My.tennis.era

I love tennis. It's not news to anyone who knows me, but it was definitely not something that had much of an online presence. But three weeks ago, I decided to jump in with both feet to the tennis content online space on Instagram. Why? I mean, why not? I prefer to watch reels about tennis. I like to watch tennis tips. I love following the players. I want to go to every single grand slam. I want to go to every 250, 500, and 1000 tournament event too. I was watching others make tennis content and saying to myself - I could do this just as well, if not better. I have been surprised by the whole process so far. I've learned so much in this short time and have spent so much time trying to improve. From making reels, to understanding the algorithms, all through trial and error. I have a long way to go, but I have come a long way to this point. So, if anyone out there cares to know- because they are passionate about something and want to share it with the world- here's what I have done so far. 1. I transitioned an old account of mine by changing names and deleting all the previous content. I did this on both Instagram, Facebook, threads, and TikTok. However, I am focused currently on only publishing new content on Instagram and hopefully figuring out how to have it seamlessly share on the others. (my old accounts used to do that, but now it's not-- so it's on my to do list).

2. I made content I would want to see and shared it -- even if it was not perfect or exceptional. (and let's be real -- I'm still really learning how to make quality content). I tried to do 2-4 reels and 5-8 stories each day. I try to make reels that will draw in new eyes and stories that will interest current followers.

3. I focused on reaching out to other small tennis accounts, liking their stuff, commenting and engaging, and then messaging them asking for a follow-back. I worked on it each day until I got 1 or 2 new followers. It was easily 30-40 private messages a day and then maybe one new follower. (while at the same time, I was losing followers who had been following me for home organizing and didn't want to stay around for tennis content). Additionally, I invited them to be collaborators on reels. That meant the real would be posted to both our followers. While I invited many collaborators, only one accepted the offer and I will be forever grateful to @tennisyellow who collaborated with me on 2 reels. (on day 7 and again on day 13). That small act of collaboration meant the world to me, and both of those reels did well -- the first got 81.2k views and the second got 4.2k views. Here is what growth looked like through the first 23 days.

Day	Date	New Followers	Unfollows
1	April 10	1	16
2	April 11	5	10
3	April 12	10	0
4	April 13	1	1
5	April 14	1	2
6	April 15	2	0
7	April16	12	1
8	April 17	5	3
9	April 18	7	2
10	April 19	1	4
11	April 20	1	1
12	April 21	8	1
13	April 22	5	2
14	April 23	7	1
15	April 24	11	1
16	April 25	7	1
17	April 26	7	1
18	April 27	146	0
19	April 28	171	2
20	April 29	229	3
21	April 30	621	5
22	May 1	595	10
23	May 2	361	4

4. As you can see, things really started to take off on Day 18 -- so what happened? I had a reel go viral -- It currently has 2.5M views. It is the reel with Danielle Collins asking for respect after having a fan heckle her. While this is tennis, the sentiments of wanting respect really resonate with everyone. That desire for respect has propelled this reel's trajectory and taught me a lot about universal human emotions.

5. Just keep swimming. I know not every reel will get millions of views. I know not every day guarantees new followers. I just keep showing up each day with new content and try to create something I would want to see, laugh with, learn about, or wear. I watch countless how to's on making reels. I have canva pro, cap cut pro, adobe and lightroom pro, and countless other apps to help me. I have watched so many youtube tutorials and messaged other creators with questions.

6. I qualified to be a verified account and had to change my profile picture to my face and add my actual name to the account on day 23 - May 2nd. This felt really scary. Prior to that I was more anonymous, and success or failure was going to go largely unnoticed by most people who know me. Showing up, name and face, feels like it lays bare all your own insecurities and opens you to scrutiny. I have had to accept that and own it (for all of 2 days so far). Yes, this is me and yes, I want to make this very successful. No apologies. I really love doing this.