Part 1: How SPOBH Started and Grew Organically from Scratch (Without Paid Ads)

Hey all—

Hope you’re having a great day. I’m Julia, and every week in this newsletter, I break down the exact marketing tactics I’ve learned building software and consumer products (bootstrapped + VC-backed) and lean into the organic, creator, and paid strategies that fuel viral growth. No fluff, just real tactics you can apply.

Today, I paired up with my good friends over at Street People of Beverly Hills (referred to throughout this as “SPOBH”) to show you exactly how they went from zero to one of the most influential Instagram pages. Street People of Beverly Hills is an account that not only grew fast but also built an insane level of trust among its audience. 

If you’ve ever tried to grow an account, you might have been taught the playbook of perfectly curated posts, aesthetic content, thoughtful captions, maybe boost some stuff, and see what happens. 

That’s not what they did.

Instead, SPOBH saw a real need to change the info people in LA receive that impacts their daily lives and was an early page into a now booming subculture of city-specific accounts. They transformed Los Angeles into their own network of trusted sources and cracked the IG algorithm in the meantime. Oh, and they also grew an audience of hundreds of thousands of people (twice due to page deletion), all without spending a dollar on paid ads or boosting posts. 

Here’s exactly how they did it.

1. Narrowed in on a core problem that affects a lot of people 

2. Engaged with and got their audience involved (user-submitted content)

3. Embedded their page in a national movement (noticed a trend early on, reiterated it over and over) 

Let’s break down all 3. FYI, they have had to rebuild their page from scratch more than once due to restrictions and have used this playbook to gain hundreds of thousands of followers.

Core Problem: SPOBH Made Local Outrage Impossible to Ignore

Most pages chase trends. SPOBH helped create one.

When Street People of Beverly Hills launched in 2020, crime, homelessness, and public safety were growing concerns in Los Angeles. But people in LA were getting louder about the fact that mainstream media wasn’t covering these issues quickly enough or from the POV of the people actually living them. When neighbors are swapping home security footage of a repeat thief at dinner parties, it’s obvious the whole neighborhood should see. 

It became clear that people wanted more rawness in their media content- content that felt more true and reflective of the situations impacting their everyday lives. Locals wanted to see what was happening near their homes rather than delayed, polished news cycles. They wanted someone to advocate for the issues that people all across LA were facing and have a place to connect with their community online.

So, Street People of Beverly Hills was born as the modern-day voice of the people. Btw, the username hits all the SEO, so people can easily find it. 

How They Did It:

• Curated content that filled an information gap. If people wanted to know what was really happening and get involved with community advocacy, they turned to SPOBH.

• They positioned themselves as “on-the-ground” reporters. Their content wasn’t beautiful or edited well. It served one purpose incredibly well: to act as real-time footage, first-hand accounts, and raw documentation of Los Angeles.

What This Means for Brands or You:

• How can you make your brand or yourself impossible to ignore? Good products with boring content don’t win at scale anymore. SPOBH has shown that you need to provide huge value to your audience. 

• Your content doesn’t need to be highly curated – just authentic to your brand. Driving engagement is the ultimate way to keep people connected, and this requires a level of rawness that people can relate to. 

• IMPORTANT: If people are making content about you or your brand, leveraging it to drive growth is possible. Whether that means literally reposting it, engaging with it, making memes about it, or reaching out and asking if you can license it, user-generated content creates the reality that your brand extends beyond just you and truly impacts the lives of others. 

Built The Page With Their Followers: Community Engagement

SPOBH built an unfair advantage for themselves; the largest type of content on SPOBH is follower submissions. SPOBH isn’t just a page that reports on what’s happening like so many other news or niche news pages (think: fashion updates, pop culture, etc); it is an active part of the community – ingesting community reports and amplifying them for everyone in LA to see. 

Using follower submissions as the basis of their content has created an insane feedback loop. Followers are hyper-engaged (16% engagement rate) vs 1-3% of a normal influencer or page of similar size (100K+ followers). That’s as much as 16X higher than a comparable IG account! SPBOH receives, on average, hundreds of comments and shares, including millions of impressions per month. This is a crazy interactive page compared to most brand pages, and the engagement constantly pushed their content to people’s feeds, growing their follower base.

Want more proof that this growth strategy is one you want to take notes on? The page is trusted by some of the most influential people, politicians, surgeons and celebs in the world (who all happen to live in LA/Beverly Hills) including Rick Caruso, Katy Yaroslavsky, Nathan Hochman, Jessica Alba, Patrick Schwartzeneger, Harley Pasternak, Altman Bros., Christian Walker, Kitson, Jordyn Jones, BHPD/LAPD, NBA players, etc. and had footage retweeted by Elon Musk. Once prominent figures started following, it leveraged that as social proof to attract even more followers.

What This Means for Brands or You:

• Having insanely high engagement rates on your pages/content is possible. SPOBH is proof of that. Think about how you can shake up your social strategy to get to above 10% engagement rate. 

• Content that naturally creates a feedback loop is a no-brainer to help you grow. When your content sparks DMs, shares, or saves, it feeds Instagram’s algorithm (or any social platform algorithm, depending on which platform you are on). Instagram specifically then pushes your content to more people, leading to even more interactions. More interactions = more reach = higher chance to convert users, drive traffic, or grow brand loyalty.

Framed Their Content as Controversial + Part of a Larger National Movement

Citizen journalism is a hot topic now (thanks, Elon). It’s safe to say SPOBH is one of the OGs in terms of calling mainstream media into question. The owner of SPOBH allowed the page to have a huge brand personality and never apologized for calling B.S. on anyone, including politicians and prominent figures, who they felt needed to step it up and help the larger community. NGAF and not being politically correct is the personality behind the movement SPOBH, and their page wholeheartedly encompasses this. This wasn’t just content; it was a bottom-up view of the news, built by the people living in the experience, for the people. The raw, unfiltered approach resonated and went viral because it gave a huge voice and platform to frustrations that were otherwise ignored.

How They Did It:

• Built a no B.S. brand personality. Instead of being neutral, SPOBH leaned into a distinct, no-nonsense voice that matched the tone of their audience. If their audience was frustrated, excited, or even activated about a certain topic, SPOBH read the room correctly and leaned into it. This in itself is a superpower: the ultimate understanding of your customers.

• Called out those in power. They weren’t afraid to put pressure on officials, businesses, and influencers who could be doing more. This isn’t easy. In fact, it’s even dangerous.

• Tied their content to a broader movement. Citizen journalism was growing, and SPOBH positioned itself in the center.

What This Means for Brands or You:

• There is a natural energy existing in the space you and your brand operate in. What is that energy? What are people talking about? How can you make your brand voice unique? 

• Clear brand personalities translate to the end recepient. Whether that’s a “No B.S.” brand personality like SPOBH, or something that’s flirty, fun, or serious, it is within your control to cultivate this and bring it to life.

• Something I have been thinking deeply about: What does it mean for your brand to be brave? 

When I read this newsletter over again, it’s clear that SPOBH ultimately succeeded because they have a superpower in understanding their audience and amplifying its collective voices to a new level. They created a modern-day town square for Beverly Hills by being direct, unfiltered, and even polarizing, and they ultimately made the voices of their community impossible to ignore. It’s been incredible to watch this page grow and work with its founder. 

How’d you like this topic? As part of this newsletter series “The Art of Running a Highly Trusted Page”, SPOBH and I are going to drop 2 more newsletters together and continue to share all the good strategies and skills we’ve learned, including exactly how they make over $100K/year from their page. Reply with anything you want us to spill and we can make sure to include it! 

Julia