His follower count was high, but his engagement was lower than ever. He started clicking through the new profiles. They had American names and generic stock photos of landscapes or flags. None of them liked his posts. None of them commented. They were ghosts.
He spent the next month cleaning his list and going back to basics: talking to his customers, hosting small tasting events, and growing one real follower at a time. It was slower, but this time, the "likes" actually meant someone was listening.
Within forty-eight hours, the numbers climbed. 500... 800... 1,200. Leo felt a rush of adrenaline. He posted a detailed guide on cold brew, expecting the notifications to explode.
The real blow came a week later. Facebook’s algorithm noticed the discrepancy—thousands of followers but zero interaction. "The Daily Grind" was flagged as "low quality." Suddenly, even his loyal, local customers weren't seeing his posts in their feeds.