Welcome back to our weekly deep-dive on the Creator Economy. This week we talk about how you can start to approach using new platforms.

• The perks of being an Influencer (0:48)
• Using new platforms, overview (3:39)
• Reddit deep-dive, including Laniege's foray onto the platform (4:32)
• Substack & Instagram Subscribers - free vs paid, providing value for your audience (18:33)
• Creator paywalls - an opportunity to leverage your superfans! (31:15)
• Our million dollar idea that will certainly happen on Instagram Subscribers at some point (33:14)
• Your follower funnel - how to find new audiences as you evolve as a Creator (41:32)

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episode-9_full_length sep 17,

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Monica: I'm Monica.

Michelle: Let's get into it.

we Have to talk about Split.

Monica: I keep going back to... Why do people keep doing it for Shopbop specifically, because Shopbop is lower on Split. It's not like it's a Bloomingdale's where it's like a higher thing, and I only see it with Shopbop.

Michelle: Something that could be happening is maybe... They maybe shopbop is telling the influencers that if they bring people through split links, they're giving them extra. It's like a bonus program that they're doing on the side.

Monica: Yeah, that's true. We're like, because that's true. They do have a really good influencer program where you get it's like revolve where you get, a monthly stipend. I know. It's

Monica: buy this stuff? Gosh. I know Kourtney Kerr does it for Revolve and then I've seen a few Dallas girls do it Shopbop. I don't know like the details and all that but I do know that they do get sent clothes

Michelle: That is so cool.

Monica: I know

Michelle: man. What am I doing?

Monica: I know that's when I'm like gosh I really would like to have a monthly stipend to revolve. That would be nice

But

Michelle: you could though I feel like you're always posting and you have a good personality

And she was like I've never met anyone who accomplished something when they didn't believe in their selves and and I was like. I know. I know.

Michelle: Oh my god, that is so funny.

Monica: But yeah, I was like, I guess I just have to decide. I do think one of my things is I need to be doing work that is, I can't just take outfit photos. And that's what I got burnout on the most

Michelle: No, I get that.

Monica: That's the negative side of it that people don't talk about a lot cause it's not glamorous at all.

The perks are, but the perks aren't the eight every day. And then there was and then that's why I started doing the coaching stuff because I was like, okay, I can help other people do that. And that's where I was always the most fulfilled was like interviewing people, helping other people start their own stuff and all that.

Michelle: Yeah, that's The thing though. That's why it could be a good idea for if people aren't sure if they want to do it full time for them to just start doing it on the side. Because every Job there's fun stuff and there's not fun stuff. Yeah. And also We've talked before about just needing to be camera ready all the time and It just gets very exhausting.

Monica: Yeah. It does. It does.

But I do think that is why what we're talking about today with the new platforms that I don't think everyone should go jump on all these new platforms all at once. Like you have to weigh if it makes sense for your audience or not, but I was thinking about how

But another one that I was thinking about, which is Instagram. So within Instagram, you now have the subscribers feature. And I look at the subscribers feature as it's like own little separate thing. So it's almost what are these three shiny new objects? Reddit, Substack. Paid subscribers on Instagram.

Michelle: How do you think, because the Reddit one is really surprising because yeah.

So how do you think that you should start to figure out what platform to branch out on?

Reddit is very overwhelming to me because it's just like a whole different world. Which is probably a blessing because the way I can go down rabbit holes, like I would spend all day on Reddit probably. But, so if you're someone like me who like doesn't even know how to access a Reddit article because you don't know if you need to download something, whatever.

Maybe just because you see that brands are now working with Reddit people. Maybe that doesn't mean dive into that.

Michelle: So you know what is actually funny?

Monica: Are you an expert in the forums?

Michelle: I feel like I've had different lives in reddit. It's a whole world. It's fascinating to me. Yes. I found the best Game of Thrones theory on there years ago. That was better than what the show ended up being.

I have it favorited. I can send it to you. It was amazing. Yeah, I'll find it and we'll put it in the show notes, but there's definitely different communities on there. There's, like Fitness ones and there's little pithy things where, Reddit can also be pretty cruel.

