Charlie Ambrose’s Secret to Social Media Stardom

Over the past few years, Charlie Ambrose has earned a personal network of over 700,000 social media followers. We had the chance to sit down with him and ask him about the process of rising to social media notoriety.

Charlie Ambrose has been featured in USA Today, Nasdaq, Yahoo Finance, and more. The Instagram pages he co-owns, @Eng.Technology and @Dunksx, grow by the thousands daily. He’s also founded a unique social media marketing agency called “Flex,” where he helps brands build a social media presence. In a brief interview, Ambrose shared some of his secrets to social media marketing stardom.

Q: What led you to start managing social media pages? 

A: I started working on social media in the fall of 2017. A good friend of mine had a basketball Instagram page that he was posting on for fun. I believe it was October of that fall when he was approached by a company called Bullpen Labs (now Wave Sports) that wanted to buy his page and pay him monthly to manage it. At the time, it was an easy decision to join Wave, and that was the first time I viewed social media as a real business opportunity. 

With my friend’s help, I immediately started searching for a page to purchase and manage myself. I landed on a basketball page with 40,000 followers and acquired that page with the money I had saved up. Upon obtaining the page, I sold it to Wave and joined their team. At the time, I didn’t even have a personal Instagram page because I saw no value in social media, but this changed my entire mindset towards the medium. 

Q: How were you able to grow such a large following on social media? 

A: The majority of my follower growth has been through account acquisitions. Once I buy a page, my goal is to increase organic followers growth from content to increase the value of the page and increase the return on investment when I go to sell it. 

Q: What advice would you give to people trying to build their personal brand on social media?  

A: Never buy followers. If you understand the process of acquiring an Instagram page and have the funds to do so, that can be a great option, but fake followers are almost always a bad idea. Engagement is critical for a personal brand, and fake followers will give your page zero engagement. Buy pages, not followers. 

On top of that, as cliché, as it is, trust your gut, and just be you. Don’t try to fake something to put out some image; real people you want to work with or do business with will see right through an act.

Q: What is your favorite social media platform? 

A: Instagram remains my top platform. TikTok is definitely making waves, but I think the data breach allegations and Instagram’s new Reels feature may be too much for the company to really push itself out of the younger demographic and into older people. I’m not saying that a younger demographic (ages 10-22) is bad; however, that age group is not where the money is. To run real ads, from what I have seen, a platform needs businesses to come in that are not targeting those younger people. 

Q: What were your main struggles on social media to see success? How did you persevere through it?

Social media, in my opinion, is all about consistency. On any of my niche pages, as soon as I stop posting content, activity and follower growth drop almost immediately. But the benefits of staying consistent with posting and follower interaction are immense. 

Q: What are the goals you’re ultimately trying to achieve with social media?

A: I see social as a medium that so many well-established businesses have not tapped into, and I see it as a perfect way to build a following around any brand, new or old. I also see social media as an incredible launchpad to other business ventures. My goal is to take my knowledge of social media marketing, branding, and advertising into my future endeavors to really have a backbone in building a brand and connecting people. 

Q: Any additional comments? 

A: Keep going! You can always hit me with any questions on my Instagram. @isbroze, or at my email: charles@flexmediamarketing.com. 

Charlie Ambrose’s resell mentality models the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk and embodies the spirit of a true entrepreneur. Whether it be contracted branding work, organic growth, or building a startup, it’s clear that Ambrose will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future.