K atie c ouric

There’s Always a CPA for Gaining Followers
Some influencers have gained fans by publishing content every day and
building strong relationships with their audience over a significant period.
They have a relationship with their fans—the fans know who they are and
have been engaging with them over the course of years. Obviously, this
isn’t the best option to gain fast results. Which brings up an important
consideration: 
There’s always a CPA (cost per acquisition) for a follower.
If
you’re building a fan base, even from an organic perspective there’s a cost
to acquire a follower or subscriber. Anyone who tells you that getting fans
organically means gaining followers for free is wrong.
Top influencers like entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk often have a full-
time staff working behind them. Vaynerchuk, who runs one of the top social
agencies in the world, leverages the knowledge from all the work he does
for clients to build his personal brand and vice versa. His agency not only
supports his clients but also supports him in creating, editing, and marketing
his content. However, if you’re not paying to have a team behind you like
Vaynerchuk, you’re paying with your time by doing all the work—shooting,
editing, posting, monitoring, and the like—yourself.
One of the reasons I chose to hypothesize, test, and pivot was because I
didn’t have access to a full team. I got to one million with minimal support.
There was a cost associated with the media spend, but no matter which
route you take there’s a cost, whether in time, commitment, money, or a
combination of all three. You have to invest to gain followers. My strategy
just happens to be one of the quickest and requires the least number of
people. Of course, that doesn’t take away from the fact that you still have
work to do once you’ve established the followers. It’s not like you get to a
million and you’re done. You have to actually engage that audience, or else
you lose your credibility.