To say that I’ve been a little burned out in the social media space this year would be an understatement. I’ve had a lot of questions as to why this is (political polarization and the explosion of AI capabilities are part of it) and as a content creator both in the KW space and my author life (yes, I’m a published sci-fi author), I was fed up. The time I spent in these digital spaces gave me very little value and more often than not created an existential internal crisis despite me knowing all the games these platforms play.

I know I’m not alone in this.

I picked up Gary V’s most recent book about two weeks back (since he will be a speaker at KW’s Social Media con) Day Trading Attention, and I have not been able to stop talking about it. In a little under 2 weeks, I have gone from video content hitting less than 50 views in some cases on platforms like Insta and TikTok to being in the tens of thousands and we’re still going (as of this newsletter one has over 55k in views and thousands of comments). Why? Because I understand the game again.

Soooo…. What does it mean to day trade attention? I’m SO glad you asked.

One thing you need to know about social media at the end of 2025 going into 2026 is that it is no longer social. These platforms used to be based around a “social graph” model, which meant they connected you with what your friends were up to. That works to a certain level, but a few years back active numbers of users started to decline across all platforms. Under the social graph you interact with your favorite friends, and you see their stuff, however, this only holds so much of our attention and as a result there are limits. Now, we are in a space where they are using what is called an “interest graph” model, meaning that the types of posts/videos you consume or interact with inform what you will get in the future.

Do you only comment or post on things your friends do? Then that’s what you’ll see.

Do you like memes making fun of the struggles of married life? Then that’s what you’ll see.

Do you like watching every video about growing your business or understanding the psychology of people? Then that’s what you’ll see.

Do you interact with every polarizing political post that appears? Then that’s what you’ll see.

Thus, the self-reenforcing pattern.

The end all be all, is that your feed has become more a reflection of your inner dialogue, or the things you enjoy and feel the most comfortable about than that of those who you follow. It’s strange, and yet, it’s true.

So, with this in mind you have to start thinking like a marketer. The main currency online is ATTENTION, and so how do you capture the attention of those who you wish to capture the attention of when their minds are potentially elsewhere.

In Gary Vaynerchuk’s book his thesis revolves around the idea that there are places online where attention is sorely undervalued. That is, less people are crowding a certain space that you can take advantage of to get your message out. People want to be entertained, informed, or engaged, and if you can do that while not seeming like you are selling anything but an experience, you’ve won the game.

Here are some of my takeaways but go pick up your copy now! And BE AT SOCIAL MEDIA CON at FR. You will NOT regret it.

• Follows don’t matter like they used to. This goes back to the interest-based model, not social based. Follows are good but are not as important as they once were.
• The quality of your content and it being dialed into what the platforms want at the time is the most important thing. The good news on this is that you can have few follows but make awesome content and literally go viral with any account. And when we say awesome, we’re not just talking about production value, but the actual story of the content.
• Others’ responses to a post, such as the comments, can be used to improve your content in the future but also inform your decisions in your business. You can REALLY get to know what other people are thinking about today if you leverage this correctly.
• If you think a social media network is too immature or lame or whatever your generation uses to say, “not professional”, toss that idea in the trash. It’s about being relevant in the now, and sometimes that takes going into spaces you might not expect to be effective. Platforms age up, that is to say, the audiences get older over time (usually).
• Be authentic. Not fake. Be yourself. Not everyone has to be high energy ra ra ra. Like attracts like. If your personality is stiff in person, then be stiff online.
• Use the tools the app gives you when possible. They favor content made in their native tools over those of another platform’s. IE Instagram “Edits” or TikTok Studio. This is extra work, sure, but extra results. I can’t put a number on it, but in the past week I did some testing with this and in some cases it’s more than a 10x difference in views/likes/comments.
• You can also use social media in a prospecting sense by sliding into the comments of those you wish to cultivate relationships with.
• Research what is trending not just in the meme space, but overall culture. There are plenty of great places to do that online such as trends.google.com.
• This is not from the book but something I’ve been doing. Get clear on your target audience, a cohort of potential clients, and build CustomGPTs which simplify the caption/hashtag portion of social media. I made one that it scans a photo, makes my caption, and does it within the brand kit I’ve created for that cohort/avatar.

More good news. You can get started today no matter what your feed has looked like in the past. Remember, people want to be entertained, informed, or engaged online, if your content is too much of one, it can underserve the others. And if you can get all 3, man oh man, you are cooking with GAS.

Social can be a big part of your business’s touch campaign and lead gen, the important thing to remember is it doesn’t replace anything. This is in addition to newsletters, market updates, client events, call plans like DTD2 and so on (for those, KW Command is your go to).

Like it or hate it, we all must strive to be where our clients are hanging out. And sometimes… that might just mean making a silly video on a trending topic.

~Patrick