We promised messy, and this is what it’s got us 

Remember when we said “Let me entertain you”? Well, entertained you’ve been! 2.5 million views worth of entertainment to be exact. 

A month ago we told you we were testing content that’s faster and rougher instead of our usual polished stuff, to see what it actually did for our own organic content strategy. 

Short version, it worked. The longer version, including the real numbers, the team’s take on it, and an Instagram feed that doesn’t look like a pretty portfolio anymore, is what we’re getting into here…

In this post:

• The numbers, since you asked
• Meet the legend behind the content
• A few things that stood out fast
• Letting go of the pretty stuff
• Onwards, and messier
• A few questions about our organic content experiment
• Stay watching

The numbers, since you asked 

A solid month in and here’s where things stand. Over 100 posts across our platforms in the last 30 days, and more than 2.5 million views on the back of it. One single stretch alone hit 2 million views in under 20 days. 

Mission complete. 

Well, maybe not quite because it’s just too fun and too enticing to see where we can take this type of content strategy.

Meet the legend behind the content

The absolute legend running this for us walked in with a goal of 10,000 followers in three months and 1 million views a month. Twenty days later, we’d already cleared 2 million. WTF!

We didn’t realise that hitting a big goal fast brings its own problem, the pressure to keep going up instead of just being relieved it worked. Lucky we’ve got the team to back it up!

A few things stood out fast

• Keeping the headline or title text on screen for the whole video works
• Gamified content works
• Formats people already recognise from elsewhere work
• 97% of the views don’t follow us
• Treating every video like it’s the first time someone’s meeting us, so a follow-up post still needs enough context to make sense on its own.

Whilst this stuff is working right now, it won’t work forever, so we’ll continue to evolve and adapt. We’ve realised our biggest asset is the personalities we have on the team, and leaning into the qualities and quirks they have is where we’re heading next.

TikTok’s had the same volume of posting and hasn’t taken off in the same way yet. We’re honestly not sure why, but maybe it’s something to do with the rise of the reel?

Onwards, and more of the cool sh*t

Now that we know we can get attention, the plan is to get more intentional with it, stronger content pillars, more personality, more experimentation, and turning views into people who stick around. Massive credit to the whole team for mucking in and being the best sports It’s easily the most fun, and most hilarious content Likeable Lab’s ever put out.

A few questions about our organic content experiment

1. Is this actually working? Views-wise, yes, over 2.5 million in the first month. Whether it’s building the kind of audience that sticks around long term is the part we’re still testing.
2. Why doesn’t the Instagram feed look as polished anymore? Because polished was slowing things down. Native, quickly edited content is getting far more views than the buttoned-up stuff did, so the feed’s traded some visual consistency for actual reach.
3. Are you doing this for clients too? Not yet, this is still very much our own experiment first. If it keeps working, it’s exactly the kind of thing we’d bring to a content strategy for clients too.

Stay watching

Here’s an example of the kind of content that’s been driving those numbers, you can’t not be entertained. Make sure you stay watching: Facebook, Instagram TikTok.

And if any of this made you curious what it’d look like for your own brand, we’d love to talk to you about it.