7 mistakes creators make in their first 90 days, according to tech insiders

In a SXSW panel titled “Your First 90 Days as a Creator,” leaders from creative affiliate groups on Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube shared best practices for creators just starting out. They also share common mistakes made by new creators, as well as insider tips on how to get the attention of the powers that be.

The panel was moderated by Antonia Alakija, creative economy strategist and Meta and TikTok alum herself, and featured advice from:

All experts work with early career creators to help them grow their following and careers.

So, based on their advice, here are the biggest mistakes creators should avoid in their first 90 days and beyond.

Chasing trends can be difficult

“I think it’s understanding right out of the gate, don’t wear every trend because it’s a trend. And just because you’re trending, doesn’t mean you need to do something about it,” said Berry.

“You need to identify trends that make sense for you to participate in, and that you feel confident that you can do differently or use differently.”

Trost also urged developers to use AI and other tools to monitor the lifecycle of viral trends.

“Where are you in the life cycle? Are you going to come in at the end and be bitter because, you know, the trend is over? Does it really make sense to your audience?”

Finally, Sollenberger urged creators to follow the 70/30 rule.

“That’s what we say [at Instagram]like 70/30. 70 percent of your content should be original, then about 30 percent [should be] trends… For the most part, you need to move quickly with the trend, like, within the first 24 hours. If it’s everywhere, it’s already too late.”

Not pre-planned product deals

You probably won’t get any product deals in your first 90 days, but it’s never too early to start planning for success.

“Your public profile, for example, is your home on Snapchat,” Berry said. “If a brand wants to hire you for an opportunity, and you don’t have, say, News, and there’s nothing to show consistency in the type of content or formats they can see themselves connecting to, they’ll move on to the next person.

So you want to make sure you have content that offers the type of prospect you’re trying to attract.

“So if you’re human [says]’I want to make deals for more travel products,’ but there is no travel content on your profile, it will go to the next person. So you want to make sure you have content that offers the type of prospect you’re trying to attract.”

I don’t know what metrics are important in 2026

This is something I heard over and over again at SXSW: fan counts aren’t as important as they used to be. What is important now? Engagement metrics. How many views does your regular video or Reel get? On YouTube, how long do people watch your videos before they stop? How do they find your content?

On Instagram and Reels, Sollenberger had some advice for new creators.

“First, make sure you switch to a professional or creator account if you haven’t already. That’s free, but it opens up a wide range of insights at both the account and content level. Then I say, take a look at the last month and look at your top three best-performing and worst-performing posts. Understand the similarities in all of that and then look again and make sure when your audience is active and make sure you’re posting to your most audience.”

All the panelists agreed that being able to read data will be key to growing your audience.

Most importantly, Sollenberger had some advice for influencing Instagram’s algorithm.

“Post and share rate is a really good metric, because if your audience posts your content, reposts your content, that’s a signal to the algorithm to spread it to non-followers,” Sollenberger said. “And then I think it’s good to look the same way at reaching non-fans, to understand how well the algorithm distributes your content.”

On Snapchat, Berry said watch time is an important metric to get Discover’s feed to notice.

“The creators and Snap stars that you see on that page, it’s going to be very much called watch time, so that’s a metric you want to pay attention to as you guys evaluate your Snap content,” Berry said.

Not understanding consistency

“Send consistently!” This is the most common advice for new creators, but it means different things to different people and different platforms.

“The algorithm rewards consistency, so any breaks kill momentum,” Sollenberger said via Instagram. He also shared some of the best advice I’ve ever heard about consistency as a creator: “​Specifically, choose a post cadence that you can maintain for your worst week, not your best week.”

On Snapchat, where you can post short, random clips, Berry said consistency is also important. “You’re not going to find success in your public stories by posting one or two Snaps, and that’s it. The people who get served on the Discover feed are posting anywhere between 20, 60, 100 times a day, sometimes. But they’re posting regularly.”

Berry explained that creators don’t have to submit 20-100 snippets a day to break the algorithm, and that consistency will look like a different creator. The key, he said, is to train your audience so they know when to expect your new content.

“Specifically, choose a post cadence that you can maintain during your worst week, not your best week.”

Trost has had enough of that advice.

“How you post is more important than how often you post. So with YouTube, if you want to do it once a week, you choose that, and your audience starts reading. ‘Okay, I’ll come on Thursday and get new content.'”

Not using Trial Reels and other tools

The major social media platforms all have tools and features that allow creators to try out new content formats or survey their audience. On Instagram, Trial Reels in particular are a great tool for testing new topics and formats.

“So I always hear from new creators that they hesitate to try because they don’t want their family or their friends to see certain titles or see them experimenting in new places. And that’s why we really built this product. So with Trial Reels, the content goes to your non-fans first, and if you hit, you can convert to your grid. If it doesn’t work, Sollenberg doesn’t work.

Start with Shorts and Reels, not long form videos

Many creators have told me that in today’s overcrowded creative environment, beginners should start with short, to-the-point videos. That’s especially true on YouTube, where audiences expect long-form videos to be highly optimized.

“I talked to a lot of creators here this week at SXSW, who came up and said, ‘OK, Short is how I got into YouTube,'” Trost said. “You might want to start with the short ones, and that’s easy to create. Long form takes more time and dedication.”

One of the biggest YouTubers of all time had similar advice at another SXSW panel on the creator economy.

“I think you have to have a short-form presence to start now,” says Rhett McLaughlin, of Rhett & Link fame. “I mean, even we rely on discovery and re-discovery through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts…So I think the discovery process for a lot of creators I know who started a few years ago is: You go on TikTok or Reels, and you figure out how to translate that into long form. That makes a lot of sense.”

And McLaughlin’s advice is exactly what Mrwosetheboss, aka Arun Maini, told me last year when I interviewed him: Start with Shorts until you see some success.

“Do it [YouTube] Shortcuts in your free time, and you’ll see very quickly, either this is not for you, it’s too time-consuming, you hate editing, you hate being on camera, or you have something here, and you love the feedback loop, and you can get better quickly,” he said.

Trying to be the creator of a normal lifestyle

The era of the generalist influencer is over, Berry believes. “I can’t stress it enough,” Berry said at the hearing.

“I feel like, I’m really strong about this. I’m actually going to yell at everyone because I feel so strong about this, but I think the internet is too crowded. We’re moving away from being a regular creator. Even saying you’re a travel creator is normal; being a food creator is a general trend. Tell me you’re a travel creator, so you spend 24 hours specifically in the cities you win. You win. It’s okay to have many interests, but you need to have defined routes in between of those interests and develop formats within those interests.

However, new creators may need to experiment until they identify their niche.

Sollenberger and Instagram call this the T-shaped approach. Cast a wide net at first, then click on what works.

So, is all hope lost for the next Alix Earle? Not really, Alikaja told me in an interview after his panel.

“My opinion is that if you go too deep, you can be like that Alix Earle persona. But just to be human, I think that might be a slightly different process now,” he said.

Getting into a specific niche has other benefits, too.

“You have to start with what you love and go from there,” said Berry.