Creator-In-Residence is the Hot Job of Summer 2023

⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

• TikTok is the latest app to embrace a text-only option 
• The buzzy Creator in Residence job title is a more thoughtful twist on previous brand-celebrity collaborations
• Instagram’s new text-based app is being pitched to celebs such as Oprah and the Dalai Lama
• Tech creators seem pretty excited for Apple’s Vision Pro headset 🤷🏼

💻 ROADMAP

📲 TikTok Updates:

• TikTok is rolling out a new text-only option that looks a lot like Instagram Stories’ Create feature. The text-only screens can be enhanced with multiple background colors, music, emoji and stickers. If you have this option, the text button is on the bottom left of the camera page.
• TikTok is expanding its Series feature to more creators across 94 countries. Series allows creators to put their content behind a paywall, which app users can then purchase for access.
• TikTok is testing a Script Generator for business accounts promoting products or services. According to Lindsey Gamble’s first look, the scripts generated include: a Hook, a Scene, and a Call to Action, plus prompts for voiceovers, on-screen visuals, and text overlays.
• TikTok has added an Honor Label, which shows your area of expertise or occupation directly on your profile — but only for (music) Artists and Effect House creators at the moment. 
•  TikTok’s Work With Artists challenge is rolling out to more creators. It encourages creators to use specific music tracks within Creator Tools in their clips for a chance to be rewarded. When the program launched last month, TikTok said it was testing new ways to give artists additional routes to build engagement and reach new audiences.

📲 Instagram Updates:

• Meta’s getting spicy. Employees were shown a preview of the company’s upcoming text-based app today that is being deliberately framed as Meta’s “response to Twitter.”

Note: It’s a slightly more polished version of what we’ve seen before and seems to be going by the name Threads.

And they are not holding back on the app comparisons. “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run,” Meta chief product officer Chris Cox told employees in an apparent dig at Elon Musk.

He revealed the company was in discussions with big names, including Oprah and the Dalai Lama, seeking a “stable place to build and grow their audiences.”

• Meta Verified is now available to app users in Canada, India, the UK and soon Brazil. Previously verified accounts will maintain their status for free.
• I talked about the experience of paying for Meta Verified before, but the tl;dr is if you want the perception of credibility that being verified provides and you’ve got $14.99 per month to spare, then it’s worth it. 
• Instagram is developing a new AI chatbot to answer questions and give advice. They’re also working on AI generated stickers to reflect your mood.

📲 YouTube Updates:

• YouTube is inviting Shorts creators to join the #ShortsFriends community to help with collabs, networkings and education. Applications are here.  

📲 Apple Updates: 

A few cool features emerged from this week’s Apple WWDC 2023 event:

• Your iPhone will stop auto-correcting to “ducking”
• Apple is adding live transcription for voicemail so you can decide whether to answer
• You won’t have to say “Hey,” before speaking to Siri 
• The company also unveiled its new augmented reality headset: The Apple Vision Pro. Priced at a prohibitive $3,500, it seems as if this tech is going to launch as a product primarily for Apple aficionados and early adopters. However, it did get positive — if oddly similar — reviews on Twitter from several of the creators and influencers who got to test the wearable tech:

Marques Brownlee: “Just spent 30 minutes in the Apple Vision Pro headset. Y'all. I am. VERY impressed with a few specific things. Definitely stay tuned”

iJustine: “Oh my gosh, here it is! The Apple Vision Pro! I got a chance to try it for about 30 minutes and it was an unreal experience!”

Matthew Panzarino: “Ok, I used the Apple Vision Pro for about 30 minutes. It’s good. It’s expensive. It’s VERY design, and MUCH engineering. I’m intrigued as hell.”

👆🏻 CLICK THRU

🕶️ Creator In Residence Is the Hot Job of Summer 2023

Previously popularized by social networks and tech platforms, the concept of Creators in Residence is gaining traction among diverse institutions and brands. This summer alone, institutions such as the Los Angeles Public Library and The Peabody Essex Museum have put out calls for Creators in Residence and beauty brand Too Faced announced it had appointed actor and TikTok star Sara Echeagaray as its first-ever Creative Director in Residence. 

What’s Happening

A creator residency program fosters an environment conducive to creativity and innovation, allowing the brand and creator to explore new ideas, push boundaries, and create meaningful work together — not simply to check a box. 

It’s a thoughtful twist on what we’ve seen previously: Celebrities hired as honorary employees (Cardi B. and Playboy; Kate Moss and Diet Coke; Lil Nas X and Taco Bell) or brands hiring content creators as pseudo-social managers to run a specific channel, such as Nerf’s Chief TikTok Officer and Olipop’s TikTok creators. 

