Why Followers Don’t Matter Anymore: Here’s The New Secret To Going Viral

In a recent analysis for the RouteNote Blog, Tom Marshall posits a radical shift in the digital landscape: the era of the "follower" is officially dead. For over a decade, the follower count was the undisputed currency of the creator economy, a metric that promised guaranteed reach and influence. But as we move through 2025, that currency has somehow devalued. We have transitioned from the era of "social media" into the age of "interest media."

The catalyst for this shift is the wholesale replacement of the social graph with the interest graph. In the legacy model, your feed was a curation of people you chose to follow. Today, platforms like TikTok and Instagram prioritise what you watch over who you know. As Marshall observes, the algorithm no longer cares about your subscription list. It only cares about retention.

This transition has effectively turned the follower count into a "vanity metric." Even established creators with millions of followers now find themselves shouting into oblivion, while the algorithm redirects their audience's attention toward whatever content is currently trending. Marshall cites Amber Venz Box, CEO of LTK, who identifies 2025 as the year the algorithm achieved total dominance, rendering traditional following lists secondary to the feed.

However, this isn't a eulogy for discovery. It’s pretty much an invitation. For the emerging creator, the "death" of followers is a democratisation of opportunity. In the old regime, reach was a slow climb; you needed a base to get a boost. In the new world order, the playing field is flat. A user with ten followers can achieve global reach overnight if their content resonates. The algorithm doesn't reward your history; it rewards your current hook.

But this new meritocracy comes with a high price of entry: volume. Marshall explains that every post is now a "roll of the dice." To maintain visibility, creators are forced to adopt a strategy of high-frequency output. The risk here is the proliferation of "AI slop", a low-effort, generated content designed to feed the machine. Marshall warns that while quantity is the price of admission, authenticity remains the only way to build a lasting career. Users are increasingly sceptical of synthetic content. They are looking for a human signal in a digital noise.

For creators and artists, the strategy must pivot. A single piece of work can no longer be a one-off event. It must be treated as a "content goldmine." A single song or project should be deconstructed into dozens of micro-moments such as behind-the-scenes footage, performance snippets, and community-driven audio, just to name a few.

The takeaway for 2025 is clear: stop mourning your follower count. Those numbers no longer define your ceiling. If you provide the algorithm with consistent, high-quality "interest" markers, it will find your audience for you.

The gatekeepers are now being replaced by code.