ICYMI: Zuckerberg Needs Creators and He Knows It
Here's what happened on social media this week, October 14
The newsletter hit a new milestone this week, ICYMI is going to over 3,000 creators, students, managers, agents and folks from all the major platforms 🎉 Thanks for reading (especially the regulars, I notice!) and I hope this continues to help keep you informed. And if you ever have any ideas, I’m all ears. Just hit reply, I read every email.
💻 ROADMAP
📲 YouTube Updates:
YouTube is finally adding handles (in addition to channel names) to help people find and engage with creators and each other. Over the next month, YouTube will notify creators when they can choose a handle for their channel. If your channel already has a personalized URL, that will automatically become your default handle, or you can opt to change the handle for your channel as soon as the notification in YouTube Studio comes through.
📲 TikTok Updates:
TikTok partnered with Linktree to roll out a new TikTok Profile Kit. This new option will allow creators to display up to six videos — from your latest and greatest or you can hand-select the videos you want to display within your link-in-bio. (Set up instructions here.)
Other updates to come out of TikTok World’s marketing summit: Creators will be able to add and pin a clickable link in comments and gaming creators will be able to add app store links to download games.
📲 Instagram Updates:
Instagram is reportedly working on achievement badges for Reels. Creators can earn a Trendsetter badge for using trending audio or effects or a Creative Streak trophy for remixes and collabs with other creators, according to screenshots from developer Alessandro Paluzzi. It’s not yet clear if these are tied to bonuses.
Instagram is also testing Group Profiles, Insider has confirmed. Like a Facebook Group, these profile pages can have up to 5,000 members and can also incorporate admins who approve content for the Group Profile.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
🗂 Bethenny Frankel sends TikTok creator Meredith Lynch a cease and desist, sparking debate
A segment of TikTok is in a meltdown because a much wealthier and more powerful creator sent a cease and desist to a much smaller creator, allegedly accusing her of defamation.
While people might have been sympathetic to Bethenny Frankel when she sued TikTok over ads that misused her image, her latest moves aren’t being well received by fellow TikTokers. Everyone’s got something to say about her going after relatively unknown creators — especially lawer-tok (it’s actually a trend, here, here and here). It’s going to be interesting to watch who prevails and how this could set a precedent for what creators are able to say about each other in the app.
💰 TikTok's Livestreaming Business Is Exploding
Revenue from TikTok’s livestreams grew at nearly double the rate of TikTok's ad business in 2021 — at least in Europe, South and Central America, and Africa.
Digital gifting was reportedly a big part of that growth — viewers purchasing and sending virtual gifts during lives. “Hosts often incentivize viewers to send gifts by offering shoutouts, follow backs and collabs,” Brendan Gahan is quoted saying in this Gizmodo article.
The revenue potential means that, despite some initial struggles with livestream launches in the West, TikTok will continue to invest in and promote their livestream tools.
You Tube’s already said they’re investing in livestreams. If TikTok is too, you know Instagram can’t be too far behind.
🌎 No one asked for this, but you can now share Horizon Worlds videos to Instagram Reels
Videos you take in Meta’s Horizon Worlds can now be shared as Reels, like this metaverse moment from Instagram’s head of fashion Eva Chen. The news was announced at the company’s Meta Connect event this week, which also provided this weird update.
In related (sort of) news, I moderated a Web3 panel for Social Media Club LA with some really cool, smart people, including creator Nikki Fuego who’s selling virtual wearables in Decentraland. You can watch the recap here or read about Nikki’s story in this NBCNews piece about metaverse side hustles. It’s hard to tell where all the opportunities will be for creators in the metaverse but hearing about their passion for content and community made a really complex topic much more relatable and easy to understand.
Resource: Should you create NFTs | NFT Gut Check
💔 Streamer And Adult Performer Adriana Chechik Says She Broke Her Back In The Foam Pit At TwitchCon
This story about a streamer reportedly breaking her back after jumping into a foam pit at TwitchCon is horrifying. There’s not much else to take away from this but I hope Adriana Chechik pulls through and makes a full recovery and maybe in general everyone should avoid any convention build-outs unless they seem super safe.
📣 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“...the professionalization and the creator economy around social media is growing to be a bigger and bigger part of what social media is. And that obviously has a pretty big flywheel with the discovery engine, too, because without a creator economy that is robust, you don’t have a lot of content to recommend. So you need that base of good content in order to have the discovery engine go well, too.”
-Mark Zuckerberg describing how good creator content is critical to Meta’s new Discovery Engine approach (aka FYP-style recommendations) in The Verge’s exclusive interview: Mark Zuckerberg on the Quest Pro, building the metaverse, and more
🧮 DATA OF THE WEEK
“Brands will spend $32.5 billion on influencer marketing in 2023, a new report shows. The figure would represent an 18% increase from 2022. And it only tells a small part of a much bigger sea change.”
-Alexis Ohanian on Twitter; but before you quote that number, no source was cited and the only reference I could find was from AugustFreePress dot com so take it with a grain of salt until the reporting is official.
👩🏽🤝👨🏻 PEOPLE
Twitter, Instagram block Kanye West over antisemitic posts -AP
TikToker Quen Blackwell claims she ‘accidentally’ bought a $100,000 couch, sparking debate -Passionfruit
SNL roasts the Try Guys -Twitter
📖 ALSO ON MY RADAR…
For influencer marketing, Instagram isn’t the only show in town anymore -Marketing Brew
TikTok chases Amazon with plans for U.S. fulfillment centers -Axios
You’ve heard of ghost kitchens. Get ready for a “ghost hotel” -Tubefilter
Why is the internet obsessed with nostalgia? -Passionfruit
How Much Money Can You Actually Make Selling Feet Pics -EliteDaily
I made $200,000 last year ghostwriting tweets for superstar VCs -Insider (paywall)
Why everyone is talking about Negroni sbagliato — and how to make your own -NPR
The 5 behind-the-scenes stars of the creator economy of 2022 -Fast Company
Great blog