🎙️ ICYMI: Should You Launch a Branded Podcast?
3 examples of brand shows tailored to their communities
Hi — I’ll be in New York for Social Media Week on Monday and Tuesday and will report back from my panel with Lindsey Gamble — Creator Content Only Belongs on Social... Or Does It? — plus all the key takeaways from the conference.
Also, I was recently invited to a LeBron James x Offball group chat on WhatsApp and I thought the format could be an interesting opportunity for brands to explore during tentpole events. So, I’m going to send out a member exclusive email on Monday to share what I learned!
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
A quick scroll through the biggest social and creator headlines of the week:
TikTok is testing a new feature called Creator Chat Room
TikTok is now caught up in the tariff dispute and its future likely won’t be resolved until the White House and Beijing come to a broader agreement
Instagram partnered with TheWeeknd to roll out its “locked” posts
New York Magazine and American Eagle are just some of the new brands joining Substack
3 takeaways from that Google SEO article every creator is reading
Netflix is testing a TikTok-style feed on your homepage
Kai Cenat’s newly opened Streamer University is giving Hogwarts-for-creators vibes
Don’t just look at podcasts as ad space — consider what it might look like to launch a show of your own: See 3 branded podcast examples!
💻 ROADMAP
📲 TikTok Updates
Spotted: TikTok is testing a new feature called Creator Chat Room that allows you to create up to 20 chat rooms and invite up to 300 members each. If this rolls out more widely it’s a BFD for the platform. TikTok has focused its efforts on other areas of the app (like search!) and Gen Z has traditionally favored Instagram for DM activity. These new chat rooms could be the thing to help capture Gen Z’s attention.
As part of NewFronts, TikTok announced new ad formats, including Pulse Core, which puts ads alongside top user generated content by category, holiday, or custom-built content. Meanwhile, Khartoon Weiss, the company’s vice president of global business solutions told advertisers they were absolutely “confident in the future of this platform.”
Donald Trump said he would extend TikTok’s June 19th deadline while speaking to NBC News’ Meet the Press. TikTok — and the potential ban — is now caught up in the tariff dispute and likely won’t be resolved until the White House and Beijing come to a broader agreement.
TikTok Academy is hosting a weekly webinar series as part of Small Business Month, offering campaign guidance and strategies. The platform is also hosting a Small Biz Fest giveaway for $2,000 in TikTok Ad Credits.
📲 Meta Updates
Instagram partnered with TheWeeknd for an official roll out of its “locked” post feature. Fans had to input a secret code to unlock a preview of the artist’s upcoming movie, Hurry Up Tomorrow. You might remember we saw a version of this a month ago — no word yet on when everyone else gets access.
Instagram announced more Edits updates, including more fonts, transition effects and filters, video safe zones, automatic captioning and a timeline frame rate selector.
Instagram released a new case study with soccer star and creator @alayahpilgrim, who shared how Trial Reels helped her gain around 100,000 new followers in less than six months
As part of NewFronts, Meta announced video ads are coming to Threads. They’ll be starting with select partners.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
As part of NewFronts, LinkedIn emphasized the future of B2B marketing is video-first, pointing to a Forrester report that revealed today’s 71% of B2B buyers are millennials or Gen Z, who are also the age cohorts consuming the largest amount of video content across other social platforms.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube published a blog post debunking common myths about Shorts, such as they don’t drive long-term growth or they’re only effective if you use trending sounds.
As part of NewFronts, YouTube announced a new creator partnerships hub, which is meant to improve sponsored video discovery, creator search, and paid and organic reporting for linked videos.
📲 Pinterest Updates
Pinterest is introducing a set of new visual search features that help users break down and decode images so you can quickly search and shop for the details of an outfit.
📲 Snapchat Updates
Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel announced 400M people are now using Snap Maps to stay in touch, make plans and find local hotspots.
📲 Spotify Updates
Spotify announced a new podcast metric called Plays, which reflects the number of times people have actively listened to or watched any episode.
📲 Substack Updates
Substack announced a new audio-only mode stream when you just don’t want to turn on the camera. It’s perfect for “lower-pressure updates” and “call-in-style formats,” according to the platform.
📲 Reddit Updates
Reddit announced new Reddit Pro profile tools to help brands get up and running more quickly on the platform.
🎙️ THE PODCAST PLAYBOOK FOR BRANDS
Everyone has a podcast now — including some of your favorite brands.
If you haven’t heard (excuse the audio pun), podcasts — like newsletters — are becoming an emerging channel for brands looking to connect with audiences in a deeper way.
Once considered niche, podcasting is now mainstream. By 2025, global podcast listeners are expected to surpass 584M, and ad revenue is projected to top $4B by 2026.
Last year, podcasts made headlines for their role in the “podcast elections” with hosts like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Alex Cooper being credited (in part) for shaping public discourse.
