Podcast Creators Are the New MVPs

1-SECOND SUMMARY

• LinkedIn just launched the LinkedIn Podcast Academy
• TikTok’s facing a U.S. ban if it doesn’t break up with ByteDance
• The very first #deinfluencing video has been found, circa September 2022
• Instagram is the app Americans want to delete the most

?? ROADMAP

?? TikTok Updates:

• In honor of Pi Day, TikTok announced it was introducing a new STEM feed. Fact-checked videos related to science, technology, engineering, and math will get their own dedicated feed alongside your FYP and Following feeds. US users should expect to see this in the next month.??
• The slow simmer has been turned up to boil: The Biden administration is demanding that Chinese-owned TikTok be sold, presumably to an American company, or risk facing a ban in the U.S.

Related:

• I shared my thoughts with AdAge on what this means for creators: Tiktok Ban Threat Forces Creators To Rethink Instagram And Youtube As Revenue Streams
• My thoughts haven’t really changed since my earlier newsletter: Should TikTokers Be Freaking Out?
• Here's a counterpoint from UK journalist Chris Stokel-Walker: Banning TikTok is a bad solution to the wrong problem

?? Meta Updates:

• Meta will no longer support NFTs for Facebook and Instagram.
• Instagram confirmed it’s testing a new feature that will quickly let you access your recently shared Reels in a “Latest Shares” module at the top of your DMs.

?? YouTube Updates:

• The ability to choose a frame from your Shorts on your mobile device to be used as the video's thumbnail will soon be available to everyone.?

???? CLICK THRU

?? Introducing the LinkedIn Podcast Academy

The podcast space keeps getting more and more interesting.

LinkedIn just announced it's launching the LinkedIn Podcast Academy, which connects emerging business podcasts with exclusive programming, coaching, tools and LinkedIn co-branding to expand and better reach their audience.

This follows on the heels of both Spotify and YouTube prioritizing video podcasts for 2023 and announcing new tools and partnerships to help podcasters create on their platforms — while TechCrunch is now casually referring to Emma Chamberlain as a “podcast creator.”?

All this even as the number of new podcast shows has decreased and Meta has shut down all of its social audio features.??

Is this a case of the platforms wanting to make "fetch" happen or are audiences genuinely clamoring for more podcasts, especially video podcasts?

Are podcasts part of your 2023 content plan?

?? Maddie Wells is the creator of the de-influencing trend?

A sales director at Tubular Labs decided to use the company’s social video intelligence tools for truly important work: determining who started the #deinlfuencing trend.

Back in September 2022, a creator named Maddie Wells (@maddiebwells) used the hashtag for the first time in a TikTok and began regularly posting ‘'de-influencing' videos.

Maddie worked at Sephora and Ulta and used the term to refer to popular beauty products customers would return for various reasons. It didn’t really have anything to do with consumerism or sustainability. You can watch the OG video here.

Thank you Tubular’s Ryan Hogg for digging up this great origin story.?

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?? Meta’s Year of Efficiency

Unfortunately in this case, “efficiency” means 10,000 Meta employees are going to lose their jobs. That’s in addition to the 11,000 workers who were let go last fall. Meta is also closing 5,000 open roles they haven’t hired yet. My sympathies to those folks. As for the rest of us, if you thought getting creator or brand support was hard up until now, I can’t imagine how much more difficult it’s going to be.?

?? How Creators are changing the way people build brands

If you missed the SXSW conversation about the shift from corporations and brands to individuals between Shopify’s Harley Finkelstein and YouTube’s Colin and Samir, here are some key takeaways I fully endorse:

• Creators can’t get into the product business by themselves. Creators are great at marketing and engaging audiences but they need operators to help make things happen.?
• Creators need to find Content-Product Fit. Can you seamlessly incorporate your product without having to change your content? When you have that, that’s when you can speak authentically and sustainably to your product.???
• Creator businesses support community growth. People identify as part of the community and bond through their shared belief system, it’s one of the reasons we’re seeing so many creator-led brands.??

?? DATA OF THE WEEK

Instagram is the app Americans want to delete the most ???

- Cyber security company VPN Overview looked into the most popular apps people most want to delete in the U.S. by delving into regional search volumes for “delete” and “deactivate” apps/accounts by each state. Meta won the dubious honor of coming in first and second with Instagram and Facebook. You can see the rest of the top 20 “delete list” here.?

?? QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Platforms don’t really care if you are successful at monetization. I’ll be completely honest"?

- TikTok’s former head of product, Sean Kim, told a SXSW attendees the company’s creator fund wasn’t launched to help creators monetize, it was a reactive measure against other platforms launching their creator funds, according to this Hollywood Reporter recap of the Own Your Destiny panel.

?? WHAT TO READ…

• Snap’s ‘insane’ monetization is making it a new creator favorite - Fortune
• Walmart builds a platform to connect creators, content and social commerce -Retail Wire
• Sephora and TikTok collaborate on incubator program for women-led and POC-led beauty startups -?Tubefilter
• YouTubers Spy Ninjas are launching a new YouTube-inspired theme park in Las Vegas -?Tuberfilter
• Influencer Parents and The Kids Who Had Their Childhood Made Into Content - Teen Vogue
• What YouTube hustle gurus are really selling you -Vox
• Who Is Still Inside the Metaverse? Searching for friends in Mark Zuckerberg’s deserted fantasyland. - Intelligencer
• Kai Cenat won streamer of the year - Passionfruit
• What TikTok’s confessional GRWM videos say about our culture of oversharing - Dazed Digital

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