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Why followers don’t matter, and DMs are the new home of discovery.&nbsp; There was a time when “link in bio” felt smart. One link, endless possibilities. But social has changed. Hard.People don’t browse profiles anymore — they live in the feed. They scroll, pause, laugh, save, and move on. Instagram isn’t about who you follow now; it’s about what catches your interest. It’s interest media, not social media.So when brands obsess over follower counts, they miss the point. Reach doesn’t come from followers — it comes from content that earns its spot in someone’s feed.&nbsp; The Real Shift: From Feed to DM Here’s the thing — most Reels aren’t shared publicly anymore. They’re shared in DMs.That’s where real engagement lives now: in private messages between friends, colleagues, or group chats. It’s intimate. Trusted. If your content is getting sent around in DMs, you’ve already won — that’s modern word-of-mouth.But a “link in bio”? It just sits there, hoping someone takes the long route.&nbsp; Why “Link in Bio” Fails Every extra step kills momentum. Feed → profile → link page → website → action. By the second tap, your audience is gone.Worse — you can’t track what actually worked. Attribution breaks, UTMs vanish, and suddenly your “best post” has no measurable ROI.&nbsp; The Smarter Way: Stay Native Tools like<a data-mce-href="https://manychat.com" href="https://manychat.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Manychat </a>flip the script. You can drive organic leads inside Instagram — no extra clicks, no broken tracking:Comment “ebook” to get your guide instantly via DM. Tap a Story sticker and trigger a chat flow. Send a keyword to get a discount or early access. It feels personal, and it converts because it keeps people where they already are — in the feed and the DMs.&nbsp; The Bottom Line “Link in bio” belongs to an older internet. The future of marketing on Instagram lives in the feed and the DM — where content spreads, conversations start, and intent turns into action.Forget the link. Build for the moment.

“Link in Bio” Is Dead — The Feed Took Over

If you’re not paying in creativity, you’re paying in waste.Everyone’s fighting for attention. Most are losing.Here’s the truth: people aren’t on the internet. They’re on their phone, in micro-moments — 4 seconds before a scroll, 2 before a skip, 1 before they forget you. If your brand isn’t built for that window, you’re invisible.Mobile isn’t just a screen size. It’s a mindset. It’s thumb-first, dopamine-fuelled, distraction-heavy. You’re not competing with your industry; you’re competing with the next swipe.So what actually matters?Creative that hooks in-frame one. If it doesn’t earn attention, it doesn’t deserve spend. Data that proves retention. Don’t brag ROAS if your CPA’s climbing — attention without conversion is theatre. Integration across channels. Meta, Klaviyo, TikTok — if they’re not talking to each other, you’re burning time. Speed. Slow load = lost sale. Mobile users don’t wait. The brands that win know this: attention is the new rent. You either pay it in creativity, or you pay for it in wasted media.Stop assuming people care. Make them.

Next  Era: Data beats vanity. Every. Single. Time.

Dubai runs on motion. Every week, another restaurant, another beach club, another “concept.” From the outside it looks like ambition. Up close, it’s often panic wearing perfume.Too many people mistake activity for achievement. They lease before they learn. They hire cheap and call it “lean.” They treat marketing like decoration, not direction. And when it falls apart, they blame the market instead of the mirror.I’ve seen that pattern everywhere — property, food, marketing itself. The tragedy is that most of them could get it right. They’ve got the money; they just don’t have the discipline.&nbsp; From a cupboard with a window I left a sleepy town in Wales at seventeen with nothing in my pocket and a head full of plans. London was calling. I landed a job in hospitality at the Park Lane Hotel on Brick Street — lived in-house, in a cupboard with a window. That little room became my first office, my first classroom.My dream was to work in real estate — or, as we called it then, estate agency. On weekends I worked for free at a boutique firm in Kensington, photocopying, cutting keys, learning by listening. Eventually I caught a break with a developer, Barclay Himes, and then climbed through every layer of the industry.From independents to corporates, from lettings desks to boardrooms. I worked for Halifax Property Services and saw what happens when titles grow faster than results. I wasn’t one of the ones hiding under the radar. I grafted.&nbsp; Twenty-six years of lessons Real estate taught me how business really works — and how easily it breaks. I’ve sat in cold offices waiting for keys, and I’ve watched executives make decisions that crippled teams.After twenty-six years, I can smell risk a mile away. So when I see people flooding into Dubai, signing leases in new hotels with no footfall, or buying “guaranteed yield” apartments because a broker told them so — I know what’s coming.This city is a jungle of investment groups disguised as independents. I know because I check the receipts. The merchant name on that trendy mall café usually traces back to a holding company that also owns a handful of restaurants and half a floor of offices. They can afford to look empty for months. Their profit isn’t in coffee — it’s in capital appreciation.That’s who you’re up against. You’re not competing with another barista or chef; you’re competing with money that doesn’t need to win.&nbsp; The pivot that saved me When the web arrived, most of property market ignored it to start with . I didn’t. I could see where it was heading — the gold rush of attention. In 2001 I bought my first domain: Started From Scratch. The name came from a Richard Branson book, but it summed up my life.I left real estate and threw myself into digital marketing just as social media was taking shape. I bet on Facebook before it was fashionable, on data before it was trendy, and when AI started whispering, I listened.The irony? I’ve got no tech background. None. Give me an iPhone and I’ll probably press the wrong button, but give me code, a tool, or a dataset and I’ll find my way through it. Because when you love what you’re building, you learn what you need to learn.I’m 53 now and I’ve been working hands-on with AI for about seven years — long before most companies even noticed it. I’ve watched it quietly reshape marketing behind the scenes. It’s only now the rest of the world’s catching up.&nbsp; The reality of AI Here’s the truth: AI isn’t coming — it’s here. And it’s not taking all the jobs; it’s taking the lazy parts. Eighty percent of the workload can be automated. The remaining twenty percent — the judgement, the instinct, the human finishing touch — that’s where the value sits.Businesses that adapt will thrive. The ones that don’t will vanish under their own noise.&nbsp; Risk and reinvention I’ve never been scared of risk. I don’t measure my life in pounds; I measure it in pivots. I’ve built, sold, rebuilt, and started again. I’ve taken chances, cut ties, dropped the weight, and kept moving.Money’s just the by-product of doing something properly. And the only constant worth trusting is change.&nbsp; Building for what’s next After thirteen years running my marketing firm, I’m still obsessed with the craft — strategy, psychographics, data — but I’m building it into technology now. Tools that think. Systems that scale. Businesses that breathe without me standing guard.That’s not stepping back. It’s levelling up.We all have to adapt. We all have to stay accountable. Because business doesn’t care how long you’ve been in it — only how quickly you can read the shift and move.We all start somewhere. We all start from scratch. The difference between those who last and those who don’t? They stay awake, take the right risks, and keep building something that still stands when the noise fades.

