Here's what we're covering in today's episode:

The newest tool for your business: Impact's Creator Marketplace (4:02)

Monica & Michelle discuss Impact's new app, which is designed to simplify the influencer marketing process by providing tools for creating tracking links, managing proposals, and applying to brands. They explore the potential benefits of this platform for both influencers and brands.

Threads and Influencer Engagement (10:01)

Thoughts on Threads and its potential for creators, its decline in popularity, and its impact on influencer engagement strategies.

iOS 17 Update and Its Implications for Creators (22:09)

How the upcoming iOS 17 update might affect creators. The importance of affiliate networks in supporting creators and navigating changes brought about by software updates.

Navigating Changes in the Creator Landscape (18:54)

Adaptation and staying flexible in response to changes in the creator landscape, from social media platforms to software updates. When to experiment and pivot when necessary.

Ask Us Anything

Have a question on the influencer space or how to become more established in the creator economy? Send us your questions and we’ll get them answered on upcoming episodes. 

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ITC Episode 2sesx_mixdown

[00:00:30] Michelle: Yeah,

[00:00:54] Monica: Everyone could possibly be a creator one day. I saw, and I don't know if [00:01:00] you saw this, but the of Colorado on their practice football practice jerseys, they're doing instead of their last names, they're doing their social media handle.

[00:01:15] Monica: Yeah. And I'm like, well, now that athletes, college athletes can get, you know, those sponsorship opportunities.

[00:01:31] Michelle: I thought that was so interesting. Yeah. Yeah. That whole thing is so fascinating to like, because also I grew up swimming and a, a big, um, question that everyone had was, did you want to go pro or did you want to swim in college and like, uh, The people that like peaked in high school and went to the [00:02:00] Olympics, like it was basically the only way that you could get, I guess this is the same thing too with like gymnastics and basically any lesser known sport.

[00:02:22] Monica: That's so funny. Cheerleading is the exact. Opposite. Well, not exact opposite. There's just no money in cheerleading, but I remember in high school, probably like senior year, I would get asked, do you want to be a professional cheerleader?

[00:03:02] Monica: And I feel like that's a whole new level that did not exist.

[00:03:34] Michelle: So that was University of Colorado. Yeah. So.

[00:04:01] Monica: Yes.

[00:04:47] Michelle: So not a creator app, but a way to like manage all of like some of the business side. Interesting.

[00:05:31] Monica: Collective voice. So the retailer gets the order, they push it through impact. Impact has all the rate information. So, and all of that is all decided in the network. So if you're ever like, why is this retailer 15%? That's something that the retailer has sent through to the network. And then these other platforms just aggregate that.

[00:05:55] Michelle: in. Uh, Monica, correct me if I'm wrong. So [00:06:00] there's quite a few affiliate networks. Impact is one of the big ones, but one, a retailer typically just chooses one affiliate network to be on. And then any, they're called like sub affiliates, like LTK, collective voice, Howell. They would need to sync up with that affiliate network to be able to work with that retailer,

[00:06:28] Monica: So it makes so much sense that a network would do this because then they don't really need Ltk Collective voice like they can just do it and these networks are kind of the ogs of this business like affiliate marketing has existed well before bloggers existed If you think about, like, how old, like, some of these affiliate companies are, they're probably double in age as a ShopStyle [00:07:00] or LTK.

[00:07:09] Michelle: to kind of, like, promote this. Celebrate. Because it's, like, hot off the press. Like, literally, they posted it two days ago. Um, and I think it also... Not only is it interesting that through doing that, right, you're cutting out some of the sub affiliates potentially, but there's, I mean, there are also different benefits like with different sub affiliates and we can talk about this.

[00:08:00] Michelle: Process and it makes it like putting it into technology is great Yeah, so I agree.

[00:08:51] Michelle: sense.

[00:08:55] Monica: is it an actual app or is it just like on [00:09:00] desktop right now and mobile?

[00:09:09] Michelle: see, um, they say marketplace, simply apply to become a partner and verify your details. Oh, how to join marketplace. Now, I'm not a creator. Monica is a micro influencer, so maybe she'll sign up.

[00:09:46] Monica: Yeah, so I'll have to log in and see if it pushes me somewhere

[00:10:01] Monica: We can also drop the link in the show notes and y'all can go explore and let us know what you think Yeah Okay, let's talk about threads

[00:10:11] Michelle: Um,

[00:10:39] Michelle: Ohhhh. I know. I feel like the one time I think about threads is when I'm on Instagram and I see the persons like, when they join threads. Oh yeah,

[00:10:54] Michelle: Uh, yeah. I'm

[00:11:01] Michelle: Um, I saw like, that is amazing. I think I was 3 million, but you know what, when I signed up and like, you don't really have anyone like going into your feed, right?

