The Evolution of Creator Economy - III

I am trying to map multiple perspectives on these topic - The Evolution of Creator Economy. In the first edition we touched upon the basics of creator economy & in the second edition we discussed on how platforms evolved in creator economy & in this third edition, we will discuss how content creators adapted & evolved in this rat race of SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. ??

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Being a creator & influencer is difficult today & I can tell you that from my own experience. To give you an analogy, I am attaching this refreshing video where sunflower = content creator who epitomizes the spirit of survival of the fittest very crucial for survival & growth. ??

In this article, you will read about

• The impact of creator economy.
• Celebrities & Editor-in-Chief's started competing with YOU for attention in creator economy.
• Authenticity & Trust gradually became the norm as content creator & influencer in the social media space.
• Content Creators became adaptable & agile to changing creator economy.
• The multiple hats that a content creator wears today.
• Conclusion
• Further readings

Let's begin!

The impact of creator economy: The creator economy has 50Mn+ content creators globally for the global internet population of 5Bn+. Today information is at your fingertips, thanks to the internet powered knowledge economy. Knowledge economy upgraded with time & gave rise to creator economy which empowered creators with platform-owned & third-party content creation tools. ??

As the entry barriers to create content is so much low today that content creators became one-person educational institute & influencers became one-person media company. ??

The impact of creator economy is so profound that occupations such as side-hustle & entrepreneurship came into mainstream spotlight. To testify this claim, today a lot of reputed educational institute & media companies ask for your content portfolio as an eligibility criterion for open positions. ??

Celebrities & Editor-in-Chief's started competing with YOU for attention in creator economy: Creator economy decentralized the mainstream media & as a result of that, all the popular celebrities & even Editor -in-Chief's who were massive advocates of traditional high production value media houses started opening their accounts as a creator on all the major platforms - Youtube/Instagram/Meta /Linkedin/Twitter/Twitch/Others & started capturing attention of different audiences aggressively. ??

Celebs & Thinktanks today have very large in-house & external media teams plus strong budgets to increase & influence their fanbase. The collective global entry of celebs & thinktanks into social media platforms also gave a lot of popularity & engagement to platforms but flip side is that celebs & thinktanks have so huge followings today (mostly >10Mn+) that a vast majority of creators & influencers like you & me who fall in the range of nano (< 10K), micro (10K -50K) & mid- tier (50K-500K) based on their following have reduced digital spotlight & reach comparatively. So, if the entry barriers were reduced by creator economy, the polarization of followers increased between celebs & other content creators like you & me & these internet celebs retained their popularity. ??

Next time, please ask a celebrity to take your autograph as you devote them, your attention & energy to them on social media (as well as mainstream media). Please mandatorily follow Ravindra Lattoo if you follow any of this internet celebs.??

Authenticity & Trust gradually became the norm as content creator & influencer in the social media space: Social media is a great tool (even troll) for virality. On Linkedin & Instagram, I can scroll up to 45 to 90 posts per minute so, the shelf life of the posts on social media is in fraction of a second. At the same time, if any posts attract attention & engagement of audience, social media smart algorithms amplify your content which can expose your personal brand positively & negatively. As the shelf life of posts is in the unit of second, so in order to capture the attention of audience, you will have to post frequently & thereby earn mindshare of fandom. This is one rationale which actually paved the path for authenticity & trust. ??

Traditional media have picture perfect images & videos of internet celebs, but that content is for a limited duration, so internet celebs realized the 'post shelf-life rationale' & started posting raw/unfiltered images & videos along with polished ones & created IRL content (in real life content) in videos, images & stories frequently throughout the day. The concept of IRL was also supported by non-internet celebs like you & me. ??

