To help you get ahead with your social media marketing and maximize your social channels in the coming year, we’ve compiled a list of 16 essential social media best practices for 2024.

1. Focus on responsiveness and personalization
2. Automate where you can—with a human touch
3. Examine your social customer service approach
4. Be more business-focused and strategic with sharing your social data
5. Leverage AI…and refine how you use it
6. Iron out your approval process
7. Reimagine your team’s structure and size
8. Feature customers and trusted faces on your feed
9. Be selective about taking a stand
   
10. Leverage your employees
11. Use video…but mix it up
12. Redefine your relationship with trends
13. Highlight your product in action
14. Think platform-first
15. Optimize existing platform strategies
16. Optimize for social commerce

These best practices for 2024 are grouped below in different key areas for your business, including customer care, bringing authenticity into your strategy and beyond.

Best practices for world-class social customer care

In today’s competitive social landscape, stellar social media customer care is a non-negotiable. Leave it behind in your strategy, and your consumers will leave you behind in the feed.

Here are a few social media marketing best practices for stellar customer care.

1. Focus on responsiveness and personalization to build loyalty

According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 76% of consumers value how quickly a brand can respond to their needs.

But the quality of your responses also matters—70% of consumers expect a company to give them personalized responses.

Ensure your team has the tools they need to shorten your brand’s response times and create more quality responses. A few ways to start:

1. Audit your current response time average. A report like Sprout’s Inbox Activity Report will quickly calculate your performance by response rate and percentage.
2. Use tools like customer service chatbots to have chat coverage 24/7 for low-lift questions to free up your team.
3. Ensure your team is engaging with positive comments to build loyalty, too—not just questions or complaints.

2. Automate where you can—with a human touch

A greater need for personalized, frequent responses means more time for your already-strapped teams. Enter AI and automation.

For example, in 2024 54% of marketers plan to employ customer self-service tools and resources like chatbots, FAQs and other forms to scale social customer care. They also want to use AI copy tools, like ChatGPT or Sprout Social’s Suggestions by AI Assist, as a starting point to generate real-time responses to customer questions and FAQs inside self-service tools.

Just always edit to humanize and stay on-brand—you don’t want to lose trust with consumers who are already wary of brands speaking to them through AI.

3. Examine your social customer service approach

Prioritizing social media customer care is crucial as more people turn to social for their customer support needs. 76% of consumers value how quickly a brand can respond to their needs. Rethink how you approach social customer care, and whether you’re prioritizing it.

The Index also found that 58% of social and marketing teams will either share social customer care in 2024, or customer service will be assisting marketing. If you’re not already collaborating across these teams, it’s time to start. Think: splitting up social monitoring, or working together to create FAQs, canned responses and bot copy.

And scale social customer care by utilizing the right social customer service tools, including AI and automation. A tool like Sprout Social will give you a 360-degree view of your brand’s interactions with your customers—integrating the worlds of social media and customer service.

Redefine how you work and social’s role in your business

Social media insights have impact and implications beyond social—just look at the need to prove social media ROI. And according to the Index, 76% of marketers agree that their team’s insights inform other departments.

But just as social media changes, teams must also change to keep up with the demands put on them. Here are a few tips to bring into your workflow.

4. Be more business-focused and strategic with sharing your social data

According to the Index, social media traffic to the website is a top metric that 60% of marketing strategists, managers and directors track regularly. This is your sign to start tying your social media data to larger business goals.

Turn to your fellow marketers for reference. The Index found that in 2024, most marketers plan on connecting the value of social to business goals by quantifying the value of social media engagement in terms of potential revenue, tracking conversions and sales from social and using social data to inform areas outside of their team.

A few key ways to do this:

• Use UTMs to connect social media posts and strategy directly to website traffic and sales.
• Consider a more sophisticated tool like Sprout’s social listening to uncover deeper data insights that has org-wide uses, including product analysis information, consumer sentiment, competitive share of voice data and beyond.
• Create reports for collaborators outside of the social team to expand social’s impact cross-org. Get started with these 10 social media report examples.

5. Leverage AI…and refine how you use it

The Index found that 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work—especially freeing up time for creativity and boosting efficiency. And the questions around AI have shifted from “will it take my job?” to “will it impact consumer trust?”

As you move into a new phase of the AI era, refine how you use it. Experiment with it for customer care responses, and content ideation and creation. But ensure you’re always editing for brand voice, humanizing the copy and personalizing customer-facing messages.

Apply it: Start using AI for the repetitive tasks you complete regularly, from strategy planning to content creation and data analysis. Try Sprout’s AI Assist technology to see how we can streamline your day-to-day across publishing, engagement, reporting and beyond.

6. Iron out your approval process

Trend cycles move at the speed of light. Which means your approval process must keep up.

If you’re feeling bogged down by a slow approval process, take the initiative to create an optimized workflow for your team and cross-collaborators. Build a seamless social media approval process all drafters and approvers can agree to. It could be the difference between going viral and getting left behind.

Apply it: For best results, use a social media collaboration tool like Sprout Social to formalize your approval process. Sprout’s Approval Workflow also lets you add and remove external stakeholders so they can review social posts before they’re published without needing to log in to Sprout.

7. Reimagine your team’s structure and size

The way you use social data, insights and platforms has evolved. And so too must your team.

We’ll always say that now is a good time to add fresh talent to your team. But it’s not just team size that needs to be rethought—it’s your team structure and how you work. For example, 64% of social teams are organized by network. That is, one team member is responsible for TikTok, one for Instagram, etc. But this approach may not be as effective as it once was as teams share insights beyond social.

Even though social data can inform other departments, 43% of social teams are still feeling siloed. If you can relate, it may be time to see how a new team structure might help. Can a team member focus on engagement, and another awareness? Or can a team member be dedicated to analytics, and another to content creation?

Best practices to bring authenticity into your strategy

There’s a reason why Merriam-Webster’s word-of-the-year in 2023 is “Authentic.”

Between the rise of AI and shaky brand promises in recent years, audiences are wary of inauthentic messaging. In fact, authentic, non-promotional content is the number one thing consumers report not seeing enough of from brands on social, according to The Sprout Social Index™.

Creating authentic content is one of the quintessential best practices for social media. Here are a few ways to do it.

8. Feature customers and trusted faces on your feed

Featuring actual customers and user-generated content on your feed helps build social proof and trust, and bring authentic voices into your content.

Partnering with creators and influencers also adds a trusted voice to your content and extends your reach. In fact, 81% of social marketers describe influencer marketing as an essential part of their social strategy in our Q3 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey.

52% of brands are using dedicated influencer marketing platforms to help offset the challenge of finding the right influencer for their campaigns. If that’s something you’re looking for, consider adopting a platform like Tagger to manage your partnerships.

9. Be selective about taking a stand

Only a quarter of consumers polled in the Index said that the most memorable brands on social speak out about causes and news that align with their values.

Audiences are wary of inauthentic brand statements and promises. Know your values, and take a stand on issues that are aligned with them. Take L.L Bean, for example—they took a social media pause for mental health awareness month because it aligned with their brand values and mission.

10. Leverage your employees

Some of your most influential brand advocates are the people behind your brand: your employees. Adding employee advocacy to your social strategy is one of the most effective ways to amplify your content, humanize your brand and engage your audience.

Launch an employee advocacy program and curate a pipeline of content to ensure long-term success. In a Sprout survey of 1,110 US social media users across industries, over half of engaged social users are most likely to share employee updates. So create a “meet the team” series to showcase your employees.

Social media best practices for evolving your content

Just as people’s interests and tastes change, so too do the types of social content, preferred formats and trends they follow.

Here are a few social media best practices to evolve your content for optimal engagement.

11. Use video…but mix it up

Video’s popularity is here to stay, at least according to the 66% of consumers who say short-form video is the most engaging in-feed content.

But we’ve also seen a renewed focus on static content in 2023. Even Instagram pared back their focus on video to renew focus on photo posts.

Fill your content calendar with a healthy mix of video, carousels, polls and static photo or graphic-based posts. And pro tip: lighten the video lift by recruiting social video talent from your team and beyond.

12. Redefine your relationship with trends

Using trends is a great way to build awareness. But you don’t have to jump on every single one—that’s inauthentic and unsustainable. According to the Index, 38% of consumers say the most memorable brands on social prioritize original content over trending topics.

Use a healthy mix of on-brand trends and original content, and keep looking at your social analytics to find your top-engaged and most successful formats. If you use Sprout, the Post Performance Report surfaces your top posts across networks by your metric of choice.

13. Highlight your product in action

According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2022, 51% of consumers like to see brands highlighting their product or service in their social posts.

But remember, your product or service shouldn’t be the hero of your posts. Instead, demonstrate how it empowers your target customers to overcome their challenges. With your customers’ use cases in mind, show your product or service in action.

14. Think platform-first

It’s true that you should repurpose posts across social networks to alleviate workload. It’s also true that you need to adjust each post to feel native to each platform.

Approach your content in a platform-first way, so each post you publish fits on the networks you’re posting to.

Here are a few social platform guides and best practices to follow:

• Best practices for Facebook
• Best practices for Instagram
• Best practices for X (formerly known as Twitter)
• Best practices for LinkedIn
• Best practices for YouTube
• Best practices for TikTok

15. Optimize existing platform strategies

New platforms are bound to emerge—just look at the recent launch of Threads.

Experimenting with new platforms will always be important. But optimize the content and approach you take on the platforms you use—and that your audiences uses most often.

Here are a few tips:

• Find the best times to publish: Optimizing your publishing time is an easy way to achieve more engagement. Check out our best times to post guide, pinpoint the best times for your brand to post based on channel and industry, and use Sprout’s Optimal Send Times as you schedule your posts.
• Post regularly: Consistency is key—74% of consumers think the publishing sweet spot for brands is one to two posts per day. Check out our article on how often to post on social media.

