Duke and Kyle talk about the Future of Social Media and the Future of Creators and how TikTok is minting more creators with over a million followers than any other platform today.
What does this mean? And how is it effecting these creators as businesses, and their monetization efforts.
We are finding that creators with real communities are ones that will stand out the most amongst their peers regardless of followers, and we are seeing brands starting to follow that same trend.
This is one episode you do not want to miss!
Be sure to Follow the Tomorrow Today Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a new episode.
Follow us on Social Media
Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
Duke McKenzie
LinkedIn - Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
LinkedIn - Kyle Kaplanis
TikTok - @theweb3guy
IG - @kyle_kaplanis
YT - The Web3 Guy
Duke and Kyle talk about the Future of Social Media and the Future of Creators and how TikTok is minting more creators with over a million followers than any other platform today.
What does this mean? And how is it effecting these creators as businesses, and their monetization efforts.
We are finding that creators with real communities are ones that will stand out the most amongst their peers regardless of followers, and we are seeing brands starting to follow that same trend.
This is one episode you do not want to miss!
Be sure to Follow the Tomorrow Today Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a new episode.
Follow us on Social Media
Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
Duke McKenzie
LinkedIn - Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
LinkedIn - Kyle Kaplanis
TikTok - @theweb3guy
IG - @kyle_kaplanis
YT - The Web3 Guy
All right, everybody. Welcome to the Tomorrow Today Podcast with your host Duke McKenzie and my main man.
Kyle Kaplanis:Kyle Kaplanis what's going on, everyone.
Duke McKenzie:How you doing, Kyle?
Kyle Kaplanis:Doing well Duke. Glad to be here for another week.
Duke McKenzie:Another week, another episode. So this episode I'm pretty excited about because, we've been doing a lot of strategizing working in the office and all of those things. And we've been talking a lot about the future of social media and the future creators. And one topic that keeps on coming up that we thought would make a great episode for us to spend some time talking to the crew, talking to everyone out there, about it. With the rise of shortform creators and shortform content. So right now, TikTok is the king of that, but everyone's going towards that. So like YouTube has YouTube shorts. Instagram has Reels, so they're all copying the format and everything that has made TikTok, such phenomenon. There is an interesting side effect of all that. Which is the dilution of the power of the creator and it's getting harder and harder than to build communities. Let me just tell the audience, what made us talk about this and what that means? TikTok in a few short years, TikTok has basically minted a bunch of, creators that broke past that million subscriber mark. As of last count, according to Social Blade 39,000 accounts that have broke past a million. Okay. Now when you compare that to YouTube, and YouTube's been around a lot longer, right? Yep. YouTube has, about 32,000 accounts that are broken past a million. And Instagram, which has the least of all, which is the hardest to grow your organic reach and all the things has 20,000, accounts and people that have, grown past and broken past a million. TikTok new kid on the scene. Basically, everyone is realizing you gotta catch up to TikTok, all of that type of stuff right there. New on the scene, they have 39,000 and then you go all the way down to Instagram, which has 20,000 right. Almost half. And that leads to an interesting question, which I wanted to talk to you about today is okay. Is it harder for a TikTok creator and creators in general to build their community and does a million followers on TikTok mean as much as a million followers on Instagram or on YouTube or something else. And we just have an honest conversation about that and full disclosure. We're conflicted because we believe that TikTok is the future, but everything goes up and down and as new platforms build and build to. We have, to be honest, we gotta tell the people the truth and we have to examine the weaknesses of the platform that we so much dilly love and that we're spending all our time on. So I would love to hear what say you I've talked enough. What say you, Kyle? What say you? Kyle Kaplanis: There's a good correlation. If you look at people like their follow account on TikTok and then go to their other socials. And there's gonna be a significant difference. Even with Khaby Lame the biggest TikToker in the world. There's still half of the difference between his TikTok and his Instagram. And then on YouTube is even a bigger difference. Alex Stemp is a great example. He's got 20.2 million on TikTok, but on Instagram he is got 1.4 million and on YouTube, he's got 2 million. So it is true. The value of that 1 million across socials is totally different and on TikTok it's like, is it that valuable anymore? Right. Right. I think here's the thing again, TikTok is the future and TikTok is able to build trends and being a creator on there is different cuz like large creators on TikTok break trends and all that stuff. Yeah. But. The thing that TikTok has, that's fascinating being that it's not driven by who you are following, it's driven by your interests. For example, I didn't know that I love dog videos. I have a dog. I like dogs. I've never soughted out dog videos. I don't even know. I don't even know how TikTok knows that I like dog videos, but I do. I watch them. I scroll. I like when dogs talk. I like when, like the thing that always catches me is like when, the owner of the dog is like pretending to talk to his owner and they're having narrating like those videos get me every time. And that's interesting, but I didn't know. I liked that because TikTok figures out what your interests are and keeps on serving content towards your interests, which is different than how Instagram was built, which was based on who you're following and how yes. Which was based on following, based on who you are following, which is what drove that. What that gives TikTok, the ability to do is, is that you have your core group of creators who are the ones that are driving, but there's a chance for everyone to get their five minutes of fame. Absolutely. Right. And after the beginning of, the big TikTok push and all that type of stuff, cause we're always spending time looking for new creators and all those things. Is the time when you blow up on TikTok, do most people only have a very short period of time? Do you capitalize on that? I dunno. What, what do you think?
