Hi CCs! Welcome to the first Creative Commerce of 2024. 🌟

I apologize for my delay here. My partner, Asher, and I had to put our dog down right before Christmas 😢. Between that and getting caught up after the holidays, I had to take a little hiatus. But I am back and here with a lot of great updates for you to get our creative inspiration going for the new year.

Let’s get into it.

Certified Creator Spotlight: Meet the Class of 2024

TikTok reveals its Creator Class graduates. These are people who have graduated from TikTok’s Certified Creator program, which teaches creators to become branded content experts, and use their creative tools to become branded content experts and help advertisers drive success on TikTok.

This is a super comprehensive list of creators organized by category which makes for a super useful resource when you are looking for inspiration and brainstorming content ideas for brands and creators alike.

When is the best time to post on Instagram in 2024?

Later analyzed over 9M posts — including Reels — to find out 👀

It’s long debated whether timing really matters or not, but here Later breaks down the best time(s) to publish to stand out from the competition.

2024 Social Media Tactics [Report]

Oren John, who goes by @orenmeetsworld on Instagram, put together his thoughts on what creators and brands can do to succeed in short form video this year into a highly detailed report with reference links (which I love).

I started following Oren later last year and have been impressed with his perspective in the D2C luxury space, as well as his general social media strategy. In addition to growing his own socials, he has worked with many brands and creators to drive significant growth.

This report is super detailed and fun to read. Check it out to get a big dose of creative inspiration for this year.

Colin and Samir launched their first live cohort: Creator Startup

Creator Startup is a 30 day live cohort that starts in 19 days and costs $1,797. It is designed for established creators looking to level-up and learn how to improve their brand partnerships. Through live-learning and guided exercises, they “deliver step-by-step frameworks for building consistent revenue that allows you to focus on what you do best: creating.”

If you aren’t familiar, Colin and Samir are YouTube creators and podcasters that break down the latest in the Creator Economy from a creator's perspective. They interview the biggest creators on Youtube like Emma Chamberlain, Mr. Beast, Tim Ferriss, Smosh, MKBHD, and many more.

And they so happen to be my absolute favorite creators on YouTube. 🙂 

📈 Thoughts & Trends

Do You Have ‘Bookshelf Wealth’? A TikTok home-décor trend has irked some bibliophiles. [LINK]

How group chats rule the world: they quietly became the de facto spaces to share dumb jokes, grief or even plans for an insurrection. [LINK]

Michael B. Jordan introduces sea moss beverage brand MOSS. In partnership with DrSmood, available in flavors like Pure, Mango Ginger and Pomegranate to start. [LINK]

53 female founders who sold a business: learn how much they sold for and how they did it in this free report by They Got Acquired. [LINK]

Why ‘no spend’ challenges are taking over TikTok: ‘No spend January’ and ‘loud budgeting’ are trending on social media as young people shun consumerism amid the cost of living crisis. [LINK]

Buffer has published a social media content calendar and ideas list for every official (and non-official) holiday of 2024. [LINK]

📡 On Our Radar

Meta introduces new Creator Management tools: a way for agencies to manage creators at scale. [LINK]

On Monday, MrBeast uploaded his first full-length video directly to X (formerly Twitter) in an effort to see how its revenue sharing stacks up to other platforms. [LINK]

Just under a year after its launch, Instagram’s co-founders are shutting down their Artifact news app. [LINK]

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel proclaims “social media is dead” in an internal address to employees. [LINK]

FedEx is launching a new e-commerce platform as it competes with Amazon. The company says its new platform will help businesses offer a “custom post-purchase experience.” [LINK]

TikTok drums up engagement with in-app event ‘TikTok Tailgate’ starring Gwen Stefani ahead of Superbowl LVIII. [LINK]

Meta is reducing detailed ad targeting options. Existing ad sets with impacted targeting options will continue to run until March 18th but make sure to take a peek today and see if you need to update your targeting selections. [LINK]

‘Broadcast-level scale’: why retail media networks view in-store as their next frontier. At NRF’s Big Show, companies like Walmart pitched in-store as an advertising channel on par with TV. [LINK]

🎶 TikTok

TikTok eyes $17.5 billion shopping business on Amazon’s turf. [LINK]

TikTok implements new restrictions on hashtag search in Creative Center. [LINK]

TikTok Music has introduced a feature that allows users to import music from platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and more! [LINK]

TikTok appears to heavily promote videos and livestreams that use Shop — even if what's on sale is junk. [LINK]

TikTok launches Chromecast support to further enable clip viewing on home TV sets. [LINK]