16. Optimize for social commerce

By 2025, social shopping is set to become a $1.2 trillion channel. And with TikTok recently rolling out TikTok Shop in the US, platforms are continuing to invest in this approach. Social commerce is a great way to sell directly on social.

Have a point of view and use data to back up your decision on where your customers want to buy, and optimize your social commerce tools on platforms where they are ready to go all in.

Whether you set up shop directly in your platforms or link to products in posts, optimizing your social channels for social commerce directly connects your customers and products. Start enhancing your omnichannel customer experience with all-in-one social commerce tools the help reduce friction in the buying process—for example, you can use Sprout’s social commerce solutions to integrate your social and commerce workflows.

Develop your social media best practices this year

Social media is always shifting. Platform shake-ups and new frontiers push social managers to learn new skills, change how their team works, experiment with emerging technologies and refine their approach on a regular basis.

Ground your 2024 strategy—and beyond—in social media best practices to help you weather all the uncertainty. We recommend that you bookmark this list so you can revisit it when you need help optimizing your social efforts.

To put these best practices for social media in action, we also recommend using a tool that supports all of them—from finding your best posting times, to auditing your content. Begin your free Sprout trial today, and transform every area of your organization and team.

Start your free Sprout trial

The post 16 social media best practices to use to succeed in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

And perhaps that’s why social media predictions are so interesting and pervasive. Who doesn’t want to know what the future of social media holds?

To find out, we turned to the experts in The Arboretum—Sprout Social’s community of professionals—and beyond to reveal some of the biggest predictions for social in 2024.

Prediction 1: Authenticity will be more important than ever

Authenticity may sound like a buzzword. But it’s only going to be more important to your strategy.

As Carolyn MacLeod, Senior Manager, Social Media at PBS Kids, tells us in the Arb, “Authenticity will continue to be the name of the game, especially as AI becomes a more commonly used tool. In a way, social media managers may want to think more like creators.”

Consumers are only becoming more choosy and wary of content in their feeds. According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, authentic, non-promotional content is the number one type of content consumers don’t see enough of from brands on social.

And good old-fashioned responsiveness boosts authentic marketing and trust, too. Carolyn continues, “With the advent of Meta’s Threads, I think we’ll see more of an emphasis on conversation and direct engagement with our audiences. Audiences and Fans are looking for the feeling of engaging with a real person with interests and opinions.”

How to prioritize authenticity in your strategy

First things first: What’s authentic for individuals you follow on social won’t seem authentic from a brand. Tactics like shock-jock social marketing may work for some quick impressions, but if you want a lasting impact, you’ll need to think differently.

Bringing more creators into your strategy lends a trusted, familiar voice to your brand and helps you expand your audience. You can also lean on your employees to achieve a similar goal. Prioritizing employee advocacy, proactive engagement and team spotlights can be your secret sauce for keeping it real on social next year and beyond.

You can also spur this connection by simply engaging with your community. According to the Index, 37% of consumers say the most memorable brands on social prioritize engaging with their audience vs. publishing a lot of content. So double down on your customer engagement.

And use your content to provide a peek behind the scenes. Tapping user-generated content also enables you to bring authentic customer reviews, testimonials and content into your strategy.

Prediction 2: Creators and influencers, and knowing how to work with them, will continue to be important

The days of asking, “to work with creators, or not to work with creators?” are ending. The increasing importance and prominence of creators and influencers isn’t going anywhere.

As Oatly Community Manager Paula Perez predicts, “I think brands will finally realize that they need creators much more than creators need them! Now that creators are figuring out how to monetize their platforms beyond just brand partnerships, they’ll become much more selective about which brands they partner with.”

According to our Q3 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey of 307 US-based social marketers, 81% of social marketers say influencer marketing is an essential part of their strategy. And with the rise in the need for authenticity, it’s no wonder why.

How to work with creators as they become more discerning

So how do you meet creators where they are? Perez had some stellar advice: “The best partnerships will allow creators as much creativity and freedom as possible, and authentically fit their interests & audience.”

I think brands will finally realize that they need creators much more than creators need them! Now that creators are figuring out how to monetize their platforms beyond just brand partnerships, they’ll become much more selective about which brands they partner with.

Paula Perez
Community Manager at Oatly

One way to find these authentic partnerships is to find creators and influencers already in your audience. After all, half of marketers say they ensure authenticity in influencer marketing campaigns by choosing influencers who are already fans of their products.

Social listening platforms are a key way to seek out and find influencers in your audience—even when they don’t tag you. For example, Sprout’s Social Listening enables you to sort posts about your industry, brand and products by the follower count of the person who posted.

You can also lean on an influencer marketing platform, which over half of marketers do. A tool like Tagger by Sprout Social helps you find and manage your influencer partnerships and campaigns.

Prediction 3: There will be a renewed focus on social media customer service

Customer service and social media go hand-in-hand. According to our Index, over half of customers said the most memorable brands on social simply respond to customers.

And Heidi K, Director of Marketing and Communications in the financial services industry predicts customer service on social will continue to be key. “I’ve noticed customers using social media increasingly for customer service. We currently have one person who oversees our social media, and more of their time is being used to handle customer service issues vs. content creation and strategy.”

The Index also found that in 2024, 36% of teams say their social and customer service teams will split the responsibility of social customer care. So this is your sign to work cross-functionally to ensure both teams have the resources they need to succeed.

How to double down on social media customer service (without burning out)

Consumers are putting an emphasis on personalized responses—which takes time your social and customer service teams may not have.

To free up some of that time, tap AI and automation to take care of tedious or repetitive tasks. This will enable your teams to focus on audience engagement. You can even use AI as a starting point for your copy, then personalize that copy with your own edits.

According to the Index, 54% of marketers plan to use customer self-service tools and resources like FAQs, forms and chatbots to scale modern social customer service. And using AI copy tools gives your teams a starting point for their responses, which they can customize and humanize.

Pro tip: It’s best to use a centralized tool to house the resources and data your social and customer care teams need. In Sprout, for example, you can jump between a customizable customer care bot, Copy Suggestions by AI Assist and saved responses in one fell swoop.

Prediction 4: Brands will use a variety of content types

It’s no secret that short-form video has been the king of content recently—for consumers and algorithms alike.

While video is here to stay, it’s time to differentiate your focus. We, along with members of the Arb, predict that in 2024, social pros will use a mix of content—not just video. Just look at how Instagram lessened their focus on Reels in the past year, paving a comeback for static posts.

Focus on diversifying content. Fill your content calendar with a healthy mix of videos plus multi-content carousels and static photo posts. And start to experiment with tailoring posts to feel native to each platform.

How to tailor content for each platform in a sustainable way

Creating custom posts for each platform is a lot to ask. Instead, repurpose copy and content for each platform vs. creating unique posts. For example, a lengthy LinkedIn poll and post can be shortened into an engaging Instagram Story with a poll sticker.

Pro tip: Schedule your content ahead of time. This ensures you publish your tailored posts without needing to jump between those platforms when it’s time to push them live. Using a tool that combines your social content calendar and publishing functions, like Sprout, enables you to get a holistic view of what’s going out on each channel and what to repurpose.

Prediction 5: Data usage will become more sophisticated and cross-functional

Social media pros have always known the importance of using data. But we predict the use of that data is evolving—both inside social teams, and out.

As Brittany Weinzierl, Assistant Director of Digital Engagement at the Air Force Academy Association and Foundation, predicts in the Arb, 2024 will include evolving your use of analytics and metrics. “As social media marketing becomes more sophisticated, there may be a shift toward advanced analytics and metrics to measure campaign performance accurately. SMMs will need to adapt to these changes to make data-driven decisions.”

We already see social teams planning to use their data to connect their efforts to larger goals. In 2024, 60% of marketers plan to connect the value of social to business goals by quantifying the value of social engagement in terms of potential revenue impact, according to the Index. And a similar percentage of marketers plan to track conversions and sales resulting from social efforts.

We also predict sharing social data outside of the marketing team will become more common. Business leaders are more aware of how social data has cross-org implications. And the Index also found that 76% of marketers agree their team’s social insights inform other departments.

Paula Perez of Oatly predicts this will be the case for the community side of social, as well. “Community Managers will be recognized for all the valuable insights they can provide internally, and community teams will serve as a center of insights & knowledge for other teams (comms, PR, creative, even sales and HR). CMs know your audience’s pain points, preferences and even their other favorite brands & interests better than anyone – it’s time to fully tap into those insights!”

The takeaway? You’ll need to become more sophisticated with the use of social data on your team and find new ways to share it.

How to get more sophisticated with your data, and how to share it

The more sophisticated your use of data, the more specific your reports should be. Creating custom reports for your specific purposes and for other teams is your key to success.

Tap into data storytelling to make your data make sense; both to your team and to other departments. Data visualizations package your data in a visual, easy-to-digest format.

Finally, consider leveling up how you gather data. Adopting a social media listening tool, like Sprout’s, can help you gather higher-level insights, for your team and beyond. Think: product insights, competitive analysis and audience sentiment.

Prediction 6: Optimizing existing platforms

First TikTok, then Threads—social teams are no strangers to adopting and investing in new platforms.

New platforms are worth jumping on and experimenting with—but not at the expense of the platforms where you’ve built an engaged audience.

In 2024, we predict that teams will focus on optimizing and investing in the platforms they’re already on—including newer ones like Threads and TikTok. And that even if a flashy new platform emerges, the focus will be on existing accounts. And we saw members of the Arb predict this, as well.

How to optimize your existing social profiles

Your social data will be vital to refreshing your network approach this coming year.

Take a look at long-term trends in individual network performance. If you’re using Sprout, use the Cross Channel Profile Performance Report to compare trends in growth and engagement. This report will help you dig into both high and low performers.

Prediction 7: The future of AI in social media will remain top-of-mind

The future of AI in social media is already here—according to the Index, 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work.

Today, the conversation around “should I use AI?” has evolved into questions about AI ethics and how to craft effective AI prompts. And we predict the way marketers use it and the thoughtfulness behind it will stay top-of-mind.

