EP 1 Now Entering The Creator Economy
The world of influencer marketing is changing...and fast. We are diving into what 'influencing' looked like in 2020 vs today and how the industries is expected to pivot as we move forward.
Timestamps:
[0:43] We are in the age of the creator.
[1:38] What does it take to be a creator? And what is a creator vs an influencer?
[4:07] Picture content is a LOT of effort.
[5:23] So what do we as creators do?
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00:00
Welcome to brand meet crater podcast a place where we pull back the curtain of what it means to be all in on social media. So get ready to kick start conversations about the social media world with a little leave nothing off the table transparency, or maybe more than just a little you girl has yet to learn the art of a filter. So talk in it's time to bring some solidarity to the influencer and brand space.
00:27
This episode, we are breaking down the current climate of Instagram marketing, we are entering the Creator economy and chatting about what has changed in the last year and where we could be headed from here. So I want you to think back to your OG influencers. They posted beautiful aesthetic pictures, they were essentially F list celebrities, is that a thing? Where do you end on that list and the alphabet, many started on YouTube, because that's where we got to know them. That's where we got all the personal content. Well, Instagram was just the photos. And as we move forward, we're really entering this new era, we're entering the era of the Creator, where anyone can take a good picture, anyone has an iPhone, with a high quality camera, anyone can go viral. Having the link sticker doesn't make you special, and iPhones, all you need, you don't need that fancy camera for YouTube and the editing software and everything under the sun. It's just a different world, and community and specialty really reign above all. So what does it actually take to be a creator? In this day and age?
01:39
What does it take to be a creator, we really have this distinction happening right now between creators and influencers. And I want to break down what that really means what the difference really is, your influencer was the person that could hold some product up to their face and sell a billion, you know, that kind of girl, they didn't have to get artistic, they just had this thing about them that made you want to buy. But now we have your Creator to your creators biggest strong suit is not necessarily their engagement rate. It's the fact that they can create with this creative eye. And when we have this world where content content content recommendations are out of this world, tick tock, the recommendation is like three tiktoks a day, Instagram right now is really leaning towards like four to five reels a week. That's a lot of content. That's a lot of content and the people that can do it well and create that eye catching content for anyone bring in those views. That really is a specialty. But I've got to tell you this industry is changing really fast. And I really think we are powering towards the age of the Creator we are we're well into the Creator economy, the age of an influencer is dying, I don't want to see you hold a product up to your face anymore. That kills me It like makes me cringe, don't don't don't do it. There's better ways. There's more artistic ways. And I think it's really funny thinking back to even what I was doing at the start of 2020. As I started to do some of my first collabs all of those clubs were picture content, not video. And the way that I was leveraging booking these collabs a way that I was setting myself apart was bundling these packages that included 15 quality images, images that I went out, did a whole shoot already had the images because you know we should a billion you know, that's there's some rapid fire picture taking. So I would edit the extras and send them through so that I had extra content for them. That was an added value. And that was really my path to success in booking collabs as a micro influencer. But now, that's not something that works right now. I'm not posting a single picture each week, if I do post a single picture, it's kind of an anomaly. And the reason that that is is because that's a lot of effort. Picture content is no longer I don't think it ever was to be honest, low lift content. I sit in my egg chair all day. I don't go out and take pretty pictures. My friends are at work during lockdown. I would go out every weekend have what we like to call a content day with another one of my friends that was also laid off during COVID. We would bring about 20 outfits. All in a huge back we would change in the car and we would take tons of pictures because you had to post a picture a day, a carousel a day on top of that. So there's like three pictures that were all just like very slightly different and pretend that I am some cool girl out on the town when in reality I just changed in my car and And I have an empty cup in my hand as a prop, because no one likes awkward hands. So empty cup came along everywhere. Now, I don't post a picture. I don't post pictures at all, I just post video content, I created my house. And you know what, I have a business to run as well. So I just gotta say, I can't go out and take pictures all the time. That is not my specialty. So what do we do? What do we do when I am this creator? I don't necessarily have sales on the table. I'm not that influencer, who's going to make sales like that, we snapped our fingers. Because we're getting inundated by ads every single second, it takes a lot more for me to press buy online, it takes a lot, a lot more. And it takes really strategic marketing. And realistically quite a few views of that product to before I'm ever going to press buy. That's nothing on the influencer. It's just the fact that we're inundated with content all the time. So these packages aren't going to fly because they don't they don't make sense brands. So brands are holding their budget tighter and tighter to their chest. Their budgets are expanding, I will tell you that their marketing budgets still exist, influencer marketing will probably reach $30 billion $30 billion. Last time I checked by 2030. It's not going anywhere. And really we're expanding to new platforms all the time. LinkedIn recently, I think invested, I think the number was to 120 $5 million into some kind of creator initiative. Crazy, crazy, crazy. It's not going anywhere. But it is changing. The reason that brands are holding influencer marketing budgets so tightly to their trust is because our engagements going down engagements changing, because we're putting out more casual content. If we're putting out more casual content, we're putting out more content. And that's all fine. They're seeing engagement drop too. But as a brand on the brand side, it feels like burning money. Brands are really scared right now to invest in tick tock marketing. And actually rates on tick tock for creators are about a fourth of what they are on Instagram. Very, very different. Even though the potential to go viral is so much more you know what the potential to tank with that video, the potential to actually reach 1000 People with 100,000 followers is also very likely, very, very likely.
07:31
So that feels like burning money. It feels like a crapshoot. So how do we position ourselves to be the best possible content creator? There's so many ways this could go. I'm just speculating. But what did so well, was content. People made content again, we're at being asked with this potential for organic reach for videos go viral to post a lot. So how can our creators take on that creator role that face the brand role for these companies, instead of just being the influencer on their page? That's a lucrative industry. Let me tell you, the cost the cost of photoshoots the cost of video shoots is out of this world. It is more effective just as it was more cost effective to hire an influencer two years ago for a photoshoot to hire an influencer for all of your video content to outsource all of your video content to someone that specializes in it. So tune in as we continue to break down this new industry learn together as Instagram, Tik Tok, Pinterest, LinkedIn and every other social platform flourishes. This is truly the age of the Creator. If those low engagement blues are getting you down and monetizing on this platform seems like a pipe dream girlfriend Do I have a solution for you? My signature program millennial escape is finally back for its fourth cohort on February 15, and seats are limited. This program details the strategy that brought me 16k followers in under 60 days but also allowed me to build a business that doubled my nine to five salary and under a year. Whether you are a creator, service based business or social seller, it's time to put your foot on the gas. This is far more than some pre recorded slides. This eight week intensive is set up to put personalized insight feedback and ideas for social media success right in your hands. Visit millennial escape.com or head to the show notes for full details. You better believe your millennial escape is on the horizon. Thank you for listening to this episode of brand new creator if you loved it, rate review, subscribe and of course share. For more on how you can create influence and get paid. Come hang out with me on Instagram at Harley Jordan