TikTok reports non-skippable video ads may harm engagement. New research also found that ad duration is unlikely to impact performance, but ad placement will. [LINK]

📸 Meta

Instagram is experimenting with a new ‘Public Collections’ feature on profiles. [LINK]

Instagram tests option to create stories for friends. [LINK]

Instagram is rolling out the ability to display the number of new Threads posts created. [LINK]

Adam Mosseri replied to WSJ saying Instagram users are NOT sharing less, they’re just posting differently. [LINK]

Meta’s new disclosure requirements for digitally altered ad content are now in effect. [LINK]

Mark Zuckerberg reportedly got mad at people mocking his VR avatar at Sheryl Sandberg’s wedding, leading to changes in his PR team. [LINK]

The Meta Quest iPhone app was the top free app on the App Store on Christmas Day which suggests very strong sales of at least one of these headsets over the holiday period. [LINK]

🧵 Threads

Threads accidentally rolls out the feature to view latest search results. [LINK]

Threads has been spotted showing how often people post in the suggested follows box. [LINK]

☠️ 𝕏 (Twitter)

Elon Musk’s X claims it’s now a ‘video-first platform’ as it tries to reverse an advertiser exodus that has cost it billions in value. [LINK]

Elon Musk criticized by civil rights groups over claim that diversity efforts make flying less safe. In several posts on X, Musk claimed without evidence that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives put airline customers in danger. [LINK]

📹 YouTube

YouTube now lets Creators upload podcasts via RSS feed. [LINK]

YouTube Studio app now allows you to upload videos directly. [LINK]

YouTube adds simplified tools to edit long form clips into Shorts. [LINK]

📘 Linkedin

LinkedIn moved timestamps on posts from a prominent position at the top of a post, to a small spot at the bottom. This suggests a potential shift towards a greater focus on evergreen content versus content that is time-sensitive. [LINK]

LinkedIn newsletters now have an option to generate header images with Microsoft Designer (an AI powered visual design app). [LINK]

How to use LinkedIn for business in 2024: The ultimate guide to LinkedIn company pages by Buffer. [LINK]

🤖 Reddit

Reddit’s aspirations to lead ‘contextual and interest-based advertising’: How the platform is gearing up for 2024. [LINK]

Reddit shares insights into its rising value as a trusted channel for product research. [LINK]

🤖 AI Boom

Meet the TikTok girlies helping ChatGPT become even smarter: data annotation is becoming a surprising side-hustle for Gen Z—but it could lead to dangerous consequences for AI. [LINK]

New AI-generated digital replicas of real experts expose an unnerving policy gray zone. Washington wants to fix it, but it’s not clear how. [LINK]

Google unveils new set of AI-powered tools for retailers. [LINK]

Quora raises $75M funding from investor Andreessen Horowitz to power their AI Chat platform, Poe. [LINK]

Nvidia released its first “State of AI in Retail and CPG” report Tuesday. The study shows a bullish outlook for AI, with more than 60% of retailers saying they’ll increase AI infrastructure investments over the coming 18 months. [LINK]

Microsoft Copilot, the eagerly anticipated AI tools for Office apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook, is finally available for ALL businesses and users. [LINK]

How generative AI could solve the cookie deprecation puzzle in 2024. As the death of the cookie nears, marketers will need to have a better handle on their data, a task that AI might be able to handle. [LINK]

🤳 Creator of the Week

Charles Sung-Chull Lee is a plastic surgeon at Enhance Medical Center in Beverly Hills…and one of the funniest people on social (with a great social media team behind him let’s not forget).

We’re seeing more and more brands behaving like media companies with the development of characters in a brand universe. I think this works especially well with humor and entertainment-driven strategies.

Check him out and give him a follow on IG at @drlee90210

🎨 Creative Corner

Facebook Ads Challenge: Marketing Experts vs The Public (Part 1)

Meta Ads expert Dara Denney sits down with Alex Cooper to review the Facebook Ads of real brands to decide which one is the winner. They surveyed against themselves, Twitter, and the streets. 😅

This is really fun to watch and try to guess the winning ad.

That’s a wrap! See you next week.

Winter Mendelson
Co-Founder, Posture Media
Instagram / Linkedin / Threads / X

P.S. I will probably have typos in the event that my dad is unavailable to proofread. Sorry in advance.

​Creative Commerce is a newsletter for entrepreneurs, marketers, and social media managers. It is written, edited, and published by Posture Media, an independent branding and marketing studio based in Brooklyn.

🔮 Nonbinary & QTPOC-owned
🔥 DEI 365 days a year

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