Business of Creators 💬

Stay ahead of the curve in the creator economy...

SO GUYS, after spending the past however months writing, teasing and complaining about everything to do with winter and daylight savings, WE HAVE FINALLY MADE IT to the other side! 😭🌸

Industry news

📣You thought TikTok was done campaigning? Last week was child’s play! This week, it’s a $2.1 million ad campaign to US users, targeting key states for the upcoming election. 

👀LinkedIn is experimenting with a TikTok-style in-app video feed. Cue the slew of cringey, corporate dance videos promoting their B2B tech product.

🧪Science-Tok WYA? TikTok is broadening its STEM feed to expand educational content. 

📉Edison Research published its annual Infinite Dial report suggesting that usage on X has fallen by 30% in the past year, that’s an estimated 22 million users.

📍The Information's Creator Economy Summit took place on Tuesday, April 2nd in Los Angeles showcasing creators and industry leaders driving the intersection of technology, entertainment, and culture. 

Sponsored by Canva

🌈 Got a knack for creating? Canva's looking for Empower Canvassadors! Share your skills, make tutorials, and join a community eager to learn and grow. From TikTok to YouTube, we’re all about spreading creative vibes. 🎨 

Perks? Beta testing, workshops, and some cool Canva swag. Applications open again in March 2024. Learn more!

The mass YouTube exodus of 2024

YouTuber MatPat forecasted a dam ‘will burst’ in 2024 with many creators quitting due to burnout and platform changes, possibly signaling a shift away from what initially made YouTube popular.

While YouTubers retiring isn't new, recent years have seen the departure of several well-known creators due to various reasons. Some, like Jenna Marbles and Tyler Oakley, left due to criticism or declining views. Others, such as Zoe Sugg and Lilly Singh, have reduced their content output to focus on other endeavors like comedy or music. 

However, the current wave of departures feels different and could mark the start of a new era on YouTube. This new era might see creators like MrBeast dominating the platform with expensive, cinematic stunts, while smaller creators struggle to compete for views. On top of that, algorithm changes are coming at an unsustainable cadence, AI-generated content is becoming more prevalent on YouTube yet YouTube is taking steps to address this issue, such as requiring creators to disclose their use of AI technology in videos. It seems there is a disillusionment in today’s "YouTuber" titular role, a significant shift from its 2010s heyday.

Platform round-up

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

💥YouTube has introduced Members Only Shorts, allowing creators to share exclusive short-form content with paying subscribers, accessible through a designated tab and indicated by a star icon on the thumbnail.

📸Instagram has been releasing lots of trinkets of updates in the past few weeks that creators can use to spruce up their stories. They’ve compiled it all into a “best tips guide” to level up on stickers, layouts, overlays and more. 

📊YouTube is introducing audience segments to its "Audience Retention" report, allowing channel managers to compare viewer engagement across different audience groups.

Breaking down the best creator metrics for Google Analytics

In light of the latest update of Google Analytics (as mentioned in our helpful platform round-up last week), let’s run through a snapshot of some handy metrics to get started with when recording and analyzing pages like your website… 

👉Session Conversion Rate

Measures the percentage of visits that turn into sales. 

(number of conversions/number of sessions) * 100

Gives insight into how well your marketing efforts are converting visitors into customers.

👉Entrances

It's the entrance rate, indicating how many sessions start on a specific page, valuable for understanding user navigation patterns at the start of their website journey.

👉Engaged Sessions

It's the metric for engaged sessions, counting instances lasting over 10 seconds, with at least two page views or a conversion event, indicating whether your site effectively meets user needs and expectations.

👉Engagement Rate

Calculated by comparing engaged sessions to total sessions, offering a clear gauge of how well your site retains user interest and attention.