There's a well-documented psychological effect at play every time someone lands on a social media profile: people trust accounts that already look trusted. A profile with 50 followers and a profile with 5,000 followers can post the exact same content, and the second one will get dramatically more engagement, purely because of the number next to the name.
The cold-start problem
New accounts face what's often called the "cold-start problem" — you need followers to get engagement, but you need engagement to get followers. It's a chicken-and-egg trap that causes most new accounts to plateau in their first few weeks, regardless of how good the content actually is.
Why the first 90 days matter most
Algorithms — and people — form an early impression of an account fast. An account that crosses a few key follower and engagement thresholds in its first three months tends to keep compounding, while one that stays flat often gets stuck being seen as "small" indefinitely, even if the content quality is identical.
Breaking the cold-start problem
The most effective way past this is combining real content with a deliberate early boost to your follower count and engagement — giving your account the social proof it needs to be taken seriously by both new visitors and the platform's own algorithm. Once you cross that threshold, organic growth typically becomes noticeably easier, since you're no longer fighting the "why should I follow an account with barely any followers" hesitation every single visitor has.
Social proof isn't vanity — it's the single biggest lever for whether a new account gets a fair chance to be seen at all.