After having followed VidCon over the years, it was great to be able to attend VidCon US 2022 in-person for the first time. In June, my team and I headed to Anaheim, California for a weekend full of Influencers, interactive exhibits, free swag, and impressive speakers. Though there was plenty to keep me occupied, my main goal was to pick up some key learnings which I could apply to our day-to-day work on the Influencer Marketing team here at Fiverr. Here are my main takeaways:
Demonstrating ROI is a key focus for the Influencer Marketing team here at Fiverr, so I was particularly looking forward to “The Evolution of Creator Commerce” session. With platforms like TikTok and YouTube launching live commerce (the act of selling products online via live video from brands or content creators) formats, the panelists postulated that the use of live commerce is likely to rise among Western audiences. I was struck by the suggestion that live commerce could have even more of an impact for creators when promoting their own products than when promoting products from other brands. Now this doesn’t mean that brand partnerships should be completely sidelined. Instead, it provides an opportunity for influencer marketers to tweak their creative thinking and positively engage audiences in a new and fresh way. As an example, Fiverr could consider involving a well-known business woman in the development of a new brand and sell their products via the business woman’s live commerce content on TikTok Shopping. On the live video, fans would likely be interested to learn how their favorite influencers worked with Fiverr to bring the product to life and key messaging could be peppered in quite naturally. A partnership like this, when rooted in authenticity, could help to build brand love, drive sales, and position Fiverr as an enabler of the creator economy.
I appreciate that this may be slightly obvious, but hear me out. During VidCon’s “YouTube’s Algorithm Explained” and “Cracking The Code: YouTube Shorts” sessions, the presenters demonstrated that Shorts, YouTube’s new short-form video sharing feature, can drive significant engagement as a complement to longer form videos. Shorts can be used as a teaser or promo for longer form videos or they could be used as a way to show audiences some behind-the-scenes snippets, as examples. Personally, I like the idea of using YouTube Shorts as a way to further invite a creator’s audience into their content by showing them stuff they might not usually get to see. Think of Mr Beast’s Squid Game video. Imagine if there had also been a series of YouTube Shorts which delved into how he went about building the sets and getting contestants involved or even interviews with those who were eliminated from the competition. This Shorts content could have added to an already hugely successful piece of content and given audiences that backstage access feeling. For me, the pairing of YouTube Shorts with long form YouTube content has great potential to help not only the creators we work closely with but also Fiverr to deepen the engagement audiences have with our content.
If someone asks me for my personal or professional input on a project they are working on then A. I’m flattered, and B. I am genuinely interested in learning more about it. This also tends to be the case on Discord. The “Discord Presents: Cultivating Community” session used an example that stuck with me: creators think of certain social platforms as work, but Discord is the rec room, enabling them to talk candidly with their community. Creators often cite community involvement as vital input, helping them to better understand what content their audience wants to see. Those working with creators with an active Discord community have an opportunity to open source ideas or input for brand partnerships and even have the creator’s community vote on the top suggestions. Yes, there are some risks to this, but the reward could be a much greater audience buy-in and engagement, not to mention some positive sentiment. As for how this impacts the Fiverr team, we work closely with a lot of tech-focused and gaming influencers who naturally will have a community on Discord. For our future activations, we will want to consider tapping into these audiences to build better partnerships and a greater community.
Overall VidCon US 2022 was a blast. Whether it was the people watching, the informative sessions to the world’s biggest vending machine, I have come away from it with a belly stuffed with food for thought and lots of ideas to put into practice. Can’t wait to head back next year as the social media landscape is ever evolving!
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