The use of AI in social media marketing was an overwhelming prediction Arb members contributed to this thread. In 2024, AI will continue to be an important tool for social marketers to adopt. But audiences and marketers alike are already wary of AI-generated language and the impact it has on trust. So we also predict that social teams will need to make sure they use it responsibly, and preserve an authentic, personalized brand voice.

How to bring AI tools into your strategy

We already mentioned how and where to bring AI tools into your workflows. But this is your sign to also bring AI tools into your strategy in a responsible way.

We’ve heard the fears surrounding brand safety when it comes to AI tools. So take the safe route; Work with your legal team to create an AI use policy to protect your brand, and the people on your team.

And be sure to adjust and edit any AI-generated copy to match your brand voice and, in customer care responses, to be personalized and human.

Get ahead of the future of social media marketing now

The world of social media is constantly changing. And so too are the ways social marketers and teams work.

But we’re an adaptive bunch. And you’re ready for what 2024 and beyond holds for you. Use the predictions in this article to stay ahead of the future of social media today, and prepare your strategy for whatever tomorrow holds.

The best way to stay ahead of social media’s changes is to connect with other social pros and to keep learning. Join our community of social media marketers in The Arboretum to stay ahead of the future of social media with exclusive webinars, stimulating conversation topics, job postings and more.

The post What’s next? 7 expert predictions on the future of social media for 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

After all, everyday TikTokers are the ones responsible for the trends, challenges and viral videos that rack up billions of views.

Oh, and don’t forget the billions of dollars in ad revenue.

The platform owes much of its booming growth to creators and TikTok regularly goes out of its way to acknowledge their impact.

And by introducing the TikTok Creator Fund back in 2020, the app aimed to provide financial support to top-tier content creators. From the outset, there was criticism of the fund’s low payouts. Sometimes, only a few dollars for hundreds of thousands of views.

In February 2023 TikTok announced a new monetization method, the TikTok Creativity Program with improved payouts for popular creators. The new program was Initially rolled out as an invite-only beta. In November 2023 TikTok announced the Creator Fund would be replaced by the Creativity Program in some key markets.

We see a lot of questions surrounding the new Creativity Program, where and when it is rolling out and who can still avail of the Creator Fund. In this post, we’ll break it all down!

Table of Contents

• What is the TikTok Creativity Program?
• What are TikTok Creativity Program eligibility requirements?
• What was the TikTok Creativity Program Beta
• TikTok Creativity Program vs Creator Fund
• Where is the TikTok Creativity Program available?
• Where is the TikTok Creator Fund still available?
• What is the TikTok Creator Fund?
• How to join the Creator Fund on TikTok
• How do TikTok Creator Fund payouts work?
• Pros and Cons of the TikTok Creator Fund
• Does the TikTok Creator Fund or Creativity Program make sense for you?

What is the TikTok Creativity Program?

The TikTok Creativity Program is the platform’s new creator reward program. Payments are based on the performance of longer videos that meet certain follower and viewer requirements.

What are TikTok Creativity Program eligibility requirements?

The requirements to join TikTok’s Creativity Program are similar to the Creator Fund with one key difference:

• Creators must be over 18 years of age
• Have at least 10,000 followers
• Have at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days
• Make high-quality videos of over 1 minute

This last requirement for longer-form content is what differentiates it from the Creator Fund criteria. It is an interesting metric for a platform that has made its name on short-form video content. TikTok add that creators have the potential to earn 20 times the amount previously offered by the Creator Fund.

What was the TikTok Creativity Program Beta

The TikTok Creativity Program Beta was an invitation-only test of the platform’s newest monetization method launched in February 2023. To be invited to the beta users had to be:

• Over 18 years of age
• Have at least 10,000 followers
• Have at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days
• Make high-quality videos of over 1 minute

Clearly, the test was a success as they have decided to roll out the Program more widely.

TikTok Creativity Program vs Creator Fund

The creativity program and creator fund have many similarities including:

• Users must be over 18 years of age
• Have at least 10,000 authentic followers
• Have accrued at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days

After this there are some notable differences between the two reward systems:

• Content length: For a TikTok creator this is the most significant difference. Users in the creativity program must publish content over 1 minute long whereas the Creator Fund still rewards shorter content.
• Funding source: When TikTok launched the Creator Fund they announced payments would be made from an initial $200 million allotment reaching $1 billion within three years. TikTok did not indicate how the Creativity Program is funded.
• Reward levels: TikTok say those in the Creativity Program have the opportunity to earn 20 times as much for their content compared to the Creator Fund.

Although these are the most significant differences it is worth checking TikTok’s own content on getting paid to create.

Where is the TikTok Creativity Program available?

TikTok announced in November 2023 that they are shutting down the Creator Fund for producers in the US, UK, Germany and France on December 16th. Creators in these countries will switch to the Creativity Program.

Where is the TikTok Creator Fund still available?

The existing Creator Fund will still be available for users in Italy and Spain. Keep reading to find out more about it and how it works if you are based in those locations.

What is the TikTok Creator Fund?

The TikTok Creator Fund was an official fund established by the app to compensate creators for their content.

According to the platform themselves, the purpose of this nest egg is to “reward” users for their “incredible TikTok videos and creativity.”

Months after the Creator Fund’s initial announcement in June 2020, the official TikTok @CreatorPortal account released a series of videos breaking down what the fund is and how it works.

Here are some fast facts:

• Established in 2020, the TikTok Creator Fund began with an initial investment of $200 million. Currently, TikTok’s goal is to grow the Fund to over $1 billion within three years.
• Compensation and eligibility for the Creator Fund are based on a creator’s metrics. This includes meeting specific thresholds for views and engagement.
• Part of the Fund’s initial mission was to provide creators means to “earn livelihoods” and “spark careers” through TikTok.
• TikTok is adamant that they want creators of all shapes and sizes for the Fund (hint: not just beauty/fashion vloggers or stereotypical “influencers”).
• The Fund also emphasizes the importance of “original and authentic” content that ties back to TikTok’s mission of “inspiring joy and creativity.”

Note: The TikTok Creator Fund is focused on compensating creators for organic content rather than sponsored content. This is in direct contrast with the TikTok Creator Marketplace where brands directly hire and pay creators for promotional posts.

What’s the purpose of the TikTok Creator Fund?

TikTok claims that the Fund is there to support creators. Reading between the lines, consider additional motivations such as:

Incentivizing more content

According to TikTok, 56% of users claim they’re inspired to create videos after seeing compelling creator content. The Fund is a unique push to encourage even more activity and time spent on the app.

Capitalizing on the popularity of influencers

The explosion of TikTok influencer marketing is well-documented. Through both the Creator Fund and Marketplace, TikTok is making moves to keep creators focused on seeking compensation on the platform.

Although not explicitly stated, this serves as a way to deter creators from seeking out agencies or influencer contracts independently.

Building rapport with creators and the social-savvy public

The more creators go viral, the more positive buzz TikTok earns.

The Creator Fund serves as a way for the platform to highlight its “best” users. If nothing else, providing compensation and supporting the creator economy could be good PR for TikTok.

How to join the Creator Fund on TikTok

Interested in joining the Creator Fund on TikTok or just want to see what it’s all about? TikTok is pretty direct in terms of what you need to do. Check out the steps below.

Meet the Fund’s eligibility requirements

Remember: the Creator Fund is reserved for creators with significant audiences and strong engagement.

Specifically, creators selected for the Fund must meet the following criteria:

• Your TikTok account must have at least 10,000 followers
• You must have at least 100,000 views on your videos within the last 30 days
• Your  account must be in good standing, adhering to the platform’s community guidelines and best practices
• Content published to your account must be original (not cross-posted or otherwise repurposed)
• You must be at least 18 years old

Not sure if you’d make the cut?  You can see some of these requirements when you attempt to join TikTok’s “Creator Next” monetization program. The platform will let you know which criteria you’ve met and which you haven’t (see the grayed-out checkboxes below).

TikTok notes that individuals selected for the Creator Fund are evaluated by the platform. In other words, acceptance or rejection isn’t automatic based on the details above.

Complete and submit your Creator Fund application

Let’s say you do meet the requirements of the Fund.

To apply, you must submit your  Creator Fund application within the TikTok app. You won’t find the application for the Creator Fund on TikTok’s website.

Once logging into your account, go to your account settings and select “Creator Tools.” Under “Creator Next,” you’ll see the “Creator Fund.” This is where you apply.

Note that you must be accepted into the Creator Next platform prior to joining the TikTok Creator Fund.

How do TikTok Creator Fund payouts work?

TikTok is clear that the Creator Fund is not a revenue-sharing program. In their words, performance is “dynamic” and based on a “variety of factors” that are ever-changing.

This vagueness and lack of specificity has been criticized by creators. To be fair, the Fund is still in its early stages.

TikTok says the following factors impact how much a creator gets paid for any given video:

• Number of views
• Authenticity of views
• Content engagement rate

To put it simply, creators act as independent contractors that get paid by TikTok for views accrued monthly.

There is technically no earnings cap for creators. Funds are calculated within 30 days of the prior monthly reporting period. From there, TikTok will compensate creators for views and engagement during that period. There is a minimum payment threshold of $10 (formerly $50) which is transferred from your account to your digital wallet.

How much does the TikTok Creator Fund pay?

The biggest criticism of the TikTok Creator Fund relates to how much (or little, rather) creators are compensated.

For example, this breakdown highlights how a viral video earning over 21 million views netted a total of $340.33. That’s a fraction of a cent per view.

This is staggering when compared to how much some influencers charge ($1,000+) per post on the Creator Marketplace. That’s for significantly less engagement, too.

To be fair, comparing branded content versus purely viral content is apples and oranges. This payout is still paltry compared to the likes of competing video platforms like YouTube.

This phenomenon of low payouts isn’t just reserved for smaller creators, either.