Monica: There's a lot of influencer ones where people just go to town on these influencers.

Michelle: Yes. I have seen some of those. They're brutal.

Those are the ones that people send me are the ones that have to do with influencers. But other than that, I can only imagine because it's so niche. These things are like so specific.

Michelle: Yeah, that's, what's interesting is. When you sent me that article, which now I've seen like a couple of other times, I immediately went to a few skincare subreddits.

I actually, The funny thing was on the Sephora one, literally, someone posted within two hours ago that they got, I thought it was called, I thought it was pronounced Lawn ee age, so

I'm gonna, oh, I don't. I don't know how the correct pronunciation is. That's what I've always said. How did you say it?

know. I got the lip mask, by the way. And everyone says it's supposed to be life changing. I thought it was fine.

Monica: It was fine. The Tatcha one is better. The Tatcha one is a lot better.

Michelle: But yes so not even two hours ago, and this was, I looked probably an hour ago or 30 minutes. Someone posted a complaint about one of their lip glosses like exploding all over. Yeah, so I was like, that is unfortunate timing that all this stuff is coming out about the brand. And yeah, the Sephora subreddit has between two and three million people.

So it's not nothing. Yeah. So how do you

I

Michelle: think also the fact that we're saying subreddit so much is making me be like, Is it called a subreddit? I know, I'm like is called a subreddit.

Monica: Yeah. So yeah, so are they like having people like who are like experts within these? Because I'm guessing there's some people that you just know are always there, the leaders of the groups.

Is it like Facebook groups where there could be the admins and then the kind of support

Michelle: people? So yes, but those people need to be affiliated with like the Reddit owner, because there are also guidelines a lot of the times where you

Michelle: I know.

But that's, because they haven't set up the rules, but so that what I was doing in a lot of subreddits was I was trying to find some posts from them because I wanted to know if it's ads. Because they actually have ads in feed, so that's one thing, or I wanted to be like, are they actually posting or are they trying to get people to post for them?

What was interesting about being in the Sephora one, I stayed there longer than the general beauty one because it was a little more like bashing. Where how a lot of the reviews now for Sephora are incentivized.

Monica: So with all these incentivized reviews, do you think that's hurting the Sephora brand because everyone now knows?

Michelle: Yeah, so I feel like a lot of that started because they wanted to make sure that people understood like, hey, this person was paid or gifted the product or whatever to review it.

Yeah, so that the intention started really well. It started good. But how it's evolved, it's how on and I only know about this because a company that I used to work at launched a book and they were all like, review it right now, get everyone to review it and buy it.

I really like it because the color match is like divine. Yes, but I looked the other day and it hasn't it wasn't even like a day on Ulta because I got it at Sephora and then Ulta got it online like a few days later. Yeah. Yeah. It already has 300 reviews, and I'm like,

Monica: yeah, okay. That makes sense. I have done one incentivized review before for PetSmart

I was like, it'll last five seconds, but I'll do this for the dogs. They can have a little gift.

Michelle: Yeah. What do you, if you're looking at a product on Sephora or Ulta, do you pay attention to the incentivized reviews or what do you do?

Monica: No, unless they have a picture. If they have a picture, then I'm like.

Okay, fine, because I'm actually seeing it with my own eyes. But if it's incentivized, no picture, no context of like there are other things like, brunette, blue eyes, whatever, then I'm just like, I don't know what I'm doing with this. This isn't helpful.

Monica: I don't know. I find,

Michelle: it's, I don't, I really wonder what research they did on this to be moving forward with locking in on that. I

Monica: would think that they probably, Are looking at their traffic and seeing the last click and seeing a lot comes from reddit because if you think about it Conversion is probably high because if you're going through the reddit thing about a specific makeup product It's probably because you're already on the fence about it and the deeper that you go Reading about it.

Michelle: Reddit's also very good with SEO, like some, you know what I mean, if you're, so to your point, if you're doing research, then you might find yourself on Reddit. So that, because one thing that I always see about that lip mask is that it's viral. It's awesome. Yeah. So then maybe it does make sense for them to be on Reddit, and maybe that is something that if you're trying to take advantage of a viral product, that's the platform to go on.

