Stand out, don't follow virality: Viraj Sheth of Monk Entertainment

“100K is the new 1K on social media”, said Viraj Sheth, founder and CEO of Monk Entertainment, in an Instagram post recently. He was addressing the struggles of content creation in the age of doomscrolling and instant virality. “In 2025, if you are trying to get 100k followers, here is my advice, don’t,” he added.

Virality is now simple with widely known algorithm hacks, but this ease makes it less meaningful, as everyone can replicate it without genuine creativity or impact, according to the CEO of Monk Entertainment, which represents social media influencers such as Ranveer Allahbadia (Beerbiceps), Gaurav Taneja, Yashraj Mukhate, and Raj Shamani. 

“It's easy to hack your way into virality today with the right hooks and edits. The formula to hack the algorithm is open-source at this point. But that is exactly why virality has lost value.” 

He also stressed that true influence goes beyond fleeting visibility; brief content is often passively consumed and discarded, lacking depth or lasting impact on the audience.

“Your visibility can only really make a tad bit of entertainment or education being constantly consumed and discarded among a thousand others in the endless ether of someone's passive scroll. That's not influence,” he explained.

Sheth highlighted that brands are recognising this shift, and creators must embrace the fact that true influence stems from exceptional work.

“You're going to have to master a craft, create something new outside the constraints of guaranteed engagement and vertical short-form video, and risk putting the most unvalidated version of yourself out there,” he added. 

Sheth’s remarks come at a time when the ‘influencer’ culture is said to have peaked. We are currently in the era of doomscrolling, which refers to the endless consumption of short-form video content filled with a deluge of information and entertainment, all in a brief span of time.

This habit of mindlessly scrolling through short videos has been linked to negative mental health outcomes, such as anxiety, mood swings, and insomnia, particularly among young people.

As short-form video and doomscrolling become more prevalent, creators and brands alike are finding it increasingly difficult to capture the audience’s attention. Consequently, many brands and creators are focusing on achieving instant ‘virality’. However, this approach may not be the solution, according to Sheth. 

Creators’ frustrations are further compounded by social media algorithms being frequently updated without notice, making it nearly impossible to predict which content will perform well.

One’s craft must be the product, while influence should be the byproduct. “You cannot hack your way to a byproduct without a product; the growth hacking template is, for all intents and purposes, meaningless. And that's why 100K is the new 1K,” he said.