Recent articles by TechCrunch and Engadget further highlight creators’ qualms with the platform.

This criticism is understandable given that TikTok initially marketed the Creator Fund as a career path. In their own words, the Fund provides an opportunity for creators to “turn their passion into a livelihood.” TikTok has since softened its language.

In fact, the platform has been pretty quiet about the Creator Fund recently. The last official update on the Fund’s status was in March 2021. Likewise, TikTok’s @CreatorPortal hasn’t posted about the Fund since 2021. They’ve since focused on the Creator Marketplace and more traditional brand-creator partnerships.

Is the Fund being revamped? Is TikTok pivoting? We’ll have to wait and see.

Pros and Cons of the TikTok Creator Fund

As to whether you should join the Fund, the short answer is “it depends.” Let’s look at the pros and cons to help you decide.

Pros

• You get paid! Even if the compensation isn’t stellar, earning money for content you’d otherwise be creating anyway is a nice bonus.
• The Creator Fund doesn’t impact your content or engagement. TikTok is explicit that joining the Fund doesn’t inherently boost or restrict your reach. Compare this to #gifted or #ad posts which tend to see less engagement. In other words, you don’t have to change your content.
• The fund doesn’t lock you into a contract or require you to cease partnerships elsewhere. If nothing else, it’s just another revenue stream.

Cons

• Payments aren’t great. Again, creators can earn so much more through either the Marketplace or independent brand partnerships.
• Income is inconsistent. Are any creators truly earning a livelihood through the Fund alone? Probably not. Still, the vague nature of TikTok’s compensation formula doesn’t clue creators in on how much they should plan to earn.
• The Creator Fund doesn’t earn you more TikTok followers or otherwise boost your visibility.

Does the TikTok Creator Fund make sense for you?

If you’re a TikToker who wants to test the waters of getting paid for content creation, the stakes are pretty low.

TikTok wants to support creators financially. If you meet the location and the eligibility criteria, the Creativity Program may be worth a try. Although it is early days, some creators are saying they are earning more for their longer videos via the Creativity Program. If you are based in Spain or Italy, we hope we have provided a summary of what you expect if you join the Creator Fund.

If you want to learn more about the state of TikTok marketing and what’s popping off on the platform, check out our post on the latest TikTok trends.

The post TikTok from Creator Fund to Creativity Program: what to expect appeared first on Sprout Social.

The results are telling: According to our Q4 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey, respondents believe the average social media manager is: white (65%), female (73%), 25-40 years old (55%), and a part-time employee or freelancer (40%).

Candidly, we hoped consumer perception was far from reality. We aspired to write an article that would prove consumer stereotypes wrong.

But after running a follow-up survey of our own audience and comparing our findings to third-party data, we realized consumer views about social marketers were mostly spot-on. The only difference is experience level (most people working in social aren’t entry-level or freelancers). Which means the industry is primarily made up of Millennial white women. Even the majority of our own team fit within that demographic.

This led us to new questions. What is it about social media careers that makes them dominated by white women? What does it say about the way brands co-opt BIPOC culture? Why do people assume a women-led field requires less experience and expertise? How can we make a place in the industry for people from different generations?

We asked social professionals outside of the majority demographic to weigh in, and got their take on what’s amiss in the industry and how we can chart a more inclusive path forward.

Meet our experts

Kikora Mason Laurise McMillian Greg Rokisky Cassandra Blackburn Algorithm

Name: Kikora Mason

Pronouns: She/Her

Company: JPMorgan Chase

Title: Vice President, Community—Chase Social Media

Bio: Kikora Mason currently oversees social listening and community management strategy at JPMorgan Chase. She is an experienced social media strategist passionate about helping brands and companies tell compelling and culturally relevant stories on social.

Who are social media marketers, really?

To answer our initial question, we used available third-party sources and conducted a small proprietary survey. All data sources pointed to most social media marketers being Millennial white women.

Kikora Mason, Vice President of Social Listening and Community Management of Chase Social Media, anticipated this result. “Unfortunately, this data isn’t surprising. Generally, women outnumber men in communications (with the exception of upper leadership). I think there’s a perception that a career in social media is unserious and a job for an intern or a recent college graduate.”

Greg Rokisky, Social Media Strategist at Sprout Social, agrees. “I’m not surprised and, at the same time, I’m hopeful data like this shifts our hiring practices. To match the makeup of the world, we need equal representation in these business-critical roles—across ethnicity, race, gender, ability, orientation and experience level.”

Laurise McMillian, Social Creative Lead at Facebook, adds, “[Industry] stereotypes support the notion that social media management jobs are only for a certain type of person. That person being white and woman-identifying. If you don’t see other people like you in a role, it can be harder for you to see yourself in that role. If POC of all genders aren’t applying for these positions, then businesses run the risk of having teams without diverse points of views and approaches.”

Future-proofing your social media team is about more than integrating emerging technologies into your workflow and increasing headcount. It also requires unpacking bias, and rethinking hiring practices.

How diverse teams will propel the industry forward

In the past few years, the term diversity lost meaning as it morphed into a performative buzzword, often associated with corporate initiatives that lack impact.

But when we zoom out and examine social media usage data, diversity takes on a new meaning. For example, in the US the majority of people across generations, races, genders, income levels, education and community types all use social media—with some traditionally underrepresented groups like the Black community being the most active. Social media is a channel defined by a diverse mix of people.

As Rokisky explains, “Diversity isn’t a choice—it’s a fact of the world. Our only choice is to recognize or turn away from it.”

Despite the diversity present on social, most people’s feeds resemble echo chambers, environments that amplify or reinforce their pre-existing beliefs. Mason breaks down how this stifles brand innovation: “There’s nearly 5 billion people actively using social media today. It’s ridiculous to think that one person, or one type of person, knows the best social media decisions. Culturally diverse teams push businesses forward, creating a lane for vast creativity and previously inconceivable activations.”

But true diversity requires more than hollow optics. Bringing people with a variety of backgrounds, experiences and identities to the table, and deeply listening to their perspectives, will help businesses succeed at building engaged, loyal communities on social. And, more importantly, break down unhelpful stereotypes that permeate internet culture.

As Rokisky says, “While it’s not realistic to try and reach everyone on social, there will be individuals who don’t identify the same way you do in your target audience…When the majority of social media content is crafted by a homogenous group, there’s a risk of alienating and misrepresenting perspectives—which only perpetuates a cycle of exclusion and falsely paints stereotypes as true.”

Mason points out, “We’re all seeing different things on our timelines these days. Making space for diverse perspectives empowers us to create authentic connections with social audiences.”

Cassandra Blackburn, Head of DEI and Corporate Social Responsibility at Sprout Social, sums it up: “Encouraging inclusion and breaking stereotypes isn’t just a social justice issue; it’s a strategic move. Embracing diversity leads to better business outcomes, enhanced creativity and a positive societal impact. Brands connecting with a diverse audience through inclusive practices are better positioned in today’s social media landscape.”

Centering diversity in your approach to social media will have tangible benefits for businesses and their audiences. For example, Rokisky described how tuning into conversations about accessibility helped drive product development at Sprout. “At Sprout, we care deeply about social media accessibility, and factor the needs of our community into our platform. Whether it’s implementing dark mode or adding alt text to content in our publishing suite, accessibility is considered from start to finish.”

Steps to building more inclusive teams

To create the most effective social presence, brands and products, companies need to increase diversity on their social media teams. Where do companies go from here?

We asked Blackburn, Mason, McMillian and Rokisky what brands should do to encourage inclusivity. Here’s what they hope you’ll take away:

1. Remove bias from hiring

Blackburn details the various places where bias originates, “Stereotypes arise from various sources, influenced by societal, cultural and historical factors. Factors include media representation, industry trends, cultural biases and a lack of visibility for individuals from diverse backgrounds.”

And it has tangible implications. Bias can infiltrate everything from the way social media management job descriptions are written to which candidates are selected for interviews to the ultimate hiring choice. For example, one study argues that companies advertise social media jobs with traits typically associated with women—e.g., flexible, emotional management and sociable—which has contributed to social media roles becoming increasingly feminized and reinforced a gender gap in the tech world.

Mason explains, “The act of creating culturally diverse teams—especially in social media—has to be intentional. In hiring, it’s challenging not to bring your own biases to the table, but we have to if we want to create stronger teams. People tend to hire people like themselves. We have to be willing to step outside of our comfort zones to create opportunity and leverage the best talent (who may not be white).”

McMillian advises companies to proactively train their key hiring decision makers. She says, “Brands should implement mandatory unconscious bias training to make sure hiring managers aren’t just hiring people who relate to them, personally.”

2. Explore new hiring pipelines

According to recent research from LinkedIn, Latino members are much more likely to exchange connection invitations with other Latino members. While this research is still new, it suggests that networking opportunities on social media are largely impacted by race. Because three-quarters of the corporate social industry is white, it’s likely that most people who see social media job openings are also white. Which excludes people of color from the running altogether.

As LinkedIn continues to grow as a candidate sourcing channel, hiring decision makers should take a closer look at their networks. Are a diverse mix of identities represented? Do they have trusted BIPOC industry peers they can contact for help recruiting their next social media team member?

They should also look to hiring pipelines beyond what they’ve used in the past. Mason explains, “When it comes to hiring, BIPOC candidates must be considered at every level on the team. Tapping historically Black college and university networks helps, along with reaching out to your network on LinkedIn and communicating your intentions [to hire diverse talent].” Other resources like Black Marketers Association of America can help, too.

3. Invest in long-term career success for social marketers

Hiring is only the beginning of increasing diversity. The next stage is investing in career longevity and professional development.

Mason describes, “Once a diverse team is created, brands must be intentional about providing the necessary resources for the success of BIPOC individuals. Getting them in the door is only the first step.”

From meaningful onboarding and training sessions to mentorship and community resource groups, fostering career growth of professionals from underrepresented groups should be prioritized. While what that looks like company-to-company might vary, what’s most important is that you create these opportunities with the input of underrepresented employees. Ask them what resources they need to be successful.

