30-day Youtube Growth Challenge - Here's What Happened

In 2023, online video is expected to account for 82.5% of all web traffic.

It is undeniable that video has become an essential component of a business's marketing strategy.  

and people are shifting to consume more and more video content 📹

I saw an opportunity to engage and grow an audience for my personal brand. So I am challenging myself to create video content for 30 days.

But making videos and publishing them daily is hard but it's worth the reward. So I'm challenging myself to publish content daily on Youtube for 30 days to prove it.

👉 The Challenge

✔️ Publish 26 videos on Youtube within 30 days (Skipping weekends for now)
✔️ Repurpose content on other social media platforms including Linkedin, Tiktok, Facebook, and Twitter.
✔️ Overcome public fear and build social confidence

📊 I'll measure and document my process, all the results, follower growth, etc. hopefully, my efforts will pay off.

👨‍💻 Let's set some ground rules first

• Create a Workflow: To make this a consistent habit, I'll develop a realistic workflow (will share this workflow below)
• Content Quality: content should be actionable, with no vague or bullshit advice
• Production Quality: I will not stress much about video production for now so I do not have any excuses but will improve it over time.
• All Organic: Will not use any paid ads to grow my channels for at least 30 days.
• Videos will not be podcasts, for now at least. They'll be short-form videos on different topics related to marketing, business, growth, and more.
• Learn Platform Etiquette: I run a digital marketing agency so I already know most of the technical parts however learning never stops especially when it is hands-on. Hashtags, publishing times, short vs long-form content, and whatnot. Let's learn and crack the social media algorithm.
• No selling only personal branding. The goal is not to sell anything (for now) but instead, to grow my social media audience and chase some vanity metrics like followers along with engagement metrics and traffic to my website. I will use soft CTAs to transfer the audience from social media to my website.

Current Stats & Goals

• Fresh Instagram account (5 Followers) 👉 Gain 100 followers
• Fresh Tiktok account (0 Followers) 👉 Gain 100 followers
• LinkedIn (5863 Followers) 👉 Gain 100 followers
• Facebook page (3299 Likes) 👉 Gain 100 followers
• Personal Facebook Profile (5k Followers) 👉 Gain 100 followers
• YouTube (230 subscribers) 👉 Gain 100 subscribers

Goals:

• Gain 100 followers on each channel (small targets for now)
• Views (Targeting 1k+ views)
• Quality (subjective but important for other metrics)

The Plan

Step 1: Fix my Social media profiles

❌  Before I start, I need to optimize my social media profiles which includes adding a new cool cover and revised bio. And some cleanup of who I am following.

✅  My username is already optimized, and all my professional social media handles are "gohardotme" (yes after this website name)

Step 2: Create a workflow

Pro Tip: I used Freeform on my iPad to create this workflow in 5 mins.  You can do this by hand to save time or use any tool like Figjam, freeform, etc to design your workflow. Simple is better.

By mapping out the process, it made it easy to identify the tasks that I did NOT want to do. Some things are better for me to focus on, like:

📝 Content creation
💼 Management

And some things are not fun for me to do, like YouTube admin work. That’s stuff like:

• Writing video descriptions
• Creating video tags
• Thumbnail image creation
• video editing and captions

I realized that I was a slow video editor, and although I liked the process, it wasn't the most efficient use of my time.

Focusing on our strengths usually results in more enjoyable and productive work. Therefore, I decided to step back from tasks that were not a good fit for me, to avoid becoming a bottleneck in the process.

Tools used:

• Airtable (for content planning)
• Raindrop (for bookmarking topic ideas)
• Captions App (for subtitles)
• Chatgpt (for content help)
• Metricool (for scheduling content on social media)

I have shared all the tools that I use to run and grow my business

Inventing the Process of Publishing Videos:
I’ll create a checklist of things needed to be done in order to publish a video. Ideally, I’ll upload the first few videos to nail down a process. Then, hand it off to someone else so I can focus on just getting videos done.

Thumbnail Design

Did a quick shoot for some quirky thumbnails for the videos. We have a very simple process for creating thumbnails. They’re not overly designed. There’s always room for improvement here. You can use Canva to create good-looking thumbnails.

