I've been a fan of Cocomocoe on TikTok for a while. (In fact, I even had the pleasure of getting to interview her a few years ago!) She's a true "creators' creator," and one of the first that I came across whose advice felt nuanced and specific.
And even though I'm very familiar with her content, I sometimes still stumble across one of her hot takes on my FYP that makes me stop in my tracks.
The latest one was this video on the brilliant branding of Tate McRae. Watch the whole thing yourself to hear her full take because it's very interesting. But the one line that stood out to me that is most relatable for any creator at any size or stage is: figure out what you'd be doing, whether a camera is filming you or not, and focus on doing more of that.
And you may be thinking... well, that seems kind of obvious, right? |
Wrong. The thing is, it bears saying and repeating because it's actually pretty hard to follow this advice. And I think it's about getting much more specific than the standard advice to "find your niche."
When your FYP is full of other successful creators doing one particular thing and getting a ton of engagement from it, it's natural to think that doing the same thing will result in the same engagement for you. (The concept of a trend is even based on this idea.)
And maybe it will, but only if it's truly reflective of your unique skills and interests. As Cocomocoe points out, audiences are wicked smart. For better or worse, we're all consuming so much content in all forms these days, that we've all developed a nose for the dreaded "inauthentic" content.
I'm far from an Excel wiz (just ask Paul, our Head of Finance, who regularly sets up sheets for me) but I do think that the difference in approach here can be best explained as using an Excel function vs creating an Excel formula. - ✏️ Function: A predefined way to do a calculation. Makes your calculations quick and easy, but must be followed exactly as specified.
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🤓 Formula: A calculation that the user defines themself. Helps you create a personalized solution, but there's more a learning curve to understand how to set them up.
See the parallels here? Creating a formula is a higher-effort, more custom way to work. You can still save your formulas and use them repeatedly—just like when you find exactly what works for you, you can employ that playbook again and again in your content. |
How do you creator your own unique formula? There's a very simple way to start. Take some time to pay attention this weekend—what do you absolutely LOVE to do, whether you're creating content about it or not? You don't have to create a 20 step plan for how to turn your unique spark into a viral content series right away. Just start by just noticing and writing it down. The most you let it simmer, the more the ideas will start flowing—ideas you're genuinely excited about. And that excitement will translate to audiences. The great thing about this branding exercise is that it's pretty chill. You can do it throughout your day without even thinking too hard about it!
That leaves lots of time to check out this very helpful new feature in your Beacons Store that's now live 👀 |
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While you're working on your marketing and branding for your content & products this weekend, get organized by using the new Quick Favoriting! Quick Favoriting allows you to organize and pin products in your Beacons Store for easier access. |
By clicking the pin icon next to any product, you can pin it to the top of your view. It's just as easy to unpin it (just click again), so you can rearrange and organize your products however best suits you that day.
This is helpful if there are particular products you want to keep an eye on, like if you just set up a Smart Reply to auto-DM your product link from your Instagram comments, or sent out an email broadcast to promote a product.
Try it out for yourself, and let me know what else would be helpful to you! |
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👉 Btw, have you check out our Canny feedback form? You can submit feature requests for us to build here directly. We look at this every day! |
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My hot take this week is not so much a take but a confession that's been weighing on me as February comes to a close and spring festival season approaches: I've never been to Coachella.
My coworkers at Beacons love music concerts & festivals, so this is a sheepish admission. And it's not that I'm not interested, but more that I've never gotten myself organized to attend. Who knows—maybe this year that will change.
Of course, Coachella is a big event in the creator space, too. For brands, it's a prime marketing opportunity and a chance to collaborate with creators at a high-visibility event. For creators, it's a shared touchpoint for audiences (kind of like The White Lotus attention node that we talked about last week) and an opportunity to connect with both brands and fans, and even other creators. On that note, I'd love to hear from you: what are your thoughts on Coachella (or other high-visibility events like it) as a creator? How do you think about getting the most value from it? What parts are you most excited about?
As Beacons thinks about more in-person activations and events, I want to explore these questions more and get input directly from you guys. So write in and let me know: for a creator, is Coachella worth the hype? |
If you've seen any video on the Beacons Instagram, you're probably familiar with Ivan. He's the face of Beacons on social media! In fact, his title in his Slack profile is the BABYFACE of Beacons, just in case anyone was going to get it twisted.
What many people might not see behind the scenes of all those funny little office videos is that Ivan has to personally recruit teammates to be in each one, day after day, week after week. |
Meaning that yes, for this video, he had to go ask our Chief Product Officer Jesse if he could film him "sleeping" under his desk. So the next time you're watching one of these videos, just try to imagine the bizarre conversation that must have happened before when Ivan had to explain the video concept and directed everyone around to execute it.
Shoutout Ivan—your production and execution is 10/10. Go show Ivan some support in the comments (and say you came from the newsletter!) |
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If you've made it this far, you get rewarded with some extra news: Beacons is gearing up to launch something HUGE in the next few weeks. Any guesses as to what it might be? I'll let you know if you're close.
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