The Death of Followers: Why "Interest Media" Just Changed Everything for Brands

Here's something wild that happened in 2025 that most brands are completely missing:

Follower counts died. Like, actually died.

LTK's CEO said it plainly: "2025 was the year where the algorithm completely took over, so followings stopped mattering entirely."

And she's not wrong. We're witnessing the second major shift in social media history — and it's as significant as when Facebook moved from chronological feeds to algorithmic ones back in 2011.

Welcome to Interest Media.

Social media isn't "social" anymore. It's interest-based.

The data is bananas:

Think about that. Someone with zero followers can create content that reaches millions. The cream actually rises to the top now.

For 15+ years, brands obsessed over follower counts. They paid influencers based on reach. They measured success by how many people hit "follow."

That playbook is toast.

Platforms now rank content based on watch time, saves, and meaningful comments — not follower counts. Instagram's micro-influencers maintain 3.2% engagement rates while mega-accounts struggle to crack 1%.

The math is simple: if your content is good, algorithms will show it to interested people regardless of whether they follow you.

This is the second time in social media history that organic content is back on center stage.

The first time? When social media launched and everything was chronological. Every post reached every follower. Then algorithms killed organic reach, and brands had to pay to play.

Now? Merit-based distribution is back. Content that performs well early can reach 10x or 100x your following.

But here's what's crucial: most brands are treating this exactly like the last era. They're still buying follower counts, still obsessing over vanity metrics, still creating content for their existing audience.

Wrong game.

Here's how smart brands are playing this shift:

Step 1: Organic is your R&D lab

Create content focused on delivering value to people interested in your category — not just your followers. The algorithm will test it with small audiences first. If it hooks them (high watch time, saves, shares), the algorithm pushes it wider.

This is free market research. You're learning what resonates without spending a dime on ads.

Step 2: Let the algorithm do the heavy lifting

The beauty of interest-based algorithms? They're incredibly good at finding your people. TikTok's CEO literally said their algorithm is "a simple matter of math" — it shows content to users based on what others with similar interests enjoyed.

You don't need to build an audience first. The algorithm builds it for you if your content is good.

Step 3: Scale winners with paid

Once organic content proves it converts — high engagement, strong click-through, actual sales — THEN you put ad spend behind it.

A tourism company saw 189% reach increase by combining organic with minimal boosting. Glossier built its entire community organically first, then used paid campaigns to scale for product launches.

The hybrid approach allocation? 60-70% budget to organic content creation, 30-40% to amplifying proven winners.

This isn't theory. Here's what actually works in 2025:

On Instagram: Reels posts average 2.11% engagement vs 1.45% for carousels. Instagram saw a 13% increase in impressions year-over-year, but engagement is down 28%. Translation: More people see content, fewer interact. So your hooks need to be razor-sharp.

On TikTok: Still the king of organic engagement at 2.5% average rate (despite dropping 50% from 2024). The platform rewards full video views, so structure content with payoffs at the end. Post 1-4x daily to train the algorithm.

On Facebook/X: Organic reach dropped to 0.15% engagement rate on both platforms. These are now almost entirely pay-to-play. Don't waste organic efforts here unless you have a specific community strategy.

Stop chasing followers. Start chasing engagement quality.

Your goal isn't to grow your follower count from 10K to 100K. It's to create content that makes the algorithm say "this is valuable to people interested in X" and distribute it widely.

Some practical shifts:

Before: "We need to post consistently to keep our followers engaged"

Now: "We need to create content that algorithms want to distribute to interested people"

Before: "Let's boost all our posts to reach more people"

Now: "Let's see which posts organically prove they resonate, then boost those"

Before: "Influencer marketing means paying people with big followings"

Now: "Find creators making great content in our category, regardless of follower count"

We're in a rare moment where organic social actually matters again. But it's not about building your audience anymore — it's about creating content good enough that platforms distribute it to interested people for free.

Then, once you've identified winners through organic distribution, you pour gas on the fire with paid amplification.

This is the playbook. It won't last forever (these windows never do), but right now, in 2025, the brands crushing it are the ones who figured this out months ago.

The question is: are you still playing the old game, or are you ready to win in Interest Media?

P.S. The most successful brands right now are treating their organic social like a startup treats product-market fit testing. They're shipping constantly, measuring what works, and doubling down on winners. If you're not testing at least 3-5 pieces of content per day organically, you're not learning fast enough.