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Build Your Tribe | Grow Your Business with Social Media
How to BECOME KNOWN on Instagram in 2026 - 884
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Most creators, brands and small business owners are chasing viral videos, but the ones who win in 2026 are creating recognition. Viral videos are great for attention and they can definitely provide an influx of followers, engagement, and potential customers. But it's recognition that creates predictable growth and income, repeatable results, and sustained success. And so my thesis for today's episode is that you don't become known for blowing up, you become known for locking in. In case you aren't already, I want to ask you to consider hitting that subscribe button because I'm super close to 100k subscribers and every single week on this podcast I put out helpful tips, strategies, ideas and step by step guides to growing your small business or brand on social media. Something that unfortunately has been misunderstood over the last few years is that virality doesn't necessarily equal success. Virality doesn't equal being known. Virality or having a video go viral means that you are being seen, but to be seen is not to be known. In fact, most viral videos are quite forgettable. The average person sees over a thousand videos per day on social media, and some estimates suggest that people are seeing over 5,000 videos a day on social media. And if I were to ask you what were the last five reels or the last five TikToks or the last five YouTube shorts that you watched, you probably couldn't name them. And even if you could, I bet you could only name one. And you could only vaguely name what the video was about, not who the creator was or what that person stands for. On the other hand, when you as a creator or a personal brand or a small business owner are truly known, people are able to describe you in just one sentence. She's the gut health girl. Oh, you're an expecting mom looking for low tox living. Check out this lady you're trying to grow on Instagram. Follow Brock. He's the reals guy. I can't tell you how many times I've been walking through a mall or at the airport or at a speaking event and someone's come up to me and said, hey, you're the reels guy. I see you on my Instagram all the time. And that's strategic. Although I've never called myself the reels guy before three seconds ago, I've strategically positioned myself so that people know me as such. So that when people think, where do I go if I want to grow on Instagram? Who should I turn to for real ideas? What purse is giving me the breaking news about the latest Instagram strategies and features? They come to my page. And once they come to my page, they know me as such and and they continue to recommend me through word of mouth and through shares to other people just like them. So the question that I want you to start asking is not how do I get more views, instead what do I want to be known for? Because at the end of the day, if you want to actually be paid for all of your efforts on social media, if you want to monetize, if you want customers, if you want people who are more than just followers but they're fans or lifers or subscribers, you don't need millions of followers and you need the right kinds of followers who actually know you. And before people will know you for something, you have to decide what you want to be known for. Now, of course this can evolve and change over time, so I don't want you to put too much pressure on yourself, but I do want you to keep in mind that when you confuse, you lose. So you need a clear and concise identity that you will be known for. This is what some people might call your elevator pitch or your known for statement. As a template, I want you to use the following sentence as kind of like a mad lib to build off of I help who with specific result using method. So as I was initially building my personal brand on Instagram, my statement was I help small business owners. That was my who with organic Instagram growth. That was the result using daily reels. That was the method. This can essentially be thought of as your niche and I've done an entire episode just a few weeks ago about niching down the benefits of it and walking you through how to do it. Once you have a clear niche or known for statement. And it should be clear in almost every post you make. In 80% or more of the posts that you are sharing to your feed, it should be evident from the post without having to be explicitly said what your known for statement is. Basically, if someone watches a couple of your posts, they should instantly get it without you having to tell them. So with all that being said, I have eight tips to help you create a more recognizable brand or business on social media. Tip number one is to create repeatable formats. Repeatable formats are something that I've talked about on previous episodes of Build you'd try, but it is essentially formats or styles for your reels that you can use over and over and over again. One of my most popular examples that I use at least once a month is what I call my award reel. The award reel is a video that I Took back in the summer of 2024 of myself simply raising up my hands like this. And then I added an emoji of a trophy, and I saved that video to my device. Now all I have to do is change up what the text at the top of the screen says. I can have fun with it and be a little bit sarcastic or playful. I can relate this reel to something that's popular in pop culture or something that's trending, or I can make it a more heartfelt message by presenting the award to someone who actually deserves it. But as you can see, this reel is not only a repeatable format, but it's also very easy for me to create. And by the way, you are more than welcome to steal that as your own repeatable format. And you're more than welcome to steal and recreate any single post that I make without asking. This is your permission slip. So if you want an action