How I Grew Our Instagram from 2,000 to 85,000, In Under Two Years

I like problems.

Most people would say that's a lie - no one really likes problems. And sure, when things go sideways, I get frustrated and anxious just like anyone else. But this circles back to a question I think about often, one that tech billionaire douchebag Peter Thiel supposedly asks in interviews: "What important truth do you believe that very few people agree with you on?"

For me, it's simple - I like problems. I seek them out, even. That's partially anxiety talking (we tend to hunt for things to worry about), but it's more than that. Problems are puzzles to solve. They make me feel useful, feed my desire to learn, and oddly enough, help manage my anxiety.

I guess that's why I was drawn to tackle our Instagram problem at work. For years, our Instagram performance had been terrible. We had tried everything - hired gurus, brought on part-timers and full-timers, consulted with experts. Nothing worked. The growth remained painfully slow, which was odd given Sporcle's big presence in the nerdy space. You'd think we wouldn't have to work so hard to get people to come to us, but we felt invisible. This was a problem we couldn't seem to solve.

But as I said - I like problems.

Trust me, I am not a social media expert. That's not what this is about. I'm over fifty and to me TikTok is the sound a clock makes. But what I am good at is breaking down problems, and that's exactly what I did with our Instagram challenge.

So this week, I want to share how to tackle those seemingly unsolvable problems, how to get started, why failing is part of the solution, and importantly, how to keep the problem from consuming your entire existence. Because while I like problems, I've learned they shouldn't take over your life.

Half of Solving Any Problem is Identifying It

In general, people like to jump right to solutions before really understanding what's wrong. There is something endearingly human about rushing in to fix things even if you don't know what you are trying to fix. With our Instagram problem, the easy fix was "we need more followers." But that's not really a problem statement - it's a wish.

A problem statement is a good beginning. It's a clear, concise description of an issue that needs to be addressed. It's the gap between what is and what should be. Think of it as the difference between saying "I need more money" and "My monthly expenses exceed my income by $500, making it impossible to save for retirement."

A good problem statement has three key components:

• What's happening now? (Current state)

• What should be happening? (Desired state)

• What's the measurable gap between the two?

For Instagram, our actual problem was: "Our account grows by only a handful of followers per month despite having millions of monthly website visitors, while similar brands convert 1% of their web traffic to followers."

This tells us everything we need to know:

• Current state (50 new followers/month)

• Desired state (should be closer to 50,000 overall based on our traffic)

• Context (we're seriously underperforming compared to similar brands)

• Scale (we're missing out on tens of thousands of potential followers)

When you frame a problem this way, you start seeing different angles. Is it a visibility issue? A content problem? Are we failing to connect our web presence to our social presence? Do we not understand the platform? Each of these questions leads to potential solutions you might miss if you jumped straight to "hey, let's post more memes of cats!"

This process of codifying your problem which in turn leads to a series of questions is a process of discovery that leads you nicely into the next part.

You Have Much to Learn

Imagine handing someone who's never seen a car a socket wrench and saying "Go fix it." That's more or less what we do when we try to solve problems without understanding the tools we're using. Before I started tinkering with our Instagram strategy, I needed to actually understand what I was tinkering with.

This meant going deeper than just "Instagram has posts and stories and Taylor Swift tour dates." I did a deep dive into the features Instagram offers - not just the obvious ones, but the tiny details casual users might miss. How exactly does the algorithm handle carousel posts? What's the difference between reach and engagement? Why do some Reels get distributed differently than others? What even are Stories?!

I also became a student of success. I studied accounts that were doing really well in our space - not just looking at their content, but analyzing their patterns. When did they post? How did they structure their captions? What type of content got the most engagement? This wasn't about copying - it was about understanding what works and why.

Again, I have no desire to become a social media guru. I wanted to build a foundation of knowledge that would make our experiments smarter. Because when you understand the tools at your disposal, you start seeing solutions that weren't visible before.

And this learning phase is a big deal because it prevents you from making one of the classic blunders - the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is: "Never try to solve a problem before you understand the tools you're working with."

This isn't about throwing solutions at a wall to see what sticks. It's about building a framework for intelligent experimentation - which is exactly what I'll talk about next.

