Business of Creators 💬

Industry latest

👀 TikTok is looking into creating a feed solely for US users in an attempt that satisfies American politicians worried about the platform’s speculative political ties. 

🍆 X looks to be considering allowing adult content creators to make money from the app. They’ve recently changed their rules to permit nudity and sex in posts, as long as it's created and shared with consent.

❤️‍🔥Snapchat wants you to chat more with friends, not just post for everyone to see, with their new "Less Likes. More Love" campaign.

👁️Instagram might soon force you to watch short video ads in your main feed before you can keep scrolling.

^{Sponsored by Shutterstock}

Transform your ideas into stunning visuals instantly with Shutterstock’s cutting-edge AI Image Generator

• Over 100 unique artistic styles

• Support for 20+ languages

• Commercially-ready images that are safe and ethically sourced

• Intuitive style selector for perfectly tailored results

• Diverse and inclusive content

• Tools for automating image editing and compositing tasks

• Ethically sourced imagery ensuring fair artist compensation

Elevate your storytelling, innovate responsibly, and create with confidence.

Create stunning visuals now 👉 Try Shutterstock AI

The Confusing Instagram Comms Saga continues!

Given we’ve been reporting on this for quite sometime, we’re going to call this topic of affairs the C-I-G-C saga for short. 

So a couple of months ago, Instagram gave some “advice” on engagement that came across as quite condensing by creators. They deleted the post after 24 hours. That, however, was the first installment of the vertigo inducing comms that left has many scratching their hands. 

Last month we covered IG CEO, Adam Mosseri, talking against Reels lasting longer than 90 seconds at an event. Despite YouTube and TikTok pushing for longer-form content this year, Instagram seemed to go against the grain. That was until last week, however, when their official @creators account posted tips on posting reels over 90 seconds. 

The contradictory comms is adding doubt to creators, so here’s the lowdown:

• Longer videos won't get shown much in the "Explore" section or the Reels tab (where people discover new content). 

• So, you can still post longer videos to share with your followers, but they likely won't reach as many new people. 

• In the end, the advice isn't quite contradictory – it's just about understanding the reach you can expect for different video lengths.

To add to the flip-flopping, IG then put out a video on CTAs (which they then deleted) saying you shouldn't tell people exactly how to engage with your videos. Here's the gist:

• Don't ask for specific comments like a certain word or emoji. This apparently hurts your chances of showing up in the "Explore" section (where new people find your stuff).

• They do want you to get people talking, so open ended questions and general calls to action are okay.

• This isn't exactly new, they've always frowned upon "engagement baiting". But, some creators who use tools to automatically prompt comments are worried.

We hope this has clarified some woes in the latest C-I-G-C saga. Stay tuned! 

Platform round-up

Leverage the latest updates and features across digital platforms to help you get ahead of the game…

👉The Threads app now lets you swipe right on posts you like to see more of that kind of content, and swipe left on posts you don't.

👨If Father’s Day is on your content calendar, TikTok have dropped a guide that will end your creator’s block. Pointers include driving sales, engagement and what content is hitting FYPs. 

HI gAY, hAPPy PriDE mONth…TikTok have dropped their programming for Pride Month which includes:

• Sponsoring the Gayming Awards

• Pushing small business with the #ShopWithPride initiative

• Giving exposure to 15 chosen creators who “inspire, educate and make an impact”

The AI hype is fizzling among creators

When AI tools started coming into fruition for the content creator scene, it spoke of a promise to ‘streamline’ and ‘enhance’. But a new report suggests the honeymoon might be over. The study by Epidemic Sound found a year-over-year decline in usage of top AI tools among creators.

Survey results showed significant huge drops in the use of image recognition software, transcription services, chatbots, and recommendation engines with nearly half of creators surveyed expressing concerns about AI-generated content quality, originality, and plagiarism. Ethical considerations like data privacy and proper credit also weighed heavily on creators' minds.

Some find AI tools like design generators more trouble than they're worth, while others are relegating AI to administrative tasks. The rise of text-to-video tools like Sora has even sparked fears of job displacement in the creative field. 

It’s clear that the AI hype came with not enough ‘walk the talk’, and only now do we have the numbers to show. And as these tools produce more and more homogeneous results, it seems creators are prioritizing their originality more than ever before.