize the "role" of each post
From six months of data collection, several patterns that tend to go viral emerged. I intentionally use my posts differently, understanding the "role" of each one.
Post Pattern Content Details Effect/Role Room Photos
Posts consisting of just two lines of text stating "facts" about me, such as "36 years old, living alone in the Paris suburbs," plus a photo that matched that text, led to overwhelming follower growth (e.g., 500 new followers from a single post).
Once you find a hit like this, the key is to "change the exterior and keep doing the same thing diligently."
By the way, this combination of "age, location, and attributes" is currently stable and tends to go viral, so please try it out according to your own content. Trying is free.
Depending on the order and combination of photos, there were fluctuations where reach would exceed 10,000 or stay at a few thousand, but the interesting thing is that it became "one of my hit contents" that consistently gains 50 to 100 followers, and up to 500 at best.
With a normal mindset, you might think that posting the same thing requires "being a bit unhinged," or you might think, "Maybe I should change the wording" or "Maybe I should look for something in the same vein." But the golden rule of SNS is "just stubbornly do what went viral." So, when something goes viral, I use that template as is and keep the wording exactly the same.
This is a lesson learned from over 10 years of using SNS. People don't watch you as closely as you think they do. In a good way.
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There were two other pieces of content that clearly went viral.
Culture Shock Series
A "list of things that surprised me" when returning to Japan from Paris, or things that surprised me after living in Paris. These kinds of "relatable" topics resulted in overwhelming reach and diffusion (hundreds of thousands of reach, tens of thousands of likes). It was a clear viral hit with 300,000 to 500,000 reach, 20,000 to 30,000 likes, and 300 to 400 reposts.
But there was an interesting phenomenon: even with 500,000 reach, the number of new followers was only about 300.
Looking at Threads analytics, it's obvious: "just creating a viral hit doesn't mean you'll gain followers"; it's meaningless unless you go viral with a post that is seen by people who are compatible with your own content.
And because these viral posts reach a wide variety of people, the comment section is not exactly a safe space, so you need to be prepared. For those who want to increase their followers on SNS, mental resilience is a required subject. If you are aware that you are sensitive, it is a good strategy to intentionally avoid these types of viral-prone topics.
By the way, comments that don't fit my worldview will also get mixed in. In such cases, I don't hesitate to clean (delete) the comment section to maintain order. Protect your own worldview yourself.
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Another thing: while the growth was modest until I reached 4,000 to 5,000 followers, there was one type of content that attracted an incredibly high-quality, well-behaved audience.
That was "heartwarming experiences unique to Paris."
In Paris, people smile when they make eye contact, strangers compliment your clothes, and there are heartwarming moments like when you donate to a homeless person. I write about these small events by adding a touch of my own emotion.
By regularly posting this type of content while changing the photos and videos, I was able to achieve stable reach and an increase in followers.
As a side note, even among your core fans, the majority will not go back through all your SNS posts to follow you on other platforms. It is too early to decide that you "cannot post this again because you already posted it once."
How to cut corners and increase efficiency to grow. This is the golden rule of my SNS posting. You cannot sustain things that require too much effort and hard work. Let's graduate from the ideology of effort-first.
Threads is fun like a game, and the algorithm is easy to understand. Once something goes viral, you can repurpose it as many times as you want. Sometimes it reaches completely different people, and if it reaches the same people, they will just scroll past it. Let's reuse content effectively.
4. The "Subtraction" Strategy to Protect Your Worldview
If you post twice a day, some posts won't grow at all and will end up with 10–20 likes. Actually, that happens more often than not. For those posts that didn't get reach,I archive them all so they are no longer visible.
Think about the actions you take when you follow someone.
Threads makes it very easy to reach people outside of your followers, so when you find an interesting post on your timeline, you jump to that person's profile (top page), right? Then you look at a few slides of their past posts to decide whether to follow them.
At this point, if there are few posts to begin with, there is no material to judge whether to follow, so it won't lead to a follow. That is why you should store up posts as preparation.
And when a potential follower looks at your timeline, if it is filled with mediocre posts that only have "2-3 likes," it will lead to them leaving.
That is precisely why I have a personal rule: "Archive anything with 40 likes or less" so that people who have gone to the trouble of visiting my page can follow me without hesitation. Keep only the meaningful posts lined up. Because that isyour portfolio.
What is important is to utilize your "past assets."
I repeat,
your list of posts (timeline) is, so to speak, yourportfolio.
If someone new visits your page and scrolls through your past posts for 2-3 slides, and all they see are "unclear posts," it will not lead to a follow.
That is why you should save posts that have grown in the past (assets) and repost them half a year or a year later with slightly different photos. Reducing the effort to create new things and reliably delivering "good things" that have already been proven is the key to continuity and growth.
The Secret to Killer Words That Go Viral on Threads Right Now
Finally, I objectively hypothesized why my "36-year-old, living alone in the suburbs of Paris" post leads to follows even without being reposted.
First, specific numbers and specs like "age" and "living alone" easily evoke empathy and catch people's eyes.
And when you see the photo of this room, the intuition that "36 years old and living alone = probably not married" coexists with the aspirational element of "living in Paris."
What if this had been about 'living in Paris as a couple'? I don't think it would have grown this much.
Perhaps the 'aspirational element of Paris' was offset by the 'relatability of not being married,' creating a 'perfectly balanced' vibe that didn't come across as pretentious. It was a happy accident that worked well in terms of emotional design. If you want to apply this, I recommend including your 'age' or 'where you live.' Threads tends to reach more people when you include a 'place name (area).' For Tokyo, use your 'ward,' for Kanagawa, 'Yokohama,' for Hyogo, 'Kobe,' and so on. I also make sure to always include 'Paris' or my 'ward.'
There is no need to take new photos or videos. I just reuse old photos of Paris from my Google Photos and occasionally take a few random shots when I go out in the city.
Conclusion: Why I'm sharing this for free
How was it?
Some people sell guides on how to grow on X (formerly Twitter) or Threads, but I don't think there's any need to charge for it. That's because if more people use the platforms and activity rates increase, it will eventually come back around and benefit me as well.
Using Threads increases the number of people I meet. I shared everything today with the hope that such a circle will continue to expand. Thank you for reading today.
By the way, for those who want to know more about today's content, I talk about it in detail on my stand.fm radio show. Please check that out too if you'd like!
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▼ I'm updating my stand.fm radio with deeper stories than on note.
On my stand.fm radio, I broadcast once a week for free and twice a week for members. I've surpassed 6,000 followers. Thank you so much!
▼ I have created a "Workbook to Reconnect with Your True Self" through writing. Reflect on the past year and design a new year as your authentic self. It has been very well received, with over 960 copies sold!There are fewer than 30 physical copies of the workbook left. There will be no further reprints of this year's edition once it sells out. Thank you so much for all your orders!
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▼ My freelance life, which started from being unemployed/a NEET. Here is my "life story," which many people have read
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