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The Liaison Between Businesses And Shoutout Networks, Christien Bouc


Instagram is the most profitable social media platform to date. If you are looking to start a business, grow awareness, or develop a personal brand, then Instagram is a platform you must leverage. Every company needs more traffic, leads and followers online. Because of this, many brands turn to the biggest influencers, or better yet the largest meme pages to promote their businesses.

“Instagram is literally free money for businesses…” says Christien Bouc, the founder of Bouc, a cutting-edge marketing agency that helps influencers and brands with lead generation, follower growth, and PR. Christien and his agency Bouc, also known as Bouc Media, have been serving clients for over 5 years now. More specifically, Bouc Media serves as a liaison between top brands and meme page shoutout networks for promotions. “The meme community has been supporting some of the largest brands, like Fashion Nova, for years now,” Christien says. “Furthermore, the customer acquisition cost from meme page marketing is typically a lot lower than utilizing top personal influencers, like Kim Kardashian.”


Jackson Weimer: How did you start your business on social media?

Christien Bouc: I started my marketing agency in 2017 after purchasing Tai Lopez’s Social Media Marketing Agency course. Back then, I helped clients with social media management which predominantly included content creation, scheduling posts, and setting up retargeting ads. During this time, my clients would ask about Instagram related services and if there was anything I could sell them to help get more followers, traffic and leads. I began researching everything I could about Instagram growth and started growing my first instagram theme page not long after. Growing that account to 10,000 followers relatively quickly, I started another theme page called @christienvirals and grew that to over 100,000 followers in 88 days by leveraging viral content and by paying big influencers in my niche to like and comment on my posts. This would put my content on the explore page for the followers of the influencers who engaged on my post. I even met my current girlfriend while growing this account when she saw one of my viral posts on her explore page, clicked to my profile, and DMed me saying I was cute. For me, going viral on that Instagram account was really the start of my business on social media because I began acquiring a pipeline of clients online instead of cold calling / scheduling in-person meetings in my local area.


Weimer: How did you become a liaison for brands and meme pages?

Bouc: The first step for me was starting an Instagram theme page and growing it to a substantial amount of followers. I also went out of my way to network with pages larger than my own, but most importantly I continued making new pages and growing them. At the height of my network, I had ~1.1M followers across 14 pages and I learned all about the algorithm, how to identify trending content, and how to read data in Instagram’s analytics in order to capitalize on what is working best on a specific page.

I also learned how to create and test high converting shoutouts, also called ‘sets’ that we would use for S4S or shoutout for shoutout. This eventually led me to meeting a friend online who at the time owned @thecountrystyles, a 1M+ follower country page, and he invited me to a Telegram Group filled with meme page owners. From there, I connected with several people who ran shoutout networks like the owner of a Fortnite shoutout network and even the owner of a shoutout network for 500k+ meme pages. This is how I managed to become a connector between meme pages and businesses. It all started with me learning how to grow theme pages which served as an “in” and earned the respect of others meme page owners who invited me into their circle.


Weimer: How has growing theme pages helped you grow personal brands and businesses?

Bouc: Growing theme pages or repost pages is the absolute best way to learn about the algorithm and organic growth in my opinion. You can get a lot of knowledge about the Instagram algorithm and Instagram growth by posting three to five times a day on an account for a year. But to create content with that type of volume is quite challenging and not possible for most creators.

This is why theme pages are the best way to learn about hashtags, viral content, and dissect what is working on the platform organically. I was able to apply these same strategies to personal brands and businesses, coupled with paid promotional strategies like shoutouts, paid advertising, and more to really blow up personal brands and businesses.


Weimer: What makes your agency services unique from your competition?

Bouc: The main difference between Bouc and other agencies is our comprehensive experience helping clients generate targeted leads and niched followers to their social media accounts. While we do help clients build fast social proof via celebrity giveaway campaigns, I also make it a priority to speak with every single client our agency works with and I listen to each of the client’s goals, so that I can recommend the best strategy to make that happen.

If their goal is followers who engage, we recommend services to get them that instead of the most profitable services. I am all about being upfront with my clients and telling them the hard facts about social growth. I am not scared to walk away from the sale if the clients goals do not align with reality. I prefer to underpromise, overdeliver, and create clear expectations. Because of this, I have earned the respect and trust of my clients and many top marketing agencies who come to me for not only advice, but also to white label and resell our services.


Weimer: What would you say to any Personal Brands and Businesses not on Instagram yet?

Bouc: Instagram is the new business card and has over 1 billion monthly active users. Your customers are already on Instagram and consume it daily. It is what prospective buyers will see before purchasing your products and services online. Whether you like the app or not, you are leaving money on the table if you refuse to develop a content strategy in order to organically reach more people. Coupling that with a paid traffic strategy is also more important than ever to generate consistent leads whether the algorithm is promoting you organically or not. Why would you not position yourself on the platform to convert the most sales possible?


This conversation has been edited and reduced for clarity.