Followers ≠ Expertise

If you've stumbled across KHreative Works on Instagram recently, you might have asked yourself a fair question:

"Why should I listen to a branding agency with only about 1,000 followers?"

Honestly, I'd probably wonder the same thing.

Butttt... I'd also point out that we're a branding agency, not a marketing agency; and if you're judging us by our follower count, there's a good chance you don't know the difference.

😂 Okay, that was a dig, but honestly, many people don't know the difference.

You can learn more here: Branding vs. Marketing: What's the Difference? or here: Branding vs. Marketing: Brothers from Another Mother

Social media has a funny way of making us believe that visibility and credibility are the same thing, but they're not.

If that were true, only the people who did the best work or had the best products would have large followings; pages that shared disinformation would not exist; and every brilliant business owner would already be a household name.

There have been times I've looked at businesses with bigger audiences and thought, "Maybe I should be further along. Maybe I should be posting more. Maybe I should have figured this whole social media thing out by now."

But, social media isn't my full-time job. It shouldn't have to be. I hate that business owners are being forced to be "content creators". We shouldn't have to be competing for attention online... just to grow a following... just to "prove" we're worth it. Of course, we should be showing our products/services, and marketing our businesses on digital platforms in this digital age, but the supposed "need" to be online all the time, doing reels all the time, jumping on trends, trying to go viral, obsessing over engagement rates... thinking about all of it makes my skin itch.

Of course, I would like to grow our audience, but not at the expense of doing the work that actually grows the business. Social media marketing is not my focus. Branding is. Serving my clients is.

Over the last decade, I've had the privilege of building a small but mighty agency, working with clients in thirteen countries, receiving recognition for my work, and, two years ago, leaving my career in Health Policy and Systems Research to pursue KHreative Works full-time. None of that happened because I cracked the Instagram algorithm.

Most of it happened because people trusted me enough to recommend me, because clients came back, relationships and reputation mattered, and because God has been far better to me than I deserve.

Ironically, one of the reasons our social media stayed quiet for so long is because we were busy doing the work and just serving people!

Could I have shown up more consistently? Absolutely.

Should I have posted more? Probably.

But here's the thing: The number of followers only tells you how many people follow an account. It doesn't say how many people you've helped, how many problems you've solved, how many referrals built your business, and it certainly doesn't tell you whether you're good at what you do.

While the internet rewards visibility, real, paying clients reward value.

Those things overlap sometimes, but not always.

Do you know how many businesses would struggle if social media disappeared tomorrow? If your social media pages are all you have, you don't have a viable business.

Here are some things to focus on that will grow your business, with or without social media:

• Instead of chasing followers, focus on building a service offering and client experience that keeps clients coming back.

• Instead of trying to go viral, ask your clients to refer you to someone like them who needs what you offer.

• Instead of spending hours on reels, spend time researching your field and becoming an expert, so you can improve your services, add new offerings, and even charge more.

• Instead of doom-scrolling and obsessing over what larger pages are doing, build ways to become so good that people market your business for you.

All that said... I'm giving social media a try for the next three months (actually posting content more than once a year)... not because I need to, but because I've spent more than ten years learning lessons that I think are worth sharing. I've realized that everyone throws around the terms "brand" and "branding," but far fewer people actually know what they mean.

Branding is fascinating, and I want to share more about it. I genuinely enjoy helping people think differently about their businesses. Plus, there's someone out there who needs to hear that they don't need 100,000 followers to be credible. You don't have to become an "influencer" to make an impact. You don't have to be seen by millions to build something meaningful. Yes, it helps, but you can definitely grow without it.

You just have to keep sharing what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for.

Eventually, whether online, or through good ol' word-of-mouth, your people will find you.

And when they do, you better have something worth talking about.

View an unplanned, unscripted, bare-faced video about this here.