This ex-TikTok employee’s a goldmine of advice for creators

Hey folks👋🏽

With the recent speed-of-light changes to social media, I’ve been reminiscing about the excitement of engaging with social media for the first time.

If a social media platform existed right around 2008, I probably (ill-advisedly) have an account, dormant though it may be. I definitely wasn’t old enough to have a Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter, yet I had an account on each before I was 13.

I try to take that same curiosity into the new platforms, tools, and tech, but nothing quite captures the essence of those early days. Or maybe I just have rose-colored glasses on.

I’d love to hear about the first social platform you signed up for — tag us on Twitter or join our community and let us know! Anyway, enough nostalgia — let’s get into it.

💌 In today’s email:

• 🔓 Ayomi Samaraweera dives into some trendspotting and advice as an ex-TikTok employee, current TikToker, and startup founder
• 📱 Mitra recommends a way to capture your audience’s attention quickly
• 📣 What’s happening in social: May the algorithm(s) be with you; TikTok is holding down its crown as the short-form king; feature updates and interesting reads from across the industry.
• +All our latest content from the blog

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Tami & the Buffer team

P.S. Ever wanted to write for the Buffer blog? Great news! We're now accepting guest post pitches – take a look and send us your best 👀

🚀 Three entrepreneurs skyrocketing their growth with Buffer

We pride ourselves on being an excellent tool for entrepreneurs and business owners to grow on social media — and our users were more than happy to back us up.

• Jayak at redpigeonmedia says, “Over the past 3 months, we've managed to grow one of our client's social media accounts by 400% from 6k to over 23k followers!”
• Press 1 for Nick says, “My following has grown 10% consistently since I started using Buffer”
• Jon Buckley says, “Over the last 90 days, I've seen a 24.5% increase in accounts reached, a 53.2% increase in engagement, and a 9.3% increase in followers.”

If these results put stars in your eyes, what are you waiting for?

🔓 Creators Unlocked: Ayomi Samaraweera

Not many people are as deeply embedded in the creator economy as Ayomi Samaraweera. She was Global Internal Head of Communications at TikTok to her Chief of Staff role at Jellysmack and now, a creator economy startup founder through Canopy. In addition to her impressive resume, she’s a TikTok creator with over 23,000 followers.

Ayomi knows better than most what the creator landscape is like (ex-TikTok, ex-Jellysmack), so it was only fitting that she share her observations and advice for creators.

Creators must be active on multiple platforms. I previously worked at Jellysmack, a startup that assists creators with this expansion. Relying on one platform alone can be risky. If the platform disappears or its algorithm changes overnight, creators could be left in a difficult position.

Then, consider that multiple platforms mean multiple monetization opportunities. Being multi-platform provides a safety net and can help reach different audiences, facilitating the growth and diversification of your follower base.

Another significant trend I've noticed is that creators increasingly seek to own their audience. They want to avoid being at the mercy of platform algorithms and changing community guidelines. So while growing an audience on a platform is essential, creators should also take steps to connect with their audience outside the platform. This could involve creating a Discord server, a WhatsApp group, or a newsletter, offering a direct line to their followers that they control themselves.

Also, it's challenging for a creator to scale as a one-person operation. Yes, they’re like Swiss Army Knives with the number of roles they have to operate. But it's no surprise that I'm seeing more creators slowly build teams around them, perhaps recruiting interns, partnering with PR agencies, or sharing resources with other creators.

Finally, the developments in the AI space are fascinating. AI has the potential to unlock a vast array of possibilities for creators, from generating captions to drafting pitch emails. I anticipate an increase in tools leveraging AI and creators using these tools in innovative ways to scale their content.

🎉 You can now publish your YouTube Shorts in Buffer

Share your Shorts and grow your YouTube audience with our content planning and scheduling features (Bonus: you can share one video as a Short, Reel, or TikTok while in Buffer! Short form video for the win 🤳)

👇🏽 The latest from the blog

• Giving Things Away for Free Has Helped Me Build a Six-Figure Business: Sharing your knowledge for free can be scary as a service provider, but this founder has found it builds her business while supporting a more equitable world.
• This Instagram Post Doubled My Following—Here’s the Template and Strategy I Use to Keep Engagement High: Going viral doesn’t guarantee your account will grow significantly, but Anna Soklova has experience (and advice), and she’s shared it all. 
• How to Balance Content Creation as a Multifaceted Entrepreneur (According to an Expert): In this article, Lloyd George shares invaluable insights and advice for aspiring creators who want to balance entrepreneurship with content.
• How to Schedule Youtube Shorts: Part of growing on any platform is figuring out ways to ease the content creation process so you can focus on the creative side, and YouTube Shorts is no exception. In this article, we’ll walk you through one aspect of easing your process: scheduling.

📱 Social Tip of The Week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

Are you capturing your audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds of your videos?

TikTok’s own research has shown that 63% of all videos with the highest click-through rate highlight their key message or product within the first 3 seconds.

Try starting with a big reveal or an unpopular opinion that makes people so interested that they must keep watching.

This video we posted on TikTok last year went viral and is a great example of capturing your audience’s attention right at the beginning. We were posting about a new job opening and started by listing all of the benefits that Buffer offers before jumping into the job description. Go ahead and give this strategy a try for your next video!

🤳 What's Happening in Social

• 📰 Breaking News: Here's a look at what Instagram's upcoming Twitter competitor looks like.
• 💡 UGC’s the new influencer marketing, as a new report suggests consumers prefer it.
• 🤖 Instagram’s rumoured to be developing an AI chatbot experience for DMs (sound familiar? That’s because Snapchat recently launched a similar feature).
• 💰 TikTok’s allowing more creators to make money in the app by expanding its ‘Series’ subscription option, which enables creators to paywall certain content.
• 📖 Bonus Reads: A potential shift toward long-form content; you and your pet could be making bank if these rates are anything to go by.

Thanks for reading! 💟

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