When to Use
You’re frustrated that your follower count isn’t translating to views. You don’t understand why a post from someone with zero followers can outperform yours. You’re making strategic decisions based on follower count (yours or someone else’s). You need to understand the fundamental shift in how social platforms work.
The Framework
The Shift: Social Media to Interest Media
Around 2022, the major social platforms (TikTok first, then Instagram, then Facebook, then others) fundamentally changed how they distribute content. The old model: you follow people, you see their content. The new model: an AI algorithm watches what you engage with and serves you content on those topics, regardless of who made it.
“We don’t even live in social media anymore. We now live in interest media. As many of you know that are on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook, five years ago you got content from the people you followed, even if you didn’t give a [expletive] what your cousin was doing today. Today, when you open up your TikTok or Instagram or Facebook, you’re getting content of things you’re currently interested in.” — Gary Vaynerchuk, chiropractic keynote (
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“I would argue that we’ve not been in social media for 4 years, that we’ve been in interest media. I can know so much about all of you if I just took your phone right now and looked at TikTok and Instagram. I will know what you’re currently paying attention to.” — Gary Vaynerchuk, influencer keynote (
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What Interest Media Means for Creators and Businesses
1. Follower count is a vanity metric. A zero-follower account can get millions of views. A 15-million-follower account can get hundreds of thousands. The algorithm does not care how many followers you have. It cares whether the content is interesting.
“I started a TikTok account called ‘You’re Somebody Now.’ The first post I posted on that account with zero followers got 8.2 million organic views. That same video I posted slightly differently 3 weeks earlier on my TikTok account that has 15 million followers and it got 300,000 views.” — Gary Vaynerchuk (
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2. Every new post is a fresh start. In the old social media model, your audience was your followers. You had accumulated goodwill. In interest media, every post stands on its own merit. Your 500th post is evaluated the same way as your 5th post. This is terrifying for established creators and intoxicating for beginners.
“Your third TikTok, if you make the right piece of content, can fundamentally change the course of your career. I’ve literally worked my face off for 20 years, 15 hours a day to amass 50 million followers, and you’ve done nothing. And if you make a very good piece of content as your fourth piece of content ever, it can literally lead to 15 to 20 new clients.” — Gary Vaynerchuk (
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3. Content quality = distribution. The algorithm is the gatekeeper. If your content is interesting to the people it’s shown to (they watch, like, comment, save, share), it gets shown to more people. If it’s not interesting, distribution stops. There is no way to buy your way around bad content in organic.
4. Niche content thrives. In the old model, you needed mass appeal to get a TV show or a magazine column. In interest media, the algorithm will find the 10,000 people who are passionate about beekeeping or fountain pens or niche fragrance. You don’t need mass appeal. You need deep resonance with your specific audience.
“The more you go niche… everything looks the same. You know that. And so the more you go niche — if you look at my brand, I talk about garage selling which is so left field to being an early investor, wine, sports, mindset, parenting, live shopping — your content is bouncing around. You’re told by managers and brands to be very consistent. I’m telling you, you need to be you.” — Gary Vaynerchuk (
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The Implications
For strategy: Stop chasing followers. Start chasing resonance. Measure views per post and engagement per post, not follower growth.
For content: Make content that serves the audience, not yourself. If every post is selfish (look at me, buy from me), the algorithm will stop distributing it because people stop engaging.
“It takes me 5 seconds to look at your last 15 pieces of content and when it’s 15 out of 15 that it was selfish for you — you wanted to look glamorous, you wanted them to buy something, you posted it because someone paid you — you plateaued when they’re selfish.” — Gary Vaynerchuk (
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For platform choice: Every platform now works this way. This means the same content can reach completely different people on TikTok vs. Facebook vs. LinkedIn. Multi-platform distribution is more valuable than ever because you’re not just reaching your followers — you’re reaching anyone interested in your topic.
For beginners: This is the most encouraging time in history to start creating content. You don’t need to build an audience first. You need to make content that resonates. The audience finds you.
For AI search (AEO/GEO): Interest media is the precursor to AI-driven discovery. The same AI that matches content to interests on TikTok will match your expertise to questions on ChatGPT and Gemini. Every piece of content you create is building your AI footprint.
“Every piece of content you make today is being indexed to show up on the results when every single person in the world in four years goes to an AI bot.” — Gary Vaynerchuk (
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The Selfless vs. Selfish Content Test
The single most practical implication of interest media: selfless content gets distributed, selfish content gets suppressed.
Selfless content: Teaches something useful. Entertains. Inspires. Makes the viewer’s life better. The creator gets nothing directly from the post — no sale, no link, no CTA.
Selfish content: “Buy my thing.” “Look at my life.” “Hire me.” “Click my link.” Ads disguised as content. Humble-brags.
The algorithm can tell the difference because the audience can tell the difference. Selfless content gets watches, saves, and shares. Selfish content gets scrolled past.
“The more you actually care about your content bringing value to your audience versus what it brings to you, the more you will grow. Almost everyone in this room plateaus when their selfish versus selfless framework gets out of whack.” — Gary Vaynerchuk (
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The ratio: Gary’s “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” framework says 3-4 selfless posts (jabs) for every 1 selfish post (right hook). In interest media, even the right hooks work better when they’re wrapped in value.
Controlling Your Algorithm
A common complaint: “My algorithm is depressing me.” Gary’s response: you control it.
“If you think your algorithm is depressing you, you can go into search and type in rainbows, enter, like three rainbows, sunshine, enter, like three posts. You’re in control of your algo.” — Gary Vaynerchuk (
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This also means: what you engage with on social media is what the AI thinks you want. If you spend time hate-watching content you disagree with, you’ll get more of it. The algorithm does not distinguish between “I’m watching because I love this” and “I’m watching because I’m angry.”
Example
A nutritionist with 500 Instagram followers vs. a food influencer with 500,000 followers. The nutritionist posts a Reel explaining a counterintuitive fact about seed oils with a compelling hook in the first frame. It gets 80,000 views. The food influencer posts a meal prep montage with generic music. It gets 12,000 views.
In the old social media model, the influencer’s 500K followers would guarantee more views. In interest media, the content quality determines distribution. The nutritionist’s content was more interesting to the people who were shown it.
The nutritionist’s strategy: keep making content about the specific topics that resonate, posted across all 7 platforms. The follower count will follow. But it’s the views and engagement that matter, not the follower number.
Output
After understanding interest media, you should:
- Stop measuring success by follower count
- Start measuring views per post and engagement per post
- Shift content from selfish to selfless
- Expand to multiple platforms (same content reaches different people)
- Take comfort that starting from zero is no disadvantage
- Understand why niche content outperforms generic content
Source: Gary Vaynerchuk across
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