Social Media is Dead.
For years, social media meant exactly that: content pushed to the people who followed you. Your reach was shaped by your network, your connections, your audience size. But we’re in a new era now.
We’re no longer in the social media era. We’re in the interest media era. This is where algorithms don’t just serve your content to people you know, but to people who care about the topic. A post can go from zero followers to millions of views if it hits the right interest at the right time.
TikTok probably pioneered this change, but it’s safe to say every platform now works this way. The algorithm is the new network.
The old rules of vanity metrics, follower counts and engagement pods matter far less now. Organically earned views are the real currency, and they can translate directly into business results.
I’ve seen this up close.
Outside of work, I’ve been helping my kids run a small, faceless YouTube channel. It’s mostly football memes and Sunday league clips, but I’ve used it as a way to teach them video editing, storyboarding and that there’s more to being a YouTuber than just posting daft videos (at least to start with).
They’ve built a modest subscriber base of about 5,000 people. But here’s the interesting part: their monthly audience is between 4,500,000 and 5,500,000 people. In the last 90 days alone, they’re about to hit 15.8 million views.
That’s reach on a completely different scale to their follower count. And because of YouTube’s partner programme, they’re technically about to start earning money (although in their heads, this means imminent millionaire status, bless).
From a marketing perspective, this is the power of interest media in action. You don’t need a massive follower base to reach a massive audience. The right content, hitting the right interest, can explode in reach and visibility far beyond your immediate network.
And with AI video generation now so slick and accessible, anyone can produce professional-looking content in hours. But that also means audiences will get bored quickly. Production quality alone won’t cut it for long. Storytelling, authenticity and emotional connection will be the real differentiators.
For brand awareness and student recruitment, this is a huge opportunity:
- A single short video explaining a unique course or showcasing student life could land in front of hundreds of thousands of prospective students who have never heard of you before.
- Alumni success stories could travel globally, reaching not just alumni networks but people with shared passions or career ambitions.
- Content could start conversations and build recognition in markets you’ve never actively advertised in, without the cost of traditional campaigns.
The potential is to market to a much bigger audience while using budgets more efficiently, putting spend where it will really make the difference.
So what now?
If you want to take advantage of this shift, the biggest mistake is to treat it like the old social media era. Interest media rewards a different mindset. Consistency matters, not just because the algorithm likes it, but because each new post is a fresh chance to find the right audience at the right time.
Experimentation is your ally. Try different formats, lengths, and tones. See what resonates. Sometimes the unexpected angle, the “I didn’t know that” fact or the “I’ve always wondered” question, is the one that travels farthest.
In an environment where attention is brutally short, the first three seconds are everything. Lead with the hook. The story should grab before the viewer even knows what’s happening.
Polish has its place, but story beats production value every time. Interest media is about clarity, authenticity, and making the viewer care enough to watch to the end and then share.
Above all, don’t quit too soon. Some posts catch fire immediately. Others smoulder quietly before suddenly taking off weeks later. The point is to keep going. Consistency compounds, and over time it’s what separates the occasional viral hit from a sustained, trusted presence.
That’s the real opportunity here. Interest media isn’t about shouting the loudest, it’s about showing up, staying curious, and telling stories that stick.
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