Kyle Kaplanis:I think so. I think the faster you grow, the faster you can fall. It is true. These creators get it so quickly. And unfortunately, a lot of them are not smart enough to understand that whoa, like they just got handed a giant business and a lot of them have no idea what to do with it. I know a lot of creators that have over millions of followers that just fell down because they didn't know what to do.
Duke McKenzie:And falling down particularly means is there's not a lot of engagement on their channels. Right. They have this large audience, but no, one's watching what they're doing. Exactly.
Kyle Kaplanis:Exactly. And you're seeing that. I even talked to this one guy, his name's Kyle Sheely, he's a crater. He posted one video and I think he said it was early 2020 when it was like really easy to gain followers, even faster. And he posted one video, it took off and within less than 30 days, he had a million followers. And he said that was overwhelming because he was like, For one, I only created between, zero to 1 million followers. I think he posted two videos. He didn't even have enough time to establish himself as a creator, okay, what's working or not working. Right. And he said it yeah. Caused him a lot of it caused him a lot of stress.
Duke McKenzie:What I will say the thing is, so one of the things with being a YouTuber with the old form, now this was long form content. And I don't wanna sound like grumpy old men because we are making a big bet on short form. So is the rest of the industry, cuz that's where it's going. Everybody. If your business, your brand, your creator, you're whatever, and you're not experimenting, figuring out how to communicate and everything in the short form format. You're missing the boat. That's the future. I think what the key question is, is how do you build your community and how do you stay relevant in this new short form world, which is taking over everything because you're all the way to do it. So YouTube, right? It took forever to get a million follow forever. Like if you have a hundred thousand you're killing, but what that forces you to do is it forces you to build your community. It forces you to go at your craft. It forces you to exactly like, like you grow into you use that. What was that? You used that example of that creator you used, where you got a million overnight and he has this massive reach, this massive audience, this massive platform that he doesn't even know how he got it.
Kyle Kaplanis:Exactly. He was talking to me and he said it caused him a lot of mental health issues because he said, okay, there's a million people in the comments, like demanding more. And he's like, I don't even know what I did. So there's a lot of creators who have had that mass success and they feel the fear of success or the failure of failure caught up to 'em too quickly that they ended up just not making content, even though they got a million followers. And I think that's happening really quickly. Whereas like I watched Mr. Beast hitting a hundred million followers. And he took the audience, which was interesting through his journey. And it took him three or four years just to hit a million. His first year he barely gained a thousand followers his first year. And he said he was cranking out content like left and right. But now look at him. He has one of the biggest communities in the world.
Duke McKenzie:Here's what I would argue though. Mm-hmm that was a different time. Yeah. Right. I argue he doesn't, , Mr. Beast is yes, one of the most successful creators, but his success came from what happened in the past. The problem is when you're a creator now, and you're wanting to build an audience, you want to do all those things. The problem is, is that, you will not be able to build your community the way Mr. Beast did, because I don't believe that if you're not messing with short form or short form first mm-hmm I don't believe you'll even be in the game. Yeah, that's right. I just don't believe you'll be because the algorithms don't pick it up because the social media platforms is, and everyone is pushing short form, short form. Cause it's getting the most views. It's getting the most user attention it's getting all those things. So the question is, you saw there was a couple videos going around, at this year's VidCon. TikTok is the dominant video format. Period. It is driving the culture period. End of story. Right. But you see these examples of TikToker's who are popular, that if they were YouTubers with the same size, they weren't able to now, and we could say things have changed or whatever, but they weren't able to get these greeting lines, not a lot of people showed up and all those things. Yeah. And I think that's a function of them not haven't figured out yet how to nurture their communities
Kyle Kaplanis:yet. Right? Yes, exactly. No, it's really true. Some creators who have these large followers. But then when they go to do something transactional, it fails and they're like, oh no, what happened? And I think it's true. I think the algorithm plays a big part in that because of the fact that, like you said, our algorithm, isn't really showing us people who we follow. But it's really just showing us constant new people all the time. Right. And I think that's where the disconnect is from the communities because of the fact that that for you page is really geared to us versus. Others, if that makes sense. You have to really strategize to figure out how to build a community now.
