ICYMI: YouTube Bets Big on Live Shopping

Here's what happened on social media this week, May 6

[via Instagram]

Welcome! This a recap of news and trends for and about creators.

💻 ROADMAP

💵 TikTok’s Ad Revenue Share: TikTok will start sharing ad revenue with select creators. The new program, called TikTok Pulse, will put ads among the top 4% of all videos across 12 different categories such as beauty, fashion, cooking and gaming. Approved creators and publishers with at least 100k followers will receive up to 50 percent of ad revenue from Pulse. 

📱 Instagram’s Full Screen Experience: Instagram is testing a full-screen home feed similar to TikTok’s full-screen, vertical video, which it says is designed to “bring video more front and center.”

┅ Instagram Stories Expand: Instagram has been spotted testing an auto collapsed version of Stories that you need to expand to view all the frames available… in what seems to be an effort to make anything but Reels a difficult user experience.

🔵 Twitter’s Close Friends Circle: Twitter is testing Twitter Circle, its version of Instagram’s Close Friends. Your Circle can include up to ​​150 people which is believed to be the magical number of relationships you’re able to maintain at one time.

🎥 Pinterest Live TV Studio: Pinterest quietly launched a new Pinterest TV Studio app to help select creators to go live on Pinterest. The beta is so exclusive, creators have to enter in a code Pinterest provides in order to gain access to the livestreaming tools.

➡️ Live Redirect on YouTube: YouTube will allow livestreaming creators to redirect their audience to another live stream – including other creator’s channels – once their stream ends.

📲 Snap’s Cameo Partnership: Snap Promote allows Snapchat’s video advertisers the ability to partner with Cameo’s top talent to create custom short-form video ads for the social app. Note the ink wasn’t even dry on this contract when The Information reported that Cameo laid off more than 80 employees.

💰Facebook Reels Bonuses: Approved Facebook Reels creators can earn up to $4,000 per month for meeting certain goals as part of a new incentive called Challenges.

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👆🏻 CLICK THRU

💵 YouTube Plans Live Shopping Bet as Ad Revenue Growth Slows
Just this week, YouTube reconfirmed its focus on live shopping and other commerce integrations with creators at the NewFronts (a digital content marketplace for media buyers). There’s nothing new about this, it’s been a consistent talking point and they’ve been testing live shopping functionality for a while. Consider this a friendly reminder that each platform (TikTok! Instagram! Pinterest! Amazon!) is racing to be the shoppertainment destination as they eye China’s $400 billion e-commerce industry. So, get your livestream selling strategies ready!

📄 Costa, Heineken and Coke promise to help close the influencer pay gap
Major brands in the U.K., including Boots, Heineken, Johnson & Johnson, Costa and Coke, have committed to better diversity, inclusion and representation in their influencer marketing activities, including closing the ethnicity pay gap.

A total of 23 major advertisers and 13 talent agencies and influencers have given their backing to a revised code from Isba (an organization representing leading UK advertisers) aimed at addressing the pay gap and improving diversity within their own teams.

The three new principles include:

• Be allies in addressing the unacceptable pay gaps in influencer marketing, including those based on race and gender

• Regularly audit the diversity of the pool of talent with which they work

• Work to address diversity in their own marketing teams, to promote truly inclusive campaigns

💄 Pivoting to ‘real beauty’ gets complicated fast
This is an interesting take on the news that a UK agency declared it would “no longer work with influencers who edit their bodies or faces for ads.”

1. It’s going to have an outsized impact on women. “There's a little less work, frankly, that a guy who's a content creator has to do. You’re asking a woman to reveal herself in a way that may not have allowed her to make money in the past,” says Alexis Madison, associate director, digital strategy at Deutsch NY. 

2. Asking an influencer not to do something they might normally do seems inauthentic. A better place to start might be requesting that influencers disclose if an image is edited or not. 

🙄 What’s the Difference in Working with Creators Versus Influencers
“Influencer content is great for buzz, reach and clicks. Creator content accomplishes the same, but it’s also higher quality and more effective.”

[Literally rolls eyes]

Please stop stigmatizing influencers as people who care less about the quality of their content. Sure, there are a few who are more about the lifestyle than the creative output but that’s true of anyone in a creative industry. An influencer is simply a person of influence. And if you mean to say a female lifestyle Instagrammer (commonly, a lot of the criticism and condescension is aimed at them) then be explicit. Or read this Atlantic piece that objectively examines how the two terms evolved. 

📣 QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Naming an influencer to the position of creative director can allow a brand to establish a deeper partnership that goes beyond product promotion and taps into product direction, brand aesthetic and creative oversight… In a time when consumers value authenticity, a deeper and ongoing partnership such as that gives an extra layer of validity to the brand among the influencer’s fans and followers” 

-Tierney Wilson, svp of client strategy and consulting at agency January Digital via:  The new wave of influencers-as-creative-directors is more than just a PR stunt

📖 ALSO ON MY READING LIST…

• TikTok Creator Playbook -TikTok

• Creators divulge the social media platforms that actually earn them money -Digiday

• Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says social media regulation "not a substitute for moral responsibility" -CBS News

• Tech firms sell creators as the future of ads -Axios

• Addison Rae, Emma Chamberlain, & Every Influencer Who Attended Met Gala 2022 -Teen Vogue

• Never Ask a Food Influencer to Pick Up the Tab -Eater

• 'Buy now, pay later' is sending the TikTok generation spiraling into debt -SFGate

• A Reddit forum dedicated to 'snarking' on influencers is home to over 100,000 members — some think the community has gone too far -Insider

• Drake Proves He’s the Pettiest Rapper Alive by Following Troll’s Wife on Instagram -BlogTO