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- Best New Artist nominees owe a lot to TikTok
- Willa Air, the new airline for influencers, is going to Coachella
- ByteDance Made Fake Accounts With Content Scraped From IG/Snap
- 15 Power Players at Instagram Leading Its Creator Economy Efforts
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Great Reads
Everything You Need To Know To Know About The New TikTok Stories Feature
Social media experts define stories as ‘mobile, full-screen, vertical videos, and images that appear outside of your regular feed and only last for 24 hours before they disappear’. This feature can be found on platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, giving users the opportunity to create fleeting content for their followers to consume.
TikTok Stories adheres to the same trend, allowing influencers to post a collection of videos and images before they are taken down within 24 hours. This feature was originally tested using a few participants back in 2021. Now, it seems that TikTok has rolled out its stories further, allowing a larger number of users to experiment with the feature.
The main reason that TikTok Stories defies other social media stories is through its multiple engagement avenues. Traditionally, whenever someone comments on a story, the message will be sent directly to the influencer’s DMs. With TikTok Stories, comments are listed in a separate tab, where influencers can also see who has viewed their story.
Grammys 2022: Best New Artist nominees owe a lot to TikTok
Rodrigo stands out from other TikTok-famous musicians, however, in that her songs were popular outside of TikTok as well. Sour, the album from which her TikTok hits came, landed an Album of the Year nomination after a massive opening on the Billboard charts. Starring on a Disney show certainly helped give her music extra visibility, but TikTok helped pave the way for her music to make a cultural shockwave too. Rodrigo broke the record for most Spotify plays in a week with “Drivers License”—only to break that record with “Good 4 U.” That kind of virality can’t be attributed to one factor, but it’s clear that it wouldn’t have happened without TikTok.
But for many of the Best New Artist nominees, TikTok wasn’t just a reinforcement but also a launching pad. Giveon’s “Heartbreak Anniversary,” a nominee in the Best R&B Song category, featured in an internationally popular dance trend on the app, with people performing a dance routine loosely based on the song’s lyrics in front of a partner or others, with some of those dance videos ending up with millions of views. “Heartbreak Anniversary” is a slow R&B ballad, but thanks to Filipino creator Marc Daniel Bernardo, who came up with the dance and performed it with his dance partner Katkat Manimtim in February 2021 (a year after the song’s release), the song became one of the app’s more enduring tracks last year. (Sadly, as the TikTok Creator Fund is not open to creators in the Philippines, the creators do not make income off of their TikTok content.) The song went viral in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia before reaching the top 20 on the Billboard 100 and eventually going platinum.
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Campaign Insights
Why this sports podcast network is looking to TikTok to find talent
To land deals with the likes of Mountain Dew and other big brands, Blue Wire is fostering relationships with creators who are successful across platforms, Jones explained.
But make no mistake—Blue Wire is a podcast company, so the creators in its network need to be more than influencers. They also need to be great podcasters. That’s where Scott Reinen, Blue Wire’s head of content (and host of Blue Wire’s Yankees podcast, The Bronx Pinstripes Show), comes in.
Part of Reinen’s job is to identify talent to bring into the network, so technically, he’s allowed to scroll through his Twitter feed and call it work. That’s what he was doing when he came across Matt Sponhour, whose TikToks about sports regularly rack up thousands of views. Sponhour is now one of the hosts of Blue Wire’s sports podcast, Stay Hot.
Sponhour’s Twitter led Reinen to his TikTok page, and off the bat, Reinen said he noticed his “crazy level of engagement” on both platforms. Not only were people commenting on Sponhour’s content, but the comments were also fairly personal, referencing posts from weeks prior.
“These are the things that I look for to find that really deep entrenchment of an audience base that will become the ride-or-dies who will go across to YouTube, will go into audio, will buy their merch, will go to events,” Reinen said.
Biden group launches TikTok account to boost the president’s agenda
The Biden-affiliated nonprofit group Building Back Together plans to launch its own TikTok account on Wednesday as part of the group’s latest effort to engage young people with the president’s agenda ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
The group’s account, @buildingbacktogether, plans to create content inspired by TikTok trends and features, like the green screen function, to explain President Joe Biden’s agenda to the platform’s predominantly younger user base. The organization’s staff will frequently appear on the account, along with news clips and audio featuring the president.
“By launching a TikTok account, we’re building off that work with the goal of reaching the large and growing user base of this platform, including young people who disproportionately use TikTok,” a Building Back Together spokesperson told The Verge on Tuesday. “We want to make sure TikTok users are seeing information about the positive impacts of the president’s agenda, and we’ll be doing that by producing original content tailored to the platform.”
