The Biggest Opportunity in Social for 2024

Welcome back to The Signal, a weekly letter where I share stories, strategies and insights to help you level up as a creator and entrepreneur fast.

Today’s topics:

• Livestreaming: The Biggest Opportunity in 2024?

• Marketing Opportunity: Viral Video Licensing

• YouTube’s Top Priorities for 2024

Is Livestreaming The Biggest Opportunity in 2024?

Check out this chart by Greg Isenberg. I believe that trust is the most important commodity for internet creators & personalities.

I completely agree with Greg’s assessment that LIVE builds the most trust.

I would argue that streamers have the most cult-like fandom on the Internet. Personalities like Kai Cenat, Pokimane, iShowSpeed, xQc, Adin Ross, Dr. Disrespect can move markets and break the internet at will.

But streaming has been mostly centered around gaming and internet culture. I think we may be entering an era where entrepreneurs, lawyers, dentists, etc all begin to harness the power of live streaming.

Gary Vee has been very vocal that he’s heavily leaning into this, calling it the biggest opportunity in 2024.

He argues that live streaming today is where social media was in 2014 – known, but underestimated. 

Gary, who’s one of the all-time greats at identifying underpriced attention, is now often streaming most of his day on Twitch. For confidentiality, he usually has the volume muted, but will check in sporadically with the audience throughout the day.

Where should you stream?

You can always multi-stream to several platforms using programs like OBS - which I use to stream.

There are dedicated streaming platforms like Twitch, Kick and YouTube.

TikTok is also a great place to stream, whereas Instagram is not – because of the built-in discovery.

When you go live on Instagram, it pings your followers, and you have a big and busy room. But retention is poor, so the longer you stream, the less of an audience you have.

On TikTok, it’s the opposite. You are rewarded for longer streams, and it’s a fantastic way to reach your existing audience as well as new people.

New Marketing Trend: Viral Video Licensing

There is a new trend that I see emerging online where marketers are licensing viral videos to repurpose as ad creative.

I’ve experienced it first hand. I was approached by two separate companies who were interested in licensing my viral video “The Game.”

I ended up licensing it to Opal, who are running it as an ad on Instagram.

For marketers this is a great move because when hiring talent to create videos, it reduces the risk of said creative underperforming.

For creators this is also a promising trend because it opens up revenue potential for spec work and passion projects that do numbers.

Opal is leaning heavily into this playbook, and have licensed a ton of viral content from several creators.

YouTube’s Top Priorities for 2024

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan published a letter outlining the company’s top priorities for 2024.

The main takeaways:

• YouTube is leaning heavily into generative AI as a way to augment the creative process.

• The living room is YouTube’s next frontier. TV watchtime has increased more than 400% in the last three years and over half of the platform’s consumption is happening on a TV set.

• YouTube has paid out of $70 billion to creators over the last three years.

Quick Hits

This section includes things I have found interesting and helpful this week.

‣ Eddie wrote a powerful reminder of why you should start living your life today.

‣ Cleo uploaded a great video explaining why we should all care about the Vision Pro.

Thanks for reading!

If you found this valuable, please consider sharing the newsletter with a friend. It would mean a lot.

Roberto