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The Follower Count Game Is Dead — Here’s What Matters Now

We’re moving from Software as a Service → to Service as Software.

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Hello and welcome to the 162nd edition of Fresh Salmon.

If you're new here, welcome aboard! And if you’d like to catch up on past issues, click here.

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The biggest disruption AI is about to bring isn’t in content creation or image generation.

It’s in the Services Industry.

Everyone’s talking about how AI will replace creatives, coders, and content writers. But they’re missing the real story…

For decades, we’ve sold human effort as a service - manual tasks, admin work, operational projects.

We built entire billion-dollar companies around this simple formula:

Hire people → package their time → sell it as a service.

But AI is quietly flipping the script.

What used to be labeled as "services" will soon look more like solutions.

Manual tasks? Automated.

Admin work? AI-powered.

Human input? Only when it really matters.

We’re moving from Software as a Service → to Service as Software.

And this shift will quietly reshape entire industries.

The companies that win won’t just hire faster.

They’ll build service-delivery models where AI does the heavy lifting, and humans do what only humans can do.

The real question is: Are you building a service business…

or a service-based solution that scales without human effort?

That’s the future.

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The Death of Followers & The New Game

The 'Follower Count' era is dying. Welcome to the 'Value & Depth' era. Your content isn't being judged by how many people follow you - it's being judged by how good, engaging, and helpful it is. And if you're stuck, it’s because you’re focused on the wrong things.

What's Happening?

Gary Vee (like him or not) dropped a masterclass live the other day - and most people missed the real point.

Here’s the core message: Followers don’t matter anymore. 

The algorithm is no longer about who you follow. It's about what you engage with. You’re not showing up in feeds because of follower count - you’re showing up because you provided value or entertainment.

In fact, Gary showed this in real-time: His TikTok account with 384 followers got 32,000 views. His main account with 15 million followers had less views

The follower flex? It's over.

What’s killing your social media strategy

Most brands & creators are still stuck in a High School popularity contest.
Obsessing over likes, follower count, verification badges — metrics that don’t drive business.

And when they do show up, their content looks like this:

  • “Buy my product!”

  • “Here’s why my brand is cool!”

  • “Follow me and you’ll be successful!”

Selfish content.
Content that adds zero value to the audience’s life. That’s why they’re stuck.

The Real Strategy (That Nobody Wants To Hear)

If you want to win today, here’s what actually works:

  1. Create valuable, non-selfish content.
    → Teach something.
    → Entertain.
    → Give something away.
    → Share something relatable, even if it’s random.

  2. Talk to people. DM people. Search by location & reach out.
    You’re sitting around waiting for people to follow you… when you could be actively building relationships.

  3. Stop boosting bad content.
    Paid media doesn't fix creative that’s already flopped. It accelerates what's already working.

Key Takeaways For B2B Marketers

Stop chasing vanity metrics.

Nobody cares if your company page has 8,000 followers or 800. They care if you helped them solve a problem.

Your audience = the people who are paying attention, not who clicked 'Follow'.
Make your content binge-worthy, helpful, specific to their pain points.

B2B is human too.
Show up on LinkedIn. Message that Director of Ops. Run a free giveaway, not because you want something, but because it brings value.

Your audience is not growing because you’re not evolving.
You’re running the same old playbook. Switch it up. Be uncomfortably honest. Experiment. Break the fourth wall.

The follower count game is dead. Depth, connection, and action is the new metric.
Your job is not to collect followers like Pokémon.
Your job is to build something so good, people want to stay.

If your strategy is stuck — go on LinkedIn, engage, and shift from selfish selling to selfless giving.

The algorithm isn’t stopping you. You are.

Let’s change the game.

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That’s it for this week! If you found this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend.

See you next time!

Do what is good for your soul ❤️

All the best,

Vivek

PS. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways in which I can help you and your business:

#1: B2B Marketing Consulting and Go-To-Market Advisory for your business.

#2: 1-on-1 Personal Coaching and Mentoring on anything related to Marketing and Go-To-Market Strategies for you.

#3: Promoting you or your brand via this newsletter.

For any of these things just shoot me a reply, and we will arrange a time to chat.