Michelle: It's like virality stuff. Everyone just wants to be viral everywhere. I know.

Monica: And, had That lip stuff not gone viral, they probably wouldn't be the brand they are today. Definitely. And I do think people are starting to talk more and more about how the lip mask isn't the end all be all.

And so maybe they're like needing a boost to be like, Oh shoot, people don't love this as much as they did a year ago.

Michelle: Right over the next week or so. We should keep tabs to see if we see any of this stuff yeah, I can take

Monica: you may need to keep tabs because I'm still trying to figure out how to just open a link

For, so for the longest time, I was just like, oh, I guess I can't open it. He's in really small print. It says continue to web. A little user error, a little not great user experience.

Michelle: That the UI of Reddit is the worst when I, cause I jumped on to the Reddit train late. it has been a thing for a very long time and I mainly, the reason why I made an account was to comment on that Game of Thrones theory and be like, this is so smart.

Good job, but when I first started using it, I was like, this is gross. Yeah. I don't like the UI, but

Monica: that's why Is it intentional to keep it looking how it looks?

Yeah. Yeah. People don't really care about what it looks like or what not, they just want to go on Maybe to get the truth. I say that very weird because I don't even know. I'm sure there's a lot of,

Monica: it is probably 90 percent conspiracy theories, but if there's a place to go to conspiracy theories, that's probably your best bet to start with.

Michelle: Which does make sense.

With Substack, though, because I do subscribe to one now.

Monica: Okay. Paid or free version?

Michelle: Free version, but actually your Reddit experience? Is basically, I would say 90 percent of my experience with on a free one where it's like, you can get all this stuff, but it's paid. So that's where you have to really make known what value you're giving to your audience.

They're just like someone decided to pay like this is what they're getting, but in general, you do, if you're, even if you're going to start charging people 2 for a subscription, 2 a month, you still need to be giving them something that they weren't getting before.

Michelle: Even outside of a morality thing, if you don't provide people something that they like, you're, you'll only have a subscription for a month.

Yeah. That's, and people are gonna keep just flowing in and out of your platform.

And if, and she gets people asking her every day about wedding stuff, just details, everything. So she was like, you know what? I'm going to put that behind the subscribers. She was charging like 2. Wedding week, everything is going to go there and that was compelling enough for her audience to turn into subscribers, which is amazing because it's like she understood what her audience is most curious about today and then she put that.

After the wedding, and now we've been back, I was like, I haven't seen her post stories very much. I usually she's very she has conversations with her audience through her stories. So she does a lot of story times and things like that. So a lot of times that's where I first hear about things.

And I haven't really seen that. And then she did this post the other day that was like If you've been wondering where I am, it's not that I'm off the grid. I'm still posting here, but I'm posting the really interesting like story times that are more in depth. They're a little more personal.

And they're over a hundred subscribers and I was like, ah, now I have to start paying you.

You sign up. So let's say. If you want to test it out and you make it 99 cents, then when you raise your prices, those early subscribers, they're locked in at 99. You're not also being like, Hey, I'm going to start upcharging you, which is good for the type of content it is.

Michelle: So 2 things 1. Going back to the wedding content and sharing that and whatnot.

But then you're like this is content that they like, so I guess I'm doing it. And as you start to do more and more of those things, it can snowball into just not enjoying it at all. Yeah. So that's why I agree.

The second thing is when it comes to some of the business stuff that Instagram is taking care of, which yes, that is awesome.

Anytime you can give yourself some shortcuts and just remove some of the businessy stuff, if you don't like that, or even just admin, like if you're doing 20 different things and you have to shoot for four different campaigns and post your affiliate stuff, and then you're thinking about content themes for the week, you're not going to want to remember oh, yeah. Okay. So right now my email or my sub stack is 5 a month. That's right. I wanted to increase it to 7. Yeah.

