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Top news and updates this week
- Most YouTube channels with access to Posts will soon be able to enable an actual Community on their Community tab.
- Threads has added a Fediverse feed for accounts you follow on Mastodon, WordPress (with ActivityPub), Ghost and other servers.
- Soon all videos uploaded to Facebook will be Reels, no matter the format or length. Plus the Video tab is now the Reels tab.
- Patreon is raising prices for new creators. Now is the time to create your page.
- YouTube will automatically create a product sticker in Shorts if you are monetizing with YouTube Shopping.
- Coming to YouTube: Veo 3 video generation in Shorts, automatic dubbing in 11 new languages, and more opportunities for creators when advertising brands post an open call through Brand Connect.
- Some creators are surprised that Google has been using YouTube videos to train its AI models.
- Google Vids can now import Google Slides to create a video.
- Enforcement of the US TikTok ban won’t begin for at least another 90 days, after another extension.
- Twitch added High Engagement Moments to start a Hype Train.
- The Adobe Firefly app lets you generate B-roll video on the go.
- Google Search Console now includes (but does not break out) AI Mode clicks and impressions.
- Yoast SEO now has an llm.txt generator to highlight content from your site for AI bots to ingest. It’s not clear if that’s useful.
- Automattic and WordPress(dot)com turn 20 this month.
- You can now sign in to Facebook with a passkey.
- Instagram is rolling out Shared Access to allow others to help manage your account.
- The new Digg is in alpha, and a first link shows interest-based communities, trending feeds and more.
- Project Indigo from Adobe Labs is a new computational photography app for iPhone.
- Flickr now supports Creative Commons 4.0 licenses.
- There are new smart tools for Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator.
- Plus new updates for Google Meet, WhatsApp, Google Drive, Gemini, Search Live with your voice in AI Mode, and more.
🗓 Ten Years Ago This Week: Is that eyewitness report true?
To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing highlights from 2015.In 2015 the First Draft Coalition launched with its 9 founding members providing expertise and insights for journalists using eyewitness video and photos. It was clearly necessary as the expanding usage of smartphones meant most adults carried a camera in their pocket.
Read all about it.
This effort was supported by Google, and later Facebook, Twitter and a number of other organizations.
Even though the project shuttered in 2022, its resources and research remain online with the support of Internet Archive. And journalists definitely need support identifying misinformation and disinformation today more than ever.
🔴 Creator Weekly Live
Join Creator Weekly Live on Sunday, 10:30AM Pacific time (6:30PM UTC).Join me live or watch the recording.
✅ Take this week’s quiz
What do you know about YouTube Communities? Take this week’s quiz.
New Tips and Tutorials
If you have access to Gemini in Google Workspace, you can use it to get summaries of your videos in Google Drive.YouTube Communities for (Almost) All
YouTube has started rolling out access to Communities for all channels that currently can access Posts.Communities are not available if you are 16 or younger, your account is supervised, your channel is Made for Kids or a VEVO channel.
If you enable a Community on your YouTube channel, your subscribers will be able to make posts that appear on your channel’s Posts tab in the YouTube mobile app.
You can decide whether to limit posts to people who have subscribed for at least 1 day or 7 days, and you can hold all posts for moderation so that they don’t automatically appear publicly.
There are also moderation settings like those for regular Posts and comments.
To enable your channel in the YouTube Android or iOS app:
1. View your channel
2. Click the edit pencil to the right of “Manage Videos”
3. Read the info about getting started
4. Enable My Community
YouTube recommends creating a Welcome post to kick things off.
More information:
Announcement: Dedicated Spaces for Viewers & Creators to Connect
YouTube Help: Start your Community
YouTube Help: Learn about Posts
YouTube Help: Moderate your Community
Threads is finally fully Federated?
Meta’s Twitter-like Threads has long promised federation with other platforms like Mastodon. The progress has been slow.But this week there was a major update. If you have federation enabled on your Threads account, you can now get a feed of posts from people you follow on other servers.
