HOW I GOT

1 MILLION FOLLOWERS

Here’s what I did over 4 years:

If you want to know the detail behind each method i used contact me to schedule consulting or buy a custom audit on your page and how it can be improved and what else you can do to grow

2014 - Followers - 250 (personal account)

2015 - Followers - 400 (personal with some soccer)

2016 - Followers - 1000

• My first step was committing to posting every.single.day. and fully learning the platform - how to post, which tools to use, how people react, what time people are on, etc

• I played with hashtags and not only used them on posts, but strategically went through each tag daily liking all recent posts to drive more traffic back to my page by giving other users notifications (~3 hours per day = about 30 followers/day). I hacked even more by finding hashtags related to wherever I was working on the day. If I was at an event at a youth tournament, I would make a note of their hashtag and later like all the posts from that tag to engage with people that may have seen me perform

• I worked in the same space as my online niche… While posting football content daily, I made a living by coaching for various clubs and freestyle performing for the New York Red Bulls (80+ hours per week including driving)

• I reached 2000 followers by the end of January and organized my first giveaway - the $300 debut pair of lace-less Adidas boots - this came out of my own pocket, but even my close followers thought I was sponsored by Adidas and I gained over a thousand more followers virtually overnight...

• I started finding and networking with accounts that had around 10,000 followers for collaborations and reposts. If I felt like I had something really good for them, I would ask for it to be shared, but have to this day never paid to be reposted - the content is the difference maker

• Near the end of 2016 I had my first trending video - a drone style ‘freestyle everywhere’ clip that gained over 30,000 views in 24 hours (this was wild for me then)

2017: Followers - 12000

• I entered 2017 in Iceland, where I traveled for fun with friends. This trip was an amazing culture experience, but also helped me get valuable content that I still use today and separated me from any of the ordinary football accounts

• I continued to post every.single.day, like/heart about 1000 posts per day, and respond to every persons comments

• I began getting hired for bigger events as a sole proprietor that allowed me to perform all over the country gaining recognition and in-person conversion of followers to my page

• I slowly began to vary my content away from freestyle and more into the regular football space with dribble/shooting/trickshots/etc

• Further, I tested different filming styles like iphone instead of drone/gopro/dslr. This proved easier, faster, and performed better on the app for me

• By October, I had a few videos trend well with about 100,000 views that saw a good amount of reposts and shares

• On November 17, 2017 I had a video go viral - what you would call “broke the internet”

• I utilized my (small) presence on other platforms like facebook, twitter, youtube to amplify that video. It has been reposted by at least a few hundred accounts across the web and was featured in major headlines on yahoo news and reddit at the time. I gained around 20,000 followers from that post and reposts over about 1 week.

• Instead of riding this wave - I made, and posted more entertaining content:

  • I drove from Charleston to Atlanta through the night to film with Moalifc for Red Bull for the first time

  • I then was home in NJ and drove to Boston 6 hours, filmed for 6 hours with DG3_Soccer, and drove 6 hours home…

• I still use the content from those shoots to amplify my growth on Instagram and TikTok

2018: Followers - 55,000

• By 2018 I had stepped away from the New York Red Bulls and was continuing to book work through my own business and continued to coach teams and group training for youth players

• I continued posting every.single.day.

• The treadmill video broke my ‘glass ceiling’ and over the next 3 months I had another 6 videos surpass 1 million views (although they weren’t shared as virally)

• By April, I received enough freestyle bookings that I was able to step away from coaching entirely. This was a tough and risky decision, but ultimately paid off

• The collaborations were big game changer. Having content with other great creators in them in addition to those creators sharing the content, helped growth tremendously

• With the World Cup in June, people get ‘football-fever’ - it became easier than ever to convert people to follow as football trended globally much higher than average for months

• I also had the opportunity to work World Cup Final viewing parties as well as attend the Neymar Jrs Five World Finals in Santos Brazil. Those experiences generate content that people love seeing - what’s better? A video of me doing a trick in the yard, or me on the same field/venue as Neymar himself??

• In August, Instagram rolled out it’s verification requests. I apply twice over the course of two months and one morning towards the end of October I woke up with a blue badge!

2019: Followers - 315000

• Parallel to 2017, I traveled, but this time to tour Bangkok and Phuket Thailand - another amazing opportunity for viral content

• At this point, I had already hired Athelo Group for management and began working on branding as well as securing bigger, better bookings, and future projects

• With a large, verified account I started gaining more followers per post, per event, and from each repost big and small. Through being more connected and having a larger platform, my content was shared more frequently by larger accounts. Any time I was reposted, I gave a shoutout to them in my story as a thank you to hopefully encourage more in the future

• In May, my management booked me for TikTok cross promotions on Instagram. I took the opportunity to become more present on that platform as some friends like @MoAliFC and @Ben already had over 1 million followers there. It was slow growing at the beginning, but then some posted trended and converted followers very organically. By September, I got my first million view video and my account grew to about 40,000. I updated my profile to drive more traffic to Instagram

• In December, I posted a simple video on TikTok that I used before on an Instagram post… THIS IS MY MOST VIEWED VIDEO EVER

2020: Followers - 680000

• By the start of this year, you can understand, there is a system in place:

  • Entertaining content

  • Timing of each post

  • Engaging with audience

  • Content shared by audience and big accounts like 433, fc barcelona, worldstar, etc

  • Giveaways

  • Collaborations

  • Cross Promotion from other platforms like TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Etc

  • Commenting on other posts, liking comments, genuine engagements on the app

  • Self Promotion

• I’m currently writing this on June 1st with 996000 followers - strategy: I have relevant diverse content ready to go at the right moment, when it’s trending and relevant

The main theme for 4 years has been constant work. In four years, I have not taken more than a few days off the app (trips and retreats without service). I did everything with genuine intent to inspire people to smile and experience the joy of the ball and game from my content. I researched the space as well as my own work to understand what worked best for me while maintaining my integrity and doing things I like

If you would like me to show you EXACTLY what I did and how you could do it more quickly, contact me directly - serious inquires only, I charge for consulting/advice $$$

I can now earn my entire living from social media based on a few methods

With this all being said, life is not about followers. I’m thankful for everyone who supports me, but there are more concerning things in the world than who has ‘clout’. I use my platform to run my business and I will continue to do so while also using it to influence positive social change

Find Your Freestyle

-DJ