Entrepreneur and Technology expert with over 14 years + of extensive experience in developing & managing Digital Product and Management along with monetization and traffic generation. Lead all digital product management aspects including developing social and SEO strategies that boost traffic and online conversion. Crafted Product Management Canvas that ensures product development investment is aligned with strategic goals of the business. Adaptive to a rapid changing environment with good organisational and analytical skills.
All the creators today are present on multiple platforms and trying to build a community of their fans or followers. Social media aggregator platforms are their best bet to acquire and build a community however when it comes to monetisation, these platforms struggle to provide them the value equivalent to their following. Content creators are able to increase their following on these platforms but it doesn’t help them target their loyalists who could turn into high value users for them. How do you define a fan though? Fans are those ardent devotees who follow their idols religiously and would sacrifice most things only for a small interaction with their idols and would go to great lengths to get more information than others on them. For instance, while most people on Instagram follow SRK and Hrithik Roshan both, it usually means that they are followers of SRK and Hrithik but a “fan” would be digging up every nook and cranny to find out more about SRK and in turn aspire to transition into a fan from a follower.
Smart creators understand the journey of a follower to that of a fan and then to a superfan and hence, are able to come up with effective content strategy for their own platforms. And more often than not, the factor of personalisation is key here.
Mentioned below are a few reasons which should encourage any creator to own a platform, build a community of super fans and monetize their content on that:
Better Content Freedom and control
On their own platform any creator can set up their own content tonality and get the freedom to express themselves. People love originality and that is why the popularity of OTT series is rising among youngsters.
More freedom to control and personalize the platform
An aggregator doesn’t differentiate between Superstars and Influencers. There should be a dedicated personalisation which is missing in the aggregator space.
Better monetization opportunities
We have observed that ARPPU on personalised platforms are much higher as the buying happens impulsively post creators’ promotion effect. This also gives the fans a chance to get closer to the creator as the creator personally controls the platform which gives them better opportunity to focus on and monetize their superfans
Owning the first party data and better control on your own universe
The journey to convert followers —> Fans —> Superfans is influenced by the creator where, technically, they own their audience. This is one of the biggest factors why aggregator platforms are getting more value compared to creators due to which users / followers are joining their platform. Any creator should use a two pronged strategy to use social media platforms to build their audience and migrate them to their own platform for monetization.
Is monetization (getting money from fans) a good thing for creators?
Why not? Taking up the example of brand endorsements. A lot of superstars are promoting the products and the audience gets influenced to buy them as they trust the superstar irrespective of the qualities of the product/service being endorsed. So why not monetize the entertainment that the fans derive from the creators? They also get the benefit to come one step closer to the creator over a period of time.