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LinkedIn shared a not-so-secret business secret on this week. Creatures are stirring, and they're called "creators."
“I know we still have a few weeks left of 2021, but I think we can call it now: This has been the Year of the Creator,” says Daniel Roth, editor in chief and VP of the world’s largest professional network.
He went on:
A few days ago, LinkedIn News published some remarkable stats showing how mature the creator economy has become. As of September, 123,000 LinkedIn members had “creator” in their job title. That’s a 15% jump from the previous year and over a 40% jump from 2019. And demand for creators is growing even faster: Premium job postings with “creator” in the title were 220% higher than they were the same time last year.
What's driving this? The number of Linkedin members taking on the role of creator has been growing consistently, but it’s the Great Reshuffle — with people rethinking how they work, where they work, and what they want to get out of work — that’s turning creation from a hobby into an industry. As Tanya Bahl, a creator, advisor, and student in New Delhi, pointed out, the creator economy is open to anyone who has something to contribute. In a recent post she says: “The beauty of content creation is that your age or experience is not a barrier when it comes to creating good content. All you need is the ability to convert your thoughts into meaningful content and the dedication to be consistent.”
I’m sure that the data above just barely scratches the surface, too. In my conversation with creators, I get a pretty common response: “I don’t think of myself as a creator.” That makes sense: Most of us spend our days — and are rewarded for our work — as accountants, fashion designers, contractors, retail workers, etc. We create but are we creators? I'd argue yes. As soon as you start sharing ideas, start amplifying other voices, start building your own voice, you’re a creator. You may have it in your profile, but you make it clear to the world by showing up in their feeds, in shops, in earphones and on phones. That’s what makes me confident that the possibilities for the creator economy really are endless.
Alessandro Bogliari, co-founder and CEO of The Influencer Marketing Factory — Influencer Marketing Agency, writes in Forbes that Covid made social media “essential to the survival of our economy” as business and industry went online to meet their customers where they were when real-world interactions ceased.
“With everyone locked in their homes, businesses were forced to move to online platforms and find ways to boost their products virtually,” he writes. “As people sat inside making banana bread and whipped coffee, social media became the main source of entertainment for many.
“Companies began to build their business around these platforms, bringing a rise to a new type of solopreneur: the content creator.”
Says Douglas Weiss, head of creative commerce at Instagram: “Any company who is not aggressively investing in creators is sleeping on their consumers. Just as generations of people went to magazines to learn about new trends, get advice, and find product recommendations, creators are serving that role today. We are just at the beginning of this revolution in commerce.”