Power to the People
Facebook has been accused of a lot of things — and now it can add "murder" to that list. Speaking to reporters on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said platforms like Facebook are "killing people" by helping to spread misinformation about COVID vaccines. "They're killing people -- I mean they're really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated." Facebook's response: stop the finger pointing.
In today's top stories:
What the growing creator economy means for brands
Twitter has a Fleeting moment
TikTok hits a new major milestone
And an emoji that's a blast from the past
Read on ⬇️
Welcome to Creatorland
If you're not an influencer, you may have missed Facebook and Instagram's announcement of a $1-billion fund for creators. But business owners, marketing officers and social media managers should take note. That's because creators are only going to grow in influence, causing more power to shift away from large organizations and celebrities, and towards regular-people-turned-content creators and micro influencers. Here's what it means for the rest of us.
In the Beginning...
While influencers existed well before social media, YouTube is responsible for kicking off the creator trend. In 2011, the platform identified its top content creators, and provided them with grants, support and promotion, according to The Atlantic. One of the people behind that strategy was Vanessa Pappas, who drove platform and creator growth at YouTube. Pappas has since taken her expertise to TikTok, which launched a $1-billion Creator Fund just one year ago. And so far in 2021, Pinterest has announced the launch of a $500,000 Creator Fund. Google-owned YouTube announced a $100-million fund for creators of its new Shorts feature (think: TikTok). And Snapchat has paid creators $130 million so far for uploading content to its new Spotlight feature. This brings us to the $1-billion in bonuses Facebook and Instagram are promising to creators.
Reaction to the New FB Fund
How excited Instagram influencers are about the new creator fund remains to be seen. An article in BuzzFeed News points out several issues. First of all, the blog post announcing the fund specifically mentions rewarding creators who post to Reels, which is not a popular feature. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri also recently made a point of saying the app is no longer a photo-sharing app, and will focus on video in the future, which is a major shift for influencers used to posting beautiful images to the grid. The other issue is that FB/Insta want "to reward creators, especially those who are just starting out, for creating content their communities love." But it's the long-standing creators who are a big part of the success of the platforms. So, if influencers are already feeling a bit annoyed with Instagram, this fund may not help change that. Time will tell.
What This Means For Brands
Regardless of how creators feel about all of these funds, it's clear that the creator economy is only going to grow (especially if Gen Z continues to aspire to be YouTube famous). So what does this mean for brands? Several things:
Building Better Content: As more and more creators make content their full-time jobs, posts will really level up. That will put pressure on larger organizations and companies to step up their content creation. Expect to invest more to build a competitive online brand.
Investing in Partnerships: Partnering for a mutually beneficial outcome is always a good idea. And if there is an appropriate influencer who can help elevate your brand, why not collaborate? Expect to see more of this in the future.
Learning From Creators: Influencers are obviously doing something right, so it makes sense to learn from them. YouTube has already jumped on this. It recently paired top YouTube content creators with leading Chief Marketing Officers (Watch: General Motor's Deborah Wahl in conversation with Lilly Singh).
So, are you ready to board the train to Creatorland?
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SOCIAL SNACKS
A Fleeting Moment
I'm not sure why, but I felt a twinge of disappointment when Twitter announced it was saying goodbye to Fleets. The feature, which is essentially like Instagram Stories, allows users to post content that disappears after 24 hours. Launched in November of 2020, Fleets will completely disappear from the app as of August 3rd. "We hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter. But, in the time since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped," Twitter said in a recent blog post. My opinion: With some better metrics, a few more features, and a bit more time, it may have caught on. But onto the next feature, I guess.
Instagram Shares a Test
Instagram is testing a new way to share content, according to TechCrunch. Instead of sharing it as a stand-alone piece, the content will appear within the backdrop of an existing Story (think: picture in picture). The test, being conducted with a subset of users, first serves up a group of recently viewed content to choose from. Once you pick your content, you're able to share it within your own Story using a "reshare Sticker." It's not clear if the feature will move beyond the test stage, but it does gives us a better idea of what the platform is focused on.
ICYMI
🔴 Facebook adds 'expert' feature to Groups [BBC News]
🔴 Instagram launches 'Security Checkup' to help keep accounts secure [Facebook Blog]
🔴 Clubhouse is partnering with TED to bring exclusive chats to the platform [The Verge]
🔴 Snapchat survey suggests Canadians are venturing back out into the world [Snapchat Blog]
🔴 Messenger introduces Soundmojis [Facebook Blog]
3 BILLION
ByteDance's TikTok is the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 billion downloads globally on the App Store and Google Play, according to mobile app analytics firm SensorTower. The four other apps who have reached this milestone since 2014 include WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook and Instagram. Congrats, TikTok. 🎉
If you want to learn more about TikTok, it's hosting a #ForYou summit for brands on July 21st. Learn more.
EDIT-LIKE
Yep or nah?
One year ago, Twitter warned that we would only get an edit button when everyone wears a mask. But it looks like things might be changing. The product lead at Twitter, @Kayvz, recently tweeted a poll asking users whether they would sign up for the platform's new subscription service (Twitter Blue) if an edit feature was available. How would you vote: 👍 or 👎?
EMOJI-LIKE
Welcome back, Clippy?
Speaking of polls, Microsoft put out a call on Twitter and Instagram last week: 20,000 likes and we'll replace the paperclip emoji in Microsoft 365 with the animated "Clippy" character of the past (Current tally: 170k likes on Twitter, and 236K likes on Instagram). While the posts have gone way past the 20k marker, it's unclear exactly what Microsoft has planned.
If you don't know about Clippy, the feature was introduced in Office 97. It popped up to provide helpful tips as you worked on documents. Clippy was killed off in Office XP in 2001. But it sounds like Microsoft wants a whole new generation to get annoyed helped by Clippy.
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