Amanda Northcutt on creators relying on social:
Ok. But, let’s talk about what it means to have your audience on social media, and to rely on social media platforms instead of having ownership of your audience.
So, at Level Up Creators, we talk a lot about renting an audience versus owning an audience. And, renting an audience, and— renting an audience is having an audience on social media.
It’s relying on social media to keep— keep your audience safe, right? And to— you’re waking up every morning and you’re relying on Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, everywhere, YouTube, to not change the rules such that you don’t lose the followers that you’ve built.
And so, again, you’ve worked unbelievably hard for this and you need to own those leads, right?
In the business world— I come from the business world, started — I have 10 years of experience in the creator economy before the creator economy was even called that, and I’ve got 10 years in the software-as-a-service realm, right? The business-to-business realm.
And, businesses know that they need to own their leads. Even if you don’t consider your social media audience a lead at this point, I want you to start thinking of them that way.
I want you to use this framework that will allow you to— this mental framework that will allow you to do what’s called, retaining optionality.
And, that means leaving the doors open for yourself, in the future. And, in this particular instance with social media platforms, that looks something like having an email list. Having a back up plan.
So, again, rented audience are social media followers. You don’t have their names. You don’t have their email addresses. You don’t any way to contact them outside of that specific social media platform.
That can pose a really, really big problem if the rules change.
This happened way back in the day with Facebook, if anybody listening remembers that. There were Facebook— I think it was Fan Pages, and they did away with them literally overnight, and millions and millions of people lost track of their leads, essentially, because Facebook decided to change the rules.
And it screwed so many people. And then, Elon Musk bought Twitter, changed the name, changed the algorithm last year, right? And, you know, that’s still kind of continuing to sort itself out.
And then now we’ve got this situation with TikTok. And this is not going to stop happening. I can promise you that.
There are, you know, few people in power in governments who have control over these entities and legislation, and those people are probably not me and you, right?
So, what you can do to protect yourself and retain optionality as a creator to potentially create a business beyond brand deals and affiliate deals — you know, things that happen specifically on social media platforms — is, again, to start owning your audience. Own your potential leads.
So, you wanna take people from your social media following and give them a reason to move over to your email list.
100% spot on. The smartest creators leverage the big box platforms for discovery — while avoiding dependence upon them.
Done right, your owned platform revenue (generated from your email list of super-fans) makes you immune to channel slowdowns, flaky algorithms, brand sponsor shenanigans and, in this (TikTok) case, complete shutdown threat.
— Tang
Amanda Northcutt’s owned platforms are: Level Up Creator School and We Level Up Creators.
