Episode 5: Instagram had a tough start to the week, and creators are not happy about it + Live from NFT London

Welcome to Unboxing Creator Culture, a weekly digest to keep you updated on what's going on in the social media industry, what TikTok and YouTube's top creators are talking about this week, and how I help creators scale and monetise their audience. I'm Shan, Founder & CEO @Genflow where I work with creators and help them sell content, build businesses and work with the best brands. Click Subscribe above to be notified of my weekly edition.

GM. I’ve just spent this morning at a panel at the first NFT.London conference on how Web2 creators can utilize NFTs. It's always very interesting getting to speak to other builders in the space, and this time round, after having attended NFT NYC earlier in the year, it's clear who is building for the long term and not just showing up during the bull cycles. NFT.NYC

Not a good week to be a top executive at Meta this week. Someone at Instagram suspended millions of accounts on the platform, leading users to see a very stern ‘your account was suspended on 31 October 2022’ note and no other explanation. This wasn’t a mass bot clear-out… It was a sincere error in the system. Instagram confirmed this error on Twitter with much embarrassment. But these suspensions caused a major stir as thousands of creator and brand accounts saw a dramatic drop in their follower count. To put things into perspective, the most followed business account - Instagram - lost 1 million followers, and the most followed person on Instagram - Cristiano Ronaldo - saw 3 million of his 492 million followers disappear.?

Instagram may have had a bad day, but these tech outages are not new and will keep happening repeatedly. This is why it’s so important for creators to own their audience and think outside of these apps. Creators should focus on monetising their audience away from these platforms. Because this is more than just Instagram being down (like it was in October 2021), this is way more serious, as creators literally were losing their audience… the most valuable asset in the world right now. If they had a product or service that lived outside of these platforms, they wouldn’t be stressing about it like many creators did earlier this week.?

Meanwhile, Deloitte released a creator economy report earlier in the week citing the opportunities between brands, creators and platforms… and these are some of the numbers that stood out for me:

??58% make less than $50K a year

??83% of creators would like multiple revenue streams that include brands, platforms, and followers

?? 3 in 4 creators prioritise platforms that help them grow their business.

??Only 27% of creators see the metaverse as relevant to their business in the next year

It’s amazing how many creators are disproportionately relying on brand partnerships for their income. Creators should be looking to diversify their income sources to drive growth, rather than waiting for Instagram, TikTok or YouTube to be their primary source of revenue. This report shared how much these social platforms pay creators in ad revenue, and Instagram stands at $0. That’s right. Right now, Instagram is paying $0 to its creators for any ad revenue it's making. So why are creators still spending hours perfecting that reel on the platform??

Answer: To grow their audience. That’s the ultimate goal of any creator.?

Meanwhile, brands need to do better on social media. They can become more competitive partners with creators by shifting the nature of their creator collaborations from sponsorship to partnership. They can align with creators’ values and grow their audiences along with brands. Brands should focus on building a strong social presence and a clear brand strategy that allows them to become equal partners with creators.

What are your thoughts on this? See you in the comments.

My Podcast – Life of an Entrepreneur

This week’s episode is for those entrepreneurs who are wondering where to begin with raising money for their business. I lay out a step-by-step guide to help fellow entrepreneurs build the deck, tell their story and map out their financial model. I cover everything: what investors care about, how you can sell your business to them, and what aspects of your story to highlight the most. Listen below.?

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