[00:11:28] Monica: I think, I mean, and here's the thing. I think a lot of people get hung up with the becoming a creator, influencer, whatever you want to call it and being like, well, I can't take pictures.

[00:12:03] Monica: Like you can't, you don't have to be like the stereotypical of what you think of an influencer. And I think Threads opens that door again, that Twitter, Twitter is a dark, mysterious place sometimes.

[00:12:22] Monica: Also, are we ever going to start calling it X, or is it just always going to be Twitter and Elon Musk is going to be the only one calling it X?

[00:12:36] Michelle: just without the bird. Well, I feel like I, when you see it in articles, it'll be like... X parenthesis, formerly known as Twitter. Like, I feel like literally if you only say X, it seems like it's just a placeholder. Yeah. Cause that's what I do.

[00:13:06] Monica: A hundred percent. Did you see that they're auctioning off? I think they might've already done it. Everything that was in the Twitter office, including the bird that was on the side of the building.

[00:13:40] Michelle: I actually was just, like, thinking in my head, I'm like, does she have an assistant? I wish. Like, in your dream life. Okay, pro

[00:14:05] Monica: And that's going to help you kind of put a different hat on, especially with negotiations. So when I used to do this, I used to just use my friend's name. And then I have a friend who uses my name and yeah, it's like your alter ego. And at the end of the day, as dumb as it is, people kind of do take you more seriously if you have like your assistant coming in and trying to negotiate or pitch to you.

[00:15:06] Michelle: price and to get the best payment for the company. So that's really smart. Fake it till you make it. Yeah. Yeah. But

[00:15:24] Michelle: Oh that, I saw 75%. I would think that 85% is more accurate now. Like I think that that's another thing, though, where when it comes to little, like, pithy statements, Like, okay, that was Twitter.

[00:16:05] Michelle: Right.

[00:16:25] Michelle: away? I don't know, because if you put it into Instagram, is that kind of like you're admitting failure of it's just also like, I read that they're trying to add features and whatnot, but how.

[00:17:02] Monica: No, that's a good point. It also goes to show how you can't release something just to be in competition with something else.

[00:17:44] Michelle: And same thing even with the platforms that you choose as a creator to be on, not just trying to get on all of them, but showing [00:18:00] up poorly because you don't know what your perspective is and using that platform.

[00:18:17] Monica: TikTok in order to have a successful

[00:18:54] Michelle: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Like that. I think [00:19:00] also you could theoretically have, be on less platforms if you are really following what's going on with that platform and you're able to use data to it. Evaluate like where in the funnel are things breaking down. If you're able to do that, then you can adapt and like Bob and weave a little better to changes that you encounter.

[00:19:34] Monica: And also on that note, when it comes to looking at your data, when it comes to social media platforms, let's just say Instagram for the example, this goes. Looking at this goes beyond just. putting blame on the algorithm. Like, the algorithm's gonna do whatever it wants. I believe that the algorithm isn't out to get you.

[00:20:22] Michelle: Yeah. And it's even the case, if you think about a more traditional company, all marketing departments know that if they, if they have a budget, like let's say you have a 1 million budget in 2023, you can't have that same budget in 2024 and expect the same results, right? Things are going to keep getting more expensive.

[00:21:12] Monica: Yeah. Well, and you even see when someone goes viral and they're got, they're asked, How did that go viral or whatever? They're usually like, well, I did something different. I tried something new. So we pivoting. Yes.

[00:21:44] Michelle: I think about that all the time. Like if something's not working. It's like, change it, do something new, like why would you keep like banging your head against the wall and doing the same thing and thinking that there's going to be a different outcome?

[00:22:05] Monica: So I mean.

[00:22:09] Monica: It does to everything in life, to everything. I've never seen that logic not be. Of sound advice. Yes. So, okay. So speaking of changes pivoting, we all know that every time there's a new iOS release, panic arises and that's right around the corner, isn't

[00:22:36] Monica: Oh yeah, that is. Yeah. It's always in the fall. Yep. Right. I, I don't know if I'm such a nerd. I remember in college being so excited to watch the like Apple keynote talk, I would like sit at my computer and I would literally watch the two hour keynote on introducing all the new Apple products.[00:23:00]

[00:23:06] Michelle: When, when I've worked at like other tech companies. Like, I remember one time, uh, the whole iOS team, we reserved a conference room and we watched it. And everyone was like, I mean, everyone there was super excited. Um, but my, just a question. Okay. This has always driven me nuts.

[00:23:47] Monica: I've What I know is that i've watched it since The iPhone came out.

[00:24:33] Michelle: Like it actually showed photos, which was a new thing. Literally, I'm not kidding. The next week. The video came out and I was already, I had already used a photo and I was like, this is a disaster. What? I always remember that. And I'm like, was that before they established the official cadence? Like how could I [00:25:00] have known, but I think so.