4. Educate your wider team

Industry demographics won’t shift overnight. In the meantime, social marketers should educate themselves (and their companies) about the contributions underrepresented communities make to internet culture, and find ways to intentionally partner with them.

McMillian points out that the corporate social industry has a long history of ignoring contributions from non-white communities, especially the Black community. “It is so wild how Black and brown creators continuously create social media trends and define culture, but the corporate side of social media is skewing white.”

Mason adds that white social media marketers would learn a lot by seeking out content from BIPOC creators. “There are multiple studies on the impact of Black Twitter. The internet is made up of so many sub-communities. Educating oneself about these sub-communities expands your worldview, and helps you become a better, more well-rounded leader and people manager. It’s important to step out of your own way to stay culturally relevant on social media.”

They should also work with (and compensate) DEI educators to learn how to best prioritize the needs of underrepresented communities in their audience and candidate pools.

Rokisky describes how he did this in a past role. “When I worked at an LGBTQ+ nonprofit, I couldn’t just prioritize the perspective of gay, cisgender, white men (which is how I identify). So, I spent countless hours listening to, uplifting and making sure other marginalized voices within the LGBTQ+ community—especially folks with intersecting identities—felt represented in the social content we were publishing.”

And it’s critical to apply your learnings across the work you do. Rokisky advises, “Always question what you can do to make your content, team and practices more authentic, transparent and inclusive. Build these exercises into your processes and planning throughout the year.” One way to do that is by co-creating content with creators and subject matter experts from underrepresented demographics. Even if you don’t have the budget to increase headcount, seeking out freelancers, creators and agencies is a step toward a more inclusive industry.

Inclusivity in the social media industry starts with you

We know many of you, our readers, fit within the majority demographic of social media professionals. As a fellow Millennial white woman in the social world, I must confess the data we collected and expert interviews we conducted for this article pushed me to confront what I (and Sprout) do to make the industry a more inclusive place. I hope they did the same for you.

Armed with this data and these perspectives, may you feel empowered to rethink hiring processes, invest in the long-term career development of employees from underrepresented backgrounds, and educate yourself and your wider team about the impact diversity can have on your strategy.

Take the first step by reviewing our guide to building a social media team.

The post We wanted to explore consumer misconceptions of social media professionals: Instead, it sparked a dialogue about the need for greater diversity appeared first on Sprout Social.

From changing best practices to new content formats, every new year (or sometimes new week) holds learnings, opportunities and experiments for social teams. To prepare for 2024, we gathered key social media tips to apply to your own strategy—because you’re not riding this wave alone.

We turned to Sprout Social’s Arboretum (the Arb)—a community of social pros—to ask them about their latest and greatest social media tips and tricks. Let’s dive in.

What we learned when we asked for social media tips

When we asked the Arb members for social media tips that other social pros can use, their answers reflected the sophisticated, strategic ways social teams are thinking.

Before we get into their direct tips, here are three core themes we uncovered across the responses.

1. Social pros are looking beyond their team

There’s no question that teams beyond marketing are catching onto the power of social media—and how social might be able to help their team, too.

A common focus in many of the responses we saw in the Arb involved working with departments beyond marketing. This includes working with other teams to spark new content concepts, and to bring social insights and impact to teams outside of marketing.

It also involves sharing data beyond your team. According to The Sprout Social Index™, 76% of marketers agree that their insights inform other departments.

2. Teams are streamlining processes—within their team and beyond

The more teams and leaders understand the value of social, the more asks and collaborations naturally arise.

As social teams and strategies grow, the more complex communication and collaboration systems become. From adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) to adjusting content requests, the need for streamlined processes was well reflected in the responses we received.

3. Social teams are becoming even more intentional with content and strategies

Social pros have always known that social is more than “just posting.” There’s strategy and intention behind every post.

But many marketers and teams are taking this critical eye and intentionality to a new level. A big theme we noticed orbited around the idea of doubling down on involving business goals and audience information in the content planning process to be even more thoughtful about posts.

Keep reading to get more detail about these three takeaways from our expert tips, and to learn ways to employ them in your strategy.

8 social media strategy tips from social media experts

Here are some of the new key social media tips our community came up with. Plus a few evergreen tips to store in your back pocket.

1. Extend social media’s influence beyond the social team

There’s no question that social media is becoming more cross-functional. And other teams have a lot to gain from using social media for business beyond marketing. But the social team has a lot to gain from working with other teams, too.

As Micah Mellander, Social Media Administrator at Visions Federal Credit Union put it, “I am always trying to find new departments within our organization that could benefit from social media.” To do this, he suggests setting up meetings to talk through other departments’ goals and what products or services they’re in charge of.

This helps the social team spark new ideas, too. Dasle Hong, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at DailyPay, builds on this idea. “Each week, we bring together individuals from product, design, customer support, client success, marketing and more to brainstorm on a certain topic, like a holiday, campaign, event, etc. Everyone comes to the call with an idea and/or example, and we spend the entire time ideating, collaborating and executing content for that week as a cross-functional group.”

2. Actively break down silos

Social teams must collaborate across multiple departments. And yet, it’s common for social teams to feel siloed.

“One of our main challenges as a team is collaborating with other departments and stakeholders on key initiatives or campaigns when it comes to organic social,” Kelly Bean, Social Media and Community Manager at Trustpilot, tells us. So one of the tips she has is to enhance these processes.

“What we’re aiming to do in 2024 is create a seamless internal process so that key stakeholders understand what is needed when briefing our team, how this ties into our overall business strategy and how our team operates when planning future content.”

“It’s very much in the testing phase,” she explains. “But we’re hoping that in time, these shared calendars can feed into our master calendar and make things much smoother for us as a team!”

3. Tap influencer, creator and advocate voices

A great way to target your audience on a more personal level is to partner with influencers in your niche to help you promote your products organically.

When you partner with an established influencer with an active following in your niche, you expose your brand to a new audience that might not be aware of your company.

Many brands are also turning to nanoinfluencers, who cultivate a small but passionate niche of followers. As influencer marketing becomes increasingly common, a micro- or nanoinfluencer can convey an extra level of authenticity. With an audience of loyal followers that know, like and trust them, a collaboration will let their followers know they recommend you as a brand to trust as well.

Pro tip: Discovering the right influencer can be challenging. Consider an influencer management tool to streamline all these efforts, speed up the process and enhance brand visibility and trust.

4. Use goals and pillars to guide intentional, purposeful content

Your content should always connect back to your brand’s goals. As Molly Rodin, Digital Marketing Manager in the Robotics industry explains, “My biggest piece of advice would be really know and understand what your social goals are and how they connect to the larger organization’s goals. It’s not enough to set a goal at the beginning of the year and check back in at the end of the year.”

Knowing specific goals for your team and beyond serves as a guiding light for your posts. As they explain, “For any campaign or collaboration or post, you should be able to intuitively answer: Who is the audience for this? Why do they care? What is the next step for them after this content? What is the specific measure of success for this and how does it connect to the big picture goals? And adjust your strategy based on the answers.”

Beyond helping social teams prioritize their own content, it also helps teams prioritize asks from other departments. After all, every social pro is familiar with the, “can you just post this on social?” question.

As Molly explains, “As social media managers, we get asked to do a lot. Having really clear objectives is the best way to prioritize what we’re doing, weed out low-value asks and make sure our content is set up for meaningful success.”

Having a focused message will help you create higher quality content that is on brand and resonates with your audience. When you have a solid message that you don’t stray from, you can count on your social media posts to stay relevant to your audience.

5. Scale your team

Social media isn’t the job of one person anymore—it’s a department collaborating with many other teams. As social media and its impact grows, so too does the need for multiple people at the helm.

“My #1 tip for B2B brands in 2024 is to scale up your team as much as possible,” Katy Severance, the Digital Marketing Manager (Global Social Media Program) at Riskonnect tells us. “We are scaling up as 2024 comes around the corner so that when next year hits, we’ll be ready to hit the ground running with new concepts, campaigns and platforms we haven’t previously had the time to tackle.”

As far as how to accomplish a scaled-up team, you don’t necessarily need to go straight to hiring new roles—especially if you need to build your case for headcount. As Katy suggests, “See if a member of your content team can write & schedule some posts. See if you could bring in a summer Intern for a few months.” When you have tangible results from those efforts, then work them into a proposal to get a full-time hire.

6. Avoid the trap of perfectionism

Everyone working in social knows the experience of putting weeks of work into a post…only to see it outperformed by a video that took 15 seconds to make.

Not every post needs to be perfect. Social teams are already tight on time. So put the perfectionism aside and embrace the occasional scrappy, lo-fi content.

Sophie Den Ridder, Social Media Coordinator at Dealer.com, summed this up perfectly: “I find that getting hung up on making sure every post is perfect often leads to spending way too much time trying to tweak already good posts. Not every post is going to be a viral sensation or garner millions of engagements. A lot of times the posts that do are ones that are more casually created and not super refined.”

Her key takeaway for 2024 content planning? Give yourself permission to have fun on social (within reason!) and go with the flow a little more.

7. Be discerning with trends

Jumping on trending TikTok sounds or post formats is a great way to boost your brand awareness and engagement. But be wary of jumping on every new trend you see. Creating posts that don’t align with your overall messaging to appear relevant is a quick way to alienate your target audience.

This is why it’s so essential to create a focused message that you can use as a baseline to measure all of your future social media posts. Let your brand goals, messaging, audience and voice guide you. This will help you determine which trends fit your brand, and which to skip.

8. Boost your audience engagement

Social media users crave authentic interaction with the brands they follow—it’s a crucial piece of any social community management strategy. You want your social media presence to represent a two-way line of communication. Engage with people rather than just talking at them. If you notice other users having a conversation about your brand or product, don’t be afraid to chime in and add additional value—something social listening can help with.

