We’re joined by Anastasia Braitsik, a digital marketing expert renowned for her uncanny ability to navigate the turbulent waters of social media algorithms. In a world where platforms change the rules overnight, Anastasia has built a reputation for turning algorithmic shifts into opportunities for growth, not crises. Her approach is refreshingly pragmatic, focusing on human behavior and genuine connection rather than short-lived hacks.
Throughout our conversation, we’ll explore the critical pivot from broad-reach tactics to hyper-focused “narrowcasting,” the art of using platform algorithms as a feedback loop for content improvement, and the surprising rise of metrics like “saves” and DMs as the new gold standard for engagement. We’ll also delve into why authentic employee stories are outperforming polished corporate campaigns and how establishing a simple, consistent rhythm can be the most powerful growth strategy of all.
Your article mentions a wellness client whose engagement recovered by over 60% after pivoting to Reels. Can you walk me through the specific types of short-form videos you created and how you repurposed old static posts to manage this transition so smoothly?
Of course. That was a moment of real panic followed by a huge lesson. We saw engagement just fall off a cliff. Our first instinct was to just post more, boost things, and fight the current, but it was like shouting into the wind. The pivot to Reels was a complete strategic overhaul. We started with simple, unpolished “day in the life” clips of the practitioners, short tutorials on breathing exercises that people could do at their desks, and heartfelt customer stories we filmed on a smartphone. The key to making it manageable was repurposing. We took old, popular blog posts about nutrition and common wellness questions and turned them into 60-second animated text videos or simple voiceover clips. It felt less like starting from scratch and more like giving our best content a new life, which was a huge relief for the team. That 60% recovery in a month wasn’t just a number; it was the feeling of our community coming back to us, engaging again because we were finally meeting them where they were.
You shared a case study where B2B clients saw conversion rates on LinkedIn jump from 2.2% to 3.7% by targeting narrow professional segments. What is your step-by-step process for identifying a “narrowcast” audience and crafting a post that sparks deep discussion within that specific group?
It’s a process of zooming in until your message is impossible to ignore for the right person. First, we identify a hyper-specific role within the client’s broader market—not just “manufacturing leaders,” but “supply chain managers at mid-sized automotive parts suppliers.” Next, we pinpoint their most urgent, unspoken pain point. What keeps them up at night? For that group, it wasn’t a general talk about AI; it was the gritty reality of integration costs and workforce retraining. Then, we craft the hook to speak directly to them: “Struggling with AI integration in your mid-sized supply chain?” The post itself isn’t a link to a blog; it’s a carousel that walks them through three common pitfalls and ends with an open-ended question that invites their expertise. The magic happens when one manager comments with their experience, another validates it, and suddenly you’ve created a micro-forum right there in the comments. That’s how we saw conversions jump from 2.2% to 3.7%—by facilitating conversations only they could have.
The article highlights how a client’s reach dropped 40% from inconsistent posting, but a steady rhythm brought a 15% traffic increase. How do you determine the ideal posting cadence for a brand, and what key metrics do you track to confirm that rhythm is building momentum?
Determining the right cadence is less about a magic number and more about finding a sustainable rhythm that the algorithm can learn to recognize and reward. For the client whose reach dropped by that staggering 40%, the algorithm had essentially forgotten them. To fix it, we started by looking at their historical data and ad engagement to see which days and topics consistently performed well in the past. We settled on three times a week because it was ambitious enough to build momentum but realistic for their team to maintain without sacrificing quality. The key metrics we watched weren’t just likes; we tracked reach velocity—how quickly a post gained traction in the first 24 hours—and, most importantly, the social-to-site traffic percentage from our analytics. When we saw that traffic number climb by 15% after about six weeks of consistency, we knew the rhythm was working. The algorithm had started to trust us again, showing our content to more people without us spending an extra dime.
The employee storytelling series on LinkedIn yielded impressive results, like a 143% increase in career page traffic. What was your process for getting employees to participate authentically, and how did you structure the interviews or content to get stories that resonated so strongly with your audience?
