Jellysmack.
YouTube star Karina Garcia is one of the first 25 creators working with Jellysmack to grow her audience on other social platforms.
- For YouTubers looking to reach a broad audience, posting video content on other platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat can be vital. But each social platform has different content length requirements, monetization options, and audience appetites.
- A social-content startup called Jellysmack is working with 25 YouTube creators to help repurpose their videos for Facebook and Snapchat. The company is focusing on those two platforms, rather than other popular apps like Instagram and TikTok, because they offer the most straightforward path to ad-based monetization.
- Jellysmack told Business Insider that it's already paid out "millions" to its initial clients since launching its "Creator Program."
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As viewers shift between platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook, it can difficult for influencers to stay in front of their fans.
YouTube creator Tal Fishman learned this the hard way. He started his Reaction Time YouTube channel in 2015, building an audience of 15 million followers. But Fishman discovered that relying on a single website for revenue made him vulnerable.
"I kind of put all my eggs into one basket and only monetized on YouTube through Adsense," he told Business Insider. "I got a reality check. Ever since then I was like, 'Okay, I need to diversify and to grow on other platforms.'"
Fishman partnered with a social-content startup called Jellysmack in January 2019 as part of a broader effort to expand his following on platforms like Facebook and Snapchat.
Reaction Time's follower count jumped from around 1 million Facebook users in April 2019 to 4.7 million followers this month. The channel's video view count on Facebook nearly tripled in the fourth quarter of 2019, growing from 118 million in October to 312 million in December, according to the video measurement and analytics platform Tubular Labs. And Reaction Time's Snapchat show had 28 million unique viewers in December.
"We realized that creators were not really leveraging their library of content and their brand, outside of YouTube, for monetization," said Michael Philippe, cofounder at Jellysmack. "Facebook is catching up with YouTube in the creator space. Snapchat is a bit different because it's more exclusive. You have to be selected by Snapchat to be part of Discover and the show section."
Founded in 2016, Jellysmack began experimenting with ways to repurpose video content to various social platforms years ago. The company operates social channels like Beauty Studio, Oh My Goal, Gamology, Genius Craft, and Riddle Me This, which all have millions of followers across platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
Jellysmack started its "Creator Program" last year in order to license its technology and viral content acumen to other creators. Its initial clients are 25 YouTube creators, including Fishman, Karina Garcia, and Derek Deso, whose video content seemed poised to perform well on other platforms, Philippe said. The company makes money on the "Creator Program" by taking a share of ad revenue from the videos it recuts for Facebook and Snapchat.
One of the company's biggest hits so far came when Deso gave Jellysmack a 10-minute YouTube video of his marriage proposal with 102,000 views that Jellysmack cut down to five minutes for a Facebook video post. The video since garnered 33 million Facebook views and $68,000 in extra ad revenue, the company said.
Philippe said Jellysmack has paid out "millions" in ad revenue to creators since the new business line launched, but declined to give Business Insider a specific figure.
While there are many platforms a creator can expand to, Jellysmack has focused on repurposing YouTube content on Facebook and Snapchat because those platforms pay out relatively straightforward cost-per-view ad revenue to creators. For Facebook, it posts videos in the platforms Feeds and its Watch streaming platform. On Snapchat, it posts videos in the Discover section for creators who have approved Snapchat shows.
Jellysmack clients who are interested in reaching audiences on Instagram and TikTok will need to explore other avenues for monetization like brand sponsorships and paid song integrations.
Editing and monetizing content across platforms is time-intensive for creators
Managing multiple accounts and regularly posting videos across platforms with different content requirements and monetization options is time-intensive for influencers.
TikTok caps its videos at one minute, while a YouTube video can be up to 15 minutes long (or longer for verified accounts) with the platform's algorithm rewarding longer watch times. Facebook allows videos that are up to 240 minutes in length, but its best-performing videos tend to be shorter than YouTube's.
Re-editing a video for each platform can require a significant time investment for creators who are looking to reach their audience multiple times a week.
Jellysmack's pitch is that it takes over that process from the creator.
How does Jellysmack's content redistribution system work?
To repurpose a creator's YouTube video for Facebook and Snapchat, Jellysmack's team edits it down to a length better suited for each individual platform's audience. As with Deso's video, a 10-minute YouTube video might be halved for a Facebook viewing audience. But it's not just about cutting the video down.
In one example, the company tested 27 different versions of a video's thumbnail and tag line in order to see what performed the best on Facebook, buying ads to promote each version on the platform in order to get data quickly. The company also buys Facebook ads to promote a creator's channel as a whole.
The process is still fairly manual, with Jellysmack editors rewriting headlines for each iteration of a video. But having Jellysmack serve as a middle party for promoting content is paying off for its beta-testing creators. The company said most of its 25 beta clients are receiving at least five-figure payouts each month.
"The fact that these creators have tried to grow on Facebook on their own and failed is for a lot of different reasons like resources, expertise, and time," Phillipe said. "Companies like ours have the right technology and the right tools to really propel [creators]," he said. "It's showing that you can diversify outside YouTube."
For more on how to monetize content across YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms, check out these Business Insider Prime posts:
- YouTube stars Rhett and Link explain how algorithm changes supercharged their business to an estimated $17.5 million in yearly income: YouTube creators Rhett and Link built an 80-person media company with millions of followers. Here's how they've avoided creator burnout along the way.
- How much money brands will pay for a TikTok sponsored video compared to YouTube, according to an influencer agency: Brands and creators are still determining the right way to price sponsored content on TikTok. Here's how much one agency charges for sponsored views.
- A personal-finance influencer earned over $100,000 in his first year from YouTube. He shared his strategy and what he made each month: YouTube creator Andrei Jikh broke down how much money he earned on YouTube each month in 2019 and what he learned along the way.
- How much money do YouTube stars earn in a year? 4 creators reveal what the platform paid them in 2019: We spoke with four YouTube creators - Shelby Church, Kevin David, Sienna Santer, and Andrei Jikh - who broke down how much money YouTube paid them.
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