Make sure your social media strategy includes answering questions posted on each platform and prioritizes customer care. Promptly respond to mentions, thank people who share your content and add value where you see people mentioning your brand.

You can also start conversations to proactively engage your audience. Ask questions and respond to keep the conversation going.

Act now: how to implement this social media marketing advice in 2024

Reading about social media strategy tips is just step one. Now, it’s time to put the tips into action.

Here are a few ways to apply the takeaways and tips above to your own social media marketing strategy.

Establish silo-breaking collaboration and processes

Cross-org collaboration is crucial for social teams, and for businesses to benefit from social insights. But 43% of social teams still feel siloed—especially on mid-market and enterprise teams.

Establishing smoother cross-team communication and collaboration was a core theme across our community tips. Apply this to your own strategy—identify where siloes or roadblocks occur, and identify opportunities for more communication.

For example, create a system to share relevant social insights and data with other teams. A social listening strategy can empower you to uncover valuable insights for your product, PR and partnerships teams alike. And auto-generated data visualizations and shareable reports ease the process, helping you tell a data story to multiple departments.

Knocking down silos can also mean involving other teams to bring their expertise to social content. Think: recruiting employees from other departments as video talent, leveraging them in a meet the team post series or simply working with them to ensure campaign alignment.

Take a hint from Kelly Bean’s tip above and use a master calendar for visibility. Look for features in your social media management platform that can help you—like Sprout’s built-in content calendar and workflows that streamline collaboration and approval processes.

Get more sophisticated with your data use

Social data and its uses are only getting more sophisticated and more useful across departments.

For example, key social media metrics like engagements and follower growth are still crucial and widely used. But many marketers are taking their metrics a step further, connecting them to business goals. According to the Index, 60% of marketers plan to quantify the value of social engagement in terms of potential revenue impact in 2024.

Put your social data into action and tie your social efforts to larger business impact. An easy way to start is by using UTMs in your links to track purchases and actions taken from social. You can create these on your own or, if you use Sprout, easily manage these directly in the same platform you use for content, engagement and reporting.

When in doubt, AI will help you out

According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work—especially for freeing up creativity and boosting efficiency.

With so many marketers already adopting AI into their workflows, the teams that don’t risk falling behind. Bring it into your workflow where you think it can make your team more efficient.

AI copy tools, for example, give you a starting point for post ideas and copy, customer service responses and more. Tools like Sprout’s Suggestions by AI Assist even enable you to adjust for tone, speeding up the content creation and engagement process.

Use these social media tips and tricks to refresh your 2024 strategy

No social practitioner or team is alone. Use this expert social media marketing advice to inspire and improve your strategy.

Do you have social media tips of your own? Or just want to learn more? Join our community, The Arboretum, to connect with other social pros, for exclusive live events and to stay ahead in the industry.

The post 8 social media tips from experienced marketers appeared first on Sprout Social.

With more people flocking to networks than ever before, social media and consumer behavior have evolved in lockstep, so understanding how to reach your target audience remains a necessity.

In this article, we’ll discuss the top six ways social media influences consumer behavior and what each means for your brand’s social strategy.

1. Consumers buy directly from social

Index data shows the top reason consumers follow brands on social media is to stay informed about new products/services, followed by getting access to exclusive deals and promotions.

But why is social commerce so popular? One reason is that it meets consumers where they already are. According to data from McKinsey, the majority of consumers use at least three channels for each purchase journey. For many, checking Facebook, Instagram or TikTok daily—whether they’re casually scrolling or searching for new products—has become as routine as brushing their teeth.

Networks continue to experiment with and formalize ecommerce capabilities to bring convenience to consumers and present brands with new revenue streams. For example, TikTok Shop launched in September 2023, enabling users to find and shop for items even more easily.

US annual social commerce sales per buyer are projected to double from $628 million to $1.224 billion in 2027, based on a forecast from Insider Intelligence.

How you can use this insight

Social commerce makes it infinitely easier for brands to deliver the seamless purchase experience buyers want. You can turn a casual scroller into a new customer in a couple of clicks. For example, if you’re a retail business and a holiday is coming up, you can create a shoppable Facebook ad or offer a limited time offer using Instagram Shops for your seasonal product lines.

If you’re not already, look into what social commerce functionality is available on the channels your audience spends the most time on. From TikTok to YouTube livestream shopping, there is a growing number of ways to connect with ready-to-buy consumers.

If you’re a Sprout user, take advantage of our integrations with Shopify and Facebook Shops by connecting your product catalogs with our platform—you can quickly add product links in your outbound posts and customer replies.

2. Consumers expect two-way engagement with brands

Social media adds another dimension to the brand-customer relationship. A brand is no longer a remote, faceless entity that we only learn about in publications, press releases or Google searches. Looking at a brand’s social networks helps you gauge their values, relevant news and offerings, and how they relate to their audience.

Social lets consumers engage and interact with businesses in a multitude of ways, from liking posts and following their accounts to sharing brand-related content, shouting out brand love or asking product questions. And of course, social shopping makes conversions faster.

Don’t be too shy to engage with your audience, jump on relevant trends, ask questions or run polls and Q&As. And don’t forget to respond to direct messages, comments and @-mentions.

The Index found 51% of consumers said the most memorable brands on social respond to customers. Across all age groups, consumers want to know they’re being heard.

Brand authenticity will drive a customer to choose you over a competitor—and stick with you. This means upholding your organization’s claimed values, listening to your audience, discussing what matters to them, anticipating their needs and delivering on the promises you make.

How you can use this insight

Engagement happens perpetually across multiple channels and formats. With a tool like Sprout’s Smart Inbox, you can set up rules to automatically tag and categorize inbound messages so you never miss an opportunity to engage.

Analyze trends and patterns across these conversations to gain a deeper understanding of your customers. What’s delightful and what’s frustrating them? What are they praising, and what are they criticizing? What are they sharing about your brand and your competitors with their own audiences?

Of course, brands should address complaints and negative inbound messages, but tools like Sprout can help brands get the answers to these questions so they can proactively engage versus reactively. For example, with social listening, you can uncover opportunities to surprise and delight your customers.

Elicit and listen to feedback and share it with your organization. Channel this feedback to your colleagues across the business from sales and marketing to product and operations to deliver more tailored customer experiences in the future.

3. Consumers turn to social media for customer service

The evolution of social media and consumer behavior has transformed customer service interactions. Before social, consumers could expect to interact with a brand by calling, emailing or visiting locations in person—complete with the infamous wait times to talk to a representative. Today, social is consumers’ preferred choice for sharing feedback and reaching out with a customer support issue or question.

The days of long telephone hold times punctuated by elevator music are dwindling. Consumers with a product question or order issue are much more inclined to reach out via a brand’s Facebook page, X (formerly known as Twitter) @-mention or Instagram direct message. But social media moves fast, which means customers expect faster answers.

Index data shows customer service isn’t just about responding quickly either. Although 76% of consumers value how quickly a brand can respond to their needs, 70% expect a company to provide personalized responses to customer service needs.

Regardless of whether it’s a busy season, customer service teams may already be spread thin or lack resources, which can result in missed messages, slower responses and suboptimal replies. Prevent frustration, reduce delays and improve communication by evolving your approach to social customer service.

Social customer care starts even before a customer reaches out to you. It means getting a clear understanding of what your customer wants from you, reducing room for error and building long-term relationships with your audience.

How you can use this insight

How can you create and maintain a social customer care strategy? Start by making it easy for customers to find you. Include relevant contact info on your organization’s social media profiles and bios. Make sure you’re monitoring Meta Messenger and direct messages on X, Instagram or TikTok (or consider recruiting a chatbot’s help) if that’s the communication channel your customers flock to most.

If your business has dedicated teams for social media and customer care, collaboration across departments is a must. Implementing a social customer relationship management (CRM) tool gives you a single source of truth to provide customer service while getting a more holistic view of customer behavior.

Another critical step is proactive message management. If a customer feels like they’re being ignored, they’ll move on to a more attentive competitor. Do you have ways to centralize inbound support messages across different social networks? Can your social customer care agents easily access important client information via CRM or help desk integrations? Do you have an efficient process for approving replies to customer questions on social?

If you answered “no” to any of these, don’t be afraid to turn to tools like Sprout to help your team work smarter and build stronger customer relationships.

4. Consumers demand authenticity in the age of AI

Index data shows authentic, non-promotional posts are ranked as the number one content type consumers don’t see enough of from brands on social. However, with limited bandwidth and resources, it can be difficult to consistently produce authentic, creative content at scale. Enter: artificial intelligence (AI).

And although 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work, consumers aren’t as eager to jump onto this technology wave. Over a third (42%) of consumers say they are slightly or very apprehensive about the use of AI in social media interactions.

How you can use this insight

So how does this impact your brand’s content strategy? Consider pulling back on trendjacking and prioritizing original content that’s true to your brand.

Shaping genuine connections and building community can’t be replicated by machines alone, but adding that golden human touch requires time. Leverage AI to handle manual, time-consuming tasks like social media reporting. If you use AI to create spreadsheets and reports, marketers can focus their energy and efforts into developing more impactful content and engagement strategies. Research and identify where to incorporate AI across your teams’ tasks and workflows.

5. Consumers want more transparency and less performative activism

A few years ago, consumers wanted brands to take a stand on important causes. The latest Index shows only 25% of consumers think brands must speak out on causes and news relevant to their values to be memorable on social.

Consumers want brands to share more about their business values and practices, and how their products are made/sourced—but they aren’t necessarily looking for them to “take a stand” on larger issues. Due to the rise of performative activism, some efforts read as disingenuous and inauthentic. In other words, consumers don’t just want brands to talk about their values, they must walk the walk too.

How you can use this insight

This slight shift in consumer behavior is an opportunity for social teams to collaborate with colleagues beyond marketing. Work to develop messaging around your company’s supply chain, operations, labor practices and culture that will resonate on social. Consider featuring more employees in your social content such as a behind-the-scenes series, or connect with C-suite executives to refine their social presence and thought leadership on platforms like LinkedIn. And to amplify those efforts even more, implement employee advocacy into your content strategy.

