Terrell Wade, known widely from his social media handle @TheWadeEmpire, has solidified his virtual brand by creating original comedy sketches for the past 5 years. He is a true entertainer who has realized the most effective way to magnifying his audience, and garnering a multitude of diverse opportunities, is by remaining true to himself and focusing on what he loves. Wade asserts that consistency, research, and relationships are the most crucial factors which can render success for any social media influencer.
Wade’s first experience going viral on social media occurred after he made a unique grammar video about the differences between “their”, “there”, and “they’re” while explaining when and how to properly use each. People often fail to use the three words appropriately, and Wade’s slightly vulgar, but extremely comedic, explanation of how to use the words granted him a massive number of views. The foundation of Wade’s Instagram popularity thus comes from the entertainingly, educational grammar videos he tends to post. Wade’s followers and other viewers of his page have begun recognizing Wade for the office-style content he regularly creates, and they now seek to incorporate Wade in content of their own.
Wade explains that if he had the knowledge he has now when he first began making his creative content for social media he would have established his niche immediately. Wade started out making Instagram posts which required green screen, and though they were entertaining, these posts were overwhelmingly tedious to develop. Rather than limit himself to simply posting for his Instagram audience, Wade would have also refrained from alienating other social media platforms and instead created content for all of them in the early stages of his career. Wade now has over 1 million followers on TikTok and several hundred thousand followers on Instagram, but he believes he would have even more followers if he had diversified his social media platform usage from the start. Wade also mentions that if he had his current knowledge at the start of his social media career, he would have put in the proper effort to research the optimal times when his followers view him. He would then create more posts at these times to maximize follower engagement as he does today. Wade encourages younger influencers to take heed of the shortcomings of his early online career in order to navigate their own paths to success more efficiently. He also stresses the importance of taking breaks from social media to maintain mental health and never succumbing to the harsh words of internet trolls. It is the influencers’ duty to ensure the online voices of positivity outweigh the negative ones for them mentally or else they risks losing focus.