Building Community vs. Building an Audience (with VidCon’s Jacques Keyser)
From Revolution.Social by Rabble a.k.a. Evan Henshaw-Plath
February 5, 2026 · 32 min · Season 1 · Episode 27
About this episode
Jacques Keyser discusses the shift in social media towards audience ownership and the evolving creator economy.
VidCon programming director Jacques Keyser says there’s a big shift happening in social media: Creators who once lived and died by the algorithm are increasingly looking for ways to “own” their audiences. “No one can take your podcast away, no one can take your newsletter away,” Keyser says. “Once you've built that audience, that is yours, you own that … if you are on YouTube, if you're on TikTok, if you're on Meta, at any point you could violate one of the T's and C's [and lose your account].” VidCon got its start as a small event in a hotel lobby organized by Hank and John Green, and today it’s one of the largest gatherings of digital creators, fans, and industry in the world. Today on Revolution.Social, recorded at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai, Rabble and Jacques talk about what has changed in the intervening years, both at VidCon and inside the creator economy as a whole. They also talk about how follower counts have become meaningless, how creators actually make money, and why the rise of AI might paradoxically make real-life connection and human authenticity more valuable than ever. Follow Rabble on Bluesky Follow the podcast This episode was…
People in this episode
Host: Evan Henshaw-Plath
Guest: Jacques Keyser
Topics covered
- social media
- creator economy
- audience ownership
- real-life connection
- AI impact
- VidCon history
Keywords
- social media
- audience ownership
- creator economy
- VidCon
- AI
- real-life connection
- followers
- monetization
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: VidCon, YouTube, TikTok, Meta, LightningPod, Flock Marketing
Places: Dubai
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- Can We Bring Vine Back From the Dead? · April 30, 2026 · 57 min
- Why the Algorithm Loves a Villain, And How to Beat It · April 16, 2026 · 47 min
- Why does the internet feel worse than it used to? · April 2, 2026 · 1h 8m
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