Moving beyond generic creator solutions as a platform and truly understanding your creators’ growth requires in-depth research methods and strategic product development. To seize this opportunity, platforms can map their current creator ecosystems (for example, insight engines, support models, partnership experiences), analyze growth trends (for example, content trends, user engagement trends, growth data), and build technology and strategy capabilities to enable creator solutions. With a strategic understanding of creator growth, platforms can implement tools and strategies that uncover the right insights for creators at the right times and empower them to build their brands and content on the platform in an authentic manner.

By helping maximize creators’ impact and growth on the platform, creators will have increased satisfaction with the platform and will prioritize content and engagement, with surveyed creators stating that platforms that help them grow their business are their top priority.¹ In addition, creators having impactful self-service tools and insights could increase the number of high-performing creators on a platform.

To seize this growth opportunity, platforms can identify creator pain points in the support journey, by engaging in creator interviews and surveys and by analyzing key metrics such as time to support and creator drop-off rates. With a clearer understanding of their creator support framework, platforms can identify the most impactful moments in the support journey where human intervention can be more effective. Furthermore, they can activate training materials to ensure that support employees are well-versed in optimal response actions. Platforms can leverage advancements in next-gen customer relationship management (CRM) and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) technology to optimize and enhance other points in the journey.

By successfully enhancing creator support and finding the optimal balance of self-service and high-touch support, platforms can anticipate cost reductions in support operations and expedited creator issue resolution. Moreover, a well-supported creator is more inclined to favor a particular platform. If creators feel more supported, they are more likely to make your platform the one they prefer.²

Standing out in today’s environment starts with defining loyalty as an implicit or explicit agreement between a creator and platform. Platforms must deeply understand the value exchanges that motivate different creators to contribute content and engage on one platform over another. By conducting qualitative and quantitative research via a creator-segmented approach, platforms can understand the different levers and drivers for different types of creators—as loyalty is often achieved through a wide range of interventions such as compensation, community, and support. Improving creator loyalty is about understanding the full end-to-end platform experience and identifying the moments that matter that can house high-impact loyalty benefits (tangible and intangible). Implementing creator programs is a constant and iterative process. Platforms must build in creator feedback loops to utilize data-driven analytics to evaluate their progress, track creator sentiment over time, and adjust their products and offerings as needed.

With the right loyalty strategies, platforms can retain their most valued creators and attract new creators to the platform. Emerging creators often prioritize platforms that offer them networking possibilities, while experienced creators look to engage with platforms with more “white glove” services.³ With the right balance and stronger partnership models, platforms can drive creator satisfaction and brand reputation while being known as the preferred destination to share content in the social platform landscape.

Platforms should first set their own definition of creator lifetime value (CLTV)—the value generated for the platform over the course of creator engagement with the platform, driven by creator monetization streams. In defining their own CLTV, platforms can measure and articulate the value that different creators provide to their platforms. Platforms can then use this knowledge to optimally segment various clusters of creators and pair them with the most relevant tools and models. For example, a platform could facilitate brand partnerships with a certain creator set or enable campaign-trend matching with another.⁴ Deloitte’s developed CLTV solutions can help activate such opportunities—through enabling higher creator lifetime value—and reduce creator churn by leveraging outside-in signals (first-party and third-party data) and providing personalized offers.

Social platforms that treat creators as business partners (for example, facilitating brand partnerships, enabling campaign-trend matching, monitoring key performance indicators, developing audience insights, providing AI-enabled support and educational resources) are most suited to maximize CLTV and have the most potential to be a creator’s preferred platform. Moreover, this growth opportunity may provide platforms with strategic insights into creator investments that result in a higher return on investment.

To activate this growth opportunity, platforms must collaborate closely with creators to understand their unique production environments and continuously iterate on tools that seamlessly integrate into those environments. By creating adaptable and accessible journeys, platforms can effectively address pain points and enhance product design. When it comes to leveraging emerging tools such as Generative AI (GenAI), platforms should ensure that the value of the tools they provide exceeds the perceived risk creators have in using said tools. For example, Deloitte research on creators’ views on GenAI found that creators are most willing to adopt GenAI enhancement in behind-the-scenes production activities, which could include helping creators generate content ideas based on trends found in their comment section or by cutting out “ums” and awkward pauses from creators’ videos during the editing process. Moreover, adapting an agile approach to product development will enable platforms to swiftly react to both emerging technology and creator readiness, helping bridge the gap between creators and rapidly evolving content production.

By making content production easy and accessible for creators, social platforms will be equipped with best-in-class platform tools. Leveraging GenAI, platforms can help simplify creators’ workflow and enhance their creative output.