The number that matters is not the one you watch
An account with 50,000 followers attracted by entertainment videos sells less than an account with 400 followers made up of salon owners, if you sell hairdressing equipment. Size is not a revenue indicator; relevance is.
The first 100 are recruited by hand
Nobody likes hearing it, but the first hundred come from one-to-one conversations: genuine comments under posts in your sector, personalised messages, taking part in groups. Budget three weeks at an hour a day.
What to publish during that phase
Three content types are enough: what you learn while working, your clients’ results, and the mistakes you see repeated in your sector. Those formats attract exactly the people who have the problem you solve.
The signal that it is working
It is not the number of likes. It is the number of private messages you receive each week. When you move from zero to three spontaneous messages a week, your audience has become commercially useful.