Social Media Is Dead — And That's the Best News Artists Have Gotten in Years
Gary Vaynerchuk just published a massive post called "Social Media is Dead. Interest Media is Here." — and whether you love him or roll your eyes, the core message is dead-on for artists right now. Here's what matters for you:
The algorithm doesn't care how many followers you have anymore.
Social media used to reward the people who got there first and built big followings. That era is over. Every major platform — Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn — now shows people content based on what they're interested in, not who they follow.
What does that mean for you? Your next piece of content has the same shot at going viral as someone with 15 million followers. Gary proved it: he started a brand new TikTok account with zero followers, posted a video, and it got 9.4 million views. The same video on his 15-million-follower account? 300,000 views.
Read that again.
Here's what this means if you're an artist:
1⃣ Stop waiting until you have "enough" followers to post. The algorithm is looking at the content, not your follower count. Your third post could change everything.
2⃣ Make different kinds of content. Don't just post your finished paintings. Show the mess. The palette. The weird stuff you're into. The story behind the piece. The more varied content you create, the more different audiences the algorithm can match you with.
3⃣ You don't have to be on camera. If you hate video, Gary's pushing Substack hard right now — written content, newsletters, building a direct relationship with your audience. Sound familiar? That's basically what we've been saying about email lists for years.
4⃣ Brand is the only thing AI can't replace. This is the big one. AI is going to make it easy for anyone to find "art" generically. But when someone says "I want art from [YOUR NAME]" — that's brand. That's what you're building every time you show up and share your work and your story. The artists who build name recognition now are going to win when AI reshapes how people discover and buy everything.
5⃣ 2026 is for doing, not planning. Stop thinking about posting. Stop planning your content calendar for the 47th time. Just make something and put it out there. Today.
The game has never been more open for independent artists. The barriers are gone. The only question is whether you'll actually play.
I am going to podcast this week and touch this topic. Things have been trending this way for awhile now and on balance its a good thing.