When Growth Becomes Noise

Instagram’s Not About Followers Anymore Adam Mosseri just confirmed it: Instagram’s future is built on messaging, Reels, and recommendations.And the next update is going to move fast — really fast. Instagram’s speeding up its algorithm to compete with TikTok, which means reach will depend less on followers and more on how your content performs in real time.If people engage, it spreads. If they don’t, it dies in minutes.&nbsp; Messaging Is the New Feed More Reels are now shared in DMs than posted publicly. That’s where the real conversations live — not in comments, not in likes.People send what feels personal. What makes them say, “this is so you.” That’s where your content needs to live — in the share, not the scroll.&nbsp; Reels Still Rule Reels are still the growth engine, but the rules have changed. Short, quick, and human wins. Reels under 90 seconds with emotion or humour outperform almost everything else.Don’t chase perfect — chase shareable.&nbsp; Recommendations: AI with Taste Instagram’s recommendation system is being rebuilt to think like TikTok’s — content first, followers second. The algorithm now looks at what gets sent, not just what gets seen.When your Reel lands in private chats, that’s your new engagement metric.&nbsp; The Bottom Line Instagram’s no longer a stage. It’s a network of micro-conversations.So:Messaging drives relationships. Reels drive discovery. Recommendations reward what people pass along. That’s why you need to make the best possible content — the kind that becomes a driving force behind real conversations.Because soon, Instagram won’t care who follows you — only who shares you.

“Reels, Recommendations, and Direct Messages — that’s now the core of Instagram.” — Adam Mosseri

If you’re not paying in creativity, you’re paying in waste.Everyone’s fighting for attention. Most are losing.Here’s the truth: people aren’t on the internet. They’re on their phone, in micro-moments — 4 seconds before a scroll, 2 before a skip, 1 before they forget you. If your brand isn’t built for that window, you’re invisible.Mobile isn’t just a screen size. It’s a mindset. It’s thumb-first, dopamine-fuelled, distraction-heavy. You’re not competing with your industry; you’re competing with the next swipe.So what actually matters?Creative that hooks in-frame one. If it doesn’t earn attention, it doesn’t deserve spend. Data that proves retention. Don’t brag ROAS if your CPA’s climbing — attention without conversion is theatre. Integration across channels. Meta, Klaviyo, TikTok — if they’re not talking to each other, you’re burning time. Speed. Slow load = lost sale. Mobile users don’t wait. The brands that win know this: attention is the new rent. You either pay it in creativity, or you pay for it in wasted media.Stop assuming people care. Make them.

Attention Is the New Rent!

Every social platform had its moment. Myspace built identity. Facebook built connection. Instagram built aspiration. TikTok built addiction.Now? The next frontier is IRL streaming — raw, unfiltered, always on. It’s where the algorithm meets real life. No edits. No polish. Just presence.We already see product placement all over podcasts — but it’s recorded, curated, delayed. IRL streaming flips that. It’s live. It’s happening now. The creator doesn’t need to “pitch” your brand — they just live with it, in real time.Here’s why it matters:Attention is live again. Viewers don’t want highlights — they want habits. Influence is shifting. Audiences now trust what they see lived, not what’s staged. Product placement is back — but native. Real-time use beats any glossy ad. Brands that move early will own this space. Not through sponsorships, but integration — being part of the moment instead of interrupting it.IRL streaming isn’t entertainment; it’s the new shelf space. And those treating it like a trend? They’ll fade from relevance — live.

The Digital Hub

“Link in Bio” Is Dead — The Feed Took Over

Next Era: Data beats vanity. Every. Single. Time.

When Growth Becomes Noise

“Reels, Recommendations, and Direct Messages — that’s now...

Attention Is the New Rent!

Next Wave: IRL Streaming & Product Placement — The Attent...