One day we'll all be creators

one in three U.S. teens under the age of 18 have been approached by brands to advertise their products, according to social commerce platform Whop’s survey of teens aged 12 to 18 in the country. Two in five (42%) of U.S. teens are also actively earning money online, averaging some $717 in earnings in the last year, the study found. Additionally,... See more

“Niche creator partnerships will thrive in 2025 as brands prioritize quality, storytelling, and shared values over follower counts,” said Julia Baker, senior executive producer at Stagwell agency Instrument.

Creators are no longer just influencers, reality TV stars, adult entertainers or #fitspo evangelists; they’re your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your local bartender and that one guy at Trader Joe’s who always bags your groceries just right. It is a preview of what’s to come.

Two summers ago meolah posted a video prophesying saying she hoped the next generation of influencers would be regular people. Quickly, the back half of her video where she states, “I’m trying to see what a bitch in Wisconsin is doing right now” became a viral audio.

In 2024, Patreon creators surpassed 60 million free memberships, held live fan events, increased monthly revenue of one-time purchases by 4X and the number of creators who started chats by 5X, while engaging with their communities and building sustainable businesses

Influencers, now a slowly fading cliché in the Internet’s tableau vivant, found success articulating the cult of personality, and marketing themselves as direct-to-consumer-goods. The shift away from this algorithmic surrender can be traced to the macro and micro “creator economies” spawned by the likes of Patreon, Substack, OnlyFans and even... See more

Posting like an influencer (because we are)

Our audience has drastically shifted, and therefore so has our online behavior. While it would have been embarrassing for me to post about my morning routine to my 300 followers on Instagram in 2015 (who did I think I was? An influencer?), in 2024 no one bats an eye. We’re posting content that gets thrown... See more

Once you know the tricks, it's hard to scroll through TikTok and not see the attempts to grab your attention and play nice with the algorithm. Rather than talking to each other, users trying to win the TikTok game are talking to reflections of each other, miming human connection so lines of code will reward them with more attention.

On TikTok Shop, creators only need as few as about 1,000 followers to become an “affiliate.” On the app, they can scour a list of eligible products, request free samples to make videos, and earn commissions — usually ranging from 10% to 30% — if their videos lead to actual sales.