Monica: And what I really am intrigued about with Substack, I only have a login. I haven't done anything with it, but I like how it becomes your blog. It's your email list because it's also a newsletter.

There's just, they're hosting so much all in one. And I don't know what the pricing structure looks like if you're like trying to use all their features, but I do wonder does it also lessen the barrier to entry if you're new and you don't have a lot to spend on all these tools?

I don't know the ease of use, again the payment structure, all of that. But at initial glance, even at their website, how it's move your blog to Substack. Because then you have all of this here too. I'm intrigued.

If you do venture into other platforms, you can one, try a light migration for something else and even just see how does that take. But as a part of that, Monica, what you were just saying, is so key using the platform and understanding what is the experience that your audience would get because what I'm going through right now.

It's not really on a set cadence because I'm a free person. Got it. Okay. But I see every other word when I was signing up just for the free one was like, you can subscribe. Oh, you want this? Too bad. You're not a subscriber. And of course, I didn't actually say that, but it's the very.

Monica: Exactly. One other thing that is interesting with these paywalls for creator content, which first of all, it only makes sense if a creator is creating content. They should be able to monetize that if they want, but I have had a conversation with a friend when subscribers first came out on Instagram and there was this creator I'm blanking on her name right now, but she was like, I'm going to share my dating experiences over on subscribers.

one of the most empowering parts of being a creator is that you do get to control your own narrative Yes, and celebrities don't get to do that.

Michelle: You know what I just thought of I'm sure that this is going to happen, but there should be a branded feature where brands can pay for a certain number of subscribers or something at a certain rate and, or essentially they're sponsoring the subscription. For a week, right? For example, with Adriana, with the wedding, what if I saw her dress was from David's Bridal?

Monica: Yes, I was literally going to say, what if David's Bridal?

Michelle: But what if David's Bridal literally sponsored just for the wedding day and there was like a watermark or something?

So conversion is going to be higher because it's not watered down by the hate followers or the person who followed them once and forgot who this even is. Because once You get into the 50, 000 plus followers, not everyone there is the ideal shopper for that. And I feel like sometimes brands don't realize that.

There was one. There's a Dallas girl I follow, Amy Havens, and she's been around for forever. Her style really resonates with me, but to some people, she has a very strong personality. And she has a three year old kid. So she posted a picture of her three year old kid, like they made him a little DJ booth.

Because he likes coming up with little mixes or whatever. This girl meant to send this to her friend, but literally typed in, Oh my gosh, this kid is 3 and he's already a douche. And sent it to her. First of all, why are you even saying that about a three year old? Completely unnecessary.

Michelle: Yeah, but that's one reason why Reddit can get away with that because a lot of the people there are just like anonymous, blah, blah, blah. And there's no photos and it's just like little alien guys or whatever. So yeah.

Monica: But yeah, too. it's especially if you are charging to pay for the content.

So let's say the subscribers, then you get even more power to be like, I'm going to post what I post about, that, and do it in a safer space. In a way you're creating a safer space where I would be very concerned if someone hate follows someone and pays to the subscription because they're so obsessed with.

Michelle: Yeah, you just if you are very strong in your convictions and what you're doing you just have to keep going after it and not let any of that bother you.

No.

Monica: I, when I had a YouTube channel when I was like, 18, 19 someone commented about my eyebrows, and to this day I'm self conscious about I was never self conscious about my eyebrows. To this day I still am, because they said this at such an impressionable age. Yeah, and I don't think this person, whoever they are, even know that they made that comment.

I get a 15 minute facial and the brows done. 10 out of 10. She's amazing. Her name's Faith. But yeah you just. You just never know the impact that your words can have.

Michelle: Yeah, that Also does really show the strength in these subscription type things. Because even just for mental health, That's gotta be so refreshing where you just have your, I don't want to say groupies, but you have like your people.

Monica: That's who signs up for that.

Michelle: And it's Interesting to think if we do start to move into more of that type of a world, which it would also make sense because that's where a lot of newspaper publications are going, right?

