Hi, this is Amanda Perelli and welcome back to Influencer Dashboard, our weekly rundown on the influencer and creator economy. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Before we get started, I wanted to remind you to mark your calendars for a digital event I’m hosting on Wednesday, August 5 at 11 a.m. ET on how influencers are earning money in 2020 with YouTube creators Shelby Church, Ruby Asabor, and Katy Bellotte. Sign up for the event here.
And now, to the news!
Social-media platforms like Triller and Instagram are taking steps to lure creators away from TikTok as they aim to become more competitive in the short-form video category.
My colleague Dan Whateley wrote about Triller's new hire, 18-year-old TikTok star Josh Richards, who will serve as chief strategy officer as the platform looks to raise $250 million in new funding.
Two of Richards' friends and content collaborators - Griffin Johnson, 21, and Noah Beck, 19 - will also join Triller as advisors and equity shareholders. The three previously worked and lived together as members of a TikTok creator collective called Sway LA.
But don't expect them to stop posting on TikTok.
"We aren't going to stop right away posting on TikTok because we want to be able to migrate our audience over from TikTok to Triller," Richards said.
How to create Instagram Stories with high engagement and reach
Britney Turner, a lifestyle Instagram influencer and a content creator coach, works with other creators on how to land brand deals and pitch themselves.
One thing she has seen in the past few months is that brands want to incorporate more Instagram Stories into their agreements with creators.
My colleague Sydney Bradley spoke with Turner who shared her tips for growth in reach and engagement on Instagram Stories.
"I advise five to eight story slides filled with impactful content," Turner said. "If you want to share longer-form content (i.e. a day in the life, clothing haul, a routine, etc.), I'd say limit your stories to 15 to 20 slides. Anything past this will cause drop off unless you're adding value."
Read the full post on using Instagram Stories for business, here.
Meet the team helping Dixie D'Amelio launch a music career
TikTok star Dixie D'Amelio recently released her first single, "Be Happy," under a new family-owned label, DAM FAM Recordings, and the song reached over 1 million Spotify streams within its first weekend.
I spoke with the D'Amelio family's comanagers about developing a song with Dixie and their plans to work with more talent on music going forward.
D'Amelio and her internet-famous family aren't betting on an established record label for her introduction into the music industry. Instead, they are counting on the massive fanbase their family has built across social media.
For Dixie, the launch of her new song is the start of a larger strategy, said Barbara Jones, who comanages the family and is the founder of Outshine Talent.
Read more about the team launching Dixie's music career, here.
TikTok influencers say they're making tens of thousands of dollars by promoting apps
Most TikTok creators don't rely on the app's built-in monetization features, and instead, they've turned to outside brand deals, paid song integrations, and more recently, app marketing to earn money.
"I started doing apps around four weeks ago, and it was a gamechanger," said Reagan Yorke, a 19-year-old college student who was recently paid tens of thousands of dollars to promote the group video chat app Bunch to her 2.5 million TikTok followers.
Dan wrote that Yorke worked with the app-marketing company Yoke, which provided her with a tracking link to add to her TikTok bio that would give her credit for any app installs she drove from her account.
"I literally posted it right before I went to sleep," Yorke said. "I woke up the next day and I had like $20,000 in my account, so I was just like, is this real?"
Read more about how TikTok influencers are making money with app promotions, here.
More creator industry coverage from Business Insider:
Instagram news
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Instagram and TikTok are becoming powerful tools to drive sales for clothes sellers on the app Poshmark.
YouTube news
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15 YouTube creators share the most money they've made from a single video.
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6 media startups built around influencers and digital creators that are set to surge this year.
TikTok news
Creator Spotlight: Sonja Lauren
I spoke with fashion and fitness influencer Sonja Lauren on her YouTube channel (17,000 subscribers) and growing a social-media business.
A year ago, Lauren learned that she could be making money as a micro influencer through the ads that play in her videos, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing. She had originally created her YouTube channel in 2012, but she didn't post videos consistently until six months ago, she said.
"There's been a big jump in my channel from six months to now, in terms of my following," Lauren said. "For me, my most viewed video is actually a video on weight gain and how you can grow your butt through working out. That's the video that got me a lot of subscribers."
Lauren treats her YouTube channel as a side hustle, but wants to pursue her digital business as a full-time career one day, she said.
"I'm also in school and I work, but I think if you really want something you just make time for it," she said.
Lauren shared her tips for starting out and growing a YouTube channel.
Here's what she said:
- "Be consistent. Drop videos every week and make the time for it. It looks easy, but it takes hours of editing and time."
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"I get emails from various companies who want me to include a product in a video. Make sure to go back and forth with a brand and negotiate what you deserve. I'm my own manager for now, pitching brands and responding to emails. I don't accept every offer, only the ones that I genuinely believe in."
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"Ask yourself, are you willing to work for free for your dream until you get to the point where you can make this into a main occupation?"
Check out her YouTube channel here.
This week from Insider's digital culture team:
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Black Reddit moderators are hoping for stricter policies that make spaces safe (by Margot Harris)
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Sexual misconduct allegations show sexism in the gaming industry (by Rachel Greenspan)
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Gabbie Hanna says YouTube has fostered a toxic environment (by Kat Tenbarge)
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5 Egyptian women were sentenced to 2 years in prison for TikTok videos (by Palmer Haasch)
Here's what else we're reading and watching:
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The challenge of breaking up TikTok from tech giant ByteDance (by Juro Osawa, Yunan Zhang, and Amir Efrati, from The Information)
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Why women are posting black-and-white selfies on Instagram (by Taylor Lorenz, from The New York Times)
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A deep dive into Shane Dawson's YouTube history: (by D'Angelo Wallace, on YouTube)
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Influencer Arielle Charnas got a PPP loan of up to $350,000: (by Emily Smith, from Page Six)
Thanks for reading! Send me your tips, comments, or questions: [email protected].