Now Trending: Audio Creators - The Next Big Thing

March 9, 2021: Good Morning! Thanks for joining us, while you were busy making your morning coffee, the influencer marketing world has gotten some updates. Come on, we’ll fill you in.

In today’s edition:

Audio Creators are the newest, buzziest Influencers
TikTok’s new feature and Educational Summit
Instagram tests a feature to hide likes

Audio Creators – The Next Big Thing

The Story

A new group called Audio Collective has launched to help build businesses on Clubhouse as brands rush to leverage the platform.

Clubhouse did what?

Thanks to Clubhouse, “audio creators” are a new kind of influencer that provide millions of weekly listeners with insightful commentary. Although Clubhouse isn’t the first to entice listeners with audio-only content (um hello podcasts), it is certainly the fastest growing.

I’m still confused about what Clubhouse is.

We are here to help! Join us on March 17th for our Clubhouse 101 Webinar. In this webinar we’ll go over the basics so you can understand what Clubhouse is, how to use it, and what the future for influencer marketing on the channel holds.

Back to Audio Collective

It’s no surprise that brands are rushing to take advantage of Clubhouse’s rise in popularity. Audio Collective has identified themselves as a ”hybrid live-audio creator community, production house, and ambassador group,” that helps people and groups expand their impact on and off Clubhouse. The founders are urging Clubhouse to provide stricter moderation policies, access to performance metrics, and (obviously) monetization accessibilities. This business was founded by 40 creators who have positions in the live-audio industry.

STC POV

What’s the difference between Clubhouse and just listening to a podcast? It may sound like a riddle but the answer is pretty simple: connection and authenticity. Audio content has exploded since the start of the pandemic. As conferences and networking events around the world were cancelled, people turned to social audio apps to connect, network, speak and learn from each other. Now more than ever, people are desperate for connection, and that’s what Clubhouse provides. Clubhouse took the podcast world up a notch by providing the users the opportunity to participate.

We’ve seen with platforms like TikTok and Dispo that users are shifting away from the perfectly crafted highlight reels to unfiltered and unedited content. Podcasts have the ability to be edited if someone misspoke — not with Clubhouse! The content is real and live, which many users find refreshing.

As always, TikTok is Hard at Work

The Story

TikTok Rolls Out a Q&A Feature and announces their Ready Set Grow Summit for Small and Medium Businesses.

You’ve got questions? TikTok’s got answers!

Users with creator accounts will have access to TikTok’s newest question and answer feature. A creator will be able to designate comments as “Q&A questions” and answer them within the comments. These creators will now have a Q&A link on their profile bio to lead to a separate page where all questions and answers will be located regardless of the video they were originally posted to. This feature will also be available during LIVE TikTok broadcasts.

Providing users with the keys to success

On March 24th, TikTok is hosting a virtual Summit to help small and medium businesses grow their familiarity and understanding of the platform, as well as learn how to set their business up for success on the app. The event will be a full day packed with different topics and speakers discussing the success they’ve found using TikTok to grow their business.

STC POV

TikTok is truly a wealth of information. It’s impossible to not learn something new every time you mindlessly scroll. This Q&A feature gives users more opportunities to interact with each other and become further invested in the app. Not to mention, sounds pretty similar to Instagrams’ question feature.

TikTok is taking a cue from Facebook/Instagram, and capitalizing on a revenue opportunity from small and medium sized businesses through advertising and in-feed shopping features. TikTok seems to be invested in the SMB market, and giving those users everything they need to create success not just for themselves, but also TikTok.

Instagram Likes are MIA

The Story

Instagram is exploring options to enable users to hide like counts on their posts.

To like not to like?

Last week the world stood still… and by that we mean a lot of people lost their likes on Instagram. What was intended to be a small test of a way to hide likes on feed posts accidentally turned into the hiding of likes for many Instagram users.

A long time coming

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri took to Twitter to explain the mistake and the context behind the project. His team was working on hiding likes more than a year ago to depressurize Instagram, but pivoted their focus towards the circulation of accurate COVID-19 information, supporting small businesses, and supporting the conversations surrounding racial injustice. Mosseri says that although the idea of removing likes is “very polarizing” the team wants to be able to give the option to those who want it. Users can expect an update in the next month or two.

A world without likes

What many didn’t anticipate was the outpouring of support from influencers regarding the removal of likes. Danielle Bernstein, or better known as @WeWoreWhat, posted on IG Stories exclaiming how much she loved the loss of likes because it “depressurizes posting and makes the platform less competitive overall.” She went on to say, “gone are the days of judging someone’s success or content based on the number of people that double tapped it.” Many influencers feel that removing likes will be better for the mental health of all users.

STC POV

As marketers, you may be worried about what metrics you can evaluate for influencers you may work with. But have no fear, there are plenty of ways to evaluate the success of an influencer marketing campaign (trust us, we know a thing or two). Will the removal of likes truly remove the judgement and competition that Instagram has fostered? We’re not sure, but it might be a step in the right direction. As social platforms evolve, there are newer ways to evaluate content and the success of a campaign. Instagram stories are more important than ever which can be great for influencer’s interested in affiliate marketing and swipe-up links (oh and brands too).