Brands Are In It for the Long Haul When Picking Influencers
When Billie Schaub started working at the CBD brand Ned in December, she pitched her reluctant CEOs an influencer marketing strategy. After a less-than-fruitful history of working with creators, that approach was, Schaub recalls being told, “the best way to flush money down the toilet.”
“I wanted to completely revamp the program,” said Schaub, the brand’s marketing manager. “When we have our first call with influencers, we say, ‘We don’t want this to be a one-and-done and never talk to you again type of deal. We want to create a relationship with you over the next months and years.’”
After starting with an empty roster at the beginning of the year, Schaub has built out a team of 88 influencers, who average a 109% ROI on their posts. In addition to creating sponsored posts, Ned also encourages its influencers to contribute to the brand’s blog and co-sponsor events, which Schaub said facilitates a more holistic relationship.
Before Schaub took over the program, the brand wasn’t thinking about long-term influencer partnerships. But like many companies, Ned is restructuring its relationship with creators. Brands are deepening their ties with influencers, and instead of looking for human billboards to feature in one-off posts where success is determined by measurable impressions, more marketers are seeking recurring brand advocates.
Meet the new class of beauty influencer
“Partnering with influencers outside of the beauty space is an effective way for brands to expand reach and tap into new communities,” said Clare Hennigan, a senior beauty analyst at Mintel. According to Mintel survey data, 40% of beauty influencers’ followers express interest in seeing more beauty brands collaborate with influencers in other industries.
For Smashbox’s new Smashbox Open Studios artist residency program, the brand is sponsoring three up-and-coming artists in a four-week incubation program that culminates in a March 31 group show of their work at Smashbox’s Lightbox studio in Los Angeles. Artists selected were walk-in installation artist Uzumaki Cepeda, photographer Randijah Simmons and Gabriela Ruiz, who creates sculpture, video, painting and design.
It’s the latest beauty brand to incorporate artists into a campaign, following along the lines of La Prairie, which frequently works with artists at Art Basel events.
“This is a different kind of campaign for us,” said Heather Duchowny, executive director of global marketing at Smashbox. The brand has teamed up with artists for product collaborations in the past, and the goal for this campaign is to “create a cultural and artistic meeting ground for creatives to come together.”
Brands are looking for new campaign stars that make sense conceptually. Orly, for example, teamed up with Onwuachi for a set of three nail polish colors after the star chef became known for his love of wearing nail polish.
Willa Air, the new airline for influencers, is going to Coachella
Willa, an online payments company that caters to social media creators, just launched an airline called Willa Air – and its first voyage will take 12 lucky influencers to this month’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on an exclusive, and free, flight.
In addition to the free travel, the airline’s luxury offerings include a pre-flight champagne bar and a post-festival weekend detox with IV drips, massages and a juice bar at the company’s Venice Beach lounge in Los Angeles, according to its website.
The flight lasts under an hour, during which time influencers will have champagne, drinks and dessert – not to mention plenty of opportunities to collaborate with their fellow content creators.
Launched in 2019, Willa’s payments platform is aimed at helping freelancers, particularly content creators, request and receive payments quickly from brands, sponsors and other collaborators. The company said in 2021 that it had raised $21 million in venture capital funding and had a waitlist of more than 150,000 freelancers.
“We launched Willa Air to provide superfast and convenient travel for the content creators who are jetting off to events across the U.S,” said Aron Levin, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Willa, in a press release. “Willa was founded with the mission of helping creators, and quick, seamless travel is one of the many ways we are supporting our audience.”
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Interesting People
Orion Brown Founder And CEO Of BlackTravelBox On Breaking Down Boundaries
Orion founded BlackTravelBox in 2017 and began with essential hair products, like shampoo and conditioner. Often, the things provided in hotels are inadequate and not high-quality, so Orion wanted to offer TSA-friendly alternatives. She developed two solid bar forms so that customers didn’t have to worry about TSA or running out of liquid products.
“Our larger bars are about the equivalent of a 16-ounce bottle, so you can just kind of keep that in your travel bag, keep it in your gym bag, and keep using it without having to go “oh crap, I don’t have my stuff and I’m flying out tomorrow.”
BlackTravelBox quickly expanded into hair care products that allow women to use protective styles when traveling or wash and style on the go, which is especially important for active travelers who may be swimming, diving, or sweating much more while traveling.
Orion Brown Founder and CEO of BlackTravelBox on Breaking Down Boundaries, COVID Adjustments, and Long-Term Retail Strategy
Other popular Black Travel Box products include, “A nice hair balm to kind of seal in the moisture is great… and then we have a body balm that is a cult favorite. It smells divine [and] it’s anhydrous as well, there’s no water in it and a little bit goes a long way.”