6. Consumers are heavily influenced by social media reviews

Social media is a living document for social proof—which is increasingly a make-or-break factor for buying decisions.

Data from the Yale Center for Customer Insights shows almost 90% of`consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations. And half of consumers 18-54 look for online reviews before deciding to visit a local business.

Even the most dazzling, high-budget television ads can’t always deliver what social media offers for free: authenticity. Consumers take to channels like X and review hubs like Yelp and Google Reviews to praise, champion and criticize different products and businesses. Buyers are more likely to trust this unfiltered peer feedback from people who have already tried a product or engaged with a brand.

From a brand perspective, reviews are key for audience growth and reputation management. Every review post, comment and @-mention is either an opportunity to reflect on ways your business can improve—or a glowing testimonial worth sharing more broadly with your audience.

How you can use this insight

Online review management is tricky, but it’s a must for maintaining a positive reputation. It’s hard to distill review data from disparate sources into a quantifiable metric. With a social listening tool like Sprout’s, you can easily analyze the sentiment of messages that mention your brand so you can dig into positive, neutral and negative feedback.

Sprout’s review management capabilities ensure you never miss a message (or a chance to engage) by centralizing reviews from Facebook, Glassdoor, Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Play Store and Apple App Store in one place.

You can also conduct sentiment analysis in Sprout’s Smart Inbox and Reviews feed. Sprout will automatically assign sentiment to messages in your Smart Inbox and Reviews, but you can dig in further by adding filters and custom views.

Social media and consumer behavior: An ongoing transformation

Social media leveled the playing field between buyers and brands. Consumers can learn about and engage with brands more easily, and vice versa. Brands can listen to what matters to their audience at the most individual level and help solve problems faster.

Thanks to social, consumers expect much more from the businesses they support. With the right tools, organizations of any size can rise to the challenge.

Looking to learn more about social media and consumer behavior and the right next steps? Learn more data insights in The Sprout Social Index™.

The post 6 ways social media impacts consumer behavior appeared first on Sprout Social.

From the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend to devoted subcultures like #BookTok, brands are finding creative and authentic ways to position and sell their products or services directly to TikTok audiences. You can too, by making engaging and helpful short videos that speak directly to your audience’s interests.

But where do you begin? In this article, we break down the top 15 strategies for how to make money on TikTok, updated to include changes to the creator fund announced in November 2023.

Table of Contents

• Join the TikTok Creativity Program/ Creator Fund
• Run TikTok ads
• Collect tips or donations
• Collaborate with a creator
• Try affiliate marketing
• Grow and sell TikTok accounts
• Publish sponsored posts
• Create a Patreon account
• Sell your products and merchandise
• Set up a TikTok shop
• Offer exclusive content on TikTok
• Provide virtual gifts
• Host live events or workshops
• Offer personalized shoutouts
• Sell digital products

1. Join the TikTok Creativity Program/ Creator Fund

Since 2020 TikTok has offered its most popular creators a program to monetize content. In November 2023 TikTok announced some changes to how this works, depending on where you are located in the world. TikTok are shutting down the Creator Fund for users in the US, UK, Germany and France and replacing it with the Creativity Program starting December 16th.

TikTok says the new fund will enable creators in these countries to make more money for video uploads over a minute. To join, users must have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days. Earnings will also be based on views and other TikTok engagement metrics.

Are you a creator in Italy and Spain? Users in these countries can still monetize their profiles through the TikTok Creator Fund. Creators need to hit some prerequisites to join the program and begin receiving money from the platform. Creator Fund members earn money based on the number of engagements they get on their content.

2. Run TikTok ads

About 67% of 18-19 year olds and 56% of 20-29 year olds are on TikTok. This makes TikTok marketing a strong advertising choice for brands wanting to market their products to Gen Z. TikTok ads come with simple, powerful tools to help you advertise to millions of users. Ad formats vary by region, but all let you personalize your targeting by age, location, interest and other factors. You can select one or a few formats that work best for your brand.

The most popular types of TikTok ads include:

In-feed video: Appear on the For You Page of TikTok users who meet your targeting parameters.

Brand takeover: This lets your ad expand to the width of the whole screen for a few seconds. Then it becomes an in-feed video ad.

Hashtag challenges: Create appealing challenges that encourage user-generated content. These challenges appear in the Discovery section on TikTok. This option is only available to managed brands that work in collaboration with TikTok sales representatives.

There are several more types of TikTok ads you can experiment with, but note that some are only available to certain types of accounts.

3. Collect tips or donations

TikTok has introduced a tipping feature that allows select creators to earn money from tips and donations. Fans can use this feature to show gratitude to the creators they love.

Video gifts let viewers send creators virtual gifts and coins. Some creators can collect gifts during a live stream. Gifts can be redeemed for Diamonds—TikTok’s digital currency.

When you save up enough Diamonds, you can trade them for real cash.

Creators can also use tipping platforms to earn money. Tipeee, Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee can be connected to your TikTok account to function as a tip jar.

4. Collaborate with a creator

The latest Sprout Social Index™ shows that 33% of Gen Z and 28% of Millennials value brand/creator content collaborations. TikTok’s thriving community of content creators makes it an excellent channel for collaborating with influential people with highly engaged communities.

The key is to collaborate with the right creators who can authentically position your brand to their audience, as creator-made branded content has 83% higher engagement rates.

TikTok’s Creator Marketplace is where you can connect with content creators on the network. In a few steps, you can find influencers and run campaigns with them. Locate creators based on business goals, budget and industry, and find comprehensive performance and audience metrics for data-driven decision-making.

TikTok has some eligibility requirements for the Creator Marketplace, so only select creators can join. This assures marketers that creators they partner with are some of TikTok’s top influencers.

5. Try affiliate marketing

Through affiliate marketing programs, creators and other businesses can promote and sell another company’s products or services for a commission.

To be a successful affiliate marketer, you need to generate sales online. Focus on promoting products that best align with your target audience. Create engaging videos that present affiliate products, showcasing the value and why you recommend purchasing them. Try promoting brands you like and trust, sharing affiliate links or codes to track purchases influenced by your account.

If a follower makes a purchase through the link or code provided, then you will receive a commission from the brand for that sale. TikTok doesn’t allow personal accounts to place clickable links within video descriptions. But you can ask followers to copy and paste links into their browsers, or enter special codes at checkout. Sites like Beacons allow you to create a free webpage containing affiliate links and details for products being promoted. If you have a business account, you can add a link in your bio.

If you’re an in-house marketer, create an affiliate marketing program with clear guidelines and instructions on how to participate. Invite TikTokers who align with your brand values and target audience to participate. Encourage affiliates to promote the products or services that best align with your goals and shared audience. And most importantly, implement a tracking system so you can monitor affiliate performance and commission payments.

6. Grow and sell TikTok accounts

Organically growing a TikTok account could take months. However, you can buy an established account to get an instant boost of followers.

To successfully make money selling TikTok accounts, creators should focus on niche topics that can be sustained by the buyer. This will make it easier for the buyer to continue posting similar content and maintain follower engagement.

Brands considering buying an established account should perform due diligence. An account with a lot of followers but low engagement may not provide the return you’re looking for. Also, ensure the account serves an audience you target and the content aligns with your brand and goals.

Brands can purchase an account with active followers from platforms like 123accs, Accfarm and Fameswap.

7. Publish sponsored posts

For smaller activations, brands can sponsor posts that live directly on creators’ profiles. Similar to creator collaborations, these campaigns allow brands to pay content creators to promote their products in organic posts. Sponsor single posts or create a series. If it starts trending, you can boost the post to expand its reach even further.

8. Create a Patreon account

A Patreon account lets creators generate revenue from fans through memberships that allow exclusive access to content. Use TikTok to promote membership sign-ups.

Try to keep your subscription costs low to encourage subscribers and consider rewarding new subscribers. For example, giving away merchandise or exclusive content access to your most loyal followers. Add the link to your Patreon page in your videos or add it to your bio to make it easy for followers to subscribe whenever they are ready.

9. Sell your products and merchandise

Merchandise, merchandise, merchandise. This tried-and-true strategy applies to TikTok as well. Turn original artwork, quotes or your brand’s logo into merch and promote it on TikTok. Feature your existing products in tutorials or showcase your product alongside a trend.

Listen to your audience if you are unsure what to sell. Create polls or ask them directly to learn what they might buy.

If you have a personal account, create an ecommerce website to process sales transactions and promote it on your TikTok account. Add the store to your videos, and encourage your followers to check out your products.

If you have a TikTok Business account, you can connect platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Square Online and Ecwid store to your account.

10. Set up a TikTok shop

TikTok partnered with Shopify to launch the TikTok Shopping feature. Brands and creators can become official TikTok merchants and sell directly in the app.

By creating a TikTok Shop, you can showcase products on in-feed videos, lives and product showcase tabs. If eligible for this feature, you can signup to become a seller in the TikTok Seller Center, where you can manage inventory, orders, creator partnerships, promotions and more. However, the seller center is only available in select regions.

11. Offer exclusive content on TikTok

TikTok just launched a new monetization feature in June of 2023 called TikTok Series. This new feature is a way to create exclusive content that lives behind a paywall.

Interested creators can apply to get access to this new feature, but there are other criteria they need to meet as well:

• Creators must be 18+
• Their account must be at least 30 days old
• They must have at least 10,000 followers
• They must have posted 3+ public videos in the last 30 days
• They must have at least 1,000 views in the last 30 days

Creators who have less than 10,000 followers may still be eligible if they can provide a link to premium content they’ve successfully sold on other platforms.

Your Series can include up to 80 videos total, each up to 20 minutes long. This can be a great way to provide valuable educational content to your audience for a one-time fee. You can set the price for each TikTok Series you create, with payment options ranging from $0.99 to $189.99.

