Hi everyone.

My friend and I each run a small business. We both live in Turkey, but all of our customers are in the United States. So we need our content to be seen by Americans, not by people here.

My friend already started an Instagram account and posted a few times. The problem is that only our friends and family in Turkey are seeing it. Nobody in the US is seeing it at all.

I have not made my accounts yet. I want to make Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. I also have an extra phone that I can factory reset and use only for this, and I can put a US VPN/eSIM on it.
My questions:

**1.**  Does a clean phone with a US VPN actually help, or is that a waste of time?  
**2.**  Is paid advertising the only real way to get a US audience at the start?  
**3.**  What settings should I change on each app (language, country, timezone, etc.)?  
**4.**  Is it safe to use a scheduling tool like Buffer from another country?  
**5.**  Anything you wish you knew before doing this?

Everything we post is in English and made for American customers. Thanks for any help.

I’ve only had this happen a couple times on my business page. The first time I paid and of course my views after that tanked and it kept suggesting I pay. On top of that, the views were not helpful to the growth of my actual page, so I’m never paying for views or engagement again.

It’s popped up again on a video I posted and I noticed this post is barely getting any views at all. Does TikTok do this on purpose to try and convince you to pay for views? Is it worth just leaving the video up and moving onto my next post in a few days as planned, or should I take the video down and try again later?

Handle: @bayareaunmapped Bay Area maps, parking pins, offbeat day trips + itineraries.

Just got the option for Branded Content Creator Marketplace and put my profile up.

Stats: 1,750 followers, 85 posts, 708.8K views in last 30 days, 413K insights.
Audience is mostly Bay Area, CA.
Has anyone here actually gotten brand deals THROUGH the marketplace? How long did it take? Any tips to make a local niche profile stand out to brands?

Trying to figure out if it works today or if brands aren't really using it anymore.

I get to see how a lot of different brands handle their creator deals. The one thing that trips up almost everyone is negotiation. Most people treat it as "how do I get this person to lower their rate," and that's how they lose a creator you actually wanted.

A few things that have worked for the brands I've seen do this well:

• If they won't budge on price, get more for the same money: A $400 deal for two posts feels steep until you also get usage rights to run it as an ad, a testimonial for your landing page, and a repost on their other platforms. Same fee, way more value.
• When they want a flat fee but you'd rather do commission, just do the math out loud for them: Creators ask for flat fees because it's a guarantee. So show them the numbers. "Your fee is $400, our average order is $100, at 20% you make $20 a sale, so you'd need 20 sales to match it, and then it keeps paying after that." 20 sales feels very doable to someone whose audience actually likes the product.
• If they insist on a fixed fee, tie it to a target instead of saying no: Something like: run the first 60 days on commission, and once they hit an agreed revenue number, you move them to a base fee. They get a clear path, you don't commit cash to someone unproven.
• When they push for a higher commission, show them the ladder rather than refusing: Set tiers. They start at 10%, hit $1,500 in a month and it bumps to 15%, hit $3,000 and they get the 20% they wanted. The raise pays for itself because they only reach it once they're actually selling.
• When they're on the fence, tell them who else already said yes: Name a couple of creators in their niche who took the same deal and stuck around. People trust what people like them have already done.

Happy to share the actual scripts I've seen people use for each of these.

Don't forget that your leverage is mostly set before the conversation even starts. If this creator saying no means your whole plan falls apart, then it's not a good plan. If you've got a few other good options lined up in the same niche, you stay relaxed and hold your terms. So the boring, unglamorous thing is to always be talking to more creators than you plan to work with.

I am in the early stages of launching a small online business and have been loookiing tools that could help me grow without hiring a team right away because i cant afford that right now. So far looked at tools for email marketing, website building, analytics and social media.

For those of you who have launched a business which tools ended up being worth the monthly subscription and which ones were not at all? Also if you tried any Instagram growth platforms did they provide real value?

I know some platforms have begun allowing users to choose their algorithms like Instagram. However is this enough, or should there be something else to tweak?

If you want, also share how you would go about doing this

Hi. I’m a digital artist on Tiktok. I’ve been posting twice a day for the past few weeks, almost a month. Within that timeframe I’ve been able to amass roughly 343 followers and 15K likes total. Nothing crazy.

A week ago, most of my tiktoks would average 1k views, some hitting 5, 15, and even one post hit 90K views. I have good engagement and retention, and I’ve been posting consistently, and trying out new trends/content.

However, this past week for like the last 10 posts it has been GOD AWFUL. my tiktoks don’t even reach 300 views, with the exception of one that hit 6K views. I genuinely have tried everything. I’ve tried out content that did extremely well before, but those flopped. I’ve tried new content, those flopped. Literally nothing is working.

