Dive Brief:
- YouTube might be the main destination for video influencers, but Bloomberg reports that both Facebook and Twitter are looking to draw social media stars away from the platform.
- Facebook and Twitter are trying to get influencers to adopt their live streaming video offerings with the promise of ad revenue.
- While YouTube compensates influencers via AdSense, Facebook and Twitter are exploring different revenue-sharing models to make their platforms more attractive for video content creators.
Dive Insight:
In an effort to bolster their live streaming video content, Facebook and Twitter are making a big push to bring social media influencers onto their platforms. If they succeed, these influencers could bring hordes of loyal followers with them. But while Facebook and Twitter are now offering advertising revenue to content creators, it's something that YouTube has been doing all along.
Facebook has made video a major point of emphasis over the last year: The social media company updated its news feed algorithm to highlight video, and has made its Facebook Live streaming video offering a big priority. Despite being dwarfed by Facebook's user base and revenue numbers, Twitter is trying to keep up in the live video streaming race: Twitter has integrated its Periscope app onto its platform and has been aggressively signing deals with sports leagues and media companies to bring original live streaming content to its platform.
The success of these initiatives may very well depend on whether it can attract social influencers, who have the power to bring followers with them wherever they go.
“At the end of the day, content creators control engagement and control eyeballs," Krishna Subramanian, co-founder of influencer marketing firm Captiv8, told Bloomberg. "The more content they upload, the more engagement that happens on Facebook. And if they split revenue with creators, that will solve a huge problem creators have with the platform. People will start to post more.”
