ICYMI: Brands, Meet Creators; and Vice Versa
We need more opportunities like this to trade notes
[Nicole Marcus, Nick Kosir, Lia Haberman, Bran Flakezz and Abbie Herbert 📷 via Adam Michaels Studios]
I don’t remember what cracked me up in this moment but I laughed the entire way through the keynote panel I moderated at The Platform conference connecting brands and creators. My key takeaways and tips are below — no gatekeeping here.
Also, by popular demand, Lorraine K. Lee is sharing her top strategies for LinkedIn success on Monday. In an earlier poll, it was the #1 platform you said you wanted to know more about — guest post drops in three days!
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Instagram now lets you watch Reels at 2x ⏩
Meta announced an AI tool that predicts the most effective creators for upcoming campaigns
Facebook announced a new Friends tab to reinforce your actual connections
Instagram is retiring Notes on posts
TikTok is shutting down its separate Notes app
Pinterest said Gen Z accounts for 45% of all Coachella-related searches
YouTube announced a new way to measure Views — but it’s not that simple
Brands and creators share industry tips, plus takeaways from The Platform conference
Poll: Will AI models in its social posts help H&M sell clothes?
💻 ROADMAP
📲 Meta Updates
Meta announced new AI tools to make creator content recommendations — which is meant to help predict the most effective creators to drive results for upcoming campaigns. As part of this:
Meta is launching AI-enabled creator content recommendations in the Partnerships Ads Hub in Ads Manager
Recommendations in Creator Marketplace will also be based on a creator's affinity to a brand (e.g. ad content, audience similarity, partnership ads experience)
Creator Marketplace will also introduce keyword search, in addition to being able to filter by 20 verticals such as “Fashion” and “Beauty”
And Meta is adding extra insights, including creators’ Active Partnership Ads so brands can get a sense of the content style and types of brands a creator is partnered with
Creators (and talent managers): More than ever this is going to reinforce the importance of having a clearly articulated bio, using relevant keywords (“soccer moms with dogs,” “gluten free desserts” or “gadget unboxing”) and a well defined niche.
And for creators in Instagram’s Creator Marketplace, you’ll also want to carefully evaluate your partnerships and whether they make you seem more or less desirable to other potential partners.
Instagram announced you can finally watch Reels at 2x the speed. (IMO, best update of the week 🏆)
Facebook is introducing a new Friends tab that makes it easier to connect with just your friends.
Adam Mosseri said Instagram is looking to improve search for accounts and search for content this year. They’re also considering search on profiles to sift through a creator’s content.
Adam Mosseri said they’re going to turn off the ability to share a Note on posts or Reels. Notes on posts were launched last year and didn’t end up seeing a lot of adoption by users.
Spotted: Instagram seems to be rolling out a new option that will let you repost other people’s posts and Reels straight to your feed.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube announced that a Shorts view will now count as soon as the video starts to play or replay with NO minimum watch time required. This is similar to how views are measured on TikTok or Instagram — which should make analytics easier for everyone. But earnings and eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program will still be based on Engaged Views (which is what we’re now calling the original Shorts View metric).
YouTube is testing host-read ads to be dynamically inserted and swapped out within individual YouTube podcast videos.
YouTube captured 11.6% of TV viewing in February, achieving its best monthly performance to date.
📲 Pinterest Updates
Pinterest announced its second annual partnership with Coachella — the platform says users start searching for Coachella inspiration on the platform as early as January, and Gen Z accounts for 45% of all Coachella-related searches.
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok Notes is shutting down — the app was available in Canada and other parts of the world but didn’t make it to the US.
We’re 8 days out from a TikTok showdown with no resolution in sight — so Donald Trump is offering China a “reduction in tariffs” if its government approves a TikTok deal his administration brokered.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
LinkedIn’s testing video carousels and a more immersive full-screen experience, according to a post from Senior Director of Product Marketing Julia Flavin.
📲 Twitch Updates
Twitch updated its Community Guidelines and extended ad revenue penalties for creators who are suspended.
Twitch is rolling out its Creator Profiles more widely, expanding its sponsorships tab in the Creator Dashboard out of beta.
📲 Patreon Updates
Patreon is partnering with Quentin Tarantino’s podcast Video Archives to host his first-ever live show in LA — part of a series of creator experiential moments the platform is hosting in 2025.
Patreon announced a mental health and wellness resource hub to support creator wellbeing.
INSIDE THE PLATFORM CONFERENCE
[Duolingo 📷 via Adam Michaels Studios]
Here’s the tl’dr from Sweb’s Platform Conference: Duo is alive, well and twerking in Pittsburgh; My keynote panel brought creators and brands together to trade notes, which is something we need to spend way more time doing; And there isn’t one perfect platform — brands and creators are experimenting across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
PANEL INSIGHTS
👉🏻 I asked the creators on my panel: If you were starting fresh in 2025, what would you do differently?
Abbie Herbert wishes she had leaned into short-form content earlier instead of focusing so much on long-form
Bran Flakezz regrets waiting too long to post, letting imposter syndrome hold him back. “The drafts don’t need to stay in the drafts.”
Nick Kosir would have created long-form to cut down into short-form content — and maybe even started a podcast
👉🏻 Creators, don’t sleep on Snapchat and Facebook. “There’s a lot of money that can be made on Facebook just from repurposing content,” said Abbie, who recommends hiring someone to help you cross post and upload those affiliate links to LTK or ShopMy.