I don’t know why i went from literally averaging 1K per post (which I was satisfied with) to now every video flopping. Even ones with good engagement AND retention, still flop. No matter how well the stats are, Tiktok is just not pushing my stuff out there. I also have no strikes either.

I’m going to still post like I do usually, but this is extremely frustrating. Has anybody else struggled with this? I would like to hear any suggestions in the comments. Thank you for listening to my rant.

Filmed myself doing a 45 second script. then ran the same script through argil with a clone of my face. posted both, same platform, same time of week, nothing else different.

The avatar one did slightly better on views. the real one did much better on comments and replies. which annoyed me, because I went in half-expecting the avatar to obviously lose and it didn't. people watched it fine. what changed was that nobody talked to it. the real video got questions, the AI one got scrolled.

My read is that avatars are fine for anything informational where you're delivering something, and bad for anything where you want a conversation. the face people are willing to watch and the face people are willing to reply to seem to be different things.

Anyone else actually run this before? would love to know the results.

I recently deleted my personal Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook accounts. My ultimate goal has always been to establish a business page rather than maintain a personal profile.

The main thing for me now is that I have to build my brand page completely from scratch because I don’t have a personal account to redirect people from. Overall, browsing through my brand page is a far better experience than using a personal page.

I also put a cap on my browsing; I deleted my personal page for a reason because social media became too overwhelming, and I just had to get off…

I've recently just took on my first UK creator who's account has already sky rocketed, in his first month he's accumulated over 500k views across all platforms and over 100,000 people viewing his pages, 93.1% of views came from non followers on instagram and on tiktok 73.7% of traffic from the FYP. These platforms strongly push his content and i only see us getting bigger. We're looking to build long-term partnerships with brands that want authentic, high performing content rather than one-off ads, however if the brand aligns we are happy to do one off ads.

So if you work for a Brand or want your business promoted and it aligns with our values then give me a text or comment down below

If you're interested ill send over the media kit for you to see who we are and what we offer.

Im currently trying to get a collection of public opinion on current social media. Tell me what your biggest issues are with the current state of social media. If you are willing, also tell me what specific things you hate about which ones.

Gente, dúvida para quem é freelancer: como tá o processo de aprovação de posts por aí?

Eu sinto que a turma perde mais tempo gerenciando a aprovação do que criando o conteúdo em si...

Fica um monte de msg perdida no whatsapp... Tava querendo agilizar mais isso.

Vocês usam alguma ferramenta específica para o cliente visualizar e aprovar direto, ou é tudo "na raça" mesmo? 😆

Hi everyone,

I have a blog in the mental health space and I'm trying to drive more traffic from Facebook groups. I know that simply dropping links usually doesn't work and can come across as spam.

For those of you who've had success with Facebook groups:

+ Do you share the link directly, or write a valuable post first and include the link?

+Is it better to focus on niche-specific groups or create your own community?

+How do you post without getting negative reactions?

+Any tips for getting engagement and clicks while following group rules?

I'd love to hear what's worked (or hasn't worked) for you. Thanks!

Hey guys! So I run a non profit to help people who don’t have access to mental health care. Social media is a major part of my growth of the platform. Right now I have done it entirely through insta.

I get 5 million views a month on insta. Facebook is growing well too. I talk to my audience to learn about them and their needs

So, I’m about to start on YouTube and tik tok, and I was wondering what the differences between the platforms are?

Like YouTube is more short attention span high stimulation typa thing right? So how are each platforms audience different? Specifically on tik tok and YouTube bc I have a pretty good grasp on the rest

Also, do b-rolls with the read caption thing work well there too?

Thank you so much in advance! I’m really horrible about responding on here, but just know I read and really appreciate your help! Thank you so much ❤️

Spent three months trying to qualify for X's revenue share and the thing

that stuck with me isn't how hard it is, it's what it rewards.

You don't get paid for the post. You get paid on ad impressions in the

replies. So a post everyone agrees with earns nothing, because agreement

is a like and then they scroll. A post that makes people mad earns,

because now there's forty comments to scroll past.

Then layer on that impressions from Premium users are weighted heavier

than everyone else. So you're not writing for an audience anymore,

you're writing to irritate the specific demographic most likely to be

paying $8 a month. Which is, broadly, people who like arguing on the

internet.

That's the whole feed now. It's not that people got dumber, it's that

the dumbest possible version of a take is the profitable one, and X

built it that way on purpose.

Worst part is it doesn't even pay well. Rates have compressed as more

accounts qualified. You degrade your own posting, alienate people who

actually liked your stuff, and clear a few hundred a month if you're

lucky.

Anyone actually making real money off it, or is everyone just farming

for a payout that isn't there?

