Communities are the new algorithm
How creators build participation loops that beat the algo
This insight is part of my masterclass “The Urgency of Culture”, which teaches CMOs how creators, communities and IP are reshaping the future of brands. Wanna book it for your team? Shoot me a message! :)
We’ve been talking about “community” for so long (me included) that the word feels a little empty right now. But that’s only because we’ve been getting it wrong.
Here’s the thing: for the past decade, we optimized everything for the algorithm. We studied its patterns, fed its appetite, bent our creativity to match whatever it wanted that week. We asked, “What is the algorithm rewarding now?” and then built content for machines, hoping the machines would show it to actual humans.
But something fundamental has shifted.
The algorithm used to decide what mattered. Now? It’s people.
Communities aren’t just the audience anymore. They’re the marketing engine, the creative and production team, the distribution network, and the signal that tells platforms what deserves attention.
Welcome to the post-viral era, where the fastest way to cut through isn’t by gaming the system, it’s by building with people who actually give a sh*t.
The Participation Loop
The internet was never meant to be a top-down broadcast. It was built for conversation, remixing, and layering new meaning on top of what came before.
Smart creators don’t just produce content, they’ve become entertainment houses powered by their communities. They design participation loops, not just content calendars. Their fans don’t just watch, they build, remix, fund, distribute, expand the stories.
On paper, it’s a Brazilian sports streaming channel. In reality, soccer is just the excuse. Casimiro’s audience doesn’t really care about the technical performance of the game, they’re there for the reactions, the running commentary, the inside jokes, the fandom, the culture of watching together.
They clip the best moments, remix them into memes, create compilations that become their own cultural artifacts.
The community IS the content engine.
The game is just the backdrop for a massive communal hangout.
During the 2022 World Cup, Cazé’s livestream of Brazil vs. Croatia reached 6.15 million concurrent viewers, a YouTube Live record! And it wasn’t because of the match. It was because of the moment the community created around it.
Another example? IShowSpeed. He’s one of the biggest live streamers in the world not because he has the best production value or the most polished content. He turned streaming into a shared emotional experience.
His community shows up daily for the chaos, the genuine emotion, the unpredictability. It’s a ritual. And then they extend that energy outward, they make the shorts, the reaction videos, the remixes, the memes that keep the cultural momentum going between streams.
And if you need a chaotic example: Skibidi Toilet. It looks like nonsense on the surface, but underneath it’s one of the strongest demonstrations of community-fueled IP we’ve seen in years.
“Skibidi Toilet has grown on the strength of its Creator Alliance, a network of verified fan creators, to reach over 110 million subscribers and generate around 1 billion average monthly views.” Hollywood Reporter
Now it’s expanding into games, TV, and products. Call it silly, but it’s also the blueprint for how culture scales today. No wonder MrBeast, the biggest youtuber alive, just launched his very own clipping platform called VYRO. He is paying $3 per 1,000 views (CPM).
The algorithm used to find communities. Now communities ARE the algorithm.
The old logic: Make content → hope the platform pushes it → maybe an audience finds it.
The new logic: Build with the community → they remix, react, distribute, amplify → the platform has no choice but to follow their energy.
Communities generate engagement. Engagement feeds the algorithm. And that’s how the community becomes the distribution. It’s a self-sustaining loop.
People don’t show up because the algorithm recommended you or because your brand spent a fortune buying reach from Meta. They show up because they feel part of something.
So what do we do with this?
If you’re a creator, strategist, brand, CMO, or anyone trying to make something that doesn’t evaporate in 24 hours, the path is the same: Stop obsessing over performance. Start designing belonging.
Here are the basics:
Think like a joint account
Creators give their audience something valuable (entertainment, value/education, identity) and audiences give back (attention, content, money, promo). Everyone makes deposits. Everyone can withdraw. Trust stays positive.Lower the barriers to participation
Make it easy and rewarding for people to contribute. Comments, remixes, fan art, challenges, inside jokes… every interaction should feel like an invitation, not a transaction. (Did you know that very few brands reply to comments on their social media???)Design for repeatability
People need patterns and rhythms. It’s how they recognize your world and how casual viewers turn into community members. Consistency beats one-off virality every time. (Gonna write more on how to do this next week)Treat community as a core business pillar, not a nice-to-have
The best creators don’t extract value from their audience. They build things with them. Community isn’t the outcome, it’s the engine.
E se queremos comçar uma comunidade, como descobrir oque as pessoas gostam? Ou o caminho é postar oque eu gosto(minha vibe) e esperar outras pessoas naturalmente se identificarem?