Step 3: Track progress

I will use Metricool and native social media analytics to track different KPIs.

Let the Challenge begin! 🏃

Here is what my "Muhammad Gohar Shafique" Youtube channel looks like after this challenge.

Video #1: My First Attempt

You can see the issues with the poor quality of both video and audio, as well as inadequate lighting. To overcome these obstacles, we have made significant changes to our video production approach. Specifically, we have upgraded our equipment and started incorporating the following gadgets into our workflow

• No mic 👉 Rode Wireless Mic
• Room lights 👉  Basic Lights
• Canon 750D 👉  iPhone 12 Pro Max

As a result of these changes, the quality of our videos has significantly improved. Do watch the latest videos and see the difference for yourself.

Video #13: Midway

I missed two days of not publishing the video. 😔

Video #26: The Final Video

Results

Tiktok (Clear Winner)
✅ O followers  👉 338 Followers
✅ 19k+ Views

My learnings & some hacks for Tiktok

• TikTok is all about consistency even if the content topic is senseless (that's why dancing videos get more views than educational content because they are easy to make) but you have to be consistent with your posting schedule.
• Entertaining videos perform better on Tiktok. Using filters and TikTok trending audio helps you with better visibility.
• TikTok gives you a better dopamine hit than any other platform that why more and more content creators are moving there. (I will talk about this in my videos)
• Adding audio and subtitles can improve your views
• Adding hooks at the start of the video helps as well
• One content format makes it easy for content creators to publish stuff quickly as compared to other channels

Instagram
✅ 5 followers  👉 274 Followers
✅ 21k+ Reach

My learnings & some hacks for Instagram

• Instagram is a very balanced platform (in terms of audience and reach)
• You must mix your content strategy by creating reels, carousels, and stories for better visibility and growth.
• Adding audio and subtitles can improve your views (same as Tiktok)
• Adding hooks at the start of the video helps as well (This works for almost all platforms)

Youtube
❌ 230 followers  👉 257 Followers
✅ 500+ Views

My learnings & some hacks for Youtube

• Youtube favours long-form videos more and it makes sense because the Youtube audience is different from other social media platforms. They have tried copying Tiktok and Instagram by introducing YouTube shorts but the algorithm is very different.
• We ignored Youtube SEO which is why I think we were not able to reach the potential. The big lesson here.

Facebook Page
❌ 3299 followers  👉 3298 Followers
✅ 1799 Reach

My Learnings & Some Hacks for Facebook Page and Profile

• Facebook is dead with organic reach, especially pages. They want your advertisement MONEY.
• I have shifted to my Facebook personal profile more than my page. I like their "professional mode" for personal profiles. However, the business suite is still a mess.

Facebook Profile
❌ 5579 followers  👉 5620 Followers
✅ 7k+ Reach

What did I learn?

• Audio and Lights are important for a good video. You can use your smartphone to shoot videos.
• Consistency is the Key. Saw drops on weekends because I was not publishing on weekends. Some channels like Tiktok and Instagram improve your visibility just based on your consistency
• Cracking the Algorithm. Youtube works well for long-form content (for now at least), they are trying hard to copy Tiktok with YT Shorts but Tikok has cracked the dopamine part. Tiktok and Instagram are for Short form content. Linkedin and Facebook are just the dumping ground (your existing connections matter).
• Adding structure matters as well. I was all over the place in the initial videos but later improved that part.
• Focus on SEO is important, especially for Youtube.

I continue to learn that if you just pump out great content that helps people, and consistently market yourself or your services, you’ll grow and earn money.

It’s really always that simple in this industry.

Thank you!

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who took the time to watch my videos, hit that subscribe button, and even leave a comment. Your support and encouragement have been an incredible motivation for me.

I am thrilled to say that I have completed the challenge, and it's all thanks to you. Your engagement with my content has made it possible for me to create something that is both useful and entertaining.

🙌 It just goes to show that with hard work and determination, you can make a living doing what you love and on your own terms. I couldn't have done it without you, and I appreciate your unwavering support.

If you haven't subscribed yet, I invite you to join our community by subscribing to my YouTube channel. Together, we can continue to make great things happen. ✨