My own tests have revealed a significant pattern: algorithms no longer care who follows you.
This deep dive into platform mechanics shows the real leverage points you’re missing.
I uncovered how interest media changed everything.
For the longest time, I genuinely thought that follower count was the floor. You know, the safety net. If you had the numbers, you had the reach. But looking at the backend data from the last few months, that safety net has holes in it. Big ones. I realized I was optimizing my entire strategy for a ghost.
The social graph—that direct line between you and the people who clicked “subscribe”—has basically dissolved. We are operating in an interest economy now.
Here is what that actually means for the work we do.
YouTube and Facebook aren’t looking at who follows you to decide distribution. They are looking at the video itself. They are asking: does this specific piece of content hold attention right now? If the answer is yes, they find the audience for you. If the answer is no, your follower count is irrelevant.
The machine prioritizes retention over relationship.
This was a hard pill to swallow because it means we can’t coast on past wins. You have to re-earn attention with every single post. I watched high-production generic content die on the vine, while hyper-specific, focused clips with zero production value found massive reach. The difference wasn’t quality. The difference was specificity.
Specific inputs get specific distribution. Generic inputs get ignored.
So the strategy has to change. Instead of trying to be a “creator” that people follow, you have to be the source of a specific interest that algorithms can categorize. You need to be so clearly defined that the system knows exactly where to slot you.
Specificity wins because it reduces the friction for the algorithm. It makes their job easy.
I’m done chasing the vanity metrics. They don’t convert anyway. I’m focusing entirely on interest density.
Does this match what you’re seeing in your metrics?
Like & Comment if you’re ready to stop feeding the follower ghost. 👇