Vinny Thomas: The Teacher That Social Media Loves
A teacher, Vinny Thomas is originally from Essex in England before he moved to the US in 2018. He started creating and sharing video content in his teenage years but had to pause once he started working with children at summer camps in the US. This was after being advised he could not work with kids and be on social media. Vinny had to limit his video sharing to friends and members of his teaching department.
“I would send them videos just talking about everyday stuff and they would always laugh at them. When we went into the lockdown in March of 2020, my head of department was like, ‘You need to start publicly posting these’. So I started posting them and they did well. I got on local news. And now I’m a full-time content creator.”
Posting as Mr. Thomas English, he has accumulated 1.2 million TikTik fans over the last two years. He is active on other social media platforms and has 403,000 YouTube subscribers, 319,000 Instagram followers and 11,000 Facebook followers.
He doesn’t have a specific target audience.
“My main aim is I want people to leave my page feeling lighter and happier than when they came to it. I want people to see my videos, laugh along with me, feel joy from it, feel better about their day and have escape for the seconds they watch my videos.”
Science 'Influencers' Find a New Way to Share their Passion and Knowledge
Jim Steenburgh, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah, has over four thousand followers on Twitter and shares information on current snow conditions in Utah through his blog Wasatch Weather Weenies.
“I’ve always been in communication with my friends about the weather,” Steenburgh said. “It’s something that affects everybody’s lives all the time. So ever since I was a graduate student, and even as an undergraduate studying meteorology, people have been calling me up for the weather forecast. So, it’s been natural for me to open up my communication and to share information with others.”
Steenburgh said it’s important for scientists to engage the public and share their knowledge with them.
“It’s also important to inspire younger people, but they don’t have to necessarily major in what we call ‘STEM,’” Steenburgh said. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there, so now it is more important than ever to understand what science is and how it works. I don’t think what I do is necessarily changing the world, but it’s a small step to try and provide good information to people and hopefully make some people look at science in a fun way.”
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Industry News
ByteDance Made Fake Accounts With Content Scraped From Instagram and Snapchat, Former Employees Say
BuzzFeed News spoke with the four former ByteDance employees, all of whom worked on Flipagram (later renamed Vigo Video), and viewed internal documents that indicate the scraping was run by an engineering team in China and began soon after ByteDance acquired Flipagram in January 2017. The former employees described the project as one of several “growth hacks” — including the manipulation of like and video view statistics — employed by the company. One of the former employees said the scraping affected hundreds of thousands of accounts, and a document viewed by BuzzFeed News detailed plans to “crawl video > 10k/day in P0 countries” — according to the former employee, this meant the team’s goal was to scrape more than 10,000 videos a day in the highest priority countries. The former employees spoke to BuzzFeed News under the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution from ByteDance.
The former employees do not know when the scraping they say they were aware of stopped. Two of them say that the scraped content was used to train ByteDance’s powerful “For You” personalization algorithm on US-based content so that it would better reflect the preferences of US users. Today, the “For You” algorithm powers both TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin. (Disclosure: In a previous life, I held policy positions at Facebook and Spotify.)
BuzzFeed News sent ByteDance a comprehensive list of the allegations we intended to print in this article as well as a detailed set of questions, including if data sets from Flipagram were ever used to train the “For You” algorithm that powers TikTok today or to train any other algorithms currently in use by ByteDance.
In response, ByteDance spokesperson Jennifer Banks wrote back two sentences: “ByteDance acquired Flipagram in 2017 and operated it, and subsequently Vigo, for a short time. Flipagram and Vigo ceased operations years ago and aren't connected to any current ByteDance products.”
Australia's influencer marketing body has a new chair
The Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) has a new chair and deputy following a member election.
The chair is Sharyn Smith, founder and CEO of Social Soup and director of The Influence Group, who has more than 15 years within the influencer marketing arena.
Detch Singh, founder and CEO of Hypetap, who is the exiting chair, will remain as deputy chair, along with Patrick Whitnall, marketing director of TwentyFiveFour and new deputy chair Tegan Boorman, founder of Social Law Co.
Sharyn Smith: “AiMCO is essential to influence the industry's next phase of development. Right now, influence is experiencing a strong growth trajectory that will be critical in determining how the future of our industry looks.
"There is a burgeoning need for greater integration across the creator economy and wider influencer marketing, as well as across marketing and media plans – this means enormous opportunity.
