TL;DR
Industry executives say 2025 marked a turning point as algorithmic feeds reduced the value of raw follower counts. Creators and brands are responding with strategies that emphasize direct relationships, niche audiences, and new distribution tactics like clipping.
What happened
Executives across the creator economy told TechCrunch that algorithm-driven feeds have diminished the role of follower totals in determining who sees content. Amber Venz Box, CEO of LTK, described 2025 as the year algorithms “took over,” forcing creators to find other ways to reach and retain audiences. LTK’s commissioned Northwestern University study found a 21% year-over-year rise in trust for creators, and the company says 97% of CMOs plan to increase influencer marketing budgets. In practice, creators are pursuing two broad responses: cultivating direct, trust-based relationships via paid communities or less algorithmic platforms, and using distribution tactics that work with algorithms — for example, networks of paid “clippers” who chop long-form streams into short highlights and post them across accounts to gain impressions. Executives predict continued fragmentation of attention and expect niche-focused creators to perform relatively better as platforms optimize hyper-specific content.
Why it matters
- Business models that rely on creator trust (like affiliate marketing) depend on retained audience confidence and direct reach.
- Brands appear ready to allocate more budget to influencers despite algorithmic fragmentation, signaling sustained commercial importance.
- New distribution techniques (clipping, paid communities) shift how creators monetize and grow, changing labor and compensation patterns in the ecosystem.
- Algorithms promoting hyper-targeted content could advantage niche creators and make mass-appeal breakout hits harder to engineer.
Key facts
- Executives told TechCrunch that 2025 was the year algorithms largely governed content distribution, reducing the importance of follower counts.
- LTK commissioned a Northwestern University study that found trust in creators rose 21% year-over-year.
- According to the LTK-cited study, 97% of chief marketing officers intend to grow influencer marketing budgets in the coming year.
- Clipping — turning long-form content into short highlight clips and mass-posting them — is increasingly used to win algorithmic distribution; big creators such as Drake and Kai Cenat have employed similar tactics.
- Reed Duchscher, founder of Night, has advised major creators on virality strategies and helped develop clipping approaches for some clients.
- Glenn Ginsburg described clipping as an evolution of meme accounts competing to push the same intellectual property for views.
- Merriam-Webster named “slop” its word of the year, reflecting a perception that social media quality has degraded.
- Some creators are moving toward less algorithmic platforms and paid fan communities to preserve direct relationships; LTK is positioned as a platform alternative for affiliate creators.
- Epic Gardening — a creator brand that began on YouTube — reportedly purchased the third-largest seed company in the U.S., illustrating creator-driven business diversification.
What to watch next
- Whether clipping scales into a widespread practice that platforms and audiences treat as spam or whether it remains an effective growth lever.
- The degree to which creators successfully migrate audience engagement to paid communities and niche platforms (not confirmed in the source).
- How brands allocate influencer budgets across platform types and whether increased spend leads to measurable ROI shifts (not confirmed in the source).
Quick glossary
- Algorithmic feed: A content delivery system that uses automated ranking signals to decide which posts to show users rather than displaying content strictly in chronological order.
- Clipping: The practice of trimming longer videos or streams into short highlights and reposting them across accounts to drive views and algorithmic distribution.
- Affiliate marketing: A business model where creators earn commissions by recommending products and driving sales or referral traffic to brands.
- Creator economy: The ecosystem of independent content creators, platforms, tools, and businesses that enable creators to produce, distribute, and monetize content.
- Niche creator: A creator who focuses on specialized subject matter or a specific audience segment, often yielding higher engagement from a targeted community.
Reader FAQ
Do follower counts still determine reach?
Executives say follower totals matter far less now because algorithmic feeds increasingly control distribution; follower count alone no longer guarantees reach.
Are brands reducing influencer spend because of fragmentation?
The source reports 97% of CMOs intend to grow influencer marketing budgets, suggesting continued investment despite fragmentation.
What is clipping and why is it used?
Clipping is creating short highlights from longer content and posting them widely; creators use it to capture algorithmic attention and amplify reach.
Will macro creators like MrBeast lose influence?
Executives say niche creators may gain relative advantages as algorithms serve more tailored content, but future prominence of macro creators is not confirmed in the source.
As social media becomes increasingly reliant on algorithmic feeds, creators are navigating a new normal: Just because you post something doesn’t mean your followers will see it. “I think that…
Sources
- Social media follower counts have never mattered less, creator economy execs say
- The Creator Economy In Review 2025: What 77 …
- The Follower Count Is Dead: How Creators Price for Real …
- The Trust Gap In The Creator Economy And How Brands …
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