item right now, I want you to pause this video, set up your phone in a window or in front of a ring light, and just hold up your hands like this, and then digitally impose an emoji of a trophy into your hands, and you're done. But this repeatable format has become so recognizable for me and my account that whenever I post this reel, people will say, yes, I finally won one of these awards. Or, dang it, every time you post one of these award reels, I feel called out. And these comments are proof that my audience is recognizing this format, but also able to understand that each time I post it, it is slightly different. Repeatable formats feel familiar, which make them feel more bingeable. People are more likely to watch till the end if they have a little bit of an idea of what to expect, but not exactly an idea as to where it's going. While I'm definitely a fan of experimentation and variability and trying out new styles for your reels, if you can have at least one or two repeatable formats, it creates memorability for your brand. If every single post you make is different and unique from the one that came before it, well, then you're kind of starting over each time, and your audience is starting from a clean slate. Think about some of the most famous directors of our time. There's Wes Anderson, whose repeatable format and style is so unique that it inspired its own social media trend. Copying it, there's Quentin Tarantino and his love for bright red fake blood and gory scenes. Speaking of these recognizable styles, tip number two is to create your own recognizable style. And I want to say, for all of these tips that I'm giving you don't need to necessarily have all of this figured out in advance. You can very much figure this out as you go. But maybe there's a specific lighting style that you really enjoy. Maybe you like really warm tones and lots of yellows and reds and oranges and browns in your videos. Or maybe you like cool tones with lots of blues and whites and silvers. Maybe you're always going to use a very professional camera that creates a really blurry background and makes your videos look super cinematic and professional. Or maybe you're gonna shoot everything on your phone to give it that made with iPhone look. Your closed captions on your social media videos can be a part of your style. Some people will just use the basic white font with a black outline for their closed captions, but some people will use a specific font. Maybe they'll even create their own font. Maybe they'll put it in a specific color every time and that will create a recognizable or repeatable style. Maybe all of your videos are going to have lots of quick cuts and B roll and jumping from this to that. They're going to be very visually dynamic, or maybe they're going to be the opposite. They're going to be very FaceTime, very yappy, and they're going to have minimal editing. Basically, if you were to remove your username or maybe blur out your face in the video, would people be able to recognize that this is one of your post posts just from the style alone? Tip number three is to lean into what makes you unique. Your quirks, your weird things that you're into, your personality are what make you unique. They are your brand. Oftentimes we can spend so much time overthinking what is our brand. How do I want to present myself online, how am I going to be known? And ultimately, if you can just be yourself, that will help you create a more recognizable and unique brand. Because you as a human being are already unique. So instead of trying to come up with a way to be unique, just be yourself. Now, I'm on the record of saying that just be yourself is horrible advice. So I believe that one of the tactical or practical ways that you can just be yourself and let your personality shine through more in your content is to edit less. Basically, reduce the time between idea and execution. Reduce the time between that moment where you're like, oh, I want to share that tip. I want to tell that story. I want to make this post and, and actually pressing post. The less time that you can spend between those two moments. The more authentic your post will be, the more time that you spend editing, refining, filming, scripting, AI ing, filtering, the less real, the less authentic and the less you your post will become. So I want you to consider things like phrases you always say. For example, I was recently doing a live on this YouTube channel reviewing people's profiles. You can go check it out. It's still up by the way. And in that live I kept saying I digress. To the point that people in the comments were saying, oh, why do you keep saying I digress? That's one of those phrases that I always say. And so by letting that come out in my content, people are able to connect with me more. Back in 2016, when I started my first real online business, I remember that my head was filled with so many what ifs? What if no one buys this? What if I'm an imposter? What if there's no market? What if I can't sell? What if, what if, what if, what if this is all just a big waste of time and I'm just banging my head against the wall. But what I wish someone told me back then is just like you can imagine all the negative what ifs. There are just as many, if not more positive what ifs. What if this works out? What if this is my breakthrough? What if this is what sets me financially free? And thanks to one of today's sponsors, Shopify, it's easier than ever to turn those positive what ifs into reality. Shopify is the e commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and it now represents about 10% of the entire e commerce market in the US from some of the most famous and well known brands in the world like Gymshark to Solopreneurs, Shopify has you covered. Shopify helps you get the word out about your e commerce business as if you had an entire marketing team behind you. It easily helps you create email and social campaigns so that you can attract customers wherever they're scrolling. And if you ever get stuck, Shopify has 247 round the clock, award winning customer support. That way you can tackle the important tasks from inventory to payments to analytics all in one place. No need to bookmark multiple websites and sign up for multiple tools. You can do it all in Shopify. It makes your life easier and it makes your business operations run smoother. