I’m intrigued by little, irrelevant statistics and seeing positive numbers always gives me a tiny dopamine kick.

Right now, I’m obsessed by my bank savings account, especially after Dutch banks have raised their interest rates from 0 to less than 1%. This means that each month, I’ll get some extra money on my bank account (yay!).

With the amount I receive monthly,  I can’t afford myself a cup of coffee. But hey: growth is growth!

Little (ir)relevant social media growth

Making your savings grow is like growing a social media profile organically: It is a low-cost and low-risk strategy to reach your goal (unlike investing in stocks or paid ads).

It also has a downside: you know that it’ll take a lot of time before you see visible and meaningful results. You have to grind, be consistent and be creative. And don’t expect your growth to be fast or impressive.  

But as you work toward that goal — which is miles ahead — you should certainly celebrate the small wins.

Two months into my new job as a Social Media Specialist, I’ve set myself the goal to double the amount of followers (ideally even more). But given the circumstances and Instagram’s algorithm, I know two things:

1) Not all organic posts are going to perform well

2) Your follower base isn’t going to increase magically, especially after just having started.

With this in mind, I get to work and I celebrate the tiniest wins, like:

• Seeing that your organic reach is up because of a Reel you’ve posted
• Celebrating a follower growth of +2
• Seeing that a profile other than you, your friends and colleagues has liked one of your posts
• Seeing someone comment on your post

All these things above are as special as the two dollars of interest I get on my savings account. They’re just tiny accomplishments, very tiny steps towards reaching your goal. But in the end, they are things you have achieved. And that’s why they’re special to you.  

Seeing your growth grow

Each month, I see my saving interest grow by a few cents, because I kept the money on my savings account. And the more money, the higher the interest

And this is compound growth in its tiniest form. The more time you invest, the faster your results compound. The same is true in Marketing:

• Larger social media profiles can grow their audience easier but it took Social Media Managers years to grow them to the point where they are now.
• Some websites can easily rank a new page on Google because it took them years to build their authority

As I’m in my third month for my new company, I slowly see better results as well:

• Sometimes we get 1 to 2 new followers a day
• Some people started tagging us in their posts
• The number of likes we get on our posts is slowly increasing
• We were able to convert someone who liked one of your posts into a fan

The result of consistency, investing time, and keeping your head up (because yes, I’ve also seen a lot of fails already).

A rational balance

And this brings me to another point: Yes, celebrate the smallest wins, and no, don’t be too bothered by one single post that has performed worse. Sometimes it is what it is.

Likewise, celebrating a viral post doesn’t mean a lot if you don’t see an overall upward trend in reach, followers, and engagement.

You should always look at the bigger picture and the context, before making conclusions. Analyze, and stay focused on your goal. Keep your head up while keeping your mind on the task. And celebrate the tiniest things, because we often forget to do that.