I’ve been seeing these “vulnerable” income reports all over Instagram lately, where creators with large followings (50k+) share that they’re only making about 1k a month!
For example, I follow a few service providers who I consider to be insanely talented at creating content. These are people I genuinely admire, people whose work makes me think “damn, they’re good at what they do.” They have tens of thousands of followers, their content regularly goes viral, and from the outside, they look wildly successful.
But when they recently shared their income reports, their average monthly revenue was $1,000-$3,000 a month.
These posts prove what I’ve been saying for years, that what you see online rarely matches what’s happening behind the scenes.
We’ve all been conditioned to think that viral content + big followings = big money. But that math isn’t mathing, and it’s time we talked about why.
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Why We Confuse Popularity with Profit
Our brains are literally wired to want likes and follows. When we get social media engagement, it lights up the same dopamine pathways as gambling. And while this feels undeniably good, the issue is that it doesn’t necessarily give you a great ROI.
We see big follower counts and assume success because we’re relying on social proof. But just because a crowd is gathering doesn’t mean that crowd is onto something profitable. I’ve literally experienced this in real life, standing in a crowd in the city, all of us waiting for some celebrity to appear, only to realize we were all just following each other’s lead and waiting for absolutely nothing.
The same thing happens with social media metrics. We see someone with 100K followers and think, “They must know what they’re doing with their business,” when in reality, that follower count might have zero correlation to their business profit.
Are You Building an Audience of Peers or Customers?
Here’s what I think is happening with those talented service providers I mentioned. They’re creating incredible content that other people in their industry admire. Hell, I watch their content and look up to them too.
But here’s the problem: I’m not somebody who would ever buy from them. I’m a peer, not a customer.
If their audience is full of people just like me, other service providers who admire their work but aren’t their target market, no wonder they’re struggling financially.
They’re building a following of their peers, not their customers.
This happens more than you think. You create amazing content, you grow your follower base, but the followers you’re attracting aren’t converting into sales because they’re the wrong people entirely.
The Difference Between Building a Business and Building an Audience
Let me be crystal clear: I’m not saying social media doesn’t matter. I literally offer social media services! What I am saying is that social media is a business tool, not a scoreboard. It’s not a popularity contest or a way to become the cool girl on the internet.
The goal isn’t to go viral. The goal isn’t to rack up followers just to say you did it because none of that pays your bills!
I’ve had clients beg for viral posts, and when we got them one, 500K views on Instagram, a million on Facebook, it didn’t bring them a single dollar more. Because it was just a funny, feel-good post that went viral for entertainment, not content that positioned them as the go-to expert for their ideal clients.
On the flip side, I’ve had posts with smaller reach that sold out shows for clients because those posts were hyper-targeted to the right audience in the right location.
So I would encourage you to stop asking yourself “Will this go viral?” and start asking:
Is this post talking to my peers or to people who are actually going to hire me?
Am I chasing attention or am I building trust?
You don’t need mass appeal or to become Instagram famous. You just need the right people (your people) to find you, trust you, and pay you.
The Metrics That Actually Matter
Instead of obsessing over likes and follows, why not focus on the metrics that actually determine business health?
- Your pipeline
- Your retention rate
- Your pricing and margins
- Your capacity
- Your conversion rates
No one buying a business is going to ask how many followers you have or how viral your posts went. Seriously!
Content can absolutely grow your business, but not through popularity. It grows your business by building your brand, clarifying your message, amplifying that message to everyone who needs to hear it, and showing the right people that you are worth hiring.
We’re not here to look cool online. We’re here to run successful businesses that last.
🎧 Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
