LinkedIn announces opening of a $25 million fund for creators.
This time last year, when LinkedIn, a Microsoft-owned professional network launched Stories format and later expanded its tools for creators, one noticeable detail was that, unlike other platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, where creators earn a living, it had not built any kind of obvious monetization into the program, these incentives ordinarily make creators, their content, and their audiences want to explore the app and even end up using it.
Creators who desire monetization tools have been disregarded for a long time. Now it appears that the tide is turning in their favour, and tech giants are finally giving in. To attract users and attention, they have long relied on free, user-generated content. Amid the proliferation of new social apps, “creator-first” businesses have sprung up to provide services such as influencer marketplaces, merchandise stores, and tipping platforms to assist content creators to generate money across numerous platforms. They also give influencers more power over the media platforms where they’ve created an audience.
According to Reuters SignalFire principal Josh Constine, said, “The power has shifted away from the platforms and toward the creators.” “All of the platforms stepped up and realized that if they didn’t provide these features, they were in great danger of losing their workforce.”
Linkedin however, had this to say “As we continue to listen to feedback from our members as we consider future opportunities, we’ll also continue to evolve how we create more value for our creators.” However, the firm has found that this technique is ineffective, as it announced last month that it would be ditching its stories format and starting over with alternative short-form video content for the platform. To attract more artists to the platform, the business announced today, September 14th, 2021, that it will launch a new $25 million creator fund, which will first be focused on a new Creator Accelerator Program.
LinkedIn also said it is developing a Clubhouse-style live conversation platform, which it started working on in March of this year. The creative accelerator that LinkedIn is introducing today may contribute to the larger pool of people that it is aiming to foster on its platform as a more dynamic and colourful collection of voices to get more people talking and spending time on the app.
According to Andrei Santalo, LinkedIn’s global head of community, the accelerator / incubator will focus on the entire creative process as well as the various methods to participate on LinkedIn.
He writes, “Creating content material on LinkedIn is about creating opportunity, for yourself and others.” “How can your text, videos, and discussions help 774 million professionals get better at what they do or experience the world in new ways?”
The incubator will run for ten months and will mentor 100 producers in the United States on how to create content for LinkedIn. It will also provide them with opportunities to network with like-minded individuals as well as a $15,000 stipend to help them complete their tasks. The deadline to use is October 12th. The idea of creating a fund to reward producers who create videos for a certain platform is not new, which is one of the reasons why LinkedIn was long overdue to think about it.
Leading social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, as well as YouTube, have all announced large payouts in the form of creator funding to attract more original material to their platforms.
One may argue that paying creators is vital for mass-market social media sites because competition for consumer attention is so severe. On the other hand, due to the potential audience size, those platforms appeal to creators. LinkedIn has 774 million users, but the type of content that lives there is so different, and maybe ‘drier’ as it is centred on professional growth, work, and “serious” themes, that it may require the largest monetary incentive of all to entice authors to bite.
Professional development has been LinkedIn’s bread and butter up until now: individuals use it to hunt for work, find better positions, hire people and connect with others who can help them advance in their careers.
However, it is done in a fairly defined set of conventions that offer little opportunity for exploring “authenticity” neither in the current sense of “authentic self” nor in the more traditional sense of simply letting down your guard and being yourself. (Even recent projects, such as its education focus, are part of this larger framework.)
With authenticity becoming more essential to people, perhaps even more so now because, as a result of Covid-19 and the changes it’s forced on us, we’ve begun to blur the lines between work and home. The shift by big companies into the creator economy is primarily motivated by a single goal: to keep users. As a result, goods and services developed as a result of big tech’s efforts will have to focus on their platforms in order to keep users engaged in the ecosystem as a whole. These tech companies will be difficult to beat due to their sheer size and massive sums of money at their disposal. To limit their reliance on any one platform, creators are more likely to choose to become platform-neutral and independent brands.
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