ICYMI: Inside the First White House Creator Economy Conference
ICYMI: Inside the First White House Creator Economy Conference
Unseen moments from the conference
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Unseen moments from the White House’s inaugural Creator Economy Conference
TikTok rolled out Group Chats for up to 32 people
TikTok launched a creator referral program to attract more YouTubers and Instagrammers
YouTube is mixing up short and long form video across the platform
YouTube announced Made On YouTube will take place Sept. 18
Gen Alpha says YouTube is the coolest brand
Facebook Marketplace is Meta’s key to Gen Z
Podcast: What ever happened to hashtags?
🇺🇸 🦅📱 WHITE HOUSE x CREATORS
💡 WHAT HAPPENED: The first ever White House Creator Economy Conference took place Wednesday, bringing together 100 digital creators and industry professionals to discuss the most pressing challenges, and opportunities, facing the Creator Economy.
Programming for the day ranged from panels, fireside chats and breakout sessions on topics such as AI, fair and transparent pay, data privacy and mental health — along with an unannounced visit from the President.
👥 WHO WAS THERE: “One hundred of the leading voices in the Creator economy,” said Christian Tom, Director of Digital Strategy at the White House, who kicked off the day along with Director of Partnerships, Marian Dimaano.
There were creators, such as Jackie Aina, My Healthy Dish, CJ Eats, Jon Youshaei and Sidney Raz; a lot of industry folks including Influential’s Ryan Detert, Izea’s Ted Murphy and Karat’s Erik Wei; newsletter writer-creators like Jack Appleby, Jim Louderback, Lindsey Gamble, Brett Dashevsky, Franklin Graves and me; and a host of talent managers, agents, entrepreneurs and marketing VPs (more experts listed below).
✨ HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: President Biden joined the group midday. He was supposed to stay 5 minutes and ended up speaking to us for over 30 minutes. Biden started by taking stage selfies and then joked that he’s looking for a job. “More people want to go into your business than any other these days.”
He went on: “I talk about these inflection points in history, how history gets changed by mostly technology, and it changes it drastically. Think about it … It’s staggering… you’re changing not only what people listen to and what they put their faith in, but what they’re doing.”
📝 FROM MY NOTES: There are a lot of news reports covering the day. So, I’m going to share some of the smaller moments that didn’t get reported:
👉🏻 Medical school student-creator Joel Bervell made a great observation during a panel on mental health: Given how much we use social media daily — and this was a room of extremely online people — we’re not actually trained to use it or to protect ourselves from related problems like cyberbullying, social isolation and body image issues. It’s the complete opposite to the kind of training people might get before getting behind the wheel of a car or using a firearm.
“It's about investing more resources, specifically in areas that don't have access to mental health resources,” said Bervell, emphasizing how important it was to start early and integrate conversations about the impact of social media on mental health into the classroom, “...so that when we are facing these moments, we actually know how to protect ourselves.”
👉🏻My favorite panel was a fireside chat between creator Hannah Williams and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo because it focused on creators as entrepreneurs and SMBs and the very real financial needs of people without a W2.
“You're helping to create an economy,” said Adeyemo, pointing out that the government is very focused on creating access to capital to help creators thrive, “I recognize how hard it is when you're starting something new to get someone to invest in you.”
From Biden to Adeyemo, the message of the day was clear: the White House is listening to creators in addition to leveraging creators for access to their communities. Adeyemo even said he loves the comments section (literally, said no one ever) as a way to gauge what Americans are talking about in the replies.
White House officials repeatedly expressed their appreciation for creators as a trusted source of news for Americans and for the economic impact the Creator Economy is having on the US’s economy.
“My staff tells me that the Creator Economy is valued at $250 billion. I’d like to talk to you about borrowing some money from you all,” joked Biden.
👉🏻 Despite how meticulously the day was planned, there were some unexpected moments.
A creator called Duke Loves Taxes taught Biden how to do the Dougie and then danced again later with press secretary, Karine Saint-Pierre.
White House staffers did not seem thrilled with the impromptu presidential photo op but it did make for a cute video moment.
👉🏻 A lunch of rice, beans and chicken was served in aluminum trays and we ate standing around. It was tasty but let me reassure you that your tax dollars were not spent on lavish catering.
In fact, the White House probably made money from our visit. Entrepreneur Jerry Won, who acted as our unofficial trip chaperone, tipped us off to a gift shop in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (adjacent to the White House) that sells unique merch like White House branded Yeti tumblers. Money was spent.
👉🏻 The room was strangely hostile toward the White House press corp. Journalists were briefly allowed in to photograph Biden, but were removed when they started to ask foreign and economic policy questions. That part played out like every White House show ever seen on TV. But it was the cheers and comments as the press was escorted out that gave me the ick.
I’m the first to advocate for giving creators more access to traditional spaces — there will be a YouTuber, TikToker or Instagrammer seated in the White House briefing room before long. Even Biden told the room, “You are the future.”
But even as our industry disrupts how things get done, someone still needs to report on news, business and global affairs, whether it’s a traditional journalist, a social creator, or ideally some hybrid of both.