TikTok partners with GIPHY on new video creation tool, ‘TikTok Library’
TikTok today is announcing a new in-app creation tool called TikTok Library, which the company hopes will make it easier for creators to access entertainment content and participate in trends. Initially, the Libary will be populated with select content from GIPHY, including its collection of GIFs with sound, known as GIPHY Clips. Over time, TikTok says it expects to expand the Library with additional content sources, audio and sounds, text templates and other TikTok creator content.
The company declined to share what sort of future partners it may have in store for those efforts, however.
Launched in 2019 as GIPHY Video, GIPHY Clips today are a way for entertainment partners like TV and movie studios, game makers, record labels, sports leagues, news media and others to share properly licensed content on GIPHY’s platform. Over time, the feature has expanded to include thousands of content makers who want to leverage GIFs with sound — also known as short-form video — to reach GIPHY’s hundreds of millions of daily active users. These GIPHY Clips can be shared anywhere across the web with a link, within messaging apps, in workplace tools like Slack and within other third-party applications via GIPHY’s developer toolset, the GIPHY SDK.
As YouTube’s Biggest Creators Burn Out, The Platform Is Facing An Identity Crisis
The Paul brothers’ YouTube brand, though, seems to be slowly dying. That’s not to say they have lost their audience (the brothers have more than 40 million subscribers on YouTube combined), but neither is focusing on the platform that made them famous. Instead, they have turned to boxing. In a 2021 profile with ESPN, Jake said he no longer felt fulfilled by the content game and wanted to diversify his income to ensure his continued relevance and wealth.
“An influencer, take away their Instagram, take away their TikTok, take away their YouTube, they’re f---ed,” he told the reporter. “What are they going to do? That’s an influencer. If you could take away all their social media profiles and they can still do whatever it is that they do, they’re not an influencer then. They’re a celebrity.”
Diversifying their revenue streams is something that many major content creators in every industry have been attempting over the past few years. Many are doing so not just because they are frustrated with the platforms, as some influencers described to me earlier this year, but because they are tired of the content creation grind. YouTubers, many of whom felt pressure to share every facet of their lives for years, are hitting a level of burnout that feels unsustainable.
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Great Paywalled Content
How Much a YouTuber With 40K Subscribers Earns From the Shorts Fund - Business Insider
Cook-Nelson is still waiting to receive confirmation of his earnings for March, but he expects to make $780 for 6.5 million views, based on his previous stats.
He was also paired with a YouTube Partner Manager, a person within YouTube who helps him learn about new Shorts features and scale his content. His partner gives him advice on how often to post, which content to prioritize, and whether Shorts and long-form videos should be posted on the same channel or separate accounts.
Though his channel has grown, Cook-Nelson is keeping his full-time job in marketing, and he doesn't want to start partnering with brands just yet.
Danielle Bernstein Is Launching a WeWoreWhat Credit Card - Business of Fashion
Influencer Danielle Bernstein is betting that if her followers will buy a WeWoreWhat sweater, they will sign up for a WeWoreWhat credit card.
Bernstein is partnering with fintech start-up Imprint to launch a co-branded WeWoreWhat Visa Rewards Card. Initially, the card will be linked to a user’s bank account, with a credit card planned for later this year.
Imprint, which has raised $52 million in funding according to Crunchbase, makes money on every card swipe through fees processed by the merchant. Bernstein does not profit off the transactions themselves, rather from a sponsored deal with Imprint to help promote the partnership, and of course, from the sales of WeWoreWhat. Cardmembers will get cash back and other perks.
Credit cards are still relatively uncharted territory for influencers. Bernstein launched WeWoreWhat as a blog and expanded it into a standalone apparel brand last year after collaborations with Macy’s and the swimwear label Onia. The hope is that the WeWoreWhat credit card will serve as another marketing tool for the brand.
“In the modern-day creator economy, it’s no longer about growing your follower account, but really harnessing and engaging and further building on your current community,” Bernstein said.
The card will also test the loyalty of Bernstein’s following. In recent years, influencers have extended their businesses beyond the platforms that made them famous, from apparel and accessory labels to side gigs as brand consultants.
15 Power Players at Instagram Leading Its Creator Economy Efforts - Business Insider
Insider checked in with 20 industry insiders, including creators, talent managers, marketers, and former Meta employees, to better understand who's who at Meta. Insider's sources identified employees who have stood out, from top executives like Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri to partnership managers who work with creators and their teams daily.
Several industry sources named Meta staffers who are part of the company's broader "Creator Partnerships" team, which "works directly with thousands of Creators to help them build their brands and their businesses across Meta platforms," according to a recent job listing for a strategic partner manager.
Meta declined to provide comment for this story, but did confirm the accuracy of employees' titles.
Business Insiders Lists the 15 power players at Meta who work with creators and influencer industry leaders:
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