I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account • Hacker News Board

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#31

Post by toastercat » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

> CEO and Co-founder of Neon Roots Ben Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Neon Roots, a digital development agency with a mission to destroy the development model and rebuild it from the ground up. After a brief correspondence with Fidel Castro at age nine, Ben decided to start doing things his own way, going from busboy to club manager at a world-class nightclub before he turned 18.

This whole article seems like it lacks any concrete message. In the end, it feels like the writer is still trying sell himself to me. Which... I don't understand; what is so different about "personal branding" on social media, and spamming me with emails about your life and ventures?

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#32

Post by ramoz » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

jondubois wrote: post #21

In the bio: >> Ben has founded or taken a leading role in 5 businesses in everything from software development to food and entertainment. You can't be good at anything if you change industry every few years. It takes at least a decade to be truly good at something. If you're selling a service that you're not actually good at, you're just a snake oil salesman. Your success doesn't depend on how talented you are, but o…

I disagree.

Being able to adapt to many business arenas is a skill. This can be applied to anything. eg The software dev that has spent the last 10 years doing Java, can still be outshined by a recent college grad who is able to adapt/learn quick and can produce more "creative" or effective outcomes.

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#33

Post by jessaustin » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

jondubois wrote: post #21

In the bio: >> Ben has founded or taken a leading role in 5 businesses in everything from software development to food and entertainment. You can't be good at anything if you change industry every few years. It takes at least a decade to be truly good at something. If you're selling a service that you're not actually good at, you're just a snake oil salesman. Your success doesn't depend on how talented you are, but o…

There is a limit, but some of the best people I've worked with have changed industries multiple times. There isn't only one way to do things.

Of course your diagnosis of this particular author is probably correct.

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#34

Post by jondubois » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 5:24 PM UTC

ramoz wrote: post #32

jondubois wrote: post #21

In the bio: >> Ben has founded or taken a leading role in 5 businesses in everything from software development to food and entertainment. You can't be good at anything if you change industry every few years. It takes at least a decade to be truly good at something. If you're selling a service that you're not actually good at, you're just a snake oil salesman. Your success doesn't depend on how talented you are, but o…

I disagree. Being able to adapt to many business arenas is a skill. This can be applied to anything. eg The software dev that has spent the last 10 years doing Java, can still be outshined by a recent college grad who is able to adapt/learn quick and can produce more "creative" or effective outcomes.

I've worked as an engineer in over 14 different software companies of all sizes over the last decade (including one Y Combinator company for 1 year) and I've interacted with hundreds of top engineers but I've never once seen a talented engineer 'straight out of college'. There is no room for lone creative geniuses in the software industry. It's more science than art. On the other hand, I've met plenty of very good engineers in their 40s; even those engineers who were never passionate about the work tend to become really good at it after a couple of decades.

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#35

Post by nindalf » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 5:28 PM UTC

data_spy wrote: post #14

I noticed if you run a business, building a personal brand can be powerful (i.e I make awesome cakes and then people see them and come and buy them), however outside of that and being a public commentator, it's a bit pointless.

Or an actor. Or a politician. Or an athlete. Or a nonprofit. All of them benefit from strong social media game. AOC has much more political heft than say, Rashida Tlaib even though they're both freshman in Congress. AOC's 8x more followers on social media might have something to do with that.

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#36

Post by fabatka » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 5:28 PM UTC

fireattack wrote: post #9

Is the first sentence meant to be for the title, i.e. "Fuck Social Media. That Ain’t It." -- said every major marketer in 2018. ? I'm asking because it doesn't make any sense (he said "Every marketer was wrong", but then he agreed on "fuck social media").

This time the random bullshit generator threw up inconsistent clickbaity sentences, sometimes it happens.

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#37

Post by mimixco » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 6:01 PM UTC

Why is this flagged? There's nothing disingenuous about this post. Frankly, I agree with him entirely. Social media is a net negative these days for many individuals and businesses.

Kudos to the author for having the guts to say it. (Disclosure: I was an early adopter and used to teach social media for business. I quit FB more than a year ago and never looked back.)

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#38

Post by wickedOne » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 6:02 PM UTC

this article is all over the place...

- spent $100.000 on personal branding, but what was spent on building the instagram following and what was the ROI on that part?

- "If you wanna know how to get to a million followers, it’s not complicated." so why does he only has 118.000 followers? did he give up before reaching his goal?

- "And guess what? Thanks to that exclusivity, he’s the most searched-for term. If you type “Seth” into Google, “Seth Godin” is the first search result. " first of all no he's not and second of all he's not in the suggestion list because he doesn't broadcast his mailing list. would have been nice to see some reasoning behind that statement.

- "It cost me $1,000 to speak at All Thing Social Media Event or at Soho House on growth hacking. I was able to generate at least $10,000, in some cases even 100X on my spend." is part of the sentence is missing? how do you get 1000% ROI from such gigs?

ramblings...

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#39

Post by cooperadymas » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 6:09 PM UTC

mi100hael wrote: post #19

kristiandupont wrote: post #4

It's interesting to read a blog post that I guess caters to some audience that is "in the know" with whatever this guy is doing because all I got was the message "Being an influencer is not the answer" where I am still left with "..to what?" I am pretty sure I agree with the sentiment that he is reaching for but I have no idea what he was trying to achieve with his profile. But if he did indeed spend over $100k build…

There are a lot of people who believe that building a huge Instagram following is a core component to building businesses, especially in the fashion/fitness/lifestyle arenas. So much so that there are people out there calling themselves "entrepreneurs" who haven't actually done anything other than build a modest following and maybe hock someone else's brand to their followers in exchange for (maybe) a couple bucks. I…

Which, when you put it this way, is not all that different than the current startup mentality of building an audience before you build your product.

Re: I deleted my 118k-follower, verified Instagram account

#40

Post by RandallBrown » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

wickedOne wrote: post #38

this article is all over the place... - spent $100.000 on personal branding, but what was spent on building the instagram following and what was the ROI on that part? - "If you wanna know how to get to a million followers, it’s not complicated." so why does he only has 118.000 followers? did he give up before reaching his goal? - "And guess what? Thanks to that exclusivity, he’s the most searched-for term. If you typ…

He founded a mobile app development company. Speaking at a conference for $1000, and getting a single customer from that conference would probably get him $10,000 in revenue.

I agree that they're pretty shallow ramblings. Also, of course he's not going to get much business from his instagram. He's not selling a lifestyle product, he's selling mobile apps.