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling on shopify today@shopify.com tribe again. That's shopify.com tribe. Imagine this. It's Tuesday around lunchtime, but it feels like Friday because you've already had to wear 17 different hats as an entrepreneur already this week. Between shuttling the kids around, writing emails, coming up with reels, it's a never ending job. So you end up resorting to the same old boring snacks that you have every single day, or having the exact same meals on repeat. But you know you're craving something better with HelloFresh, no two meals are the same and you can choose from over 80 global recipes every single month. And as we all know, nothing quite hits like home cooking. Go to hellofresh.com byt10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free NutriBullet Ultra plus two in one compact kitchen system. It's a $189.99 value. You get that in your third box. Free meals will be applied as a discount onto your first box. New subscribers only, and it varies by plan. And as a disclaimer, you must order your third box by May 31, 2026. Also, if you're watching this on YouTube, you may have noticed it already. I use my hands a lot. I'm a very physical speaker and so by including my hand gestures, it creates a more recognizable brand. For example, if I'm speaking and I go like this with my hands and I talk about how great Instagram is and how it's going to be a very, very big year for you, you can understand who I'm impersonating because these are recognizable hand gestures. Another way that you can bring your personality into your content is through your tone. Are you someone who's sarcastic? Are you someone who's very dry? Are you very high energy and enthusiastic like I often am? Or are you someone who's very direct and to the point? And beyond just your tone, there's also the pacing in which you speak. Some people end their sentences by going up. Some people will pause in their sentences between every one to two words. Some people will pause at the end of each sentence to really drive home its message. Again, this is something that I don't want you to overthink. And it will feel unnatural at first because it's not natural for you to record yourself on video, put yourself on camera, but it will become more natural over time. I remember when I was first getting started on social media, making videos for Snapchat and YouTube back in the day. I was mimicking what I had seen other people do. I was mimicking newscasters and I was mimicking my favorite YouTubists because I had to figure out where I fit in and what I liked. But eventually I brought in more of my own personality. And now it's to the point that when people meet me in real life, they say, oh, you're just like you are online, or oh, you're speaking exactly like you do in your videos. Yeah, because I'm speaking in my videos the way I do in real life. You can also create recognizability through your wardrobe. For example, if I were to put on a black nose strip and wear a white tank top, I would look like one particular, particular business coach who you can likely imagine. Yes, Alex Hormozi. If I put on a plain blue T shirt and spiked up my hair a little bit, I would be Dan Martell. Personally, I have two wardrobe consistencies. In the warmer months, I wear camp collar T shirts where I'm kind of in a button down or maybe a quarter zip. And in the colder months, I'm wearing some sort of sweater. If you want a tactical way that you could come up with what these quirks and personality traits are, ask your friends, family and loved ones, because oftentimes they're, they're going to know what these things are better than we're going to know ourselves. Remember that your personality isn't a liability. It's your differentiator. Tip number four is to come up with content pillars. Now, there's a right way and a wrong way to do content pillars, and it essentially boils down to the old school way of doing content pillars and the new school way of doing content pillars. The old school way of doing content pillars was to pick four or five different topics that you are interested in that you want to create posts about. And typically these topics would be very diverse. So for example, people's content pillars would be faith, family, fitness, nutrition, and your dogs. Those things are all very diverse. And if you have a video that goes viral of your dogs, people likely won't care about the other four. If you have a video that goes viral relating to your faith, people probably won't care very much about your fitness journey or your furry friend Fido. So that's the outdated style of content pillars that I'm not a fan of and not something that I teach, something that I am a fan of that I do teach. The new school way of content pillars is essentially different subcategories within your niche or different topics that all relate to your niche that might be slightly tangential or adjacent to your niche, but ultimately they all kind of fall under the same umbrella. So for example, if I'm the Instagram guy who helps small business owners grow their page organically, maybe my content pillars or the things that I'm going to post about are reels, growth tips, content strategy, monetization ideas, different tools you can use, maybe mindset tips or motivation. These are all different things that relate to my niche. Ultimately, they're different buckets, if you will. They're not totally independent from each other. They are different pillars holding up the same roof. Tip number five to become known on social media, or more specifically on Instagram in 2026 is to come up with some sort of series or repeatable