Social media has forever changed travelers' booking habits, added new sources of inspiration and introduced the role of influencers. But Gary Vaynerchuk, chairman of VaynerX and CEO of VaynerMedia, recently started touting the idea that we’re entering a new era of social media: “interest media.”
“The transformation of social media is complete,” Vaynerchuk wrote on LinkedIn.
“I actually believe the word social media might have to get tweaked. I believe we are now in the interest media era, not social media, but interest media,” Vaynerchuk said in a video shared as part of the post. “Social was inherently like, who is your social network? Who are your friends? We are now in an era where what [you are] interested in is coming to you from the algorithm.”
Travel industry experts who have heavily incorporated social media into their businesses agree.
Konrad Waliszewski, co-founder and CEO of @Hotel, said Vaynerchuk is “spot on.”
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“The platforms [have] really emerged to know people often better than they know themselves,” Waliszewski said. “When you think about how people engage with content, it's kind of one of two ways: [One], the algorithm finds you based on what you want to see, or two, you are using social media as a search engine and you're looking for content. And in both cases, the right content wins.”
Tim Morgan, CEO of Jerne, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2024, sees the concept a little differently. According to Morgan, “interest media” is is a push strategy while “social media” is a pull strategy.
“Ultimately, brands need to focus on the most effective way to reach consumers using whatever strategy it takes to cut through the noise,” Morgan said.
“What is different about ‘interest media’ from other push strategies is that the brand has no control over each platform’s algorithms. This can be a good thing when the algorithm promotes positive brand content, however [it] can also very much be the opposite.”
The origins of interest media
Industry leaders said the "interest media" era rose alongside TikTok.
“We've gone from having our social network where it's engaging with posts from your friends … or your social network, to now, once that algorithm picks up what you like and your interest, then you obviously start to go deep in that,” said Travis Pittman, co-founder and CEO of TourRadar, which recently launched its Moments feature, allowing users to book from reels and photos.
And that’s changed what content populates—and what’s successful in terms of reach—for both individuals and brands.
The platforms [have] really emerged to know people often better than they know themselves.
Konrad Waliszewski, @hotel
On TikTok, a new user with minimal followers can post a video and receive 1 million views if the content resonates, Waliszewski said. And while Instagram is starting to prioritize interesting content, the platform continues to place more importance on a user’s audience, aka their followers.
Aizaz Sheikh, head of global brand and content leader for TourRadar, said that interest media, in practice, goes back to the days of Tumblr.
“This isn't the first incarnation of it,” he said. “Tumblr was [centered] a lot more around interests and communities created through interests versus everything else that came, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.”
Like Morgan, Sheikh doesn’t believe community-based social media is dead. But he does believe individual interests draw more attention than simple community connections—interests are “how we hang out.”
“This is the kind of future, because people you know may not like everything that their friends and social network also do, but they absolutely love solo travel, or they love mountain biking or they love sailing,” Pittman said.
Pittman said this will level the playing field for smaller creators who are doing amazing work but aren’t able to shovel massive funding behind their content.
How can travel companies tap in?
While followers used to be an indicator of success for Instagram accounts and other social media platforms, they're no longer the measure of triumph, according to Vaynerchuk.
“All my followers that I’ve amassed for 15 years are becoming less important,” he said.
Waliszewski said views matter the most right now, because they show who the brand or creator is reaching.
“It used to be that you built followers, and then those followers got you views,” he said. “Now it's reversed. You get the views, and if it's content that resonates with them, then they follow you.”
With the right hashtag or the right content that “just resonates,” the algorithm will keep pushing it out to new audiences, Pittman said.
To adhere to an “interest media” mindset, brands need to have “a fundamental reset,” Waliszewski said.
“If you don't have an audience, I think you shouldn't be worried about that. If you do have a big audience, you shouldn't be holding on too much to that.”
According to Waliszewski, travel companies should know exactly who they are trying to reach and post the content they think matches their target audience.
“That's ultimately what it comes down to, you just have to have more volume of genuinely useful things,” Waliszewski said. “It goes back to what I was saying: Create something that makes you want to save it or share it or comment.”
If brands keep that in mind and are able to achieve that, the algorithm will likely reward that practice.
You really have to deeply understand what people are looking for in the different markets, what is trending, and also hop on not only travel trends but also news trends you can use to hook people with.
David Armstrong, HolidayPirates
“Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, etc. will continue to adjust their algorithms to showcase what they think is ‘interest media,” Morgan said. “Brands need to remember that they don’t control the algorithms just like they couldn’t ever predict a viral video.”
Morgan said the best way for a brand to take advantage of the interest media era is to make sure that their own content and partner-created content matches, quality-wise, on social media.
“When it comes to creators, the good thing for brands is that people trust people first before they trust algorithms,” Morgan said.
Understanding how to hook a traveler and gain their interest matters, too, according to David Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of HolidayPirates.
“You really have to deeply understand what people are looking for in the different markets, what is trending, and also hop on not only travel trends but also news trends you can use to hook people with,” Armstrong said. “So that's super important to have this knowledge and this mindset.”
The social, community-focused side could remain relevant, too.
Morgan said the travel brands that will set themselves up to win in this next phase of social media will prioritize creators that focus on their community engagement.
“As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to infiltrate daily life, consumers will focus more and more on those influential ‘pull’ voices that are part of their trusted communities than they will on ‘push’ voices or sources who, in the consumer’s mind, possibly lack that same authenticity and trust,” he said.
Where does social media go from here?
Both Waliszewski and Armstrong believe that social media is only getting stronger and more relevant, particularly in this new chapter Vaynerchuk described.
“We really need to think about social media as just media,” Waliszewski said, adding that people spend on average almost two and a half hours on social media every day. “No one wants to read a bunch of blue links and then read a bunch of articles. People want to see video … this is where all the attention is.”
Armstrong said social media is only becoming more and more important.
“I think whoever has a lot of good content on there will definitely not be on the loser side of things,” he said, referencing recent changes by Google that will incorporate Instagram content into its search results. “The large language models out there now are also using Instagram for the information together. And so whoever has built a lot of content on Instagram and has, like it has a brand authority there, I would say, will be in a good position.”
Bottom line, Waliszewski said the travel industry needs to “wake up to this.” The sector, he said, has lagged behind with taking advantage of social media.
“This is where all the attention is going, and this is where all the commerce is increasingly going.”