As part of CreatorFest’s Industry Voices series, Managing Director – Commercial, dmg newmedia and Creator Media, Hannah Blake says brands who are looking to succeed on social media have to stop fixating on follower counts and look at metrics that actually matter.
If you’re building your presence on TikTok, Instagram, or any social video platform, here’s something you need to know: high follower counts aren’t the silver bullet to social success any longer.
For years, follower volumes were the primary marker of top tier accounts. Proof that you’d “made it”, and the main selling point for monetisation. Inevitably, the game has changed. It’s arguably become much fairer; no longer dominated by the vast gravitational pull of uber-celebrities or household names.
The New Roadmap: Quality Over Quantity
Instead, the growing influence of platform algorithms has democratised access to content, changing the state of play away from people you follow and instead towards a recommendation feed of videos based on your consumption habits you’re likely to enjoy.
Algorithms don’t care how many followers you have. They care how good your content is. More importantly, so does your audience.
Think about it: how often do you see posts from every account you follow? Hardly ever. Now, how much content do you see from creators you’ve never followed? Loads.
Platforms are designed to serve what people like, not everything from one person in a stream of video consciousness. This shift means every piece of content — yes, yours included — has the same chance of blowing up and doing serious numbers, whether you have ten followers, or tens of millions.
Why Followers Don’t Necessarily Equal Reach
The old playbook said: grow followers, grow influence. Today, follower count as the primary indicator of creator value is only telling part of the story. A brand with 10 million followers can post a video and barely scrape 100k views. Meanwhile, a creator with 50 followers can hit 10 million views overnight. That’s the reality of algorithm-driven feeds.
Take one of our brands, Eliza, as an example. In the last seven days, over 50% of Instagram views came from non-followers, and on TikTok, 80% of views came from the For You page. Not the follower feed. If you’re still only measuring success by followers, you’re missing the bigger picture. Worse, you risk ignoring the reach that really matters.
What Does Matter?
So, what to focus on instead? Here’s your new scorecard:
- Reach
How many people actually saw your content? This is the foundation of growth. - Retention
Of those viewers, how many keep coming back? On TikTok, you can track returning viewers. For example, last week we had 3 million viewers. 600k were new, but the rest were returning. That’s an engaged audience, even if they never hit “follow”. - Engagement Rate Over Views
Forget engagement vs. followers. It might hurt to realise when you put so much work and thought into every post and update, but most followers don’t see all of your content. Instead, measure engagement against views. This tells you how compelling your content is to the people who actually saw it. - Average Watch Time
Likes and comments are great, but don’t be fooled. They don’t tell the full story. Many people enjoy content without ever interacting, and if you get distracted by comments, these audiences will slip past your plans. Average watch time shows how much your audience is absorbing and enjoying what you create.
Winning with formats
If retention and watch time are key, how do you optimise for them? Increasingly, creators and brands are turning to repeatable formats and series. These build recognition, foster community, and keep audiences coming back. Think of shows like Subway Takes, Chicken Shop Date, or View From a Bridge. They’re not just viral. They’re sticky. They give repeat audiences reasons to come back, again and again.
We’ve invested heavily in this approach at dmg media with formats like Guess Which Outfit Is Most Expensive and Global Debate. These series create familiarity and build anticipation, which drives retention and deeper engagement. This doesn’t mean that spontaneous or non-serialised posts shouldn’t feature in your feeds. But recognisable, repeatable formats are anchors which keep more casual viewers actively seeking you out once you have nailed that initial connection.
The Bottom Line
Success today is about content performance, not solely audience size. The creators who are thriving are those who understand the new rules: optimise for reach, retention, engagement, and time spent watching. Build formats that resonate. And above all, stop chasing followers. Start chasing impact.
The playing field has never been more level. Are you ready to play by the new rules?
