Yesterday: Why follower count is dying.
Today: What platforms are doing about it (and why they're scared to commit).
Spoiler: They know it's broken. They're just afraid of breaking it more.
Instagram's Failed Experiment (And Why It Matters):
The idea: Remove social pressure. Let creators focus on quality, not vanity metrics.
What happened:
Creators revolted ("How do I prove my value to brands?")
Influencers panicked ("My credibility just disappeared")
Instagram quietly buried the feature
But here's what they learned:
Users who hid like counts stayed on the app 8% longer.
Less anxiety = more engagement.
The feature failed as mandatory. But it worked as optional.
Now they're testing again. Quietly. In select markets.
The 59-sec takeaway:
Platforms know follower count is toxic, but they're addicted to the engagement it creates.
The tension:
Healthier users (hide counts, reduce comparison anxiety)
Lower engagement (vanity metrics drive posting behavior)
Instagram wants both but they can't have both.
So they're experimenting.
What TikTok is doing differently:
Accounts under 100K followers get 7.50% engagement.
Accounts over 10M followers get 2.88% engagement.
TikTok doesn't hide follower counts. They just made them irrelevant.
Your video with 5K followers can beat someone with 5M followers on the “For You” Page.
Because TikTok's algorithm prioritizes watch time and engagement, not follower size.
Follower count is displayed but it doesn't determine reach.
That's the smart play.
“Don't hide the metric. Just stop using it as the ranking signal.”
The platform dilemma:
If Instagram/TikTok hide follower counts:
Users feel less pressure
Smaller creators get fairer distribution
Influencers lose credibility signals
Brands can't quickly assess reach
If they keep follower counts visible but make them meaningless:
Number still exists (influencers happy)
Algorithm ignores it (smaller creators happy)
Confusion (brands don't understand new metrics)
There's no clean solution.
How I'd use this:
If you're building on platforms:
Stop optimizing for follower count.
Instagram: Focus on saves + shares (algorithm signals)
TikTok: Focus on watch time + completion rate
LinkedIn: Focus on comment depth + profile visits
Twitter: Focus on reply rate + quote tweets
The platforms are telling you what they value by what they rank.
Follower count? Not on the list anymore.
For Under 59: I don't track subscriber count as success.
I track:
Reply rate (are people engaging?)
Forward rate (are people sharing?)
Conversion rate (are people applying tactics?)
Why this matters for Monday's prediction:
Instagram tested hiding counts. Failed. But learned.
Option A (platforms hide counts permanently) could happen if:
They figure out how to do it without creator revolt
They make it optional (not mandatory)
They introduce new credibility metrics
Or TikTok's model wins: Keep counts visible, make them irrelevant.
Clue #2 collected.
Tomorrow: How influencer marketplaces are repricing creators (spoiler: engagement only).
Later,
Pavan
What's your guess? Reply and tell me.
P.S. Instagram knows follower count is toxic. They just can't figure out how to kill it without killing engagement. That's the billion-dollar problem.