Why Small Food Creators Are Finally Getting Their Moment

Photo by Elevae Visuals

Something has shifted, and I bet you've felt it too.

Suddenly those perfectly curated grids don't matter as much. Creators with a few thousand followers are getting discovered. Content that feels real is outperforming polished productions. And that influencer with millions of followers? Their engagement looks... empty.

Here's what's actually happening: social platforms changed how they distribute content. They're not prioritizing follower count anymore—they're looking at shares, watch time, and whether your content makes people stop scrolling.

This is massive for food creators who've been told they're "too small" for real opportunities. Because when the algorithm stops caring about how many followers you have and starts caring about whether your content is shareable, everything changes.

The Follower Count Myth

Follower count measures reach, not connection. And there's a huge difference.

A typical conversion rate from followers to actual buyers is around 1-2%. So an influencer with a million followers might reach 10,000-20,000 people who actually care enough to take action. Meanwhile, a creator with 5,000 deeply engaged followers might have 200-500 people who will show up for anything they do.

The math starts to look different when you zoom out. That smaller creator has a tighter community, less pressure, more authentic relationships, and often just as much impact where it counts.

Publishers will hopefully catch on. Kathleen Schmidt from Publishing Confidential has talked about this—agents and editors have been looking at follower counts as the primary metric, but those numbers don't tell you if someone's audience is actually primed to buy. Engagement matters more. Connection matters more.

What the Algorithm Shift Actually Means

Instagram's CMO Adam Mosseri said something that clicked everything into place: "The bar is shifting from can you create to can you create something only you can create."

Here's what that means in practice: social platforms don't prioritize who you follow anymore. You can follow someone and literally never see their posts unless you seek them out. Instead, the algorithm looks at watch time and shares—especially private shares when someone sends your content directly to a friend.

This is why you're seeing videos with thousands of shares from accounts with only a few hundred followers. The platform doesn't care about the creator's follower count. It cares whether the content is worth sharing.

For food creators, this changes the entire game. You're not competing on production value or how many followers you have. You're competing on whether your content is distinctly yours. Can someone tell your recipe video apart from a hundred others? Or are you just another pair of hands making the same viral pasta?

The creators getting discovered right now have a point of view. When their content shows up in someone's feed, it breaks the pattern. People stop scrolling because they recognize something real.

Why You Need a Platform You Actually Own

Every food creator I work with, I tell them the same thing: start an email list. And I get the same pushback every time. "But that sounds like so much work. Can't I just focus on Instagram?"

Here's the thing—you don't own Instagram. You're building on rented land, and the landlord keeps changing the locks.

I had a client who resisted for months before finally starting a newsletter. Within six months, she had over 6,000 subscribers. That email list became the foundation of her cookbook pitch—not because publishers only care about email, but because it proved she had an audience she could actually reach, anytime, without hoping the algorithm would be kind.

And about Substack—people flock to it thinking the platform will do the work. It won't. You still have to invite people. You still have to create valuable content consistently. The platform is just a tool.

What matters is having a channel you control, where you can show up consistently and where people actually want to hear from you. Not competing with fifty other posts in a chaotic feed. Just you, showing up, delivering value.

Start simple. Weekly recipes, personal essays from your kitchen, curated recommendations—whatever feels authentic to you. The format matters less than the consistency and the connection.

The old influencer model isn't working the way it used to. But that's not bad news—it's actually a liberation. You don't need a million followers or a color-coordinated grid or to chase every viral trend. You need a point of view that's unmistakably yours, content people want to share because it feels real, and a platform you own where the rules don't change every six months.

The algorithm shift means your content can spread regardless of your follower count. If you've been waiting for permission to go after your creative dreams—whether that's a cookbook, building a real platform, or just showing up more authentically—the landscape is shifting in your favor. The question isn't whether you're big enough. It's whether you're ready to create something only you can create.

Want help unlocking your unique voice and building a platform that matters? Grab my free Writing Gold masterclass where we dig into what makes your story different → click here.