π Online citizens and organizations
Hi everyone! My name is Nacho and this is my first time writing π
I'm really into the Creator Economy, always trying to learn more about it and stay updated on what happens daily, but never took the time or had the courage to write about it.
You may be asking, why do I care so much? Well, we all follow hundreds of creators and engage with their content daily, but although these guys live doing what they love, it's hard for them to make a living out of it, and I'm really keen on helping them out building better ways for them to create content and monetize their audience, as well as supporting the startups doing so. In other words, I want to grow the Creator Economy ;) .
Ok so today's topic is about the different types of people β and entities β that are part of the content creation and consumption, and what role they have in the Creator Economy. It's important to notice that the main character here are the creators, and the main goal with this article is to understand how they and all the rest of the involved characters interact and engage online, forming a massive economy.
To get started, we will define 2 different types:
Individuals: these are usually a person, but can also be a group of people that show themselves as 1 (i.e. Colin and Samir. Though they are 2 different persons, they interact online as 1). It happens many times that a group of friends starts casually creating content together, and if this content resonates, they end up having a big following so they decide to put a name to the group that represents them as a "brand". A good example you might know is Dude Perfect, a group of guys that do incredible stuff but you probably don't know each of their names.
Organizations: these are groups of people usually with an interest in common that gather online and interact in different ways. These can be formed by different types of individuals (i.e. all consumers; creators and consumers; or all creators).
Now let's dig deeper into what each one of them does:
Individuals
π§ Consumer β A consumer is someone who views or interacts with a creators content. There are 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, every one of them consuming content daily.
Example: You, reading this piece right now, and everyone else who has done so.
π¨ Creator β It is hard to define a creator, but Li Jin did it really well a few years ago: "A creator is anyone who has built up an audience on digital platforms. Doesn't need to be creating content per se; can be a community organizer." Their main goal is to put relevant content in front of their audience and create value for them, regardless of whether it was created by them or not. This content comes in many forms such as: articles, images, videos, software, and any other form of media. When it comes to why these guys start creating content, there are lots of different motives to do so, and the following are some of them:
have fun and/or entertain others
freedom
express themselves
fame/recognition
money?
Example: Mr Beast β what this guy has done is amazing
π Curator β Someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online. They are often knowledgeable people in a space, with a good taste or just find a different way to show content. As Gaby Goldberg said: "Curators are the new creators. With more creators, more content, and more choice than ever before, consumers are now being consumed by a state of analysis paralysis. The real scarcity isnβt content anymore. Itβs attention.", meaning they can somehow also be considered "Creators".
Example: Barstool Sports β a blog that covers the latest news and viral highlights of each and everyday.
π€²πΌ Collaborator β When creators grow and can't handle all the tasks that running a business requires by themselves, they often starts to look for help with more people (building a team), and these may be strangers or their audience/community members. These later ones are what I call collaborators βI don't know if this is the right term, but please let me know if there's a different one already β.
Example: a random guy on a community helping a creator out
I haven't seen much software built in order to foster this collaboration between creators and their audience/community. I'd love to build a tool that allows creators and communities to receive/give feedback easily and enables them to create collaborative pieces so if you are a software engineer and want to build this together hit me up!
How does the interaction between these individuals look like?
What if you want to become a creator?
A good βand saferβ way to slowly go from consumer to creator is to start by joining a community of like-minded people, being closer to the creator and helping them out with whatever task they need. Or you can also start by curating stuff and slowly transition into creating content yourself, sharing your thoughts or reactions to original content.
Organizations
π + ππΌ Audience β An audience is a group of people who consume your content, independent of one another. In other words, they may or may not have a relationship with each other. When you refer to your audience you may speak in terms of audience size, list size, follower volume, or subscriber count. Youβre usually just looking at size or quantity.
π + ππΌ + π£ = π Community β A community goes beyond simply the group or number of people experiencing your brand on their own. It brings them together in one place for a shared experience. It takes the one-way nature of talkingΒ toΒ your audience and turns it into a dynamic, multi-way conversation among people. Your community members are aware of one another and engage in conversation. They become a resource for each other and, as your community grows and matures, the members feel part of something bigger than themselves.
There are also communities that are not necessarily formed around a creator, but are a group of people with the same interest in a specific space, and usually people are part of multiple of different ones.
π¨ + π¨ Collectives β Collaboration has become pretty popular among creators in the last years, and so they started gathering in houses to create content altogether. But this collaboration happened before online, and I haven't found a term for it, so I thought probably the best way to call it was Collectives (I originally called them just "groups" but @LilaShroff helped me find a better term ;) ). They are basically a group of creators that connect online to create content together and promote themselves to grow faster, altogether.
All these "organizations" are powerful ways for creators to grow their following and engagement βwhile getting to better understand who they are talking to/withβ and those who find how to leverage them will set themselves for success. I'll probably write more about it and dig deeper in this topic in a different post since there's a lot to explore!
Okay lads, that's all for today. I hope you all liked this piece, I had a lot of fun writing it.
I'll start writing more about the creator economy and hopefully posting a new article next week.
If you liked this article and want to keep updated, hit the SUBSCRIBE button!!
Till the next one ;) Stay tuned β‘οΈ
Special thanks to @LilaShroff, @FernandoParnes and the MOC community (cc @LiJin) for their incredible feedback on the content and their help with my writing skills.