challenge. Now, if you've been following me on Instagram, you may be familiar with my series which is reviewing one of my followers reels every day until reach 1 million followers. Which by the way, if you aren't already, make sure to go follow me on Instagram because then you can enter in to win every single day of that series. That for me is kind of like a repeatable format. It's a reel that I can do every single day. It's memorable because my audience can say, hey, this is the guy who's reviewing a reel a day. Or hey, this is the guy who's running a mile for every follower. And it makes the mental workload for me of coming up with a post every single day much easier because I know that I'm going to have at least one post a day done for me because I don't have to think about it. It's just my real review of the day. Tip number seven to become known is to be specific. The more specific you can be, the easier and faster it will be to become the go to person for that thing. As a very obvious and extreme example, if you wanted to be the world's leading fitness expert, that's going to be really, really tough. In fact, you could work towards that your entire life and dedicate every ounce of your being to that and not end up being the world's leading fitness expert. However, if your goal is instead to be the go to person to help moms in Northern Ireland who are over the age of 30 run their first marathon, that's more doable. Sure, the ceiling of potential followers that you could gain is lower because there's just less people on the planet who are interested in that specific of a topic, but you're going to be able to reach your ceiling much faster. People are going to be able to know you for that thing. People are going to be able to recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues who are interested in that topic. Whenever you're going to sell or promote some sort of offer, people are going to eat it up because they know it's perfect for them. You don't have to convince them that they are the right fit. They know that they are the right fit. And the really cool thing about becoming known for something specific is that you can broaden out from there. Alex Ramosi, who I already mentioned in today's episode, is now thought of as one of the best business coaches in the world. But he got his start by only talking about and only helping gyms for over six years. Gary Vee, who has long been known as one of the best marketing experts in the world, got his start specifically within the wine industry and turning around his his parents wine business. No one is known for everything and no one is known by everyone. So if you want to be known, period, then you have to pick something, something specific, something niche, something that is hyper localized or hyper specific so that people can come to know you and recognize you for that specific thing. And then over time you can broaden out your reach. Basically, you don't grow and have success on Instagram by trying to reach everyone. You do so by being known by someone. Tip number eight is that frequency build familiarity? Yes, it is true that the more you post, the more you grow. Yes, it is true that the more you post, the more you practice and the better your posts get. But also the more you post, the more opportunities there are for someone to know you for something. I truly believe that one of the reasons that I'm known as the Instagram guy or the Reels guy and one of the opportunities that I had the privilege and the honor of interviewing the head of Instagram was because I have posted at an accelerating frequency every single day for six years now. It takes a lot of time and a lot of posts for people to know you for something. You can't post about a topic one time and become known for it. You have to post about that exact same topic over and over and over again for months, if not years before people will even kind of start to remember it. I say all the time, the more you post, the more you grow. And yet every single time I post about, the more you post, the more you grow, people are like, wait, but how much should I post? Wait, is it okay to post two times a day? And I'm like, well yeah, for example, I post like 5 times a day every single time I post about. Forget hashtags, hashtags are outdated. Hashtags don't help you grow. Hashtags haven't been a thing since 2021, something that I post about almost on a weekly basis. There are numerous comments from people who are like, I had no idea. I have never heard this before. But eventually, over time, it becomes known to more and more people. There are many studies that have been done in the advertising world that show that people have to see an ad upwards of 20 times before it really sticks in their brain and they can really comprehend or remember what the ad is about. And so if that's for advertisement, you can assume that something quite similar is true with your content. People have to see you not just post 20 times, but they have to see 20 of your posts about the exact same topic in order to know you and remember and recognize you for that topic. And remember that experiment that we did earlier where I asked you if you could remember the last five short form videos that you watched and you probably couldn't. It's important to keep that in mind when you yourself are creating and posting content on social media. You're not annoying people, you're imprinting on them. You are leaving your mark. You are adding a tally to their mind to help them potentially remember you and recognize your brand in the future. Fame is random, recognition is built, it's intentional, and it comes from the strategies that are shared in today's episode. If you learn something new or if you enjoyed this episode at all, I want to encourage you to hit that subscribe button. And if you're already subscribed, hit that thumbs up button because it really helps out the video and the channel a lot. Thank you so much for watching today and as always, happy networking. Thanks for watching Sam.