As for Sara, her role will include, “shining a light on Too Faced via social media, being part of our brand campaigns and engaging with our product development teams,” Tara Simon, Too Faced’s global brand president, previously told Glossy. “We wanted more input from a younger consumer, … and [Sara] lives and operates in the world where we’re growing so much.”  

How We Got Here

YouTube launched a model Creator in Residence program in 2016, aiming to foster a close collaboration between a select group of creators and the platform. The program spanned six months, during which weekly meetings were held, and team members sometimes visited creators in their homes and studios to gain a comprehensive understanding of their experiences as YouTubers.

“The residency came from the spirit of, how do we spend time with creators beyond one research session?” Renato Verdugo, a user experience researcher at YouTube and co-lead of Creator in Residence, explained in this Forbes profile of the program.

The unfiltered immersion allowed YouTube to better understand how the platform influenced individual creators' success and business. The program's effectiveness stemmed from providing creators a safe space to be honest and genuine.

“For this to be effective, the creator needs to know that they’re not here to be a spokesperson, that they’re here to be honest and raw.”

Los Angeles Public Library’s Goal 

Building upon YouTube's success, and programs run by GE, Kickstarter, Adobe, Zapier and more, other institutions are now implementing their own variations of the Creators in Residence concept. 

For instance, the LA Public Library aims to engage diverse Angeleno creatives, enabling them to produce work influenced or inspired by the library's collections and services.

Similar to YouTube's approach, the LA Public Library invites creators from various disciplines to apply. The selected individuals receive a $20,000 award to cover their time, meetings, research, and the creation of deliverables. They also have access to the library's extensive collections, facilities, and programs. The creators are expected to “meaningfully and substantially engage” with library staff while developing and executing original projects, which become part of the library's permanent collection and are accessible to the public.

How Brands Benefit

These initiatives provide an opportunity for brands or institutions to tap into the creative minds of independent artists. By working closely with creators, organizations can gain insights into their target audience's preferences and needs, resulting in more relevant and impactful products or services.

How Creators Benefit

Creators, on the other hand, benefit from a predictable revenue source; the opportunity to collaborate with established institutions or brands; and the support and mentorship from experienced professionals, which can help them level up professionally. 

😠 Big Tech rolls back misinformation measures ahead of 2024

YouTube won’t remove election conspiracy theories. Axios points out this seems like a trend among tech companies to roll back policies meant to curb COVID-19 and 2020 election misinformation ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

🔎Nearly 90% of consumers no longer trust influencers

A new study suggests consumers no longer trust influencers and are more likely to purchase from brands that share content made by real customers or UGC (user generated content). But before you throw in your creator card, it’s important to note that the study was carried out by a user-generated content agency EnTribe. So… take this one with a grain of salt. 

📚 BOOKS

So many influencer marketing books are hitting store shelves this summer. I got two this week that I want to recommend (the first was gifted, the second one was bought):

An Influencer’s World, A Behind the Scenes Look at Social Media Influencers and Creators by Caroline Baker and Ted Baker is a timely look at the influencer marketing industry through 70+ interviews with creators, managers, journalists, CEOs and academics. You can tell the authors have a lot of respect for the industry in its examination of the business and personal lives of creators. 

Good for: Marketing pros, marketing teachers, anyone looking to get into the industry on the business or creative side

Swipe Up for More, Inside the Unfiltered Lives of Influencers by Stephanie McNeal revolves around three influencers: Caitlin Covington, Mirna Valerio and Shannon Bird. The book follows McNeal as she travels around the country to dig into the influencer’s backgrounds, bank accounts, and daily lives (with their permission). It’s a business-guide-meets-juicy-beach-read mashup.   

Good for: People obsessed with influencers who want a first-person account of what it’s like to have millions of followers and all the drama that comes with it.

📖 ON YOUR RADAR

• Amazon Pay taps Affirm to be its first buy now, pay later partner -TechCrunch
• Twitch encourages streamers to share their clips on YouTube Shorts -TubeFilter
• Twitch scraps ad changes after streamers leave platform -BBC
• TikTok’s new retouching tools are making the app a dysmorphic hellscape -Passionfruit
• Montana banned TikTok. Now these Montanans are fighting back -The Washington Post
• Duracell seizes the moment, inserts itself into Scandoval drama -The U.S. Sun
• Simon & Schuster is hosting a BookTok creator house in the UK -TubeFilter

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