🗂️ TAKEAWAYS: The fact that the White House hosted an official Creator Economy summit gave the industry a big credibility boost. Not only were creators recognized for their contribution to the economy, and hailed as “the new source of news,” but Biden and Adeyemo also praised creators for their positive impact in shaping global perception. "It's part of the reason they [people around the world] have favorable views of America," said the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
The day was also a great opportunity to engage with peers; get educated on the existing policies and programs in place (eg. the Kids Online Safety Act, the State Small Business Credit Initiative, the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI) ; and have a chance to influence administration officials on upcoming policy decisions.
Of course, everything could change after November 5th. However, there's hope that the creator playbook will be passed on to the next administration. Everyone I spoke to is optimistic this will lead to even more support for the Creator Economy at next year's event.
READ MORE:
Official Remarks by President Biden at White House Creator Economy Conference -The White House
My Experience Attending the White House Creator Economy Conference -Passionfruit
Biden addresses creators at first-ever White House summit: “They listen to all of you” -Tubefilter
A Dispatch from the White House’s First Creator Conference -The Information
The White House Conference Was Big for the Creator Economy. What's Next? -Inc
FOLLOW THE GUEST LIST: Zach Ferraro, Jamie Gutfreund, Priscilla Lau, Victoria Bachan, JC Rodriguez, Phil Ranta, Stephanie Hind, Victoria Bachan, Drew Baldwin, Mylen Yamamoto, RJ Larese, Tiffany Yu, Lissette Calveiro, Ian Schaffer, Allison Yazdian, Patrick Janelle, Shira Lazar, Neal Jean, Amanda Steijlen, Loren Piretra, and Miguel Olave.
*These are people who have posted publicly about attending and is not a complete list of attendees
**Thank you for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to Christian L. Tom, Marian Dimaano, Patrick Stevenson, Morgan MacNaughton, Sam Schmir and everyone who participated in pulling together this conference!
💻 ROADMAP
📲 Meta Updates
Mark Zuckerberg announced new Threads features, including post insights, the ability to save multiple drafts to Threads on desktop and the option to schedule posts coming soon.
Threads seems to be rolling out desktop Insights.
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok rolled out Group Chats for up to 32 people, in what’s seen as a challenge to messaging apps.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube is running a test on the Watch Page and with Shorts to deliver a mix of video formats, including long-form and short-form videos to help viewers discover more content across formats and lengths.
YouTube announced September 18 as the date for their Made On YouTube event, where YouTube’s CEO, Neal Mohan, and team, along with top creators announce platform updates on stage.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
Some LinkedIn users are seeing “Videos For You” recommendations in the feed that suggests videos to watch.
LinkedIn is rolling out an option that would allow users to edit scheduled posts.
LinkedIn released a report about the impact of creativity in B2B advertising on the platform.
📲 Snapchat Updates
Snap announced its inaugural Council for Digital Well-Being, a U.S. pilot program made up of 18 teens from 12 states.
📲 Twitch Updates
Twitch is rolling out video Stories to keep their streamers on the app instead of posting to places like Instagram and Snapchat.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
💰 TikTok wants to lure over more YouTube and Instagram creators — and it’s relying on its own users to recruit them by rewarding them with $300 in TikTok promo dollars or $100 Amazon gift cards for each eligible creator that joins.
Users get an exclusive invite code to send to YouTubers who have at least 10K subscribers and Instagrammers with at least 100K followers. Users are then rewarded after an eligible creator accepts and joins TikTok’s 1 Min+ Growth Program using the invitation code while creators who join can receive up to $800 in TikTok promotion.
It seems unlikely this would drive a lot of sign ups but could be positively perceived among TikTok users as a commitment to and investment in creators.
☠️ Are we living through the death of the hashtag? I spoke with Never Post podcast’s senior producer Hans Buetow as part of his exploration into the past, present and future of the hashtag. It was a fun discussion and we came up with an interesting theory: maybe the FYP feed and content clutter killed the hashtag? Listen to the podcast (here) and then let me know what you think?!
📊 DATA DROP
Top 3 marketing channels that have been most effective for attracting new customers over the last 12 months:
52% selected organic social media content
26% said paid ads on social media
29% said email marketing
- Data via a Shopify merchant survey exploring current business challenges, priorities, and opportunities for retailers on the platform.
👀 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Esteemed former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki passed away on August 9 at the age of 56 -CNBC
MrBeast wants ‘full assessment’ of internal culture amid allegations of impropriety and unsafe sets -AP
Why is everyone on TikTok suddenly obsessed with demure? A very mindful explainer of the trend -NBC News
Gen Alpha says YouTube, not Netflix, is the coolest brand -TubeFilter
Meta’s Gen Z secret weapon is Facebook Marketplace -Business Insider
Influencers with less than 10K followers delivered far better returns in a study looking at 2M purchases and hundreds of paid influencer endorsements -Harvard Business Review
The Elon Musk / Donald Trump interview on X started with an immediate tech disaster -The Verge
Instagram is failing to protect female politicians from abuse and hate speech -Mashable
Politicians deserve fit checks, too -Embedded
A visual guide to the influencers shaping the 2024 election -Wired
Inside the Gen-Z operation powering Harris’ online remix -CNN
Oh, wow, a creator economy conference at the White House - that‘s such a smart idea, on so many levels.