All,
What is social media if not a place to share ideas and follow interesting people? While Facebook may be the largest social media platform, they are struggling to lure captivating creators to their website.
"Influencers"
Love it or hate it, that word has left a mark on new media including social, podcasting and vlogging. The marketing definition of an influencer is a "person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media." This open-ended definition could really be applied to anyone with a decent size following, you may be a casual fan of an "influencer" without even realizing it.
For instance, I subscribe to Binging with Babish, an internet chef who challenges himself to make different foods from pop culture. He's made the Big Kahuna Burger from Pulp Fiction, meat pies from Game of Thrones, the Meat Tornado from Parks and Recreation and more. I wouldn't consider him an influencer in the classical sense. He isn't on the level of popularity as the Paul brothers, both have nearly 80 million followers across their platforms, one of which just got in the boxing ring with Floyd Mayweather. But he does have more than nine million subscribers and regularly uses his platform to discuss his sponsors.
Many of the most well-known creators are on YouTube, Tik Tok and Instagram, which leaves one company in the dust... Facebook.
Facebook can be considered a lot of things, but with its lack of notable content creators, I wouldn't consider it a sprawling hub for quick entertainment.
I'll be honest, I hate Facebook. Don't get me wrong, it's cool that I can use it to stay connected with some of my family who live in different parts of the world. I used Facebook to keep in touch with my cousins who lived in South Korea for three years. Outside of that, I think Facebook can be used irresponsibly and has the ability to bring out nasty comments from real people. I know people who don't speak to friends and family because they saw someone post or like questionable content. And I'm not alone.
Even Facebook is trying to lure creative minds to their platform, according to a recent New York Times article.
To lure the next generation of viral stars, it started throwing millions of dollars at top influencers so they would use its products. It tweaked its biggest apps to emulate its competitors. Last month, it hosted a “Creator Week” to celebrate influencers. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, also said that he wants to “build the best platform for millions of creators to make a living.”
Wooing creators helps Facebook regain buzz and capture more entertaining content, especially after it has repeatedly faced criticism for spreading misinformation, toxic speech and divisive political posts. The more that creators put popular videos, photos and posts on Facebook and its apps, the more that users are likely to keep returning to the network. And when the company eventually asks for a cut of creators’ earnings, that may add a potentially lucrative revenue stream.
And so begins Facebook's gamble to shred some of the negative views people like me have and try to become a place where creativity can grow.
Will they be able to do it? Only time will tell. In the meantime, I'm going to watch that video about how to make the breakfast from the movie Twister.
Jacob