Duke McKenzie:Yeah, no, I agree. And what I find interesting is like you mentioned, creator and just full disclosure, we work this creator named Alex Stemp. What is interesting as strategy that he is doing is, is that he's always reinventing the content that he is doing. I think what that means, but this grind of the factory of short form content and your spot is never secure. It's almost like you're gonna have to keep on reinventing yourself and then. What the other thing if you're a short form creator and new, remember TikTok is a child of the pandemic in North America, right? Mm-hmm and one of the things that's never happened, this is the first time really, we talked about this VidCon when people were going there, this is the first time really that, That they had a chance to connect with their fans and all of that type of stuff. And if you take an example from the old music industry or whatever it is, when you wanted to break an artist you would tour, you'd go to community by community and build that fandom and all of that type of stuff. And that hasn't happened yet with short form creators. And it's kind of a paradox because these are some of the most famous people on earth, but yet they haven't had a chance to grow into their communities yet haven't had a chance to grow into them as of yet.
Kyle Kaplanis:And it's interesting, I don't think anybody really has that nailed down. It's like the new space of NFTs and all that, everybody's still learning, like it's still so new that people are still learning. How do I nurture community? And how do I build that regardless of the success you have in the follower account. What I've. Telling creators lately is, you have to look at it more of a long term game plan because mm-hmm,, building a community takes time. So you have to look at it as a decade goal. That's what I'm doing now with my personal content building. My own strategy is I'm not worried. I'm, I'll look at it in 10 year time and look back. But I'm just gonna keep building and try to build little steps in the community regardless of how my followers go up, if that makes sense. And I think a lot of creators are not mentally prepared. The creators who are working with us are very fortunate enough to have us on their side and giving them tips and helping them understand how to build their business because they really are. If you're a creator in this space right now, if you're not looking at it as a business aspect, you're gonna fall off guaranteed. I promise you, but those that are, are investing back into themselves, making their content better, growing, adopting, and giving more to their followers and their communities. Those ones will stay long term. I.
Duke McKenzie:Yeah, no, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. I think that's the key advice that I think that if we we're talking to creators and then I wanna switch it a little bit and talk about what your thoughts are for brands for this. As before we wrap up, I think the key takeaway that I got from this is from that comment is you have to have a longer term, like a five year plan or a 10 plan and not look at everything on the day to day to day to day to day gotta, you gotta build, build, build, build, build, you know? So let's switch it up a little bit, with this information. We get the pleasure of talking to brands all the time and stuff. Obviously we're telling the truth and we're trying to figure things out and we're doing all that type of stuff. These creators, the creators who have capitalized and maximized short form right now are still the best way to go. Still the best audience aggregators to the world. What's your advice for brands right now? As they're trying to explore and working with creators and things like that, what are your tips and tricks for them as they're trying to navigate this as well?
Kyle Kaplanis:I think, the best advice I'd give to brands is how they're gonna look and approach creators is not based really on the full followership, but really that community piece. Right. And I know that sounds cliche, cause we're talking about how it's hard to build community, but that's gonna be the number one focus, I think, is what creators have good communities regardless of their followers. And how many of those creators actually own their first party data. So who embraces the most of their community will be the most powerful in this space. And I think brands will have to eventually look into that and figure that out versus oh, you have X amount, I think that's where the shift is gonna go. And I think it's gonna happen very quickly, especially with, data privacy changes and all that coming very quick.
Duke McKenzie:Yeah, I think you're a hundred percent correct. I think that, the key point for brands for creator, for everyone in this space right now. I think that, okay, short form content is the future right now you have young kids, I got kids and all this stuff like short form content is here to stay. It's kind of like when reality TV took over television people like, oh, what are we gonna do? Blah, blah. And it's just a matter of what are the tools that you could use. Data collection. If you're a brand working with creators, instead of just focusing pure on audience, also really paying attention to their engagement. Yes. And, and just experimenting, experimenting, experimenting.
Kyle Kaplanis:I had, my BizTok for TikTok, interesting enough. I was fortunate to talk to the CMO of Hootsuite. Who's a really big company. And they mentioned they just did a full rebrand and their focus is on creators. Their entire business focus is now shifted to creators and they're letting creators lead by example. So what she told me was that they're literally putting the creators in charge of what they think is the best next campaign. What did they think is gonna be working well, versus them being in the seat and dictating like what they think is gonna work? They said. That's over. And they said, interesting enough, regardless of the reach that you think you can get, if you partner with the right creator, you will eventually like in long term, get the max potential ROIs. Right. That makes really of even views or anything.
Duke McKenzie:That makes sense. That makes sense. Going with a creator first. Creative strategy, like starting with them first and then leveraging their reach, testing things out and trying things. What they're finding is basically maximum results of the campaign. That's really cool. That's really cool. We really want to talk to the aunts about that. That's a wrap everybody. Thank you for listening to Tomorrow Today. We come out every week. Please subscribe. Please give us a thumbs up at a rating of five stars. We love five stars. Signing off I'm Duke McKenzie.
Kyle Kaplanis:I'm Kyle Kaplanis.
Duke McKenzie:All right, great talking to every.