Okay, Roy is… rather intense in this tweet. He has a point, though.
His tweet is a good introduction to a theory I’ve been mulling over for a while now.
I’ll make it short and sweet (don’t mind the boring title).
Horizontal Scaling Theory for Social Growth
I’ve been doing social growth for about 10 years.
For most of that time, there was no TikTok, no Reels, and no algorithmic feed.
In today’s brave new world:
There’s no real way to do organic growth without gaming the rules of the algorithm.
which is (partly) a black box…
…where to win, you need to take a lot of shots. like a lot.
I’m not talking about spamming or mindless posting.
Horizontal scaling isn’t spamming.
It’s more like throwing darts at a target, and improving your throw each time until you hit the bullseye.
Then doing it again and again. Ad vitam aeternam.
Say each video teaches you something: maybe something about the hook, the structure, the acting, the setting, the trend…
How many videos would you need to be sure one of those elements actually works?
First, you test 10 different hooks using the same “actor” (who might vary outfit, energy, and acting in each one). Format stays rather consistent. After 30 videos, you find one hook that performs 3x better than the median. So next, you make another 30 using that hook and figure out one format that performs 3x better than your new baseline…
If you’re into data or analytics, yes… it’s not pure science. It’s a mix of gut feeling and somewhat intentional parameter testing.
In any case, your learnings are correlated with your testing frequency.
You want to reduce the “luck” factor, where a video is pushed arbitrarily to the next view milestone… or rather, the “bad luck” factor, where a video/account is being restricted.
Since each account has limits on how much you can post per day, you’re naturally capped.
That’s when horizontal scaling matters.
If you want to test widely and iterate quickly (meaning faster, better data) you have no choice but to increase the number of accounts.
“But a single good brand account…”
I hear you, and well… even if one account consistently gets high median views and frequent viral videos, you’re still limited by how often you can post and by the formats you can use.
You’ll always reach a point where adding more accounts is the only way to go…
…whether you’re just starting out or already scaling.
So what’s better: leveling up content quality on one account, reposting the same stuff across multiple accounts, or running more accounts with lower-effort content?
The answer always varies across use cases. I’m not a maximalist.
But on average the best yield comes from getting the most views for the least amount of effort (obvious, yes).
Of course, it depends on the quality of the edits. If your content takes a minute to make, you should be posting a lot every day. If it takes a full day to create, you just can’t scale the same way.
In that case, since you can edit the same footage in different ways, even time-consuming content can turn into several videos.
Now, if you’re a new startup, brand doesn’t hold much weight.
“Brand” is often just an excuse.
Brand is how people perceive you and talk about you when you’re not in the room.
If you show up in every other video from random creators and civilians, you’re creating a real brand effect.
Or… put another way; engineering FOMO:
Views alone aren’t enough, especially when they last just 12 seconds. What matters is also the frequency of those views hitting viewers again and again.
We’re just applying that same idea here where:
Horizontal scaling is the only way forward. More accounts, more videos, more views, more touchpoints… more, more, more…
That’s how you work the algorithm. Not just to grab attention: but to grab it again and again.
Going viral once is easy. Keeping the pace in this ultra-competitive game for attention is extremely hard.
And this isn’t just about TikTok marketing.
Running shadow or faceless accounts to run simultaneous B2B lead magnet giveaways is a sound strategy. For very similar reasons.
As much as algorithmic social platforms gives you free reach, they also cap it.
I recently went to Las Vegas, while re-reading Ed Thorp’s biography.
Counting cards and playing blackjack, you want to play 5000 hands instead of just a few.
Same logic here.
The more you post, the better your odds.
Just like the casino reshuffles the deck, the algorithm changes, or your content format stops working… then you reset the odds and start again.
Luckily your edge against the algorithm is way stronger than your edge against a casino.
So go beat the house.
—
Guillaume,
From The Social Growth Engineers Team.
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