This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
So one of the biggest changes that we have seen in the world of social media, broadly speaking, in the past five, 10 years, is that followers matter a lot less because algorithms are deciding who gets to see various content. Like you log into your Instagram, this is true on YouTube, definitely true on TikTok. It's been led by TikTok in many ways. This changed many other platforms as well. This is kind of like the mainstream way, is that you've got this For You page, you've got Reels and other short form video that are delivered to you based on what the platform thinks you want to see.
And so this changes everything for creators because the old playbook was like, you got to build followers, you reach those followers, you sell to those followers, and now you can have huge accounts that don't reach their followers at all. You can have accounts with low numbers of followers that reach a ton of people. So if you are a creator, do follower accounts still matter at all? Should you only pursue other metrics like views? What kind of leverage is best in this new world?
Great question from a listener today. We've talked about changing social media a couple of times, but I want to focus specifically on followers versus views in the age of algorithms. 'Cause if you're posting online, this makes a big difference. So let's hear the question from Chloe and my answer after this quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
Lately, I've started to wonder if followers even matter anymore.
I'm Chloe from Central Texas, and every time I post to Instagram or TikTok, it feels like the algorithm decides whether anyone sees it, regardless of how many subscribers I have. If that's the case, why should I bother growing a follower base at all? Has social media shifted so much that every post is basically thrown into a giant lottery for attention? I'm trying to build a real audience for my side hustle, but I'm not sure if chasing subscribers is still worth the effort. [Music]
Chloe, thank you for the question.
Let me make an observation right up the top here. A lot of people are complaining about this, right? A lot of creators are very upset about how, you know, they've spent a lot of time recruiting followers and now they can't reach their followers. And on the one hand, I completely get it. I empathize, you know, I've seen much the same thing.
The other side to it though is you could be a new creator and not have, you know, a big platform, a big network. And yet all of a sudden you have the same equal footing of reaching people who might be interested in your message as anybody who has built up an audience. So there's this cost benefit analysis to it. Some people are harmed, some people are helped, but I think mostly everyone just needs to adapt. And so rather than talking about whether it should be like this or not, we just kind of have to realize this is reality.
If you don't want to play the game, of course, you can completely opt out. But if you do want to succeed in algorithmic social media, you have to just kind of understand, okay, that is the process. TikTok's own analytics show that 70 plus percent of an average account's video views now come from non-followers. And that's just how it works, as I said. So if you accept that, if you're like, okay, I can work with that, you got to think of your audience in two layers.
You've got the discovery layer where your content goes in the algorithmic test pool. And if strangers like it, then the platform distributes the post further. If they don't, then that post just kind of disappears. But if you've got followers, like loyal followers dramatically improve your odds of the test pool posts going further. So that's why the second layer is conversion layer.
Followers still give you permission to contact them more than once. Even if your post reaches only 15% of subscribers, well, if you've got a subscriber-only newsletter, if you've got a close friend story, if you have got a Discord, if you have built other things, that lets you convert superfans into customers at much higher rates than that cold algorithmic traffic. So basically, growing followers is still valuable, but chasing any follower is not so valuable. You really need engaged followers who act as that algorithmic jumpstart and later become buyers. And here's a practical tip.
Stop saying follow me and start saying save this post or share with a friend because in the algorithmic world, saves and shares way more and they lead to organic followers. So start encouraging people to share it more, encourage them to save the post. And then also post follower-only content periodically. You can do this behind the scenes. You can do this with polls, discount codes.
That way you reward the loyal group and train the algorithm that your core audience engages quickly. So there's more we could say about that, but that's a kind of a top line response. Algorithms dominate discovery these days. That's just how it works. But an engaged subscriber base is still the fuel for reach and monetization.
So whatever your take on it is, if you wanna succeed in this world, you have to adapt. So I'm trying to adapt as well, just like I encourage our listeners to do. And listeners, let me know what your experience has been. If you have a question or comment, sidehustleschool.com resources page for every episode, of course, you can also download the complete archives of the show. And wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe or follow with podcasts, you do still need to subscribe or follow.
So that would be great. They don't have the same kind of discovery in the podcast world, at least yet. We'll see what happens in the future. Of course, today is all we have for now. And that's it.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. Thank you for listening. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
