ICYMI: How YouTube's 2025 Algorithm Works
Helpful tips if you're building a channel
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
YouTube released an explainer of their 2025 algorithm
Instagram released a guide to the latest dimensions for Carousels, Reels and Stories
Instagram insights now include View Rate and Views Over Time
Taps, likes and replies are the strongest engagement signals for Instagram Stories
Microsoft, MrBeast… who doesn’t want to buy TikTok at this point?
TikTok traffic in the U.S. has bounced back
Threads is testing ads with users in the U.S. and Japan
Over 7400 creators applied for a spot in the White House press briefing room
Poll: Do you buy Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for a Facebook comeback?
2025 Trend Watch: Creator Marketing Awards Shows
💻 ROADMAP
📲 TikTok Updates
Who’s in line to buy TikTok? Who is not? The list of potential buyers includes Perplexity, Oracle, Microsoft, YouTuber Mr Beast, billionaire Frank McCourt, tech bro Elon Musk, and Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary.
U.S. TikTok users say the app is different since the mini-ban ended, noting stricter content moderation policies and more frequent warnings for community guideline violations. TikTok denies the app has changed.
TikTok is forging ahead, releasing a content marketing calendar for SMBs.
TikTok bounced back close to its original traffic levels (90%) in the U.S. after the temporary shut down earlier this month.
📲 Pinterest Updates
Pinterest released its 2025 Marketing Moments Guide.
📲 Meta Updates
Instagram released a guide to the latest dimensions for Carousels, Reels and Stories now that the grid posts are vertical.
Instagram announced a new insight, View Rate, to help creators understand if their audience continues to watch after the first 3 seconds. Last year, Views became the primary performance metric. Since then, Views Over Time have also been added to insights to see how a post performs compared to your average.
Adam Mosseri continued his almost daily posting schedule, recently tackling the most important engagement signals for Stories (you want taps, likes and replies).
Meta AI will now remember details that you share with it to help personalize future responses.
Threads announced you could now tag friends in photo post.
Threads is beta testing ads with some users in the U.S. and Japan now that they’ve hit 100M DAUs (this came out late last week after I sent the newsletter).
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube is allowing premium users to 4x through videos. (As a 2x person myself, I approve this message!)
YouTube’s Senior Director of Growth & Discovery, Todd Beaupré, and Creator Liaison, Rene Ritchie, unpacked how the YouTube 2025 Algorithm works.
Key Takeaways
YouTube's Algorithm Pulls, Not Pushes: The recommendation system doesn’t "push" creator videos out to YouTube audiences but instead pulls in content based on the users individual viewing habits — think of it as automating word of mouth.
Viewer Satisfaction Matters: YouTube measures user satisfaction through engagement signals such as likes, comments, and surveys. Total watch time is not the golden standard — sometimes viewers want a video to be more efficient and just get to the point.
Viewing Context Is Key: Success as a creator isn’t tied to a single metric. The algorithm surfaces different content based on factors like time of day and device type. For example, some people like to watch the news in the morning and comedy at night. Again, content recommendations are really dependent on someone’s viewing habits.
Action items for YouTube creators:
Regularly monitor your YouTube Subscription tab — this is a chance to see how your core audience reacts to your content without any involvement from the algorithm.
Use Google Trends to track search interest in a particular topic. It’s one signal to help you understand how much demand there is for relevant videos.
Review your numbers every 90 days or so to identify seasonal trends — this helps you spot long-term growth patterns versus obsessing over monthly metrics.
👆 CLICK THRU
🎙️ Podcasters and Content Creators Now Eligible for a White House Press Pass
On Wednesday, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators,” would be eligible to participate in the press briefing room and would get a dedicated seat in the front row.
After last year’s discourse on who gets to be a journalist and the outsized influence social media has on news distribution, it seemed like this was only a matter of time. In fact, there were reportedly over 7400 applicants for the briefing room spot. But given the lack of appreciation for diversity at the moment, we probably won’t get a true cross section of the American public represented in the press room.
🏆 TREND WATCH: CREATOR MARKETING AWARDS
Last year, it seemed as if every conference added a dedicated creator track with relevant panels and round tables.
This year, the trend is recognition. Awards ceremonies are now honoring creator marketing categories such as Best Collaborations, Creator-Led Content Strategy, and Creator Cross-Channel Storytelling.
Of course, creators have always had a dedicated presence at venues like The Shorty Awards, The Streamy Awards and Global Influencer Marketing Awards — but even among these, there’s been a leveling up. For example, The Shortys teamed up with Wave to launch a $120,000 Elevate Creatives Fund giving flowers and funds to people creating innovative and impactful digital and social content.
Creator marketing recognition has also gone mainstream with creators and creator marketing teams being recognized at broader marketing awards ceremonies, like the Cannes Lions Festival and The Webby Awards.
Cannes Lions launched its creator track in 2024. Fast forward to 2025, and the festival renamed the Social & Influencer Lions honor as the Social & Creator Lions and is recognizing creative social thinking and strategic influencer marketing solutions.
As for The Webby Awards, the show has introduced a new suite of honors “to match the massive growth in the creator space.” Along with branded collaboration honors, individual creators and influencers can get recognized for outstanding content made for social in categories like Fashion & Beauty or Home & Travel.
Deadlines to apply:
The Webby Awards: February 7, 2025 (deadline extended)
The Shorty Awards: February 20, 2025 (deadline extended)
Cannes Lions: April 10, 2025
Global Influencer Marketing Awards: April 29, 2025
Streamys: TBD
Related: Spotify’s First-Ever Creator Milestone Award
*Note: I’m a judge for the Webby and Shorty Awards this year and can’t wait to see the creator and creator marketing submissions!
🔵 Who’s Here for the Facebook Glow Up?
Last October, I listened to Facebook’s plan to win back Gen Z. Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, had said he was focused on the areas where Gen Z spent most of their time: Facebook Marketplace, Groups, Events and Video.
Back then it actually sounded like a legit plan to double down on what was already working with young people.
During Meta’s earnings call this week, Mark Zuckerberg also said he wants to make Facebook “way more culturally influential.” Presumably, this is building on the investments the team was already making.
But a LOT has happened since Fall 2024 and goodwill for Zuckerberg (internally and externally) is in short order. Have recent policy changes made this Facebook makeover even harder to accomplish or will things like Breakthough Bonuses lure creators and their audiences — plus the brands who want their attention — back to the platform?
👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES
The Edelman 2025 Trust Barometer report dropped — and mistrust in government, business leaders and media is at an all time high -Edelman
Tax tips for content creators -TurboTax
Works created entirely by AI, without meaningful human involvement, are not eligible for copyright protection -Attorney Franklin Graves
What is DeepSeek and why is the AI industry freaking out -BBC
X is “barely breaking even” -WSJ
TikTok accounts are mysteriously unfollowing AOC. Even though it appears to be a problem with the tech, it's left users on edge -Rolling Stone
A look at the contracts Meta is sending to TikTokers (with over 1M followers) offering up to $300K to produce Reels - Business Insider
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25 million to settle lawsuit over Facebook and Instagram suspensions -NPR
Why 'private social networks' will drive the future of social media -Business Insider
Micro-trends are dead. Long live the vibe -Vogue Business
Why connecting with a teen audience is key for culturally relevant branding -Marketing Brew
Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom 🙌🏻 I appreciate you!