Today's Talking Growth is very delayed. Blame the turkey, mac and cheese, and pie. Mostly just blame the pie.

Now let's jump into today's Talking Growth. We're covering the network of Creator Houses that recently IPO'd, discuss what Instagram, Spotify, and Twitter have in common, learn about Snapchat's bumpy start with the rollout of Spotlight, and more.

As a reminder, Talking Growth (Pro) goes out every Tuesday and contains updates on the strategies and tactics working for my clients, marketing tips that are working from others, and tools and resources to help you grow your audience and revenue. In true BFCM fashion, Talking Growth (Pro) is now $10 vs. $19 for a limited time.
Join Talking Growth (Pro)

📰Talking Creators

Creator Houses IPO - Creator Houses are going public. West of Hudson, an entity that manages creator houses went public after being acquired by Tongji. The way it works is that the management company rents out the mansion to creators for free in exchange for a percentage of the creator's revenue. Few houses are successful with spotty business models being the biggest blocker. It gets weirder. Tongji is a Las Vegas-based company incorporated by a China-based hospital in 2006. The newly minted Club House Media Groups closed Friday's market at $2.30 a share.

The Pandemic Didn't Kill Influencer Marketing - In a breakdown by Morning Brew, Influencer marketing growth has gone up and to the right. Even amidst marketing budget cuts. 50% of agencies reported that they allocated more money towards influencer marketing since the start of the pandemic.

Charlie's Road to 100 Million Followers - As the first creator to do so, Charlie D'Ameilo reached 100 Million followers on the platform in a year in half. Critics call it luck but anyone that has grown their account knows that even with luck, it's still difficult to reach100 million followers.

🤳Talking Social & Platforms

Spotify Testing Stories - You read that right. First Linkedin Stories, then Fleets, and now Spotify. Discovered on Twitter, Spotify is doing a slow rollout of a stories feature to give creators more opportunities to grow and retain their audience. While comical, this a big opportunity for creators. After my conversations with artists facing marketing challenges, Spotify stories provide another touchpoint for creators to share content and BTS content all with the goal of helping artists maximize their streams.

IG FAQ for Creators - As more social platforms start to look the same, the path to victory for social platforms relies on their ability to win over Creators. Instagram shows that they understand this as their latest redesign pushed for users to spend more money via shopping and reels. This ultimately means more revenue for creators and businesses. Now, Instagram is testing a chat like FAQ feature to give social media users a chance to interact with businesses and creators.

TikTok's Growth - Even with a few bumps in the road, aka threatening to be banned in the U.S., TikTok's growth has been nothing less than stellar. In a breakdown from TechCrunch, they chart TikTok's path from obscurity to the next big social app.

Snapchat Spotlight Hits a Few Bumps - The TikTok like Snap feature, Spotlight, is newly released and hitting a few bumps in the road with its lottery system. If you're unfamiliar with Spotlight, it's the lottery-based system where creators receive payouts for their videos without the noise of likes and follower counts. The challenge is that those features while deemed noise, are social proof and a measurement tool that brands use to justify their investment on a platform. Snapchat is aware of the long shot they're playing, but I'm sure they wouldn't make sure a bold bet without initial data that this feature could result in a shift to retaining, acquiring, and creating new creators.

☂️Talking Drops From Creators

TikTok holidays playbook - Just in time for the holiday rush, TikTok released their holiday playbook to help brands drive better campaign results. This is a good starting point for those who've yet to engage deeply with TikTok and those considering making a push with the platform during this holiday season.

🌱Talking Growth Updates

Clubhouse Marketing Audits - Starting a few times a week I'll be running personalized marketing audits on Clubhouse. If you're looking to improve your content marketing, drop by, and come with questions. If you're not on Clubhouse and want help, signup and I'll accept your invite. Disclaimer: Clubhouse is currently only available for iOS.

Client Growth + Wins of the week

• TikTok following grew from 570,000 followers to 603,600 followers
• Instagram went from 21,500 followers to 21,800 followers
• Newsletter subscribers grew from 4,544 to 5,488 followers
• Course signups from 1126 to 1552 enrollments
• Private community from 100 - 186 members

What's working: Reducing the frequency of posting on IG reels and leaning into our pre-launch campaign for a new product launch. Right now every post has a CTA to signup for our newsletter and website so we own as much of our audience as possible. This resulted in signups going up across the board.

Signup for Talking Growth (Pro) and get access to marketing strategies such as leveraging Clubhouse branded rooms, tactics for negotiating better advertising deals, search trends, and an emerging marketing channel used by early-stage founders and creators

Join Talking Growth (Pro)

🏄Things you want to know

• Meet the management behind some of the biggest talent on social.
• The best sales letter I've seen breaking down whether creators should run BFCM sales.

Until Next Time

I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter. If you enjoyed what you read, forward this email to a friend. Just tell them to subscribe. Lastly, I tend to post more short-form content across social, so if you don't already, follow me and say hi.