Edition #4

[APRIL] Owned Communities

Ashwath Narayanan
May 01, 2023

I can’t believe it’s May already — if you’re new here — every month, I put together a round up of news, highlights, tests and things we’re exploring around the creator economy as it relates to the progressive space at Social Currant.

If you were forwarded this email, subscribe here.

I also share more about what we're up to at Social Currant, my interactions with creators and how you should be thinking about working with creators. so, let's dive in.

Some highlights from the work we're doing at Social Currant:

We were excited to publish a playbook on how to work with creators in partnership with Community Change. Check the playbook out here. We also wrapped up a fireside chat at their mental health creator summit and are excited to see them bring more creators together around important issues.
I will be speaking at Vidcon this year on the importance of nonprofits working with creators - if you’re interested in attending / connecting there. Let me know!
Spitfire Strategies spent the last year conducting an analysis on the creator space in partnership with over 50 creators. We got the opportunity to speak at one of their convenings in partnership with Impact Guild and will be linking their report in the next email. Want it early? Reply to this email and I will get you the PDF!
Ellie from the Social Currant team wrote a blog post on factors to consider when thinking about creator rates. Check it out here and watch the space for more blog posts from our team.
We’re always looking for feedback on our product. If you’d like to test it and give some - let us know or sign up to my calendar here. This month, we’ve officially pushed contracts & payments so that creators can sign a contract and get paid all in one place. We’re now working on optimizing our campaign creation process. Grab a sneak peek below:

Owned Communities…and why we’re thinking about them so much: I’ve talked about the importance of people > platforms a few times in the past, but here’s a little more context on why this is important.

With the potential of a TikTok ban, combined with the fact that there is more and more conversation around the volatility of platforms (hi Twitter!), it’s important now more than ever to think about creators who own their audiences.

In more and more conversations with creators (especially full time creators) we’re seeing an increased focus on:

a. Diversification: Being on multiple platforms. Creators that started on TikTok are focused on moving their audiences to Instagram, Youtube and now Snapchat as they look to establish themselves and hedge against the possibility of any platform going down.

b. Owning audiences: The focus on diversification also results in an increased conversation around who owns a creators audience. Is it a creator themselves or is it the platform? This has resulted in the launching of communities on platforms like Patreon, discord, substack, beehiiv (this one!) and other ways creators can have direct access to their audiences through email, SMS and other community building platforms that give direct access to a creators audience.

What this means for us and all the folks working with creators:

a. A new way to evaluate creators: When you’re vetting creators to work with, ask them how they’re thinking about their audience and if they’ve got communities they’re building.

b. A new way to work with creators: Work with creators that have existing communities to specifically reach their communities. Instead of just paying for videos or posts on their actual channels, devise a way to host an event for their community, create resources and more.

c. An increased focus on building relationships with the right people and maintaining them because people > platforms: Invest in people and maintain the relationships with them instead of just investing in their presence on a platform. This can mean building contracts and deliverables that go beyond just the sponsored content but also ask their expertise in meeting your campaign goals.

For us, this means bringing creators onto our team and investing in them as strategists to reach their audiences instead of just a distribution channel.

Creator Economy News I’m Reading:

Snapchat has been on the news lately with creators talking about how the company is incentivizing creators through its revenue sharing program. More here.
Bytedance has been trying to push their creators onto Lemon8, TikTok’s sister app. Read more about Lemon8 and what this pinterest-esque app could hold for branded collaborations.
Linktree is in trouble as Instagram launches a feature to allow users to have up to 5 links in the bio. Read more about the feature here.
Jellysmack, a popular creator economy company that helps creators monetize is teaming up with Spotify to help creators monetize more effectively and increase their reach. The platform will help creators distribute content on Spotify for Podcasters. Read more about this partnership here.
Thinking about how AI and the creator economy will intersect? Check this read out.

Some ideas we're testing/looking to test. I'd love to chat with you if you're interested. Grab some time / reply!

Instagram Channels: We’re really excited about channels and how it allows creators to get directly in the audience of their inbox. We’re attempting to test petition signatures and other conversion actions through this feature after seeing some initial success.

FAQs from the month:

What role will AI play in the creator space and for practitioners in the creator economy? Trust me, we’re thinking about this one a lot. With tools like ChatGPT growing in popularity, the implications of AI, especially Generative AI will be seen soon with the creation of content. However, what we’re thinking about more is whether you can also use AI to make the different parts of influencer marketing easier. From vetting, to briefs to analysis we’re working on incorporating AI into our matching algorithm to make identifying creators more effective.

Have a question you want answered? Reply to this email with it!

If you made it all this way - thank you! For reading, trusting creators and me. I'm building Social Currant to make an impact and you all are a part of this journey. Until next month!

Found this email useful and want someone else to get these insights? Forward this to them and they can subscribe here.