Instagram. Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images
Hi, this is Amanda Perelli and welcome back to Insider Influencers, our weekly rundown on the business of influencers, creators, and social-media platforms. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Instagram is not the best platform for emerging influencers, but its leadership wants to change that.
Instagram execs say they are prioritizing creators with smaller follower counts and want to help them rise to fame on the app.
One key is Reels, Instagram's short-form video feature that competes with TikTok.
"The Reels Tab is the place where we view the biggest opportunity for creators to find new audience," Jackson Williams, a member of Instagram's strategic partnerships team, told Insider.
Posting a Reel can reach a much wider audience than a standard feed post or Story, Jackson said.
Sydney Bradley broke down how Instagram is pivoting to include better distribution and more money-making tools:
Instagram's weekly series "Reels Star Search," which spotlights creators whose Reels have surged, is one way for creators to be discovered by peers or brands.
In general, Instagram wants Reels to be a starting point where creators can grow, be discovered, and find new collaborators.
Instagram is also working on new ways for creators to earn money, including updates to shopping for creators, affiliate marketing tools, and a creator marketplace.
From left to right: Vejay Lalla, Marcie Cleary, Irene Lee, and Ryan Pastorek Fenwick & West; Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz; Russ August & Kabat; Hansen Jacobson; Marianne Ayala/Insider
As the influencer industry matures, a growing number of law firms are working with internet stars.
Attorneys help influencers navigate brand deals, IP and trademark disputes, and licensing contracts.
Dan Whateley and Jack Newsham wrote about 13 leading attorneys and law firms who focus on influencers and creators:
Vejay Lalla, from Fenwick & West, worked on the launch of Animal Capital, a venture capital firm cofounded by TikTok stars Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson, and Noah Beck.
Ryan Pastorek and Adam Kaller helped YouTube star Emma Chamberlain launch her coffee brand, Chamberlain Coffee.
Lawyers also help their influencer clients retain the rights to photos, songs, videos, podcasts, fashion designs and other intellectual property that they create.
Griffin Milks is a YouTube creator who films videos about personal finance and investing.
Milks started posting finance videos to YouTube in 2018 and now has about 80,000 subscribers.
I spoke with Milks about how much money he makes on YouTube videos with about 100,000 views.
Here's a breakdown of three videos:
About 114,000 views: $2,400 Canadian dollars (around $1,900 US dollars).
About 117,000 views: $1,600 Canadian dollars (around $1,300 US dollars).
About 150,000 views: $2,700 Canadian dollars (around $2,100 US dollars).
These earnings are relatively high compared to other creators, likely because his investing content is attractive to advertisers.
Insider previously interviewed five other YouTubers about how much they'd earned on videos with around 100,000 views. Their earnings ranged from $500 to $2,500.
Grin, an influencer-marketing company specializing in software for direct-to-consumer brands, announced on Thursday that it had raised $16 million in new funding.
The funding was led by Imaginary Ventures with participation from Good Friends Venture Capital. It comes as an extension of Grin's Series A round from December.
"Grin has been on our radar since 2019 and many of our portfolio companies have benefited through the use of the platform for their influencer-marketing programs," Imaginary Ventures' Nick Brown said in a statement.