And you can search for people on other servers from inside Threads.
On the flip side, people on other servers can follow your Threads account, as
long as you have federation enabled.
Why is this good? Meta says:
“This allows you to see a broader range of views, no matter where they’re posted.”
“... with fediverse content on Threads, it’s like you’re curating your own personal newsletter, a feed full of notes and posts published on apps like Ghost, Flipboard and WordPress – but unlike a newsletter, you can interact with the people responsible for the content you’re reading. Imagine scrolling through a feed with a roundup of your favorite voices and contributors from a range of apps all in one place.”
You can follow people on any site that uses ActivityPub, including Mastodon, Bookwyrm (social reading), blogging platforms like WriteFreely, Ghost and WordPress (with the ActivityPub plugin), social news aggregator Flipboard, Reddit-like Lemmy and other platforms.
Still not clear on what the Fediverse is? This video by Elena Rossini does a nice job of explaining it.
However, servers can choose which other servers they federate with. The Mastodon server where I created a profile (mas.to) does not federate with Threads. You can see a list of which servers allow Threads federation.
Bluesky uses a different protocol, so it cannot directly federate with Threads (or other sites using the ActivityPub protocol), but you can use a service like Bridgy Fed to close that gap.
Instagram has also started showing posts with single photos or carousels with music on the Instagram Reels tab.
Currently there are two plans: The Pro plan is the basic plan, and has an 8% fee. The Premium plan is for creators or businesses with at least 100,000 followers, earning at least $5,000 per month on Patreon and team members. Premium has a 12% monthly fee.
Starting August 4th, Patreon will only offer a single plan with a 10% fee. This is lower than the current Premium plan, but it’s likely most creators at least start on the Pro plan. There are more details in the Patreon support center.
This is the first increase since 2019, when they stopped offering new users what is now called the Founders plan, with a 5% fee.
Patreon emphasizes that creators who are already earning on Patreon will have their current fees locked in. The message is that if you have been thinking about setting up Patreon, now is the time to do it.
Why the increase? It helps support features like video and live streaming, which are being expanded.
Creators eligible for Patreon video will now be able to upload 100 hours of video per month, rather than the original total 100 lifetime hours Patreon originally planned.
They are also rolling out livestreaming to more creators. Plus all creators will have access to team accounts.
So there are more features, at a higher cost. Or, as Patreon puts it, they want to “ensure that Patreon is on a long-term trajectory to continue delivering on the pace of innovation that creators deserve.”
If you are monetizing with YouTube Shopping, you can tag products in Shorts, and YouTube will automatically create a sticker for the first product tagged. You can adjust the position and size of the sticker, but all that needs to be done in the YouTube mobile app. Why do that? “Shorts with Shopping product stickers saw over 40% more clicks on products than Shorts with the Shopping button.” Note that to promote brands other than your own merch, your channel not only must be in the YouTube Partner Program, but also needs 10,000 subscribers. Watch a short demo.
YouTube added four new animated Gifts (victory spin, hurray, sealsplash and rockstar) that US viewers can bestow on vertical live streams when the creator has Gifts (powered by Jewels) enabled.
At the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity (for advertisers), YouTube CEO Neal Mohan spoke about their current vision. YouTube creators are the startups of Hollywood, “reimagining the industry” and YouTube is the epicenter of culture. He also tipped his hat to the creative expression of fandoms, such as fan art and reaction videos. Among the updates Mohan announced:
CBS News is reporting that Google is using YouTube videos to train its generative AI models like Veo 3. This isn’t at all surprising if you have been paying attention to Google and YouTube’s statements over the past few years. But no one has been proactively informed, and many creators say they didn’t know that. In response to the article, Google said “it only uses a subset of its videos for the training and that it honors specific agreements with creators and media companies.”
You can now use Google Vids to create a video from Google Slides. Import individual slides to create scenes from the elements on the slide, then add animations, objects or video clips. This feature will take a few weeks to roll out. And will be available to Google Workspace Business, Enterprise, Essentials, Nonprofits and Education accounts.
