Creators now have more ways than ever to make a living online. This report explores how brands should approach and engage creators for partnerships in the new monetization ecosystem.

How creator monetization efforts are faring: Q2 was also a big quarter for creator economy announcements. In addition to creator shops on Instagram, the company also added new tools to streamline branded content creation on IGTV, Instagram Live, Reels, and Stories and an affiliate tool for creators.

Here’s how publishers are developing and expanding their ecommerce monetization strategies, and how brands and retailers can partner with them to drive purchases in the affiliate channel.

In an April 2021 survey by influencer marketing platform Mavrck, 68.1% of US adult influencers identified brand collaborations as generating the most income for their business. Affiliate marketing was a distant second, cited by 9.3% of respondents, followed by ads (7.4%) and selling professional services (7.1%). None of the newer monetization options are likely to change that.

Previously, brands had to wait for an influencer to organically post content before they could amplify it, but now brands can send a request to an influencer directly to create the ad on their behalf. Influencers are able to approve the branded content ad before it is published. Branded content ads in Stories can now include tappable elements, like @mentions, hashtags, and location.

It doesn’t seem like Clubhouse’s intention was ever to become an influencer-centric app—it bills itself primarily as a way to engage in two-sided dialogue, rather than unilaterally consuming content from a creator. But it’s quickly learning that creators are vital to its success.

Down to collab? A look at influencer income

Report: Influencer Monetization 2021. Article: How in-app shopping could change TikTok for marketers. Article: More Gen Zers now use TikTok than Instagram in the US.

Many marketers had long underestimated the value of creators in their marketing mix. That’s no longer the case. Most brands today have incorporated influencer marketing into their media plans, and many intend to allocate even more funds to the tactic this year.

Originally built to attribute compensation on last click, affiliate technology is evolving toward more sophisticated monetization, such as a pay-for-outcome model that rewards influencers for their role in the consumer journey.

Influencer Monetization 2021: The Creator Economy Is Expanding. What Does that Mean for Brand Sponsorships? Clubhouse and Social Audio 2021: Straight Talk About When and How Marketers Should Get Involved. The US Short-Video Landscape: What Marketers Should Know About TikTok, Instagram Reels and 4 Other Players in This Fast-Changing Space. Sources. Business Insider. Edison Research. Flurry Analytics.

The major social platforms hit the ground running in 2021, making substantial investments into many of today’s top social trends: audio, influencers, and short video, to name a few.

Influencers are integral in getting consumers in the US and China to buy. Brands in China have long turned to influencers, called “key opinion leaders” (KOLs), to drive their social commerce strategies, and now it’s becoming mainstream in the US as well. We forecast that 67.9% of US marketers from companies with 100 employees or more will use influencer marketing this year.

The explosion in vertical video is creating both opportunities and challenges for the Story format. Stories are evolving quickly on Instagram and remain a top venue for influencer activations. But Twitter’s decision to kill off Fleets shows they aren’t popular on all platforms.

Focusing on existing creators partly helped Instagram’s Reels succeed—influencers on the platform realized that Reels was a great way to expose their account to a wider audience, which served to draw those influencers to Reels instead of TikTok. Sharing subscriptions between Shorts and main channels will give Shorts a similar draw.

Influencers will grow only more important. As in-store browsing becomes less frequent, retailers will need to build relationships on mobile. This means more investments in the retail mobile experience, but it also means a heavier reliance on influencers, who already have a relationship with users.

Clubhouse has buzz, but social audio isn’t as simple as it looks. The most promising marketing use cases are for thought leadership, virtual events, and influencer marketing.

They are launching new features and monetization models aimed at wooing creators. “The platform that wins creators' favor in terms of experience, ease of use and monetization will be the platform that wins overall audience share and drives the revenue that everyone wants so much to be a part of,” said Liz Gottbrecht, vice president of marketing at Mavrck, an influencer marketing firm.

In China, Douyin also uses celebrities and key opinion leaders (KOLs) to raise awareness and interest in the app. Monetization: TikTok vs. Douyin.

User-generated short videos are all over the internet, from TikTok to Instagram Reels to Triller, and the marketing opportunities are exploding. Here’s how the main venues compare across usage, paid advertising, organic and influencer marketing, and commerce.

Creators are all over the news, but are they different from influencers? While it’s easy to say yes, it’s hard to say why. For our latest report, “Video Ads in Social Media 2019,” we explored how the two are differentiated.

“Influencers care about two things: making money and growing their audiences,” Captiv8’s Subramanian said. “If they can't do either, they leave. Vine was a perfect example. Even though [content creators on Vine] could grow their audiences, there were no monetization opportunities. The platform didn't listen, and everyone packed their bags and left.”.

More than half (52%) of 875 influencers surveyed by influencer marketing platform Obviously in August, for instance, said they were using Reels, compared with 68% for TikTok. Most of the influencers were micro-influencers with an average of roughly 35,000 Instagram followers. Nearly six in 10 participants were US-based women. Direct Messaging.