[00:25:27] Monica: How, how I didn't go to Harvard is behind me.

[00:25:37] Monica: want to know. You don't even want to know what I was having

[00:25:45] Monica: Yeah, no, if I go into further detail, then it's going to be a lot of red flags why I didn't go to an Ivy League. But anyway, I remember the one article that I remember is the one where they announced the iPod. [00:26:00] And there was this, it was like this full spread in the wall street journal on the iPod. And it is like seared into my memory, which is just so wild how Apple has done that.

[00:26:23] Michelle: Yeah, I mean even the you see it now when people switch from Android to iPhone and it's like celebrated with like the blue bubbles Yeah, you now have in text

[00:27:03] Monica: It's like, it doesn't matter what age you are, you have the AirPod Max ones. I feel like it's like the most mind blowing phenomenon to me. Or

[00:27:24] Monica: ones.

[00:27:31] Michelle: Yeah, and then you change to like

[00:28:03] Monica: I lost one. I fell asleep on a plane and couldn't find it and I was just like, you've lost your privileges.

[00:28:30] Michelle: I wonder if that's

[00:28:32] Michelle: when I have them. I could never use even just the normal Apple headphones. I was always using different ones. Yeah. So I use the ones that, the AirPods that suction in much better. Got it. Okay. Yeah. Maybe you don't know. Yours too. Who knew? Okay.

[00:28:58] Monica: So, [00:29:00] as a creator, when there is a new software update shebang, not like the little version 0. 3, like the big ones that come out. So also why is it 17? That's coming in on not 16. Are we at 16? Wait,

[00:29:32] Monica: Well, it's like sometimes they come out with an iPhone and it's like, iPhone 6 came out, but then iPhone 8 is the next one. It's like, why did we skip 7? So, but anyway, iOS 17. Yes. Do creators need to be worried?

[00:30:05] Michelle: Yeah. Because of some of the things that they're trying to do to make some of the restrictions have a much lesser impact. Yeah.

[00:30:31] Monica: So that's always going to be this. It's kind of like the Instagram algorithm. Like we need to just stop pretending that everyone is just like trying to make your life more difficult. You have more tech people in your corner than you think you do.

[00:31:00] Michelle: Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, because that's what started all the panic. Yes Because there is some sort of, oh my gosh, by the way, for those watching, look at my nails. I love

[00:31:14] Michelle: day. I like, love them. Uh, she did a very good job. She did. But, um, so. It's kind of like what, what companies are trying to do.

[00:31:54] Michelle: Like, if I'm trying to, like, look for a new phone case, like, I like going to a few sites, [00:32:00] and then I'm like, ads, come to me. Yes, that's how I found my phone case. It's loopy.

[00:32:17] Monica: I don't know. You know how there's some products that you're just like, they're going so deep and influencers that I don't

[00:32:32] Monica: But to make sure we link to it,

[00:32:37] Michelle: Yeah. So I can be like, Oh, here's my water.

[00:32:46] Michelle: socket. Yes. Well, the main reason that I did this, I did already have a case, but it was because they, they did like a promo, not a promo, but an effort where they put a higher percent to helping [00:33:00] Maui.

[00:33:14] Monica: can. We're all philanthropists in our own way, but

[00:33:39] Michelle: And so it's kind of under the guise of privacy, but part of me also just wonders, like, Did they just want to take some other companies down because they own the operating system? But. Yeah. Yeah. But what you can do as [00:34:00] a creator is. One, not only educate yourself behind like, why is this changing? What does this mean?

[00:34:34] Michelle: So that's also where, like Monica said, there's a ton of technical people that are here to help you in ways that you don't even like realize.

[00:35:04] Monica: LTK to link to that product and you might think, okay, what is LTK doing for this whole cookie thing and privacy and all that they're, they're just creating like the link for you and like showing you the data and all that the network, like we were talking about with impact, they're the ones that are kind of doing that techie stuff behind the scenes.

[00:35:53] Monica: So if you educate yourself on it, you're going to feel a lot more calm. [00:36:00]

[00:36:28] Michelle: So it's just interesting when you see like some sub affiliates, which is what all of those are like saying that they can like operate in different, um, Like revenue models, ones that are very, very different from the norm, or like show you more data or whatnot. End of the day, everyone can see the same data.

[00:37:20] Michelle: How many affiliate networks are there, like eight to ten?

[00:37:34] Michelle: on it. So, I think it's important that everyone knows that, and maybe we could even

[00:37:44] Michelle: Yeah.

[00:38:12] Michelle: Yes, and thank you everyone. This is so fun. So, I appreciate all your support. See y'all next week. Bye.