Adobe’s new Firefly mobile app not only lets you generate images and videos. It also will animate your still photos. Adobe shares examples of how creators use it to make creative clips and B-roll video.
The TikTok US ban enforcement deadline has been extended another 90 days. This is the third executive order from the Whitehouse declaring the ban will not be enforced since the law went into effect on January 19th. TikTok shared their gratitude. (If TikTok was truly a national security threat, this would be bad news.)
Some TikTokkers are freaking about the updated CapCut terms of service, but the licensing section isn’t actually new, is likely required for CapCut to display and modify your content in the app, and is similar to terms for other services.
Twitch has launched High Engagement Moments to start a Hype Train. That can include an increase in chat activity or “more historical spenders watching”. A Hype Train starts at Level 1 and all members of the chat can bump it to the next level with “support events” like purchasing or gifting subs, Cheers and Power Ups.
Midjourney launched a video generation model V1 Video, which animates still images. Use requires a paid plan, and videos can be up to 5 seconds long.
Google may end up killing recipe sites. A recipe blogger notes that Google Search AI Overviews not only show full recipes, but also the tips and other information from recipe posts. Will people still bother to click the link?
If you have your own website or blog, can you influence what the AI LLM scraper bots take from your site? If you are using the Yoast SEO plugin you can now create a llms.txt file with content you want LLMs like ChatGPT to highlight. Yoast says the plugin will automatically update the file every week and it will “future proof” your site. But do you need it? Google’s John Mueller notes that there is no indication that any of the big LLM bots currently pay any attention to a llm.txt file. And Google’s documentation explicitly says “you don’t need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files, or markup.” SEO tools want to jump on the AI bandwagon, but this may not be it.
Automattic was founded by current CEO Matt Mullenweg 20 years ago, offering free blogging at WordPress(dot)com. That’s not to be confused with WordPress(dot)org, which hosts the main repository of WordPress updates and plugins, and is also owned by Matt Mullenweg. Their original mission was to democratize publishing, expanding to commerce (with the acquisition of WooCommerce in 2015) and messaging (with the acquisition of Beeper in 2024). WordPress itself celebrated 20 years in 2023.
Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator have new smart tools: Reflection Removal, Generative Remove can remove people with a single click, new filters to help you find your best images, Dynamic Text formatting, Generative Expand for vector graphics, and Firefly Boards for brainstorming moodboards.
Flickr now supports Creative Commons 4.0 licenses, which has simpler attribution requirements (allowing credit by adding a link), clearer international licensing, and includes a window for correcting license violations.
Facebook recommends that posts not include a link in the caption, because that can “reduce your reach”. Instead they suggest sharing a photo or video and adding a link in the comments.
Threads is testing a built-in way to hide spoilers. That’s likely meant to encourage discussion of TV, movies and streaming shows.
Instagram is rolling out Shared Access, which lets you add up to 3 people to manage your account (up to 9 people for Meta Verified for Business subscribers). Users with access cannot change the password or other key settings. This is not available in the EU, UK or to teens.
Apparently "it can take Meta several months to recover a hacked account because of the sheer volume of backlogged requests." But employees and contractors can fast track recovery for friends & family, and some take money under the table to do that for others, despite Meta’s efforts to stop them.
The new Digg (in alpha) has interest-based communities, trending and following feeds and leaderboard of people who shared "Gems". It's aimed at "real human connections" and preventing bots, but also has AI-generated article summaries. What’s not clear is if they can prevent people from gaming the rankings, which was a problem with the old Digg.
Moderation woes: Tumblr's content-filtering systems have been falsely flagging posts as 'mature,' users blame AI
Social Media Today takes a look at some of the age verification technologies social platforms are testing, as more countries push verified age minimums. Would you let an orb scan your iris to use Reddit?
Google Drive has improved the file upload experience on Android and iOS devices with more fine-grained controls and status updates.
WhatsApp is adding Channel subscriptions, promoted Channels in the directory and business ads in Status. These updates don’t affect personal chats.
