SMM Strategy
A case study by Nadia Gorelikova — Head of Social & Communications, TripleTen
How I turned organic social into a $1M+ annual-bookings channel for an EdTech bootcamp across LATAM — while growing Instagram from 85K to 300K and improving lead-to-payment conversion from 0.5% to 3%.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Organic social → mostly awareness / brand support | Measurable acquisition & conversion channel |
| Generic "school promo" | Trusted career guide for career-switchers |
| 85K followers | 300K followers |
| ERR 0.5% | ERR 1.9% |
| Lead-to-payment CR 0.5% | Lead-to-payment CR 3% |
| Low commercial input from the channel | >$1M annual bookings, booking share ×2 |
Context: TripleTen brand
EdTech bootcamp for career-switchers (US + LATAM markets).
Challenge: build organic social presence that feels like a trusted career guide — not a pushy school — and drive qualified leads through socials alone.
Platforms: Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook.
Role & Approach
Hi, I'm Nadia
- Owned: research, strategic positioning, social funnel architecture, content frameworks, creative direction, team leadership, experimentation priorities
- Led: 2 direct reports / 4 cross-functional contributors
- Partnered with: Performance Marketing, Sales, CRM/Lifecycle, Analytics, Design
- Accountable for: audience growth, qualified social leads, conversion contribution, channel booking share
Insight & Strategic Framework
To improve both the volume and quality of social leads, I built the content strategy around a clear connection between our USPs and the right audience segments.
- I ran mixed-method research to surface the core jobs-to-be-done behind switching into tech
- Translated these JTBDs into audience segments and content pillars directly tied to CR0/CR1/CR4 across our social funnels
- Built an audience segmentation model (Cold / Warm / Hot) with distinct content strategies, CTAs, and conversion goals for each stage
Early-stage browsers, low urgency
Motivated but facing financial barriers
Mid-career, financially stable, ready to buy
| Segment | Description | SMM goal | Main CTA | Growth / KPIs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold | Early-stage browsers, low urgency | Awareness & Engagement | Follow, engagement-related actions | Followers, reach, engagement |
| Warm | Motivated but facing financial barriers | Nurturing & Trust | Follow us! + engagement; Get quiz / Playbook / Book a call | Followers, reach, engagement, traffic, CR0, CR1 |
| Hot | Mid-career, financially stable, ready to buy | Fast Conversion | Book a call, Get your spot, Promo-related | Calls, CR4 |
Five content categories mapped to business outcomes — entertaining for reach, useful for saves, trust for link clicks, inspiring for loyalty, promo for conversions.
- Entertaining — reach, follows 25%
- Useful — saves, engagement 25%
- Inspiring — engagement, loyalty 25%
- Trust — link clicks, CR0/CR1 15%
- Promo — conversions, CR4 10%
- Designed an integrated content calendar balancing brand-building (65%) and conversion-focused content (35%)
- Prioritized Stories for daily engagement, Reels for reach, and strategic use of carousel posts for trust-building
Content Pillar Examples
- HR character / trusted voice — hypothesis-driven testing: an ironic, empathetic HR persona for career-oriented useful content
- Collaborations with teachers and nomads
Boosted target follows by 1,000/month through a relatable, non-salesy tone.
HypothesisCareer-switchers distrust overt school promotion but actively share content that names their professional anxiety without judging them.
ExperimentLaunched an empathetic HR-character format combining local cultural cues, career pain points, and low-friction follow/quiz CTAs.
SignalStronger reach, target follower growth, saves/shares, and downstream lead contribution.
DecisionScaled the format into a repeatable pillar and applied its learning to creator collaborations.
Trend-driven reach Reels
To grow the cold audience, the team launched trend-based Reels mixing memes, TikTok/IG audio, and local humor with real pain points around burnout, bosses, and career anxiety. This emotional, highly shareable format hit 3M+ views on multiple Reels and consistently brought new relevant followers into the funnel.
AI-Enabled Content Operations
To increase output without sacrificing strategic depth or creative quality, I redesigned the team's content workflow around AI-assisted research, ideation, and production.
| Workflow stage | AI-enabled approach | Business impact |
|---|---|---|
| Audience research | Used Exa + Claude to synthesize social-listening signals, comment patterns, JTBD interviews, and competitor observations into actionable audience insights | Shortened the path from raw feedback to content briefs and testable hypotheses |
| Ideation & scripting | Built reusable prompt workflows for hooks, angle exploration, script variations, and platform-specific adaptations. Set up trends monitoring. | Increased the volume and range of concepts the team could test each week |
| Content production | Used Cursor and Claude to speed up repetitive tasks — content briefs, caption variations, localization support, production documentation | Increased content-production speed by 4× |
| Performance analysis | Combined Tableau reporting with AI-assisted analysis to identify patterns across reach, engagement, follower growth, leads, and conversion signals | Enabled faster iteration and more evidence-based editorial decisions |
Results, Learnings & Next Steps
"The channel became a reference point for career-switchers — content was regularly saved, shared, and mentioned in word-of-mouth feedback."
Audience-centric, emotionally honest content outperformed generic "edtech promo" and built trust much faster.