12. Provide virtual gifts

Another monetization feature is virtual gifts on your videos. People who really enjoy your content can send you virtual gifts as a token of their appreciation—which can then be converted into actual money.

Turn on the gift option to have a small gift box icon appear next to the comment box. Users interested in leaving a gift can tap it to visit this interface:

Coin packages can be bought in the following increments:

• 20 coins: $0.29
• 65 coins: $0.99
• 330 coins: $4.99
• 660 coins: $9.99
• 1,321 coins: $19.99
• 3,303 coins: $49.99
• 6,607 coins: $99.99
• 16,500 coins: $249.99

These coins can then be used to buy and send virtual gifts to a user’s favorite creators, with gifts ranging from 5 to 3,000 coins. Turn on virtual gifts to offer this option to your viewers.

13. Host live events or workshops

TikTok Live is another great way to make money. Similar to virtual video gifts, users can also send live gifts. The little gift box icon will appear at the bottom of a live video for users to tap and buy different gifts. The ranges on these are even bigger, with some being just a single coin and others going up to 10s of thousands of coins.

Several TikTok creators have shared how live streaming can be used to make money. One creator makes between $20-$300 every time they go live and another brought in $34,000 within a single month—just from live streaming.

Make sure your live videos are entertaining and valuable so that users keep wanting to tune in. The more consistent viewers you get, the more likely they are to stick around and send you virtual gifts.

14. Offer personalized shoutouts

If you have a large following, TikTokers who want to grow their accounts may be willing to pay for personalized shoutouts. Pick a price point and sell shoutouts as yet another way to make money. Your price may be a bit of trial and error. If you’re getting no bites, you may want to lower it. But on the other hand, if you’re getting a ton of interest, you might be able to increase your price.

You can then shout these people out during a live video or during a feed video. You might even choose to offer two different price points (with feed videos costing more) so that users can choose where they’d like to be shouted out.

15. Sell digital products

Finally, consider selling digital products. You can create a shop with TikTok and link to your digital products from there, making it easy to make a sale. Promote your products within your videos and include your shop’s URL in your profile so users can easily find it.

Learn more about TikTok for business

These strategies can elevate your TikTok game and put you on a clear path to making money on the app. Learn how to get more TikTok followers so you can increase your earning potential even more.

The post How to make money on TikTok: 15 strategies to use in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

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The post Begin, Budget & Build Your Influencer Strategy with Andrea Casanova appeared first on Sprout Social.

From influencer marketing growth stats to data surrounding the top three influencer marketing platforms, learn more about the state of this marketing strategy and how to get started.

Jump to an influencer marketing stat category:

• Influencer marketing growth statistics
• Influencer marketing advertising statistics
• Influencer marketing budget statistics
• Influencer marketing statistics for TikTok
• Influencer marketing statistics for Instagram
• Influencer marketing statistics for YouTube

Influencer marketing growth statistics

Influencer marketing has been steadily growing over the years and is showing no sign of stopping. Learn more about the industry and its projections for the future.

1. The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach $21.2 billion worldwide in 2023

The influencer marketing industry was worth just $1.7 billion back in 2016. It hit $16.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase by another $5 billion this year. This exponential growth demonstrates the health of this industry.

2. Instagram is the top influencer marketing platform worldwide

89% of marketers agreed that Instagram was the number one influencer marketing platform. YouTube came in second at 70% and Facebook in third at 45%. Interestingly enough, TikTok was excluded from this survey, though we do know that TikTok influencer marketing is also a big deal.

3. The global influencer marketing platform industry is expected to hit $22.2 billion by 2025

Influencer marketing platforms have also been popping up regularly to assist in a number of related tasks: finding influencers, partnering them with brands, creating contracts, planning campaigns and more. So there’s no surprise that the platform market size is also growing. It hit $15.2 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $22.2 billion by 2025.

Influencer marketing advertising statistics

Social media advertising is also a big part of influencer marketing. Promoting your influencer content can help improve the overall reach of your campaigns. Let’s dig into some stats surrounding influencer marketing advertising.

4. Influencer marketing ad spend worldwide is projected to reach $30.81 billion in 2023

Brands are expected to spend $30.81 billion on influencer marketing advertising throughout 2023. This spending is expected to increase to $47.80 billion by 2027.

5. The average ad spend per user in the influencer marketing industry is $5.78

Influencer marketing ad spend evens out to around $5.78 per internet user. This is expected to increase over the coming years.

6. The most influencer marketing ad spend is in China

China is the country with the largest influencer marketing ad spend at $16.76 billion.

Influencer marketing budget statistics

How much are brands spending on influencer marketing? As the industry increases, more and more marketing and social media budgets are allotted to influencer marketing.

7. 39% of brands worldwide have worked with only 10 influencers or less

39% of brands have worked with 10 influencers or less. 21% of brands have worked with 10-50 influencers, 16% with 50-100 influencers, 11% with 100-1,000 and 12% with a whopping 1,000+ influencers.

8. 25% of brands worldwide put 10-20% of their marketing budget towards influencer marketing

20% of brands put less than 10% of their marketing budget towards working with influencers, 25% of brands put 10-20% towards influencers, 18% of brands dedicate 20-30% of their budget to influencer marketing, 13% give 30-40% of their budget and 23% of brands focus 40% or more of their marketing budget on their influencer marketing efforts.

9. Brands are expected to spend $7.14 billion on influencer marketing domestically in 2024

Increasing from $2.42 billion in 2019, brands are now expecting to spend a total of $7.14 billion on influencer marketing in 2024.

TikTok influencer marketing statistics

TikTok and the short-form videos it boasts are a popular format for influencer marketing. Learn more about TikTok influencers and why this is such a powerful platform.

10. There are over 100,000 TikTok influencers in the U.S.

As of June 2023, there were over 100,000 TikTok influencers in the United States, with follower counts ranging from 5,000 all the way to 1,000,000+.

11. The majority of U.S. TikTok influencers have 50,000-100,000 followers

Nearly 2,000 TikTok influencers have 5,000-10,000 followers, 25,000 have 10,000-50,000, 42,000 have 50,000-100,000 followers, 35,000 have 100,000-250,000, 23,000 have 250,000-1,000,000 and nearly 9,000 have over 1 million followers.

12. Shein, Target and Netflix are the three most-mentioned brands on TikTok worldwide

Shein has been mentioned by 13,400 TikTok influencers, Target by 11,200 influencers and Netflix by 8,500 influencers.

Instagram influencer marketing statistics

Instagram influencer marketing is a must-use strategy for many brands, especially considering most marketers agree it’s the top influencer marketing platform. Learn more about the state of influencers on this social network.

13. There are over 500,000 influencers on Instagram

With over 500,000 active influencers operating on Instagram, it’s no wonder this is the number one influencer marketing platform. There are so many influencers in various niches, giving brands of all shapes and sizes the opportunity to partner up.

14. 65.39% of Instagram influencers worldwide have less than 10,000 followers

The vast majority of Instagram influencers are nano-influencers, with less than 10,000 followers. 27.73% of Instagram influencers have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers, 6.38% have 50,000 to 500,000, just 0.28% have between 500,000 to 1,000,000 and only 0.23% have more than 1 million followers.

15. 14.32% of all Instagram influencers are lifestyle influencers

The biggest category of Instagram influencers is lifestyle influencers. Next, we see music influencers (8.5%), beauty influencers (7.63%) and family influencers (5.74%).

16. Instagram influencers worldwide charge anywhere from $20-7,000+ per post

Nano-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) tend to charge $20-100 per post, micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) charge between $35-450, mid-influencers (50k-500k followers) charge between $150-2,500, macro-influencers (500k-1m followers) charge between $250-7,000) and mega or celebrity influencers (1m+ followers) charge $1,200 and up.

17. Instagram, Zara and Shein are the three most-mentioned brands on Instagram worldwide

Instagram has been mentioned by 85,500 Instagram influencers, Zara by 66,400 influencers and Shein by 57,200 influencers.

18. Instagram influencers worldwide with less than 10,000 followers have the highest engagement rates

Nano-influencers, or influencers with less than 10,000 followers, have the highest engagement rate at 2.53%. Micro-influencers have an engagement rate of 1.06%, mid-influencers come in at 0.91%, macro-influencers at 0.86% and mega-influencers at 0.92%. The average engagement rate of Instagram influencers is 1.9%.

YouTube influencer marketing stats

Finally, let’s cover YouTube influencer marketing stats and what the state of this long-form video platform and its affiliate with influencers looks like.

19. There are nearly 500,000 YouTube influencers in the U.S.

There are nearly 500,000 YouTube influencers in the United States. We don’t have global data, but we can assume there are even more potential influencers to partner with on YouTube globally.

20. The majority of U.S. YouTube influencers have 10,000-50,000 subscribers

Nearly 70,000 YouTube influencers have 5,000-10,000 subscribers, over 300,000 have 10,000-50,000, nearly 30,000 have 50,000-100,000 subscribers, 27,000 have 100,000-250,000, 20,000 have 250,000-1,000,000 and nearly 8,000 have over 1 million followers.

21. The top three YouTube influencer categories globally are people and blogs, entertainment and music

The largest category of YouTube influencers (20.6% of influencers) focuses on content surrounding people and blogs. This is followed by entertainment influencers (16.8%), music influencers (13.7%) and video game influencers (12.1%).

22. Steam, AliExpress and Flipkart are the three most-mentioned brands on YouTube worldwide

Steam has been mentioned on YouTube 76,060 times, AliExpress has been mentioned 53,060 times and Flipkart has been mentioned 49,040 times.

Keep these influencer marketing statistics in mind

Want to ramp up your influencer marketing strategy? Knowing these statistics can help. But so can the right influencer marketing tools. Find the best tools for your team so you can start partnering with influencers in your niche.

The post 22 influencer marketing statistics to guide your brand’s strategy in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.