Google Gemini now lets you use Scheduled Actions. This isn’t just getting a summary of your calendar or emails, but also regularly giving you blog ideas or summarizing awards shows. This is only available to Gemini Pro and Ultra customers or Google Workspace subscribers.
Katie Notopoulos @ Business Insider: Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI app is one of the most depressing places online
Did you hear about a massive “data breach”? It may not be as bad as initial reports made it sound. But make sure you have 2-step verification enabled on your important accounts!
Thanks for reading! 🌼
✉ Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get the June 14 edition.
Why is this good? Meta says:
“This allows you to see a broader range of views, no matter where they’re posted.”
“... with fediverse content on Threads, it’s like you’re curating your own personal newsletter, a feed full of notes and posts published on apps like Ghost, Flipboard and WordPress – but unlike a newsletter, you can interact with the people responsible for the content you’re reading. Imagine scrolling through a feed with a roundup of your favorite voices and contributors from a range of apps all in one place.”
You can follow people on any site that uses ActivityPub, including Mastodon, Bookwyrm (social reading), blogging platforms like WriteFreely, Ghost and WordPress (with the ActivityPub plugin), social news aggregator Flipboard, Reddit-like Lemmy and other platforms.
Still not clear on what the Fediverse is? This video by Elena Rossini does a nice job of explaining it.
However, servers can choose which other servers they federate with. The Mastodon server where I created a profile (mas.to) does not federate with Threads. You can see a list of which servers allow Threads federation.
Bluesky uses a different protocol, so it cannot directly federate with Threads (or other sites using the ActivityPub protocol), but you can use a service like Bridgy Fed to close that gap.
Everything is Reels
Facebook announced that soon all videos shared on the platform will be Reels.- There won’t be any length or format restrictions. Long, short, vertical or landscape, it will all be in one feed.
- One upload flow that means access to the same creative tools (trimming clips, effects, add text or music) for videos that previously would not be Reels.
- There will be one default audience setting for both Feed and Reels posts. You can choose to bypass a limited audience to post publicly.
- The Facebook Video tab is being renamed the Reels tab.
- Video content you already shared will remain on your Profile or Page, but going forward every new video will be a Reel.
- There will be one set of metrics for all videos, including 3-second and 1-minute views. Meta Business Suite users will be able to access historical metrics through the end of the year.
- Monetizing creators need to join the new Facebook Content Monetization program (launched in October 2024) by the end of August to continue to earn.
Instagram has also started showing posts with single photos or carousels with music on the Instagram Reels tab.
Patreon is Raising Prices for new Creators
Patreon is increasing its prices for creators who publish a new page after August 4th.Currently there are two plans: The Pro plan is the basic plan, and has an 8% fee. The Premium plan is for creators or businesses with at least 100,000 followers, earning at least $5,000 per month on Patreon and team members. Premium has a 12% monthly fee.
Starting August 4th, Patreon will only offer a single plan with a 10% fee. This is lower than the current Premium plan, but it’s likely most creators at least start on the Pro plan. There are more details in the Patreon support center.
This is the first increase since 2019, when they stopped offering new users what is now called the Founders plan, with a 5% fee.
Patreon emphasizes that creators who are already earning on Patreon will have their current fees locked in. The message is that if you have been thinking about setting up Patreon, now is the time to do it.
Why the increase? It helps support features like video and live streaming, which are being expanded.
Creators eligible for Patreon video will now be able to upload 100 hours of video per month, rather than the original total 100 lifetime hours Patreon originally planned.
They are also rolling out livestreaming to more creators. Plus all creators will have access to team accounts.
So there are more features, at a higher cost. Or, as Patreon puts it, they want to “ensure that Patreon is on a long-term trajectory to continue delivering on the pace of innovation that creators deserve.”
Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates
YouTube is sponsoring VidCon this weekend and celebrating its 20th birthday. The con has tracks for both fans and creators, and there may be some highlights starting next week.Two highlights were the expansion of YouTube Communities and Shopping stickers on Shorts. More info below!If you are monetizing with YouTube Shopping, you can tag products in Shorts, and YouTube will automatically create a sticker for the first product tagged. You can adjust the position and size of the sticker, but all that needs to be done in the YouTube mobile app. Why do that? “Shorts with Shopping product stickers saw over 40% more clicks on products than Shorts with the Shopping button.” Note that to promote brands other than your own merch, your channel not only must be in the YouTube Partner Program, but also needs 10,000 subscribers. Watch a short demo.
YouTube added four new animated Gifts (victory spin, hurray, sealsplash and rockstar) that US viewers can bestow on vertical live streams when the creator has Gifts (powered by Jewels) enabled.
At the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity (for advertisers), YouTube CEO Neal Mohan spoke about their current vision. YouTube creators are the startups of Hollywood, “reimagining the industry” and YouTube is the epicenter of culture. He also tipped his hat to the creative expression of fandoms, such as fan art and reaction videos. Among the updates Mohan announced:
- YouTube Shorts are averaging more than 200 billion daily views. That’s more than doubled from March 2024, when the average was 70 billion daily views
- Google’s Veo 3 text-to-video model (with audio generation) will be coming to the Shorts editor later this summer.
- Automated AI-powered audio dubbing has dubbed more than 20 million videos across 9 languages. 11 more languages are “coming soon”.
- Google Ads advertisers can post an Open Call that appears in YouTube Brand Connect. Brands publish a description of what they are looking for, and YouTube Partners can submit video content. This may provide more openings for small creators.
CBS News is reporting that Google is using YouTube videos to train its generative AI models like Veo 3. This isn’t at all surprising if you have been paying attention to Google and YouTube’s statements over the past few years. But no one has been proactively informed, and many creators say they didn’t know that. In response to the article, Google said “it only uses a subset of its videos for the training and that it honors specific agreements with creators and media companies.”
You can now use Google Vids to create a video from Google Slides. Import individual slides to create scenes from the elements on the slide, then add animations, objects or video clips. This feature will take a few weeks to roll out. And will be available to Google Workspace Business, Enterprise, Essentials, Nonprofits and Education accounts.
Adobe’s new Firefly mobile app not only lets you generate images and videos. It also will animate your still photos. Adobe shares examples of how creators use it to make creative clips and B-roll video.
The TikTok US ban enforcement deadline has been extended another 90 days. This is the third executive order from the Whitehouse declaring the ban will not be enforced since the law went into effect on January 19th. TikTok shared their gratitude. (If TikTok was truly a national security threat, this would be bad news.)
Some TikTokkers are freaking about the updated CapCut terms of service, but the licensing section isn’t actually new, is likely required for CapCut to display and modify your content in the app, and is similar to terms for other services.
Twitch has launched High Engagement Moments to start a Hype Train. That can include an increase in chat activity or “more historical spenders watching”. A Hype Train starts at Level 1 and all members of the chat can bump it to the next level with “support events” like purchasing or gifting subs, Cheers and Power Ups.
Midjourney launched a video generation model V1 Video, which animates still images. Use requires a paid plan, and videos can be up to 5 seconds long.
Web Publishers and Search
Google Search Console now includes Search AI Mode clicks and impressions in performance reports. However, this is included in existing totals, and is not broken out into a separate category.Google may end up killing recipe sites. A recipe blogger notes that Google Search AI Overviews not only show full recipes, but also the tips and other information from recipe posts. Will people still bother to click the link?
If you have your own website or blog, can you influence what the AI LLM scraper bots take from your site? If you are using the Yoast SEO plugin you can now create a llms.txt file with content you want LLMs like ChatGPT to highlight. Yoast says the plugin will automatically update the file every week and it will “future proof” your site. But do you need it? Google’s John Mueller notes that there is no indication that any of the big LLM bots currently pay any attention to a llm.txt file. And Google’s documentation explicitly says “you don’t need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files, or markup.” SEO tools want to jump on the AI bandwagon, but this may not be it.
