Creator Economy Trends of 2024

As 2024 comes to a close, I’m reflecting on 10 key trends in social media, influencer marketing, and the creator economy (in no particular order) that have shaped the year and what they mean going forward.

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My goal has always been to share my experiences and insights on the industry, with the hope of helping both creators and marketers. I’m excited to continue that mission in 2025.

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1. LinkedIn Emerges as a Platform for Influencer Marketing

LinkedIn emerged as a key platform for influencer marketing (a 2024 prediction of mine). Brands increasingly partnered with its growing ecosystem of creators, B2B influencers, thought leaders, and marketers. These individuals have trust and strong relationships with the niche audiences brands want to reach.

New features, such as short-form videos and Thought Leader Ads have made LinkedIn fertile ground for influencer marketing. Specialized agencies like Creator Match, Creator Authority, and Influence by Verbatim, which assist brands with sourcing, campaign management, and reporting, along with savvy creators brokering their own deals, have been driving this shift.

While some campaigns sparked buzz, others faced challenges, including creators failing to disclose sponsored content.

Why It Matters: LinkedIn’s role in influencer marketing is poised to grow even further in 2025, fueled by the rising interest in B2B influencer marketing. As brands collect data on what works, more effective strategies and clearer outcomes will emerge.

According to 80% of B2B buyers, short-form video content from influencers is among the most trusted during the buying process. So, expect an increased focus on LinkedIn’s video features in upcoming campaigns. But the success of these campaigns hinges on one critical factor: transparency.

Without clear disclosure of sponsored content, even the most impactful campaigns risk losing credibility.

2. Everyone Gets Involved in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing continued to attract more players. TikTok Shop had a breakout year, generating $100 million in sales on Black Friday alone, showcasing its ability to turn everyday users into influential salespeople.

YouTube also improved its YouTube Shopping program with tools that make it easier for creators to create shoppable videos. Additionally, partnerships with Shopify, Flipkart, and Myntra expanded its merchant base and extended its reach into new regions.

Link-in-bio tools began taking a more active role in affiliate marketing. For example, Linktree introduced Linktree Shops, allowing creators to embed affiliate links from over 35 retailers into their pages.

Creator Storefronts also gained popular as brands relied on influencer recommendations to elevate their eCommerce experiences.

Yet, the most notable move came from TikTok, which began testing an integration with affiliate networks like Amazon, Walmart, Target, LTK, Impact, and more, allowing creators to natively add affiliate product links to their posts.

Why It Matters: As brands shift toward performance-based partnerships and algorithms reduce the importance of follower count, they may move away from paying large upfront fees for sponsored content. Instead, hybrid deals that combine smaller guaranteed payments with substantial performance-based commissions for driving actions are likely to become the norm.

For creators, the unpredictability of brand deals highlights the need for diversification. Those who haven’t already should strongly consider incorporating affiliate marketing into their revenue strategies to establish more consistent and varied income streams.

3. Unified Feeds Become the New Standard

After years of building separate feeds for different content formats, platforms are now shifting toward unified experiences by consolidating content types into a single, personalized feed.

Facebook announced a unified video experience, combining short-form, long-form, and live video into one feed. YouTube added live streams to its Shorts feed and began testing the integration of long-form videos. Both moves were inspired by TikTok. Instagram also now allows photos and carousels to appear alongside short-form videos in the Reels tab. Snapchat merged Stories and Spotlight into a single feed as well.

These shifts have also impacted metrics and creator monetization. Meta standardized Views as the key metric across all formats and Snapchat just introduced a unified monetization program, where creators can earn from ad revenue from Stories and Spotlight content.

Why It Matters: Unified feeds allow platforms to leverage recommendation systems more effectively, personalizing content for users across formats and making it easily accessible.

As more content types are integrated into these unified experiences, creators face less pressure to prioritize specific formats and can focus on creating content, leaving it to the platforms to surface it to the right audiences.

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