The Algorithm Shift: How Creators Are battling for Attention in a Post-Follower World
As social media platforms increasingly prioritize algorithmic feeds, a essential shift is underway in the creator economy. The simple equation of posting content and reaching followers is broken, forcing creators to adapt and forge new connections with their audiences.
The change has been brewing for some time. “I think that 2025 was the year where the algorithm entirely took over, so followings stopped mattering entirely,” stated Amber Venz box, CEO of LTK, in a recent interview. This sentiment echoes concerns voiced for years by figures like Patreon CEO Jack Conte, but 2025 appears to be the inflection point where the industry at large began to fully react.
Executives speaking with TechCrunch revealed a diverse range of strategies emerging as creators navigate this new landscape – some seeking to rise above the rising tide of AI-generated content, while others are contributing to it. LTK,a company connecting creators with brands through affiliate marketing,faces an existential challenge as its business model hinges on audience trust. However,a recent study commissioned by northwestern University offered a surprising counterpoint,finding that trust in creators actually increased by 21% year-over-year.
“If you asked me at the beginning of 2025,’Hey,is trust in creators going to go up or down?’ I would have problably said down,because people understand it’s an industry – they understand how it’s working,” Box explained.”But actually, AI pushed people to kind of rotate trust to real humans that they know have real life experiences.”
This suggests a growing consumer preference for authentic content from trusted sources, a trend that 97% of chief marketing officers are responding to by planning to increase influencer marketing budgets in the coming year. However, cultivating these relationships is far from simple. LTK creators are increasingly focused on direct connections through paid fan communities and platforms less reliant on algorithms. Other creators – streamers, podcasters, and filmmakers – are adopting tactics akin to “growth hacking” to maintain visibility.
The Rise of “Clipping Armies” and the Fight for Attention
In a world saturated with algorithmic content, capturing and retaining attention is a constant battle. As Sean Atkins, CEO of dhar Mann Studios, put it, “In a world that’s driven by AI and algorithms, where people trust another human being more in this micro atomization of attention, how do you market when you sort of can’t control that?”
A surprising solution has emerged: the deployment of “clipping armies.” According to Eric Wei, cofounder
