According to Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT) 3 in 4 brands will invest at least a quarter of social budgets in creator partnerships. This is set out in a survey (of 500 marketers) on the topic of creators. This finding suggests that the so-termed ‘creator economy’ is set to grow larger in the short term.
For brands there is unlikely to be shortage of talent, for 50 million people globally are identifying as creators within the emergent creator economy. These individuals generate content like long- and short-form videos to newsletters, viral dance moves and sponsored posts on Instagram, as examples.
The general trend is that as platforms like Facebook announce a shift in focus from news to the creator economy, marketers are also keen to prioritize creator partnerships. Here, the overwhelming majority (74 percent) plan to invest in these types of providers over the remainder of 2022. A sizable proportion of these are aiming to have cemented deals within the next three months.
Within bigger firms, social media departments are the ones most frequently involved in the process of vetting creators.
While brands are quickly recognizing the benefits of creator partnerships there are reasons why companies delay their plans. The primary reason for this is budget and the overall costings can present challenge when working with creators.
When it comes to brands’ goals for working with creators, audience engagement, reaching new audiences, and strengthening social community rank #1, #2, and #3 respectively. Whereas driving revenue from these partnerships ranked fourth.
Additional findings within the survey look at the preferred platforms for creator partnerships. The top three platforms are:
- Instagram (58 percent),
- Facebook (51 percent),
- TikTok (50 percent).
These are the top platforms brands plan to prioritize for creator partnerships. While YouTube remains popular among users, the video platform remains less popular among brands in terms of the service being central to social media marketing.
In terms of the category of content that is most likely to be developed, educational content is the foremost type of content brands want from brand-creator partnerships. Education is followed by product unboxing, testimonies and giveaways or other forms of prize-winning challenges.
This is not a ‘one size’ approach for the poll also reveals that the typical brand is seeking a mix of content when partnering with creators.
In terms of engagement, and encouraging readers to click, story posts rank as the top content format for Instagram and Facebook, while a link in biography is the top connectivity strategy for TikTok.
