The Revolution is Here + Weekly Recommendations
What's brewing in the content world?
Namaste dear friend!
When I started back in 2017, I had complete faith that one day this community will get what it deserves. This faith was my only source of motivation, and today as I stand on the verge of this revolution I am filled with pride. This week has continually made me feel more and more confident, the revolution is HERE! Here are some of the top events and initiatives of the week in the creator ecosystem.
Instagram hosted Creator Week from the 8th to the 10th of June, 2021 to “educate creators all over the world about the latest product launches and best practices for growing their Instagram account.”
Any good vision of the future has to involve a lot more people, being able to make a living by expressing their creativity and by doing the things they want to rather than things they have to
Mark Zuckerberg
How to Supercharge Your Community (e.g. raising money for nonprofits); Media Training 101; How to Break Into Entertainment; How to Start a Podcast; How to Get Discovered on Instagram (a panel with industry execs); Fund My Merch Line, are some of the virtual sessions that took place, in which creators were able to pitch their dream product idea to a panel of judges — and got an opportunity to be funded by Instagram.
Instagram is also the star creator ally for this week with its launch of new creator convenient tools and waiving off of the revenue share till 2023.
The native affiliate tool will allow “creators to discover new products available on checkout, share them with their followers and earn commissions for the purchases they drive — all within the Instagram app.” Instagram is also making it easier for creators to link their shop pages directly with their business accounts.
Instagram and Facebook also have new features in place to inculcate the reward culture which will immensely boost the creators and engagement on their pages. Creators on Instagram will be able to earn an “extra payout when they meet certain milestones while using badges in Live, such as going Live with another account.”
Facebook launched the Stars Challenges, “creators in the program can earn payouts from Facebook in the form of free Stars if they meet certain milestones, such as broadcasting a certain number of hours or earning a set number of Stars within a designated time period.”
Things are looking are even more hopeful back at home!
Stage, the Mumbai-based OTT platform has partnered up with Chingari, the short video app with a 68 million user base, to create artist-focused content.
STAGE is a digital, hyper-local, regional content platform that provides trending, entertaining, and informative dialect-based content. The variation of content in various dialects stands in line with Chingari’s vision of providing interactive and entertaining content in different languages across the country. The onboarding of STAGE on Chingari can be seen as an amalgamation of premium and sensible digital content and social media content which will open new opportunities and increase engagement on the platform.
Again, a huge win for regional content creators with niche local audiences. This will provide agency and limelight to the huge potential present in individual artists all across the country. Needless to say, this will also greatly enhance work and monetization opportunities for millions of creators. And I can’t wait to see some of the greatest talents emerge out of this collaboration.
The government of India launched the YUVA (‘Young, Upcoming and Versatile Authors’) Scheme. The initiative “envisions cultivating modern ambassadors of Indian literature as the country heads towards 75 years of independence.”
The scheme is aimed at young writers under the age of 30 to fuel literary activity in the country and promote cultural heritage and knowledge. 75 writers will be chosen through an All India contest conducted at MyGov. The contestants will be asked to submit a manuscript of 5,000 words to judge its suitability to develop as a proper book under the Mentorship Scheme. The training program will be conducted in two phases. At the end of the training period, a scholarship of ₹50,000 per month for a period of 6 months per author will be paid. Selected authors will get the opportunity to publish their book(s) under NBT. You can get the complete details about the scheme here!
This is a huge stepping stone for aspiring writers. It empowers and entitles more people to follow their passion and pursue creative careers. I am anticipating a wave of such initiatives at the national and regional levels. This might be the traditional approach to creativity but soon we can expect the effects to trickle down to digital creators.
I know there’s still a long way to go and maybe I am being overly optimistic, but I am full of hope and conviction that this is the beginning of a new era. An era that finally pays off the work that we have done together as a community for years slowly inching towards the victory line! The journey is going to be bumpy and full of obstacles but at least we are on the right track now!
What I was reading this week?
A lot is happening in the creator economy!
Youtube’s Creator Economy is bigger than ever? Two million creators currently claim a share of the site’s ad revenue!
How Mumbai is beating all the odds in its battle against the virus. (#proud Mumbaiker)
This interior designer from UP is bringing art and sustainability together
This artisanal chocolate brand from India just won the silver at the International Chocolate Awards!! (I had no idea there are award shows for chocolates!)
What I was doing this week?
I did an IG Live with the Mother of Dragons(Dot Lung). It is one of my favorite interactions of this year.
(P.S.- this is not me bragging about things I have done, this is me trying to share the conversations and experiences I have had so that you too can be a part of it if it interests you!)
Memes + Music
Thank you for reading till the end, I really appreciate it.
What are your favorite moments from all the current upheavals in the world of content? Are you excited about what’s coming next? You can reply back to this email directly or comment down below and my DMs @pawan_rochwani are always open for you too!
I hope you are having a good day! Take care, book your vaccine slot and drink lots of water. I will see you at the next one.
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