It seems that Instagram is once again one step behind its competitors. Pinterest and TikTok have already invested in creators with Pinterest for creators and TikTok’s Creators Portal. Now Instagram is following suit and launching a new educational feature called Creators Labs. Kolsquare has all the benefits of this novelty for you and your business in order to maximize your Instagram performance.
Pushing Creators and establishing learning programs is no news in the field of social media platforms. Youtube created their “YouTube Partner Program” in 2007, without having monetization tools. Of course, monetization has grown with a vengeance, nonetheless, YouTube has paid out over $30 billion to the latest generation of Creators in the past three years. But let’s get back to that later.
They are right to do so, because creators are here to stay. Around the world, there are more than 50 million people that consider themselves Creators and even more than 29% of American children desire to be an internet star. There’s even a Creator race right now: YouTube is investing $100m in their Creator-focused fund, Facebook and Instagram are luring Creators with $1billion in payments, and TikTok is preparing to award Creators $3billion in the next three years.
NeoReach and the Influencer Marketing Hub published the Creator Earnings Benchmark Report for 2021. They surveyed over 2,000 Creators, who aren’t the happy-go-lucky 18-year-olds that many think. 60% were evenly over 40 or under 30 years old, while the other 40% were 30-40 years old. In fact, over 50% of the surveyed Creators make a livable wage from their online activities.
New infrastructure for Creator-associated businesses, corporate investments, and new revenue streams (like NFTs) move the modern Creator Economy as a rapidly-developing ecosystem forward. The attached numbers are worth a closer look: The total Creator Economy market size is estimated at $104bn, with a growth trajectory similar to the gig economy (projected value between $1–4.5tn by 2023). This means that the Creator Economy is already larger than the movie, TV, and music markets together.
Undeniably, social media has become a crucial part of marketing over the past 10 years. Even more so through the Covid-19 pandemic. As everyone was locked in their homes searching for entertainment, online platforms were pushed enormously. TikTok has especially profited, now dominating other platforms with roughly a billion active users.
Firstly, the Creator Economy is accessible. There are over 6 billion people who use a smartphone device, and almost 4 billion are active on social media platforms, according to Statista. As the platforms are free to use, anyone can create content and post it for other users to see. Moreover, creating content is made easy with available editing softwares to upload and clickable-content technology to connect posts to outside sources and shops.
Secondly, there is money. Of course, the amount of money content creators bring in is relative to their following, niche, industry, engagement rates and location. Either as a hobby or side hustle, creating content allows people to bring in extra cash. Thanks to new integrations, tools, and revenue-sharing options, the major social platforms help content creators and influencers earn money and diversify their revenue.
Thirdly, as is creativity, the possibilities for creators are endless. Once creators reach a substantial following, the opportunities in the form of brand deals, company collaborations and even the possibility of starting their own businesses, begin to pile up. We see the advertising potential that lies here.
Lastly, Creators know their audience, because they spend a lot of time on the platforms to study their target groups. Consequently, they have become experts in reaching the most niche groups, and gaining a following, dictating current and future trends.
Instagram has launched their Creators Lab, a feature that focuses on education and aims to aspire and emerge creators grow their presence on the platform. Central is the idea of peer-to-peer advice from popular creators who already succeeded in developing a fanbase through Instagram.
Thus, many creators, including fashion influencers, fine-dining experts, emerging entrepreneurs, entertainment critics, musicians, painters, and more, will share their advice. The feature is divided into three subsections, each with custom videos made by participating creators:
Kali Ledger, beauty creator, states in a recent press statement: “Being able to connect creators with other creators and soon-to-be-creators, and giving them a personal space to educate, is what makes the Creator Lab so unique. […] It’s all about sharing current tips and tricks, practical advice, and how to get started in 2022.”
Throughout these three categories, those who are interested can find specific sections on channel growth tips, monetization, safety notes and more. These will be explained in a range of short video clips that include helpful notes on strategy and optimization. Furthermore, specific tips and notes for each post type are recommended.
Understanding the algorithm is indeed a key focus. Many notes and FAQs help you understand Instagram’s various algorithms better and explain how to make use of them. Other sections deal with Instagram’s growing suite of monetization tools, or managing negative experiences (like trolls).
As promised, we’re coming back to monetization: It is a growing focus for Instagram and it looks like it might be the way to combat the rise of TikTok. Despite the platform’s popularity, TikTok’s monetization systems are not as refined as those on instagram or YouTube. This could be one of the reasons for big creators to move to more established apps instead. However, in order to win this game, Instagram and Youtube need to emphasize their revenue potential.
The major advantage of Instagram’s new Creator Lab is that the advice is actually from creators themselves, who have mastered all the processes before. They give valuable insights and really encourage the strive for building a community online.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, a data-driven solution that allows brands to scale their KOL Marketing strategies and implement authentic partnerships with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). Kolsquare’s technology enables marketing professionals to easily identify the best Content Creators profiles by filtering their content and audience, and to build and manage their campaigns from A to Z, including measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors. Kolsquare has built the largest community of influencer marketing experts in the world, and offers hundreds of customers (Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, El Corte Inglés, Lacoste, …) the latest Big Data, AI and Machine Learning technologies to drive inspiring partnerships, tapping into an exhaustive network covering 100% of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers in 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As a Benefit Company, Kolsquare has been pioneering Responsible Influence by championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations to inspire change.
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