👉🏻Brands, don’t sleep on LinkedIn. “It's an untapped potential, especially if you look at the platform and the changes that are happening,” said Nicole Marcus, Manager of Influencer Strategy at Dick’s Sporting Goods, who runs a successful employee influencer program.
👉🏻A good partnership respects the value that creators bring, said Bran. “The best brand meeting I ever had, in the brief they said: Make a TikTok, don’t make an ad. That is everything. Use a creator to create something that you cannot create as a brand. Let creators create.”
👉🏻If a brand agrees too quickly, you should have asked for more, said Nick. He hired a manager after being asked to do a choreographed dance for an NFL team. “I think I said $4,000 and immediately they're like, ‘Done!’ And I go, ‘Oh man, it was probably $25,000.’ The very next move I made, I Googled talent agencies for creators.”
👉🏻Legal isn’t just coming down on creators: “There are a lot of things we can't say as a corporation, which is really frustrating on our side,” said Nicole. “Like we can't say the word green during the Masters. I can't say Steelers unless I'm talking about the product I sell in the store, the Steelers jersey. So, I feel your pain.”
INDUSTRY TIPS
Serialized Content
“Something that we're testing more on the organic side for Anthropologie — that I think a lot of creators are starting to do — is having a series. It's not just, ‘This is my OOTD.’ It's a specific series where you are talking about something outside of the outfit, while also showing the outfit. I think that's a great way for comedic creators to be speaking to product. We did a partnership with Sabrina Brier, who is an icon. We were able to tap into one of her existing series about ‘being the annoying friend who…’ and she tied in our product as she was doing that bit.”
- Katy Stankevitz, Anthropologie
Authentic Proactive Engagement
“If your brand is trying to comment all unhinged out in public, but then the rest of your marketing material is very stiff and corporate… you do not actually believe this. So I now don't believe in you. I've worked with brands who had to be a little more stiff, but they leaned into that stiffness where they're trying to be the Mr. Rogers of the comments. It's a little daring — a little weird sometimes — that they're in there, but it’s not harming anybody.”
- Christina Le, Plot
Getting the Team On Board
“Dream big but iterate small, because the massive jumps are really hard. When I first started here, a lot of our content was what you'd expect from a language learning app, and we slowly added iterations to make it a little more culturally relevant. Our Tiktok content started, ‘Live, love, laugh, in these conditions?’ to Duo dying — that was a four year progression. So even if it's something as simple as you get to change the color of something, because that's what the meme is, and they accept that. Using that as a data point for the next time, ‘Hey you guys, listen to this. This worked. What if we iterate on this thing?’ It takes time.”
- Zaria Parvez, Duolingo
Tap Into Humor
“A lot of our inspiration comes from the SNL parody commercials. It's one of the longest standing forms of comedy. People love it because it's making fun of the thing that they hate the most, right? We're a real brand. So. if we make SNL parody style commercials — but for actual products you can buy — then it's not just a joke. Now, we're breaking into the press. Now we're starting to tap into culture, right?”
- Greg Fass, Liquid Death
YouTube Shorts Opportunities
“YouTube Shorts is a place that we see as a blue ocean for advertisers to work with YouTube creators… We've done a couple partnerships, primarily a TikTok syndicated to Instagram Reels. And then as part of the discussion, they'll throw in, ‘Oh yeah, and throw it on to YouTube Shorts as well.’ And the YouTube Short will end up performing 2 to 3x combined what the Instagram Reel or the Tiktok will perform. There's not disinterest, per se, but our sense is that maybe the articles haven't fully been written yet, or the think pieces haven't been created, and the conferences haven't been done around that kind of a thing yet. So we're a year or so away from that [Shorts integrations] being more active.”
- Michael Berkowitz and Doug Landers, Greenlight Group*
* Note: This coincides with a new eMarketer report that shows over half of US marketers will work with creators and influencers on YouTube this year. “Shorts presents a massive opportunity for brands, particularly those that are looking for more cost-effective creator-made ads,” Jasmine Enberg, Vice President and Principal Analyst at eMarketer is quoted saying.
ICYMI members: you get an early pricing promo to attend The Platform in 2026
🔲 POLL
Last week: 43% of you voted saying work adjacent content might or does belong on LinkedIn but a whopping 57% said to leave the lifestyle topics for Instagram 🤔
Read more: Clothing Giant H&M Will Use Models’ AI-Made Digital Twins, Consent Included
👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES
Utah adds protections for child influencers following YouTuber Ruby Franke's child abuse conviction -NBC News*
*Quit Clicking Kids offers a state-by-state guide to see details of legislation in your area and a petition to stop the monetization of kids on social media.
These people found fame and money — on LinkedIn -WSJ
In a warning sign for Hollywood, Gen Zers are choosing social and creator-driven content over big-budget entertainment -THR
A BookTok creator is launching a book-to-film media company -Publish Press
Simon & Schuster’s biggest threat isn’t another publisher; it’s social media and streaming -The Cut
Influencer trips are out. Customer trips are in -Marketing Brew
Meghan Markle launched a new ShopMy page, posting links to some of her favorite fashion and beauty items -People
With the right creative, a Roblox player can spend 5 to 15 minutes with a brand — that’s a world away from a 30-second ad or a two-second scroll -Forbes
What MrBeast would do as CEO of Meta -Colin & Samir
Saratoga water's CMO is loving the memes -Business Insider
Thanks for reading!
Still dying over the moment when Abbie was like, "what is a linkedin?" Very humbling experience for me, haha.