ICYMI: RIP Twitter 💙
Here's what happened on social media this week, October 28
Thanks, as always, for reading. This is a recap of news and trends for and about creators.
💻 ROADMAP
📲 YouTube Updates:
YouTube is getting a makeover. This week they announced a new look and features. Two of the most interesting features that could impact creators are pinch to zoom and precise seeking.
With pinch to zoom, users can easily zoom in and out of a video while on iOS or Android. The video stays zoomed in so they can watch the rest of the video in greater detail — so, check your surroundings in case there’s anything you’d rather not not display in extreme close-up mode!
Precise seeking helps people find the part of they video they’re most interested in seeing. Desktop and mobile users can simply drag or swipe up while seeking to display a row of thumbnails in the video player to the exact part in each video.
📲 Instagram Updates:
Meta’s Creator Week is headed to London (Adam Mosseri’s new home) from November 1 - 7. If you’re not one of the 450 creators invited to attend in person, you can follow along with the @Creator handle on Instagram.
📲 TikTok Updates:
TikTok is launching a global training program called TikTok Academy, which provides free courses to level up your TikTok skills as a marketer. Their first two offerings are ‘TikTok 101’ and ‘Small Business Course’ with a heavy emphasis on learning how to use TikTok’s Ads Manager. Enroll here.
TikTok is getting a games tab soon, allowing users to play mobile games.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
☠️ Elon Musk claims he's buying Twitter to 'help humanity'
Be kind to your Twitter friends today for it’s the end of the platform as we know it. Elon Musk is taking ownership of the app today and has already fired the CEO, COO and the head of Legal, Policy and Trust who was responsible for banning Trump.
While Musk had previously blustered that he planned to get rid of 75 percent of employees and aligned himself with Ye and Trump, he also needs this acquisition not to be an embarrassing flop. So, he reached out to advertisers on Thursday in an open letter, saying he didn't buy the bird app to make more money. He did it to try to help humanity, whom he loves... Which is exactly what a robot would say before destroying the world.
Related: Welcome to hell, Elon. You break it. You buy it.
🔵 Twitter is losing its most active users, internal documents show
Twitter is losing its power users. Heavy tweeters are defined as someone who logs in to Twitter six or seven days a week and tweets about three to four times a week (which seems positively quaint compared to the content demands of Instagram and TikTok).
💰 YouTube mega-star MrBeast seeks $1.5 billion valuation
MrBeast is looking to raise around $150 million for his business at a roughly $1.5 billion valuation to expand his empire further across restaurants, consumer goods and merchandise, according to this Axios exclusive.
*Weekly reminder that many influencer-creators are extremely entrepreneurial and will continue to launch traditional businesses in addition to growing media empires. What they lack in resources, they make up for in audience awareness and trust.
🖼 A TikToker accidentally bought a 'hideous' $4,000 Salvador Dalí print because she was 'bored' and had 'FOMO' at an auction she never expected to win
First a $100K couch. Now a Salvador Dali print. This I-accidentally-bid-thousands-in-an-auction is turning into a dangerous content strategy. Please don’t buy stuff you can’t afford. This is all fun and games until someone has to declare bankruptcy.
📉 YouTube’s ad revenue is declining, but creator economy experts aren’t worried
Creators shouldn’t be impacted by YouTube’s ad revenue decline IF they have diversified revenue sources and aren’t completely reliant on said ad revenue, according to this TechCrunch post. And with a potential recession on the horizon and social ad prices increasing, it’s possible marketing spend could go down for sponsored posts as well. Which puts even more emphasis on things like subscriptions and fan tipping.
“This should be another reminder for creators to diversify your revenue streams and allow your audiences to support you directly. People have much better judgment than companies, and your audience will come through when ad dollars don’t,” Amanda McLoughlin, CEO of Multitude Productions, told TechCrunch.
📊 Mark Zuckerberg says Instagram Reels are booming despite Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner slamming the app
Mark Zuckerberg says more than 140 billion Reels are played across Facebook and Instagram every day, a 50% increase over six months ago. Missing from this riveting analysis: Six months ago ALL video on Instagram was relabeled as Reels. And Instagram’s prioritized the reach and discoverability of Reels, leading brands and creators to create and post more Reels. So… are we really watching more Reels or are there just more Reels in the Feed to watch.
🎯 Apple’s new App Store tax on ads is a direct shot at Meta
Apple wants a cut of “boosted” posts in social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram. It’s not likely to affect big advertisers but an ad industry analyst predicts it will impact “individuals who buy one-off boosts in Instagram and Facebook … since they’ll have to pay more for the same level of distribution.”
📣 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Influencers understand their audience better than anyone since they engage and interact with them all the time. Brands should lean into this insight from the influencer and be careful not to dictate too closely what the influencer can say in their sponsored post.”
-SheSpeaks CEO Aliza Freud, speaking to AdWeek about a survey of 550 influencers digging into how influencers really feel about sponsored content. Other interesting insights around the challenges influencers face: Late payments (47%) top the list, followed by lack of adequate time to complete the campaign (43%). Infographic: How Influencers Really Feel About Sponsored Content
🧮 DATA OF THE WEEK
Most creators (75%) feel like algorithms punish those who aren’t constantly publishing work.
-Patreon surveyed over 1,500 creators both on and off their platform to learn what obstacles they’re up against, and how they’re faring in an increasingly algorithmically driven world. Creators ranked lack of time as their #1 obstacle in the study: Unlocking creative independence in the Age of Algorithms
👩🏽🤝👨🏻 PEOPLE
How Olivia Jade is rebuilding her influencer business after the college-admissions scandal -Insider (paywall)
Minecraft creator Dream accused of grooming by 2 former fans -Passionfruit
Andrew Tate’s Hustlers University 2.0 Has Made At Least $11 Million In Just One Month -BuzzFeed
The Women In The "Christian Girl Autumn" Meme Want You To Know There’s More to Them -BuzzFeed
How Leslie Jordan turned Instagram into his greatest showcase of all -LA Times
📖 ALSO ON MY RADAR…
Snapchat reduces payouts for Spotlight creators -TechCrunch
Jellysmack Is Betting Millions to Find Asia's Next MrBeast -Bloomberg (paywall)
Everything We Know About Walmart Creator -NetInfluencer
Prioritizing TikTok, agencies move away from creating content for Instagram, YouTube -Digiday
4 Predictions for the Creator Economy -The Publish Press
Denny's Drops a New Set of Creator Meal Collabs -PRNewswire
Everybody wants to be a Linked Influencer -Vox
Inside the Democrats’ elaborate attempt to woo TikTok influencers -The Washington Post (paywall but you should be able to read)
Influencer Content Is Fun to Watch. Too Bad the Creators Are Miserable -AdWeek (paywall)
Sorry you went viral -The Washington Post(paywall but you should be able to read)
