Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in sales funnels, targeted traffic and website conversions.
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In today's digital world, creators are those who collect, create and distribute content. Collectively they make up the creator economy. Social media channels are the heart of the creator economy, enabling like-minded users to interact with creators and form closely-knit and engaged online communities.
The creator economy has resulted in a radical shift in the balance of market power. Today, literally anyone can be a creator. More people have realized that human connectivity with creativity and influence is creating new forms of wealth. There are limitless monetizing opportunities that creativity, influence and social media networks present.
Whenever I want to engage and partner with the creator economy, I think about these leading players:
• Influencers: These are creators of informative, fun and engaging content with an active network of followers. Influencers need to maintain their creative freedom as they build and engage their network, and I recommend that only 10% of their posts have clear calls to action or CTAs. As much as possible, we want to engage influencer audiences without sounding aggressively sales-oriented.
• Creators: These are creative types, like artists or musicians, who can be helpful in creating how-to guides or even art, songs and dances. They present an excellent opportunity to co-create content.
• Resellers: These are individuals who share specific product and service listings and their networks. They use specific insights to discover what their followers may be interested in and curate the products, generating revenue.
Each creator comes with a follower base, which I view as a potential lead. But with more followers, engaging the followers personally and authentically becomes more difficult.
Learn from content creators.
Content creators are masters of relevant trends. They know why certain things are popular and how you can blend the trends into your marketing campaigns.
They also know how to develop real-life authentic messages that will resonate with consumers. In fact, creators don't try to be perfect. You'll find them uploading a raw, spontaneous video recorded on an iPhone that will still get immense engagement.
Avoid viewing them as mere spokespersons who are supposed to read your script. Instead, allow them to exercise their creative freedom. This way, you activate the power of storytelling and enable them to easily humanize your brand to every follower reached.
Activate ordinary users.
Ordinary users have the smallest number of followers but make up the largest group in the creator economy ecosystem. Activating this category can supercharge your marketing campaign because they're believable.
A OnePoll study commissioned by YouTube Shorts found that 42% of Americans have considered creating content for business. As interest in the creator economy continues to grow, it provides an easy way for ordinary users to become creators. For example, LinkedIn has mastered the concept of making ordinary users creators through their "creator mode." Instagram also identifies users with high levels of influence and prompts them to make the leap.
To activate ordinary users, you don't need to be as established as Instagram or LinkedIn to get started. You can use a simple gamification technique, such as QR codes, to encourage users to create relevant content that is shareable on social media. By engaging ordinary users, scale becomes irrelevant and user-generated content takes the lead.
Micro-influencers are powerful. Don't ignore them.
Have you tried relating to the jet-set lifestyle some influencers have? They may have more followers than the population of entire countries, but they're not actually that relatable. Micro-influencers are, however, more relatable. They're heavily invested in the communities they've created, and they're still seen as regular folk or "one of us."
In addition to being more cost-effective and more niche-specific, micro-influencers are often seen as more authentic. They tend to be genuinely invested in and passionate about their communities and niches. They know who follows them, and they know their subject matter well. They make content and share it with their followers because they care. And they'll go above and beyond to impress their audiences (and your brand when you work with them).
Because of how effective micro-influencers can be, enterprises are now moving toward giving them more support through upskilling and commercialization. For example, Amazon has an influencer marketplace where content creators of all sizes can work with businesses and earn a commission.
Try different forms and styles of content.
Nothing is more exciting for a creator than being asked to join a viral trend. They get to add a fun element to promoting your products and services. I've found that joining viral trends, especially in the form of video content, can drive a lot of engagement. It's a great way to keep up with pop culture and a plus anytime my marketing team is trying to appeal to the younger generations.
However, only some forms of content and trends align with your business goals and values. Establish clearly defined parameters that lay the foundation for how you engage your content creators. Putting in place these guardrails will help you be more agile as you explore the creative potential each creator presents.
We will continue to see growth in the creator economy. And as it grows, we have to look for ways to leverage it. Making a provision in the marketing budget for creator partnerships and social media is a great way to get started as you experiment with it and figure out what works for you.
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