And the purpose to IRL organically is to connect with fans & increase engagement (Like/Comment/ Share/Follow/Save/Subscribe) at the same increase your visibility & likelihood of getting brand deals from the market. 77% of the creator's revenue still come from brand deals. IRL organic content from fashion, beauty & makeup, fitness, travel & food category increases your chances of getting category specific brand deals. As a content creator & influencer, you have to present the combination of picture-perfect content + authentic IRL content & if your content & personal values align with brand then no one can stop you to be a brand deal magnet.??

Here's an example of branded IRL content by bollywood actress Janhvi Kapoor. This is one of the best examples of authentic branded content. ??

If your content as an influencer is not authentic & if you are misleading audiences, then there are likely chances that you will be trolled negatively which impacts your online personal brand. Today the audiences have become smart & they do a lot of secondary research before buying anything & take informed buying decsions. ??

In simple words, as a content creator if you input authenticity in your content, you get trust of your audiences as your output. Though there may be troll armies who are always ready to troll you for their vested interests, but majority of the audiences will be able to separate weeds (inauthentic content) from the seeds (authentic content), so don't worry about getting trolled as long as you input authentic content. ??

Here's an example of inauthentic branded content endorsed by influencers & how they get exposed & trolled on social media. ??

Content Creators became adaptable & agile to changing creator economy: Social media platforms are hardcore business folks. All social media platforms with their different usps & multiple tools were able to attract multiple content creators, influencers & internet celebrities on their platform, so for platforms content supply is not an issue anymore as they have oversupply of creators. ??

The reality is that platforms don't care about you as a creator, they can limit your reach, ban you, temporarily suspend you at their whims & fancies structuring that officially to non-compliance of platform guidelines & community guidelines. ??

Even platforms can be banned by govt. for multiple reasons such as privacy, geopolitics, offensive content to any country's national interests & so on. Platforms may or may not share revenues with creators. So, realizing these factors of uncertainty, content creators diversified their presence on multiple platforms. At the same, they adopted to different set of roles to increase their revenues.??

Another observation is that the shelf life of popularity & influence of content creators & influencers is becoming limited in terms of reach & followers & creators can be lost easily into growing dynamic feed of social media. Some agile & adaptable creators decided to do video podcasting where their podcast became the driver of consistent ad -revenues through brand deals & even they can charge guests who want to appear on their podcast. Very intelligently, creators created SFV's of this video podcasts as teasers & floated those creatives on multiple platforms & brought traffic to their podcasts through link drops. At the same time, they converted their video podcasts to audio podcasts where they got additional visibility & another set of audio brand deals. Some creators even used image-based platforms like Pinterest to drive the podcast traffic by pinning their content. ??

Maximum content creators & influencers start content creation journey by the idea of romanticism towards their art. Very few content creators & influencers are able to convert their art to business & revenues. Business minded creators either start or gradually migrate to platforms who provide maximum earning potential through creator funds, ad revenue sharing with platforms, paid subscriptions, paid exclusive content, brand deals sourced from the market & affiliate links. The popular platforms for creators are Youtube, Tiktok & Instagram. Rest creators (including me) who are not on these platforms are building their authority in their subject & trying to monetize their skills as courses, 1-1 calls, webinars, public speaking, social audio & brand consulting. Some creators also earn money through ghost writing, profile optimization & manage client's account end to end. ??

The multiple hats that a content creator wears today: Creators & Influencers are very agile & adaptive. Today creators play different set of roles. Let's look one by one. ??

