Threads has no viral posts, and it is so healing • $1.2M revenue with 71 followers • Creators' true feedback to brands

Hi! I'm back with some topics from creator economy folks, and today I have some good links about Threads vs Twitter, non-obvious way to become a full-time creator, failed Creator Unions, and creators' painful (but valid) feedback to brands.

Let's dive into it 👀

→ Threads creators are on 🔥 despite no virality

It's so interesting to watch Threads evolve. While users are still trying to figure out its algorithms, some of them have started posting copypasta listing their interests in order to, as they assume, teach the algorithm what they are interested in.

Yes, becoming popular on Threads is still nearly impossible, and it seems like all the influencers with huge followings that Instagram lured in the first few weeks have become disillusioned with the social platform on which, they have to, you know, socialize with their followers.

But the lack of virality on Threads seems to be a feature, not a bug. As Dare Obasanjo, Lead PM at Meta, pointed out: Threads developers, most likely following in the footsteps of Instagram, decided that having a random user become the main character of the day against their will, like on Twitter, is not a good user experience.

Speaking of main characters…

Last couple of days my entire Threads feed was discussing a post by a comedian and host of the "Adam Ruins Everything" series Adam Conover, who shared a video where he states that we need Twitter while Threads is dead.

The irony of the situation was that although there’s no #trends or virality on Threads, his post became quite viral (by the standards of Threads, of course), gaining MORE engagement than on Twitter, where he has 4 times as many followers. Well, this doesn't look dead to me!

So, are you on team Threads or team Twitter? Or maybe, umm, team X..?

→ How to become a full-time creator?

By getting a full-time job (ba dum tss).

Sounds discouraging at first, but this is what allowed Jay Clouse to actually focus on creating valuable content long term, without financial pressure which may provide bad decisions. And after a while, this strategy has paid him dividends.

And Besidone Amoruwa, Instagram’s Strategic Partnership Executive, makes the same point:

→ What else could you have missed?

• 🎬 A good thread from Jordan Haber, who talks about outlier theory in the context of YouTubers getting inspired by others viral ideas, which leads us to the same type of content all over the feed. Should YouTube do something about it and if so, how?

• ⚒ Roberto Blake talks about why every Creators Union is doomed to fail in his new newsletter "State of the Creator Economy".

• 🛒 Joanna Williams often writes about insane stats on TikTok Shop lately, but this post will blow your mind: a TikToker generated $1.2M of revenue on Shop with... 71 followers.

• 🚩 Rachel Karten asked over a dozen influencers what they wish they could tell the brands they work with. Some answers are pretty painful but also valid.

Thanks for reading! ❤️

If you enjoyed it, I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments.

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-Konstantin