Why Only 2% of Your Followers See Your Posts
Forget engagement rate. This is the only metric that matters for exponential growth in 2025.
Only 2% of your followers see your posts.
My mom doesn’t even see mine.
Here is a real example:
I only have 16,000 followers on YouTube. My last video got 2.3 million views.
I have over 400,000 followers on Instagram. My last post got 34,000 views.
It can go either way. And that’s exactly my point.
Your Followers Aren’t Your Audience Anymore
In the past, follower counts mattered because social media worked like email subscribers.
Your post would get shown to your followers first. If they engaged, it would spread from there.
That’s not how it works anymore.
Today, the algorithm automatically chooses who sees your content based on interest, not connection. It’s not social media anymore. It’s interest media.
Whoever likes your stuff gets your stuff.
Your followers are no longer your audience. The algorithm’s audience is your audience.
The Only Metrics That Matter Right Now
Most creators track the wrong metrics.
They celebrate hitting 100K followers.
They refresh their likes every five minutes.
They obsess over vanity metrics that have zero correlation with reach.
The algorithm is optimizing for something completely different: saves and shares.
When someone saves your post, they’re telling the algorithm it’s valuable enough to reference later.
When someone shares your post, they’re putting it in front of a new audience organically. Saves and shares push your content to people who’ve never heard of you.
That’s where exponential reach comes from.
The Magic Question That Can Make Your Post Go Viral
When I create a post now, I start with one question: Why would someone share this?
If I don’t know, they won’t know either. And if they don’t share it, they’re voting against its virality by saying they’re not interested in it.
No post goes viral without massive shares.
Therefore, hyper focusing on shareability gives your post the best chance of going viral.
Which is why this question (why would someone share this post?) changes everything.
It forces you to think beyond your existing audience. It makes you focus on instant delight, entertainment or a dopamine hit of value.
It shifts your mindset from “Will my followers like this?” to “Will this resonate with someone who’s never heard of me?”
Content optimized for likes dies with your followers. Content optimized for shares spreads way beyond them.
Isn’t that what “virality” is… reaching people that you don’t know?!!?
The shift from social media to interest media isn’t temporary.
It’s here to stay.
And that is for one main reason: it keeps people on the platforms longer and that’s all the algorithms care about.
You can have 500K followers and get 5K views.
Or you can have 5K followers and get 500K views.
The algorithms just want to keep users on the platform.
Which means you should focus on keeping users watching your posts.
The creators who are growing fastest aren’t the ones with the most followers. They’re the ones creating content that people can’t help but share. They’re asking “Why would someone share this?” before they hit publish.
The platforms changed the rules.
It’s time to step up because there has never been a more level playing field.
Shares > Followers
If you like this post, you will definitely like this one:
The Hidden Reason Most People Never Achieve What They Want
I spent three years telling people I was writing a book called "Underdog."
I’ve noticed that the posts people share most aren’t just the ones they like, they’re the ones that inform, entertain, resonate, or help them connect with others. Shares seem to happen when content sparks emotion, provides real value, or just feels meaningful. This post captures that perfectly: reach isn’t about follower count, it’s about creating something people genuinely want to pass along.
Make post that people want to share!