1. Content creators also as TV & Film Celebs: A lot of creators with their influence were able to bag rolls not just in Hollywood but also in Bollywood. A time will come when popular influencers call the shots in films + daily soaps because Gen Z & Gen alpha are not cheering & supporting the current popular mainstream TV & Film celebs like Millennials & earlier generations.??
2. Content creators also as Authors: This is a natural progression for content creators to write a book because they have grown from a nano to mid- tier to becoming celeb influencer (>10 Mn followers) & they have already have a loyal community, fandom & support from other popular creators & they can now amplify their content to a global audience at a bigger scale & enhance their personal brands. ??
3. Content creators also as platform ambassadors: On every platform, you will have platform owned or platform operated communities. Platform supports a certain minimum no. of loyal creators & these creator also bags the tags given by platforms & them also get free or paid brand deals given by platforms. They are strong platform advocates in their content at the same time they keep a close eye on the social media feed like who's is posting what, who are the new potential creators & so on. They do a lot of social listening on platform's behalf. ??
4. Content creators also as brand ambassadors: Brand ambassadors is just another term for influencer who has very strong relationship with brand & have done multiple campaigns with the brand. Their relationship become exclusive & trustworthy because of a long-term reliable association between them. ??
5. Content creators also as community leaders: To develop a large following as an influencer & for other influencers, they have built a strong community on WhatsApp/telegram /discord/slack/facebook groups. These communities are majorly closed user groups & without reference; you cannot gain easy access. These leaders sometime charge their members on the frequency of posts published in group or charge them on membership on monthly/annual basis or if it's free you will have to mandatorily support each other on engagement trails/paid posts of clients. Community leaders with their community can have presence on multiple platforms. ??
6. Content creators moving off from social media to become independent creators: Once you become very big on social media, you run the risk of getting suspended from the platforms for not meeting platform obligations. You are also prone to competitive tactics from your peer groups to defame you. You start losing fun. A lot of top creators move their top fans or loyal audiences to their own website, own tools, own apps, own affiliate programs & their own monetization methods because they know how to structure, organize & run various programs practically. ??
7. Content creators also as founders: With the no. of layoffs more than the open positions in the job market, a lot of skilled folks who know how to create content, understand content creation as a business, are able to develop their single or multiple areas of expertise, are able to coach, are able to one person media companies & education instructors become founders. As a next step they collab with other creators thereby create a strong compelling value for the audiences, develop products & tools & some founders even attract VC funding on their businesses. ??
8. Content creators also as digital publishers: Some content creators show their face online on social media regularly & publish awesome content along with that. Audiences prefer their content over all the generic content of faceless online digital publishers. These creators have very strong newsletters, how-to-guides & are very authentic in their content & they respond to every request over in comments/DM & truly care about their audience. ??
9. Content creators also as affiliates: Affiliates operate solely on the commissions once the product/service are sold. Their performance is measured through tracking links. Affiliates have strong relationship with audience because their audience knows that this affiliate selects good products & services for us & then recommends us. To be a successful affiliate, you need to nurture & develop audiences in a super strong way. ??
10. Content creators also as brand fans: Brand fans are customer advocates & influencers for the brands they endorse at the same time they are loyal customers for those brands. I see a lot of brand fans in tech & gaming category. They are very excited to share the latest product features, latest events, latest of everything pertaining to a particular brand. They create a niche loyal audience as influencers & most of their audiences subscribe to notifications on their profiles, so they won't miss any updates from this brand fan. ??
11. Content creators also as Key Opinion Leaders/Subject Matter Experts: These type of content creators have certain level of educational qualifications /credentials/experiences. They have a lot of depth in their cotent. They bring complex topics & decode into simple. KOL's & SMEs are more seen in B2B landscape. ??
12. Content creators also as Investors to other content creators: There are 50 Mn+ content creators & out of that only 2Mn+ content creators are full time content creators & they have the best resources & capabilities to produce the best content. So, many content creators who made it big are now investing in potential content creators in terms of content production, skills & revenue opportunities. ??

Creators have always pivoted their way to survival of the fittest in this rapid evolution of creator economy. Sooner or later in future, creators need to pivot from platform led creator economy to community led creator economy & that may reduce the polarization between top & bottom creators in terms of earnings, brand deals & volume of engagement. We democratized traditional media space to provide the voice to creators, the next task for platforms should be to amplify the voice of content creators esp. for the middle creators. ??

In the coming post, we will see how supporting platforms have grown & evolved in this rat race of creator economy. ??

#creatoreconomy?#influencermarketing?#influencer?#creator?#platforms?#platformstrategy???

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