Now, Vox Media just announced a new pop culture podcast and monthly advice column from comedian Tefi Pessoa (2M followers across TikTok and Instagram). Ask Tefi drops May 23.
And even Hollywood is leaning in — Amy Poehler recently cracked the top 10 with her new podcast Good Hang. And the Golden Globes just announced a Best Podcast category beginning in 2026.
But podcasts aren’t just for creators, celebrities or media companies. More brands are entering the chat with B2B, interview-style and entertainment shows tailored to their communities:
TikTok just launched a 7-part B2B series, 100 Ways to Grow on TikTok, featuring real business owners sharing their platform strategies and playbooks.
King Arthur Baking dropped Things Bakers Know, a beautifully produced podcast from King Arthur's Editorial Director, David Tamarkin, and staff editor, Jessica Battilana, that tackles baking questions and recipes with an editorial lens.
OverheardLA spun off a podcast video series that’s exclusive to social. Overheard Happy Hour features guests like Ciara and comedian Grace Africa, plus spicy LA debates: Is In-n-Out overrated?
Even as Spotify and YouTube compete for Gen Z’s attention, no single format or platform is winning. But one thing is clear: brands are thinking beyond 30-second videos.
So, as you think about how to reach people, don’t just look at podcasts as ad space — consider what it might look like to launch a show of your own.
🧐 THEMES OF THE WEEK
These topics kept showing up in my feed this week:
👋🏼 Hello, Substack: American Eagle, Madewell and New York Magazine are just some of the latest brands to join the newsletter-turned-social-platform. You might remember last month, I dug into Rare Beauty’s newsletter launch. And I don’t think we’ve seen the end of brands launching newsletters. A common theme that’s expressed across these brands is the desire to tell different types of stories. Recurring descriptions of this format include: immersive, creating a dialog, storytelling, old-school blogging, community and personality.
👀 The Google SEO Article Every Creator Is Reading: Tomiko Harvey is a blogger, travel creator and SEO pro who was one of 7 creators invited to a Google Creator Summit in DC. She wrote an extensive recap of what she learned about search results, web traffic and the impact of AI. I highly recommend reading the whole thing — but a few key takeaways are:
Food bloggers could get dinged for overly long posts. Clarity and usefulness beat nostalgia about your grandmother’s pie crust every time.
Your YouTube Shorts, Reels, and TikToks are just as likely as blog posts to show up in search results, it’s all about whatever best matches the intent of the search.
Google says their system has favored sending traffic to larger sites and and they’re actively trying to correct that.
📺 Tech’s Taking Over TV: Building on last week’s newsletter theme — See the creators and brands launching social shows — the format is still gaining speed. TechCrunch covered three TikTok series getting millions of views. Meanwhile Business Insider reported that Google is quietly launching a film and TV production initiative called 100 Zeros to help find projects they can fund or produce.
💡 Gen Z Insights: Social media and YouTube are the starting point of discovery for Gen Z, according to EMarketer — and that’s not necessarily bad news. 60% of Gen Z and Millennials say social media influencers inspire them to make positive life changes, according to a new Mintel report. And a New York Times feature revealed that friendships, analog experiences (like drawing) and small tokens (rubber ducks) are some of the things that bring Gen Z joy. The world isn’t suddenly a less stressful place but I love these outlets for Gen Z.
🛍️ Shopping Evolution: The Bachelor partnered with LTK to launch a new shopping experience for Bachelor Nation fans who want to shop the fashion, beauty, and home products they’ve seen on TV. Meanwhile, Instacart announced it would launch a Gen Z party-focused delivery app called Fizz that lets friends split the bill.
👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES
Old emails show Adam Mosseri said focusing only on influencers over friends and family was a mistake -Bloomberg
CreatorIQ just launched a ✨ free ✨ Benchmark Calculator that allows you to benchmark performance across 27 industries, 17 regions, 5 social platforms, and 4 follower tiers -CreatorIQ
Netflix is rolling out a TikTok-style feed and a homepage redesign to help you find your next watch -TubeFilter
Making videos shareable on Instagram is all about focusing on "universal truths” -Business Insider
At the TV Upfronts next week, streaming giants and traditional networks will try to prove they can deliver the same value and flexibility as YouTube -Business Insider
Creator Economy subscription companies like Spotify, Patreon and Kajabi are celebrating over a new ruling that would let developers and creators avoid Apple’s 30% fee for in-app purchases -Business Insider
Some traditional media companies are now bringing influencers in-house, or focusing on growing the followings of in-house creators, to help reach younger audiences -Teen Vogue
New: CreatorCare therapy service is announced for burn out creators -Passionfruit
Kai Cenat announced he was accepting applications to attend Streamer University — imagine Hogwarts but for creators — with an incredible teaser video -@KaiCenat on X
This felt like a long one — thanks for reading!