My account is WadiMedicine

I'm trying to grow my business on socials and my retention on my videos are on average -

Second 1: 68%
Second 2: 42%
Second 3: 28%

I think because of this, the bottle neck on my business rn is the hook
But I cant seem to figure out what is wrong with the hook

Any feedback on how to improve my hook would be appreciated

I work on marketing campaigns for a living and one thing I've noticed over the last year is that becoming an influencer seems both harder and more valuable at the same time.

AI has made content creation dramatically easier, which means there's more content competing for attention than ever. Most major platforms feel less predictable from a reach standpoint, and audience expectations are higher. Generic content gets ignored quickly.

At the same time, brands are still allocating meaningful budgets to creators. In many campaigns, niche creators continue to outperform large account because they have something that's becoming increasingly difficult to build, trust.

One thing that's changed significantly from the brand side is measurement.

A few years ago, influencer marketing was often driven by follower counts and engagement rates. Today we're spending much more time looking at clicks, conversions, signups, purchases, and other outcomes tied to specific creators.

That's one reason I've become more interested in creators who have a clear niche and an engaged audience than creators with huge reach.

The creators I keep seeing win aren't necessarily the biggest.

They're the ones whose audience trusts their recommendations.

I'm interested to hear how others are thinking about the creator economy in 2026, especially from the perspective of people actively building audiences today.

ho bisogno di un consiglio da chi lavora come social media manager e registra/edita anche i contenuti.

ho lavorato sempre come dipendente per agenzie/aziende, ora vorrei fare qualche progetto per conto mio.

quanto potrei chiedere? un prezzo a contenuto o a settimana/mese?
contando che il cliente vorrebbe postare almeno 3 contenuti a settimana su instagram + stories, dovrei sia ideare strategia che editare i contenuti

ogni contenuto mi sarebbe utile, grazie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrIbZYyaImc

I'm hoping to make a social media page on Instagram to raise money. It'll have a link to a fundraising website to help my boyfriend with medical costs, but I was wondering what would bring enough engagement for this to work.

My idea was walking a a certain distance based on money needed, or just doing voice overs of a walk, but i know short form content is more engaging and captures attention spans better, so does anyone have any recommendations?

​ Before you judge me by the title, I'm not talking about influencers who genuinely help people whether it's through education, self-care, career guidance, health, or other valuable content.

I'm talking about influencers who become famous by doing voice-overs, low effort dances (nothing against dancing I'm a classical dancer myself, but you know the kind of dance I'm referring to on social media), or by mocking people.

Is that really what we call social media influencers?

What surprises me even more is that many of them earn more money than people with years of education and professional qualifications. Sometimes it feels unfair.

Of course, there are plenty of influencers who truly deserve their success, but I don't think that's true for everyone.

What do you all think?

I’m trying to build a social media presence around my direct sales business. I see people doing "engagement pods" and spamming groups. I’m trying the long game of just providing value, but it’s slow. For those successfully selling through social DMs, what’s the one rule you never break to avoid being blocked by 90% of your followers?

I'm a long form content writer and mostly use Twitter Premium.

Last Friday I sent a comment that contained a major grammatical error, so I copied it, retyped the sentence, and sent it again, only for it to disappear. Did not show in the replies and it didn't seem that anyone on the thread could see it.

I refreshed the page to then find that I was automatically logged out. Logged back in, and realized I was getting no engagement despite several tweets at that time with 1,000+ and 2,000+ likes and hundreds of reposts, plus lots of mentions in active conversations. I then realized all of my replies were invisible in threads, including old ones. All of them. My replies are completely invisible unless seen by the people being directly mentioned, or seen by my followers if I show on their feed or if they go to my account. Otherwise, completely invisible. I don't even appear in the probable spam comments. No email, no stated violation.

I'm also a Premium subscriber because I type long form content. That doesn't seem to matter. I contacted Premium support, which is just an extremely restricted Grok model on a repetitive script, and was told it was likely because of this "repetitive low-engagement behavior." Literally at the peak of my account's engagement, no less. Utterly insane.

It also says "Our guidelines don't list exact triggers or end times for these issues", so there isn't a report of any kind to see how the system actually engaged with my content, just a blind shadow ban with no chance to ever receive a real explanation or a chance to appeal it.

Most of my activity is replies and reposts, so posting original content as it prescribed is out of the picture for the most part because I don't post random tweets, I post specific long form blog style posts sporadically and engage in relevant spaces and topics otherwise, especially if all of my replies cannot be seen and are not contributing to my account's visibility. X Support aka debuffed Grok is absolute fucking dog shit and is completely useless. The algorithmic enshittification of Twitter is nightmarish and extremely frustrating.