AI.doodle.design

After spending several weeks on thorough research and consideration, I decided to strategically create and grow my first Instagram account based on the following principles:

Achieve 10,000 followers by this summer.

Utilize my various strengths.

Differentiate from existing influencers.

Invest time without compromising my primary job.

To achieve this, I treated the SNS account as a mini product, studied related content, and considered various examples before selecting the category of “AI Graphic Designer.” I chose this category because I could quickly test and develop a unique graphic style and anticipated that content creation would not be time-consuming.

No matter what strategy I had, it was just a hypothesis. Like any product, creating, being exposed, and satisfying actual users was quite challenging. Despite creating content in English to target a global audience, most of my followers were acquaintances at first, leading the algorithm to focus on Korean users, only with minimal new user inflow. After various attempts, I decided to focus more on the value I could provide to users. One of the efforts was creating customized phone wallpapers for my followers.

While chatting casually with friends, I mentioned the idea of creating phone wallpapers, which received a very positive response. Encouraged by the feedback, I expanded my content to include poster designs, enhancing visual quality. Through this process, I experimented with various digital tools I hadn’t used before, such as CapCut, MidJourney, and Photoshop, improving my visual design and content creation skills. To prevent burnout from long upload times, I optimized my workflow using MidJourney, Figma, and Photoshop, reducing the time to create a single piece of content (Reels) to about 1-2 hours.

Engaging Users: Users naturally develop a desire to own an artwork as they witness the creation process of an attractive piece.

Automated DM Solution: After integrating the ManyChat automation solution, I designed a flow that automatically sends application responses and detailed application guides through a simple keyword-based prompt (Doodle).

Building Rapport: This individual interaction with users helps establish the Doodle Instagram account, increases content engagement, and builds rapport with the audience.

Efficient Selection Process: Considering the realistic time constraints, I introduced a lottery system for selection. The key factors here are regular updates, relatable stories, and a variety of categories. To maintain follower interest, I consistently create and upload content at least three times a week.

Surprisingly, it was Threads, not Instagram, that first gained traction.
The success of text-based content was unrelated to the originally designed flow. However, through accumulated references and various attempts while creating content, I began to clearly identify content points over time. I particularly focused on how to captivate users within the first 1-3 seconds as most of the users will churn afterwards.

The four instances of sudden content influx always occurred unexpectedly. When a large amount of traffic came in, the pre-planned efficiency and automation cycles successfully operated. Few massive influxes, in turn, synergized with the other content accumulated over time.

The scheme of providing high-quality custom posters through a lottery worked better than expected. Communication via DM revealed that even if they didn’t win, the followers valued the fact that the creator personally provided entry opportunities and related information. While modern solutions like ManyChat, MidJourney, and Figma enabled this content cycle much efficient, most users are not interested in these tools. However, by transparently communicating the production process, 
I expect increased trust and higher user engagement.

In the three months since creating the Instagram account, I uploaded around 100 pieces of content and verified the successful operation of the planned cycle in real-time. The achievements are as follows:

Total reached: 300K

Followers: 4.2K

Most played: 140K

Requests: 3K

Most likes: 4.4K

Paid work inquiries: 20+