Do your followers still decide who sees your posts?

This post is from my weekly newsletter, for business owners, marketers who own social among 10 other things, and social pros who want to become experts in AI.

What changed about reach on social media?

There’s a real change happening on social right now. Up until now, the accounts with the biggest followings had the advantage, because when they posted, those followers were much more likely to see their content. Today every platform is getting better at matching your post with the people it will help the most, whether they follow you or not.

Last week I shared that 98% of the people who watched a recent repost of an estate planning company’s video* were not following the account, and that’s pretty normal now.

Which platforms already work this way?

TikTok

TikTok has always worked this way. The For You page was built to match your video with the people who would care about it, which is why a brand-new account could always blow up overnight.

YouTube

YouTube has long been driven by both search and recommendations. When someone searches “how to do winged eyeliner,” they get videos from creators they’ve never subscribed to. Recommendations are the videos YouTube picks for you on your home page, next to or below the video you’re watching, and in the Shorts feed you swipe through, and they’re based on what you’ve watched and searched, not just who you subscribe to. Back in 2018, YouTube said 70% of watch time came from its recommendations.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was always about your network, the people you’re connected to, and that’s the big change. This year LinkedIn rebuilt its feed with AI, and now, in LinkedIn’s words, it shows people posts “whether they come from your network or professionals you haven’t met yet,” based on things like their industry and skills. People are spending more time there too: LinkedIn’s CEO said in their latest earnings update that time spent is up 15% from last year.

Instagram

Instagram is increasingly doing the same thing. Your feed is full of posts from people you don’t follow that aren’t ads. It’s just organic content that the algorithm thinks will be good for you. It also launched trial reels, a feature that shows a Reel to non-followers first, before you decide whether to share it with your followers, so it doesn’t show up on your grid or in your followers’ feeds. The stated goal is to let you test content before sharing it, but the savviest accounts simply use it as a free way to reach non-followers.

So what wins now?

Content that makes it obvious who it’s for and what problem it solves.

1. Say it in the first few seconds of your video, in the text on screen, and in your caption, so the platform can match it with the right people. Something as simple as “If you’re buying your first home and you’re nervous about closing costs...” from a real estate agent tells the platform who to show it to, and it tells the right person to keep watching. You don’t need a big following for that, which is great news if you’re a new or small business.
2. If you’re only posting your videos on Instagram, also post them on YouTube Shorts and LinkedIn. You can do this manually or use a social media scheduling tool (I recommend choosing one that plugs into Claude or ChatGPT so you can speed up formatting, scheduling, and reporting).

This is where AI makes such a big difference for a solopreneur or small marketing team. When the goal is reaching new people, you have to make more, test more, and learn faster, and that used to take a whole team. Now you can take one video and turn it into several post formats, pair different hooks with different B-roll, post across every channel, test trial reels, and cut one long piece into lots of clips. Your job is to test, learn, and then double down on what’s winning. You have the ideas and the judgment, and AI just helps you do the work faster and measure what works.

*The estate planning company is one I invested in and advise, and I ran its social and growth for several months this year.

Social and AI news from the week of November 2, 2026

All three of this week’s stories are more proof that the platforms keep getting better at matching helpful content with people who’ve never heard of you.

TikTok launched Must Eat, a restaurant guide inside its Local feed

Must Eat starts in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. TikTok says it built the lists from more than 40 million posts, reviews and comments, and that 27 million Americans visited an independent restaurant, café or shop for the first time after discovering it on TikTok.

Gemini was the star of Google’s earnings call

On Alphabet’s earnings call, Sundar Pichai reminded us that the Gemini app has reached 1 billion monthly active users and is Google’s fastest-growing product.

Instagram is testing horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long

Instagram is testing horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, plus a feature that turns clips from those longer videos into Reels that link back to the full video. For now it’s a test with limited creators, with plans to expand over the coming months.