Your followers count is being decimated by social media algorithms right now.
Thousands of creators are waking up each day to discover their reach is plummeting. Their audience isn’t seeing their content. Engagement is cratering. And they’re absolutely helpless to change it.
But here’s the crazy thing…
Creators don’t own their audience. The platform does.
Take control of your audience instead of being a slave to algorithms with a website.
Table of Contents
The Grim Reality of Platform Dependency
Why Algorithms Are Killing Organic Reach
The Case for Owning Your Digital Space
How a Website Changes Everything
Wrapping Things Up
The Grim Reality of Platform Dependency
The whole social media as a business foundation thing is a house built on sand. It will eventually collapse.
Platforms change their algorithms constantly. They censor creators by banning or demonetising posts without warning. The best content gets buried in an endless feed of other creators, brands, and bots.
Platforms want creators to be solely dependent on them for audience and distribution. Why? So the platforms get to keep all the profits and control.
Businesses that try to exclusively live on rented land will never build long-term wealth or stability. You are entirely at the whim of social media platform owners and their constantly changing algorithms and policies.
As a creator or business owner, you should own your digital space and channel audiences to a website you control.
You should get a professionally designed website as the central hub of your digital presence. You own your website and nobody can tell you what you can or can’t say or show there.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok… nobody owns them. They merely provide the real estate for your brand and business. It’s like owning a fancy business card with no actual storefront.
Create a website for your brand as the place where all the action happens. Make social media a distribution channel for that space. Create content, show it on social to attract an audience, then drive your audience to your owned and operated space.
The path of least resistance is to simply focus on social and pay the platform owners for the privilege of doing business on their platforms.
The path of sustainable business building is to create a website you own and channel all traffic and relationships there.
Why Algorithms Are Killing Organic Reach
Creators are at the mercy of platform algorithms.
Platforms push content that keeps users clicking and scrolling. This content is data and ad revenue for the social platforms. Organic posts from creators directly compete with that revenue.
Natural organic reach keeps declining for every major social media platform. It’s been falling every year since Facebook announced the newsfeed algorithm back in 2012.
According to TechCrunch, 2025 was the year algorithms completely took over, making follower counts almost meaningless.
Instagram organically reached 3.5% of followers on average. Facebook did even worse at 1.65%. Your account has 10,000 followers? Good luck getting less than 350 people to actually see your post.
This isn’t a bug. Platforms hate organic posts from creators so they bury them in sponsored content and competing creators.
And of course, the way to fix this is to pay the platforms to get your content seen again.
What’s causing the natural reach problem for creators?
Content oversaturation with billions of posts created every day.
Algorithm favouritism where platforms prioritise highly engaging content.
Pay-to-play model of sponsored content taking priority.
Format restrictions for ideal platform content (videos on Instagram vs. Facebook vs. TikTok).
Creators built businesses and careers on social platforms only to discover they no longer had any natural reach or power. Algorithms can be a brutal roadblock for growth.
The Case for Owning Your Digital Space
Social media is just one touchpoint for most people today. A website is a digital asset that is 100% owned by the creator.
Instagram profile? Owned by Instagram. TikTok account? Owned by TikTok. YouTube channel? Owned by Google.
A website is the only digital asset in the world that’s 100% controlled by you. No algorithm changes. No surprise account bans or demonetisations. No shadow bans, content censorship, or platform policy shifts that tank your visibility overnight.
A properly designed website also generates credibility for brands and sponsors. Potential partners and advertisers are much more likely to take a creator seriously if they have a well-crafted website beyond their social media profiles.
Here are some of the benefits of having a website you own:
Email list ownership for direct communication without algorithm interference.
SEO benefits to rank and be found in search engines for years.
Full control over your brand and message.
Monetisation flexibility with product sales, services, and digital downloads.
Professional credibility to help establish you as an expert.
Social media accounts shouldn’t be the business or brand. Social media should be a distribution channel to direct attention to owned media and platforms where creators can build sustainable businesses.
How a Website Changes Everything
A website becomes the central hub for content.
Blog posts, videos, podcasts, e-books, guides, events, digital downloads, courses… all of that content lives on a website. The website is the home base for everything.
It’s not a social media post that disappears down the rabbit hole of a platform’s feed in hours. A website and content lives there perpetually.
Here’s why that matters:
Search engines compound traffic over time. Blog posts from years ago can continue driving new traffic and audiences.
Your audience can find you even if a platform disappears or bans you. (Instagram could get banned in the EU as a monopoly. Will your business still exist? If so, where?)
Leads go straight into your email inbox. No more hoping your audience sees your social media posts.
Brand partnerships pay much more for website and blog placements.
Websites look much more credible, established, and professional to most people.
The creator economy is over $250 billion. But a tiny fraction of that value actually goes to creators and independent businesses. The rest flows through platform algorithms.
Creators that build websites and email lists along with diversified revenue streams are the ones that really win in the long-term.
Wrapping Things Up
Social media distribution is a good thing for creators. Build an audience there and show the work that gets people interested.
Try building a business on top of a platform you don’t own and are entirely dependent on? The social media algorithms will crush you.
Here are some key takeaways:
Social platforms are distribution channels for audience, not business foundations.
Organic reach is getting worse on every platform every year.
Websites offer complete ownership, control, and long-term value.
Email lists let you bypass platform algorithms for direct communication.
Diversification of channels and income protects against platform changes.
Your audience deserves to have one central place to follow you and consume your content and offerings. Give them that place by creating a website you own and directing all traffic to that channel.
Social media is great for building a business and audience… but it shouldn’t be the entire business or source of income.