Like online, there's so many paywalls, so many subscriptions like that. But the trick is then how do you keep going back to the business side? How'd you keep building your funnel? Because attrition is inevitable. Even if you have a really engaged audience, some people are going to leave. Yeah. So how do you motivate people so that they either bring their friends in or Like you post appealing enough stuff Like even with adriana with the wedding.

It's fine. How do you create a compelling enough, yeah. Space publicly for what is really behind that subscription.

Monica: I like that.

And I like talking about the funnel piece of it, because that once you're in your groove, let's say you've been a content creator for five years and you have your really loyal base.

And now you're sharing all baby content and all your favorite baby products and you haven't posted one outfit picture in six months. I've seen how friends, Suddenly

are like

my engagement is changing because my content is changing and I'm excited that my content is changing. But now what?

And that's Okay for all that to happen. I don't think that if you start as a fashion blogger, ten years later, you have to be a fashion blogger by any means. But I don't know that there's always a strategic plan for making this. The transition.

Michelle: So what are some things to think about if you are going to be doing that?

Monica: Or that's not even the realm of your reality anymore. You're not wearing a cocktail dress to go to the newest restaurant three times a week anymore.

You're just, the opportunity's not there.

Michelle: Yep. So how can you start to plan for that?

Monica: One, Is understanding where the majority of your audience is at, because maybe they're all in that stage too, and there's like a few people, but most of your audience is new moms and that's great. That's best case scenario, but at least, you pulled your audience, you drop the questions on what they've been searching for.

the first thing that comes to mind is teaming up with a creator who is already in like the mommy blogger space and start like meeting up and sharing stories together. Not just like meeting up to just talk about things, but being together in that person's stories So that their audience is oh, she's cool, too. I want to follow her.

Michelle: You're so smart. That would work in a situation where it's okay, do you want to meet up?

And the person's yeah, I've got some extra time. Let me help you. But then you also have to think about some ways that you would also be able to help. It's not to say you have to do it every time, but you don't just want to reach out to 10 mommy bloggers.

Monica: No,

I do think another idea that just came to mind was. Brand collabs and on the brand collabs instead of it necessarily being just you posting that on your own content But negotiating something to where they're putting the content on their own feed so that then You're tapping into their audience as well.

Yeah. Because sometimes these brand collabs you're posting and the brand will never reshare your content. I know there's the problem, the other direction that then the brand shares the content and you didn't get paid for them to do that. But I do think that could be an interesting way to tap into that new audience.

Yep. You could do creative things like that. Yeah,

Monica: I like that a lot because I also really just like this as a reminder that it's okay to pivot your content and that you don't have to be An xyz creator the rest of your life. You can be a fashion creator and now go into your diy era That's okay.

Taylor Swift, right? Started in country and then totally switch. But the thing with this industry, though, is you do need to put a little more planning. into it because it is human behavior that you're trying to influence. So that's gonna take a while longer because you're not going to just be like, everyone, let's migrate.

Bring your parent friends here. Let's

And I was also thinking with polling the audience, you can ask yes, what are you shopping for lately? You can also make it a little more relevant, especially coming up on holidays and be like, who are you buying holiday gifts for? Yeah. Oh, that's good. If people say Oh, my friends or whatever, you're going to be like, Oh, yeah, yes.

That's one thing. But if it's like my kids, my husband's that's going to be

Monica: different. Exactly. Teeth are teacher. Things like that teacher gifts. I'm like a teacher gift has never crossed my mind, but some people are like I'm so stressed of what to gift the teacher Because they already have so many candles My mom

Michelle: so many apples

Because, over the last 30 years.

Michelle: She never has to buy another candle.

Monica: No, she doesn't. And then she'll give me some so that I can re gift them. And it's like the easiest, it's the easiest thing in the world. It's just like the candle gift closet. That's

Michelle: great. That's

Monica: awesome.

Speaking of holiday, next episode, , should be like the holiday prep episode.

Michelle: Yes. Next, next week's long episode, or two, depending on how long it is going to be all about holiday. Which, if you're not already planning for it... You're not quite too late, but almost, so we're going

And we appreciate you. See you guys later.