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It’s time to check in with the social marketing world.

And when I say ‘social marketing,’ I’m not just talking about ‘influencer marketing,’ but as a broader term to define how brands use social media to drive value.

And nobody has done it better than Duolingo, who yet again drove headlines with a massive stunt.

But is it replicable? And what can brands learn from this?

Also in this edition:

• Zuck has a Creator Problem

• Grand Theft Auto VI: Creator Edition

• Creator Hubs are Back!

• Job ops from SnackCrate, Lemon8, and Agentio

• …and a dank creator economy meme by yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

Ding Dong the Duo’s Dead

I regret to inform you that Duo Keyshauna Renee Lingo (real name), the absurdist green owl mascot for Duolingo, perished after being hit by a Cybertruck.

Actual footage of the crime can be seen here:

And in recent days, it’s been revealed that all other Duolingo mascots have been unalived as well.

Okay, cute, but on a very serious note, why the heck would a brand go all-in on this?

It doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with language learning.

And can other brands learn anything from the virality of this very, very weird stunt?

My hot take: This is a fantastic execution of three rules social marketers have been screaming for a decade!

Let’s break them down:

1. Create like a Creator: The worst social marketers create like a brand. They tweet about their cool features, share their 15 second ad spots, and reply to other messages with links to buy their product. Ugh. Nobody wants to watch commercials. Make entertaining stuff with a real hook that keeps people watching because they actually want to.

2. Awareness is King: As brands move further and further towards ‘conversion’, they’re sleeping at that wonderful top of the funnel that drives culture: awareness. There’s a reason we call it ‘the attention economy.’ It’s hard to have your potential customer base know who the heck you are so you’re considered when, for example, they’re about to Spring Break in Cancun and want to order dos cervezas at a time!

3. Tell a Story: What Duolingo proved is, to re-assert point 1, the story needs to grab attention. Killing their mascot is so weird that it worked. If a brand dipped their toe into absurdism by, say, having their mascot visit one of their restaurants, it won’t do much for them.

But does it drive results? They recently revealed the way to bring back Duo is to hit 50b experience points, which should happen today:

So, no, brands should not be killing of their mascots.

Nothing is cringier than a copycat.

But they should see this bold, non-salesy approach as a viable way to build a decacorn.

Facebook Tries Again With Creators

There has been no bigger ‘will they/won’t they’ tale in the industry than Facebook and creators.

They pay publishers, then change their policies and algorithms to tank those companies (just ask Buzzfeed and Vice how that turned out).

They offer video monetization, then they make it impossible to monetize or predict stable revenue (just ask Jellysmack how that turned out).

They launch loads of paid creator programs then take away payments 6 months later, which often makes the creators dislike the program even more than if they never paid at all.

And now there have been a drumbeat of press where Meta has offered TikTokkers up to $50,000 to start posting exclusive content to Reels, likely because of the possible U.S. TikTok ban.

Will this one take with creators?

My hot take: No.

Facebook has three massive things working against them as it pertains to the creator community.

1. Zuck’s re-brand: Zuck tried hard to pivot to be a ‘cool guy’ with more, as he said to Rogan, ‘masculine energy.’ Apparently nobody told him saying your company needs more ‘masculine energy’ does not, in itself, have ‘masculine energy.’ A Pew research study shows Zuck’s disapproval rate to be an abysmal 67%, far lower than even Elon Musk’s 54% disapproval. Creators like cool stuff, and his association with the platform isn’t cool.

2. History of poor treatment of creators: Creators have a long memory. Jellysmack made huge moves to show creators the power of Facebook that Facebook itself wasn’t able to show. However, with their recent tanking CPMs due to yet another shift, most large creators who were using Jellysmack’s Facebook syndication services saw first-hand how unreliable the platform is to build a creator business.

3. It’s still crazy, crazy confusing. If you’ve ever tried to recover a hacked account or change your tax information on Meta’s business suite, you know what I’m talking about. The platform is an absolute mess. YouTube and TikTok make monetization so stupid-simple, likely because of how internal decisions are structured (developers have to work closely with business and marketing, whereas Facebook gives developers free-reign to develop whatever impossible-to-follow products they choose). It’s the reason Jellysmack could scale so massively. Nobody ‘gets it’ when it comes to Facebook monetization.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m going to make sure all of our creators are on Facebook and utilizing their monetization program.

But I’m not pushing them to make anything exclusively for the platform.

It simply isn’t good at working with creators, and I’m not hopeful that will change.

Let’s get serious

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It’s all to put your hard work in front of more people. So if you’re ready to build, ready to grow, and ready to make the world take notice, beehiiv is ready for you.

Get started for 20% off with code BUILD.

FAME & FORTUNE:

It’s official: you’ll be able to develop and monetize your own games in Grand Theft Auto VI, much like Roblox or Fortnite’s UEFN program. For a game that’s projected to do $1 billion in pre-orders alone and a metaverse known for really incredible storytelling, this could absolutely change the way creators interface with and monetize their game streams.

Creator HQ just brought on 100 creators to their space in Dubai. Whalar’s The Lighthouse launched their incredible LA facilities (I was there for the opening ceremonies and it was killer). I was never hot on creator houses as it seemed like they were often fads and so full of hormones and politics they often self-destructed, but I believe these new locations can do what YouTube Spaces could never quite achieve: become a hangout for professional creators.

I know they’re the sponsor of this edition, but if you haven’t signed of for beehiiv* yet, I highly recommend signing up for a free account and seeing if the newsletter life suits you. I’ve been trying their ‘Boosts’ functionality where other newsletters drive subscribers to mine for as low as $1 per subscriber and the leads have been awesome.

I’ve talked to hundreds of creators who were afraid to go ‘full time’ because they didn’t want to lose their insurance. If you’re one of them, sign up for the essentL Creators waitlist right now. Awesome team of actual creators building one of the most needed pieces of value for any creative entrepreneur.

*newsletter receives affiliate commissions

INDUSTRY HIRING:

SnackCrate needs a Lead Content Creator and I’m sure the break room snacks are out of control.

Lemon8 is looking for a Creator Partnerships - Parenting team mate. Get ready for aesthetic nursery mood boards!

Agentio wants a Creator Operations Lead to get creators to, for the love of God, spell those brand hashtags properly!

MEME ZONE:

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!

Until next time, protect yo rep.