State of Content: The Great Creator Divide
By Gavin Guidry and Sarah HayesAddressing the state of affairs in the creator world: an influx of new age content creators amongst web artisans - pining after the same audience.
Yours to Make | Instagram + Johannes Leonardo
In a previous article, I explored the ongoing phenomenon of social media platforms transforming into creator platforms. But following our launch of Instagram’s Creator Lab, I wanted to click down, because these moves seem to have triggered a divide. A divide that is pushing a new kind of creator to the forefront, changing the rules for what it means to be a successful creator, and redefining what a “creator” even means in this new Creator Economy. So who are these new creators? Where did they come from? How are media platforms transforming to cater to them? And what does it mean for creators that don't fit the mold? I pulled in my friend Sarah Hayes, Wieden+Kennedy Senior Social Strategist and creator whisperer, to help me dive deep into this topic. But to understand this divide and its implications, we have to go back to where this whole “creator” thing started.
The rise of social media giants like Facebook and Twitter ushered in Web2, allowing a generation of artists to bring their work to the masses. Instead of needing a gallery to display your art, or a magazine to publish your work, or getting your film into a festival, these "artist" creators were able to put their films on YouTube and Vimeo, and post their photos and art to Instagram and Tumblr. So naturally, success was grasped by the highly talented creators who had mastery of equipment and software and the means to make art for audiences. The ones who blew up on social media were often the best in their craft.
But advancements in technology brought about democratization of creativity. Before the social media era of content creation, say 10 years ago, there was a steep uphill climb to create video content. You had to have the chops and wildly expensive equipment to even be considered a professional in the space. Now all you need is your phone. Let's look at Vine as an example. This was the beginning of an era where a social platform invited all users to play in video - not just wizards using Final Cut Pro. The threshold was lowered for equipment, technology, and editing softwares– and the other social platforms started to catch on. Since then, we continue to watch the platforms develop more and more ways to invite creators to play with new formats: first stories (snapchat, then IG stories), then Live, now short form video (TikTok then IG reels). The democratization of social media editing & capture tools created this surge of new content creators - creators we’re still trying to accurately define.
So with the barrier to entry being lowered to the point where almost anyone could be a creator, how do we distinguish between Web2 traditionalists and this new class? Well, "traditional" creators are still defined by their art. Videographers are videographers. Voice over actors continue to make content exclusively around voice acting. Illustrators remain off camera and let their art do the talking. They’ve survived thus far through “getting out of the way of their own work” - an old phrase we used to see littered throughout creative blogs of the Tumblr era. They used their strengths to showcase specific capabilities, and they let that work sing. There was no necessity to share behind the scenes, because the premise of their work was the creative capability they offered. If anything, mystery and mystique were totem objects of success in their era - the less someone knew about you, the more they wanted your art. The distinction between artists and art was very firm, and the overlap was minimal.
While the era of professional creatives was defined by their expertise, the new class of creators approach content completely opposite. We see that these creators are more inclined to showcase their life in its entirety, hooking us somewhere between their breakfast and the short film they release by 2 P.M. Fidelity is also another point of differentiation. For this new class, content creation isn't all about being the best in their craft. It's about being entertaining, funny, and even informative with a layer of relatability that usually results in purposefully lower fidelity, bite sized, and primarily video content. The more access they grant into their personal life, their personality, details about their days, BTS of who they are, the more success they see. As this AdWeek article explains, “[Consumers] don't want highly curated content. Consumers are looking for lo-fi, UGC-adjacent content”. Were we used to having such little access to artists that we fell in love with the 'behind the scenes’ of creators' lives? Is that what makes the difference between creators and artists?
With this distinction defined, let’s look at what this means for the creator landscape. Social media platforms shifting to embrace creators should be a good thing for all creators. Ideally both artists and content creators would have access to distribute their content equally. However, this is obviously not the case in our algorithm driven world. When it comes to social media platforms transforming into creator platforms, the bottom line is that algorithms have been tweaked, prioritizing entertaining video to retain user attention. Platforms have become more and more outspoken about their intention to become video-forward, prioritizing the format above all others. This is again why Instagram has publicly and directly stated that they are no longer an app for sharing square photos. When Instagram released their video-preferred algorithm, they also introduced Reels - an attempt to make content creation as accessible to creators as TiKTok has made it. And why video? Algorithms prefer video content because video content traps users attention more effectively than still images – which in turn infers more user retention, which allures more brand partnership, which makes more money for the platforms. Instagram touts “multiple algorithms,” each tailored to the preference of the user, however, the platform has also been outspoken about the priority of video and thus, we can expect that the algorithm will respond accordingly - prioritizing video content above other formats.
If the name of the game is continued engagement, it makes sense why content creators have continued to shine when artists have been deprioritized. Their art, personality, and personal life are intertwined in the way they show up across everything they post. This is in part why users feel so connected to them on a personal level, thus garnering all this engagement. They are perceived as friends of their followers, someone users feel like they know and understand. The separation between an “artist” and a “fan” has drastically reduced with the new era of creator, paving the way for video to communicate this in the most expressive, addicting way. This isn’t to say artists don’t share their personalities - they just do it through the lens of their craft. However, if users and fans can't get that addition of personality to make them stick around and engage, then artist's work will be drowned out by the algorithm.
The reality is, we’re at an inflection point of content creators, artists, and professionals mastering their online presence. We’re seeing video creation stand as a bonafide business, opening doors everywhere for creators that were otherwise shut. But this doesn’t mean we need to shut the door on the creators that came before. With Instagram allowing users to make the switch back to chronological feeds, TikTok introducing longer forms of video, and creator platforms like Meta/Instagram moving us closer to Web3 by rolling out digital collectibles for creators, maybe we’re inching closer and closer to an equilibrium on these platforms that prioritizes equal access to all creators’ content. This doesn’t mean that professional videographers will come flocking to the platform to make their livelihood, but it does showcase a desire to include all types of creators– the new, personality driven content creators sharing personal tips and the established, successful artists of the early Web2 era with unique skills to showcase. We’d love to see social platforms continue to expand their offerings in a way that not only prioritizes money-making content (short form video) but also allows users to define their own algorithm and ways of making money. The great divide will shrink as platforms and audiences prioritize equal access to creators and their content, a feat we are continuing to inch towards.
Sarah Hayes (left) & Gavin Guidry (right)
We’ll see you on the interwebs ✌️
–Gavin Guidry and Sarah Hayes