Fail Fast, Learn Faster

You know what's worse than failing? Failing slowly. When I finally understood the tools and had studied the landscape, it was time to start throwing things at the wall - but in a fast (and smart) way.

So, here's what an experimentation cycle looked like:

First, I'd come up with a hypothesis: "Maybe carousel posts with trivia questions will drive more engagement because people love to prove they're smart." Then I'd test it. Not for months - for a week or two. If it worked, great! If it failed, also great! Because now I knew something I didn't know before. Spoiler, trivia carousel posts did not do all that great.

It felt like I tried everything: Different posting times, various content types, different ways to write captions, and even different approaches to hashtags (less was definitely more). I discovered that a good blend of single image posts with an open question like "What are the only birds capable of flying backwards" once a day, paired with a reel or two a week that were geography centric was my magic formula.

The key was establishing a clear testing framework:

• Run one experiment at a time and limit variables (otherwise, how do you know what worked?)

• Set specific metrics for success. You need to know what a win looks like.

• Give each test enough time to gather data, but not so long that we were wasting time on failed approaches

• Document everything - especially the failures

Each failure taught me something new, and each small success built upon the last. I wasn't just throwing darts in the dark anymore - I was building a playbook of what worked specifically for our audience. And that is also generally why the gurus and consultants never worked for us. I needed to take a journey to see what was best for our audience. To learn what our people really wanted.

And experimentation, well it never really stops. But once you start seeing patterns in what works, you can build systems around those patterns. Which brings us to our next topic...

From Experiments to Excellence (or "How to Not Make This Your Whole Life")

OK, so solving big problems is great but - they can become all-consuming if you let them. After months of experiments and learning what worked, I realized something important: I didn't want to spend the rest of my career posting on Instagram. This wasn't my job. I needed to turn my successful experiments into sustainable systems.

I like to compare it to cooking. When you first try a new dish, you're checking the recipe every 30 seconds, measuring everything precisely, and trying not to burn the kitchen down (at least that is how I cook). But over time, you develop a feel for it. You create your own shortcuts. You know what works.

That's what I did with Instagram. I took everything I learned - the timing of posts, the types of content that resonated, the caption formulas that worked - and turned it into something of a playbook. Not just a "here's what to do" guide, but a real system with:

• Templates for our most successful post types

• A scheduling tool that serves as our content calendar

• Guidelines for what makes a "good" post for our audience

• KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) that matter (and ones we could safely ignore)

The goal wasn't perfection - it was sustainability. I wanted something that could run smoothly without requiring constant attention or late-night brainstorming sessions. Because at the end of the day when it comes to problem-solving: the solution shouldn't create new problems.

In Conclusion

Alright, let me wrap this up with something of a cautionary tale. Remember how proud I was about building that system? Well, about that - I got a little too comfortable. Our solid process became a rigid routine, and growth started to plateau. Turns out when solving. problem it's important not to set it and forget it. The best systems have oversight and the flexibility to adapt.

And this brings us full circle to another reason why I like problems. They're never really "solved" - they evolve. That Instagram problem I "solved"? It's morphing into new challenges. The platform changes, audiences shift, what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. It hasn’t taken over my life, but it continues to be a fun challenge to iterate on.

And that's okay. Because the real value isn't in finding the perfect solution - it's in developing the mindset and methods to tackle whatever comes next.

So I guess that's how I would answer that Peter Thiel question from earlier. Problems aren't really obstacles to overcome; in fact, problems aren't really problems. They are actually opportunities. They’re a chance to learn something new, to grow, to evolve, and to make everything around you better. And at the end of the day, I really do like that.

Oh and before I go, I wanted to roll these up into a handy problem-solving checklist (feel free to clip and save):

• Define the actual problem - not just the symptoms

• Learn your tools inside and out before you start tinkering

• Study what works for others, but understand their success may not translate to yours

• Experiment systematically - one variable at a time

• Document everything, especially the failures

• Build systems around what works

• Most importantly: Keep checking if those systems still work

Closing thoughts:

Thanks to everyone who filled out my surveys from last week. I really value the insights you gave me and plan to incorporate a few changes into things going forward.

Also, congrats to the winner of that $25 Amazon Gift card. Note I am not announcing who in the interest of privacy for the winner.

Finally, not a big deal but if you ever wanted to buy me a coffee or something, I set up this link if you feel so inclined.