Influencer Marketing Lab

Tim Sweeney on Epic’s metaverse - https://on.ft.com/3y3YZhw via @FT

Citation: Bloomberg

Internal documents show that Instagram now has 2 billion monthly active users. Tactically Facebook doesn’t break out either Instagram's revenue or its active users - presumably to disguise the waning power of the Facebook app. The last time MAUs were shared was to announce 1 billion MAUs. That was back in June 2018. More here

The big tech crackdown is in the pursuit of a "civilised" internet which includes clipping the wings of influencers and internet celebrities.

Renowned YouTuber Casey Neistat has teamed up with Monthly to create a one-month filmmaker and storyteller class. Follow along with Neistat’s creative process and finish the class with 2 shareable films of your own. In an accompanying promo YouTube video Neistat promises the course will be dynamic but not technical. “If you wanna know how to use your camera - Google it or whatever” he advises the viewer. “If you want to get a lot of views on YouTube ask MrBeast if that’s your goal.” Instead, the course aims to show how video can be the ‘ultimate tool for self-expression.” Neistat is looking to build scale. The 30-day on-demand course costs $249. It starts January 10 - enrollment closes December 27.

Jodee Rich (Cofounder and Producer) NFT.NYC 2021 Opening Address

Facebook concealed a years-long decline in younger users in the US, and misled investors about audience size, according to documents shared with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by product manager-turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen. Worse-case scenario planning by Facebook showed that a lack of enthusiasm in the platform from US teens could cause US daily user decline of 45% between now and 2023. More on the story here by the Financial Times.

YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, has announced that creators in more countries are now eligible for a slice of the platform’s $100m Shorts Fund. Creators in over 30 countries, including the UK, Australia, and Italy, as well as Iraq, Lebanon, and Morocco, can apply.

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all suffered widespread global outages this week. That left Twitter as the platform of choice for people telling each other that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were suffering outages. The company explained away the outage as being the result of a routine update gone wrong to the company’s Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) records. Some conspiracy theorists have posited that this is Zuckerberg’s way of showing the world how dependent they are on his suite of products.

October is Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). Keely Cat-Wells, CEO of C Talent, a full service talent management agency representing high-profile deaf and disabled creators, shares 8 tips to make workspaces and employment more accessible and inclusive beyond compliance. Keely’s colleague, Dan Edge, will be speaking about how disability is represented within influencer marketing at the Influencer Marketing Show later this month.

We also talked about the next wave of growth for influencers and their audiences in the coming years. That’s well worth taking into consideration.

Captiv8 is also expanding gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation identification options within its platform. This will allow creators to self-identify in the most representative manner, and allow brands to partner with creators to diversify initiatives.

In order to qualify for the grant, applicants must be US-based and not-for-profit or be a business with a turnover of less than $10m.