Automattic was founded by current CEO Matt Mullenweg 20 years ago, offering free blogging at WordPress(dot)com. That’s not to be confused with WordPress(dot)org, which hosts the main repository of WordPress updates and plugins, and is also owned by Matt Mullenweg. Their original mission was to democratize publishing, expanding to commerce (with the acquisition of WooCommerce in 2015) and messaging (with the acquisition of Beeper in 2024). WordPress itself celebrated 20 years in 2023.
Photos and Image Design
Adobe Labs released Project Indigo, a new computational photography camera app for the iPhone. It captures a burst of photos and combines them into a single high-quality photo.Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator have new smart tools: Reflection Removal, Generative Remove can remove people with a single click, new filters to help you find your best images, Dynamic Text formatting, Generative Expand for vector graphics, and Firefly Boards for brainstorming moodboards.
Flickr now supports Creative Commons 4.0 licenses, which has simpler attribution requirements (allowing credit by adding a link), clearer international licensing, and includes a window for correcting license violations.
Social Media
Meta has added the option to securely sign in to Facebook with a passkey. Instead of using a password, you instead create a passkey on your Android or iOS mobile device. You can unlock that with your device PIN, fingerprint or face (depending on your device), so no one can use the passkey other than you.Facebook recommends that posts not include a link in the caption, because that can “reduce your reach”. Instead they suggest sharing a photo or video and adding a link in the comments.
Threads is testing a built-in way to hide spoilers. That’s likely meant to encourage discussion of TV, movies and streaming shows.
Instagram is rolling out Shared Access, which lets you add up to 3 people to manage your account (up to 9 people for Meta Verified for Business subscribers). Users with access cannot change the password or other key settings. This is not available in the EU, UK or to teens.
Apparently "it can take Meta several months to recover a hacked account because of the sheer volume of backlogged requests." But employees and contractors can fast track recovery for friends & family, and some take money under the table to do that for others, despite Meta’s efforts to stop them.
The new Digg (in alpha) has interest-based communities, trending and following feeds and leaderboard of people who shared "Gems". It's aimed at "real human connections" and preventing bots, but also has AI-generated article summaries. What’s not clear is if they can prevent people from gaming the rankings, which was a problem with the old Digg.
Moderation woes: Tumblr's content-filtering systems have been falsely flagging posts as 'mature,' users blame AI
Social Media Today takes a look at some of the age verification technologies social platforms are testing, as more countries push verified age minimums. Would you let an orb scan your iris to use Reddit?
Communication and Collaboration
You can now customize the captions in Google Meet, setting the font, size, color and background color.Google Drive has improved the file upload experience on Android and iOS devices with more fine-grained controls and status updates.
WhatsApp is adding Channel subscriptions, promoted Channels in the directory and business ads in Status. These updates don’t affect personal chats.
More AI Updates and Tips
Google is launching what they call Search Live in AI Mode on mobile. In the Google app you can use your voice to search and ask follow up questions. Links will be displayed on your screen. It’s also possible to continue the conversation in the background while accessing another app. This is available for US users opted into AI Mode for Search. Opt in to AI Mode.Google Gemini now lets you use Scheduled Actions. This isn’t just getting a summary of your calendar or emails, but also regularly giving you blog ideas or summarizing awards shows. This is only available to Gemini Pro and Ultra customers or Google Workspace subscribers.
Katie Notopoulos @ Business Insider: Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI app is one of the most depressing places online
More Reading
Are you following any of the Forbes top 50 creators? (I follow one. I leave it to the reader to guess which one). Interestingly it’s not only focused on followers and earnings, but also gives each creator an “Entrepreneurship Score”. Top creators are building their own brands.Did you hear about a massive “data breach”? It may not be as bad as initial reports made it sound. But make sure you have 2-step verification enabled on your important accounts!
Thanks for reading! 🌼
✉ Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get the June 14 edition.
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Spam and personal attacks are not allowed. Any comment may be removed at my own discretion ~ Peggy