Authenticity was everything; the moment it feels like a corporate script, you lose. We made it clear from the beginning that this wasn’t about reciting brand talking points. The process started with very informal, one-on-one chats over coffee. We asked open-ended questions like, “Tell me about a project that you were really proud of,” or “What was a challenge you overcame that taught you something new?” We didn’t use scripts. We let them tell their stories in their own words, stumbles and all, and just listened. From there, we structured the content around a single, powerful narrative arc for each employee’s story. The result was raw, relatable content that showed the human side of the business. That 143% surge in career page traffic and the 35% increase in qualified applicants were direct results of potential candidates seeing real people, not just a brand, and thinking, “I want to work with them.”
You mentioned growing your Threads account to over 15 million monthly views by treating the algorithm as “feedback.” Can you share a specific example of a post that underperformed, what feedback you took from it, and how you immediately adapted your very next piece of content?
Absolutely. When I first started on Threads, I tried to bring over a polished, educational carousel post from Instagram. It was well-designed, packed with value, but it completely flopped. The monthly views for the account were growing toward that 15 million mark, but this specific post got almost no replies. The algorithm’s feedback was loud and clear: this polished, formal format doesn’t belong here. So for my very next post, I took the core idea from that failed carousel, ditched the graphics entirely, and wrote it as a raw, text-only thread. I started it with, “Unpopular opinion: here’s what everyone gets wrong about social media strategy…” I made it conversational, a little vulnerable, and asked a direct question at the end. The engagement absolutely exploded. That immediate pivot taught me to treat each platform as its own distinct culture and to listen when the data tells you that you’re speaking the wrong language.
Your agency now favors depth over frequency, noting that content “saves” are a huge signal on Instagram. What types of carousel explainers or personal narrative posts have proven most effective at generating saves, and how do you measure their long-term value beyond the initial interaction?
Carousel explainers that solve a single, specific problem are absolute gold for generating saves. Think “5 Steps to Audit Your Own Website” or “A 3-Part Framework for Better Content Hooks.” People save these because they’re actionable utility; they’re bookmarking them to come back to later when they have time to implement the advice. For personal narratives, posts that share a vulnerable lesson or a behind-the-scenes failure tend to get saved because they resonate on an emotional level. To measure their long-term value, we look beyond the save count. We track repeat profile visits from non-followers in our analytics—are these people coming back for more? We also monitor the DMs that reference these specific posts, sometimes weeks later. That’s where you see the true impact: when a saved post becomes the catalyst for a sales conversation or turns a casual viewer into a loyal follower.
The article states that Instagram’s algorithm now prioritizes DMs to foster connection. How have you tactically shifted your content strategy to encourage these private conversations, and what is your process for managing those interactions to build a stronger community or generate leads?
We’ve made a conscious shift to create “conversation starters” rather than just “content.” Tactically, this means using the question sticker in Instagram Stories with prompts designed to elicit a private response, like “What’s the one business goal you’re struggling with right now? DM me.” In feed posts, we’ll end a caption with something like, “I have a few more thoughts on this that didn’t fit here. DM me the word ‘INSIGHT’ and I’ll send them over.” This immediately moves the interaction from a public, performative space to a private, personal one. Our process for managing these DMs is crucial. We have a firm rule: respond within a few hours, and always with a thoughtful question back, not just a generic “thanks.” This turns a simple interaction into a real dialogue, which is how you build a genuine community and identify qualified leads organically. The algorithm sees these exchanges as a powerful signal of connection and rewards your content with more visibility as a result.
What is your forecast for the future of social media, especially with the rise of AI and the increasing desire for genuine connection?
My forecast is that community will become the single most important metric, and algorithms will get ruthlessly good at identifying what’s real and what’s not. As AI generates more polished, generic content, the value of authentic, human-led interaction will skyrocket. People are already tired of the performance; they’re craving connection, and platforms know this. I believe we’ll see algorithms prioritizing smaller, deeper conversations within niche groups over massive viral moments. The future isn’t about reaching everyone; it’s about mattering to the right someones. The brands and creators who win will be the ones who stop trying to impress the algorithm and start genuinely serving a community, treating their audience not as numbers on a dashboard, but as people looking to connect.
