Today, we're talking about Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, shaking up the fast-food world with the "MrBeast Box" at Zaxby’s. We'll also dive into X's latest addition to Communities to boost user engagement. Then, we'll look at Reddit's return to its classic award system, admit their recent misstep. Next, TikTok is pushing the boundaries with tests on 60-minute video uploads. And finally, we'll explore why the Instagram Chief is highlighting post share rates as a key factor for increasing your reach. It's a packed episode, so let's jump right in!
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YouTube sensation Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has switched things up from his MrBeast Burger venture to a brand-new collaboration with fast food chain Zaxby's. They've introduced the 'MrBeast Box' at Zaxby's locations across the country, where they're known for their chicken dishes. The box is priced starting at $12.99 and comes fully loaded with chicken, fries, Texas toast, and an exciting new addition—MrBeast's very own Feastables' milk chocolate bar. This partnership also provides an exciting platform to showcase Feastables' newly reformulated chocolate bars, which Donaldson has playfully dubbed "the best-tasting chocolate ever made by mankind."
Donaldson, who fondly recalls going to Zaxby’s growing up, is thrilled to include his chocolate in the MrBeast Box, pairing what he believes to be the best chicken and chocolate on the market. Beyond the box, this partnership will extend into video integrations and social media content. On the flip side, some might be curious why the Carolinian YouTuber has teamed up with Georgia-based Zaxby's when there's also North Carolina's own Bojangle's in the picture. Yet, MrBeast's foray into Zaxby's seems smooth and promising, unlike his previous fast-food endeavor, MrBeast Burger, which, despite its initial growth, faced quality control challenges and legal disputes over expansion strategies. Now, this new collaboration is set to take the fast-food and chocolate industries by storm, minus the controversy.
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As group engagement keeps climbing on X, the social media platform continues to enhance its Communities feature to foster this growth. They're rolling out new analytics for community admins to better understand what sparks interest and grows their groups. Alongside this, they plan to introduce Community-specific Spaces chats, which aim to boost group interaction further. 
Additional tools for moderators are on the horizon too, helping with management tasks, battling spam, and improving reporting functions. These forthcoming updates build upon the recent changes, such as community recommendations, streamlined in-group searching, and showcasing trending Communities.
Despite the company’s challenges during Elon Musk's acquisition, including significant staff turnover, X has identified Communities as a significant area for expansion. The focus seems warranted as X reports a staggering 600% increase in the time users spend on Communities within the last year. This is even though the platform hasn't seen a rise in its user base during the same period. With more than 350,000 communities and about 650,000 posts created daily, these new features seem poised to solidify Communities as a central part of the X experience.
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Reddit is making a U-turn, bringing back its classic award system after realizing its recent changes weren't up to snuff. They admitted that the golden upvote system they tried to implement simply didn't resonate with users, stating, "We tried something new, it wasn’t great (you called it)." Starting today on its website and mobile apps, Reddit is reintroducing its old awards, now with a slightly revised look.
The core idea remains unchanged, but they're making user experience a bit smoother. You'll see an award button under posts that qualify, there's a neater user interface, and there's even an awards leaderboard to showcase the posts and comments raking in the most gold and awards.
New safety measures are also in place to keep awards out of NSFW or sensitive subreddits, and users can now report award misuse. Reddit is rolling out new awards while refreshing some old favorites. 
For those missing coins — the currency once needed to purchase awards — there's a bit of compensation. Reddit is gifting users, who lost their coin balances, with some exclusive awards to distribute for free, though the coin system won't be making a comeback. Instead, you'll need to buy gold, now priced starting at one dollar and seventy-nine cents for one hundred gold via the desktop version, to give to others. 
Despite the return of the awards, some features like the option to 'gild' posts aren't coming back, leaving a certain vintage Reddit charm in the past. The Contributor Program, on the other hand, is picking up steam, now available in thirty-five countries and aimed at creators who want to monetize their content.
The response to the awards' revival? Mixed. Users are airing out their confusion over the new-old system and mourning the loss of cherished features. Reddit's efforts at rectifying the situation have resulted in some clear wins, but also a few head scratches among the community.
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TikTok is pushing the boundaries of video length on its platform by testing out a massive expansion, allowing some users to upload videos that run for up to an hour. This move represents a significant jump from the app's initial 15-second video limit, showing a gradual evolution to longer content with past updates that expanded the limit to 60 seconds, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and then 10 minutes in 2022. As recently as last October, TikTok toyed with 15-minute uploads and then 30-minute clips in January of this year.
The big question is whether TikTok users are interested in watching such lengthy videos. TikTok believes there's a creator demand for more time to create content like in-depth cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational lessons, and comedic sketches. However, the appetite from users for extended videos isn't as clear, especially when considering that other social platforms like Meta are nudging creators towards shorter formats, like Reels that are under 90 seconds.
Despite this, TikTok continues to explore ways to diversify its content, including incentives for longer, landscape videos. The approach might be rooted in the successful strategy used on Douyin, TikTok's Chinese counterpart, and could be seen as an effort to better compete with YouTube for content creators by offering more monetization options through longer videos that can support more ads.
The direction TikTok takes could reshape how users engage with the app, but whether this will be a successful strategy remains to be seen as the platform experiments with the potential of 60-minute uploads.
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Instagram's head honcho, Adam Mosseri, recently dropped a little knowledge bomb that could be a game-changer for those looking to boost their visibility on the platform. In a Q&A session, Mosseri revealed that it's no longer just about racking up likes or tallying up watch time. The secret sauce now? Share rates! Simply put, Instagram's algorithm is leaning heavily towards how often posts are sent to other users. That's right, it's all about the sends per reach ratio. 
Why? Because Instagram is all about fostering connections and creativity, and what better way to measure that than by looking at how willing people are to share your content with their pals? Seems like the more your post is shared, the wider it'll spread.
Now, this might seem like a bit of a pivot from the previous emphasis on watch time, especially with social media's current love affair with short-form videos. But whereas watch time used to reign supreme, it's now the likelihood of your post being shared that could help it go big.
This shift reflects a broader change in how social media platforms are keeping users hooked, moving away from in-stream interactions to prioritizing video consumption duration.
So what's the takeaway if you want to capitalize on this trend? It's all about focusing on entertainment and cultivating content that taps into emotions – mostly joy on Instagram, steering clear of the more contentious stuff. Think about what makes you want to share something with someone else, and let that inspire you to create content that others can't help but pass along.
In short, Instagram is hinting that share-worthiness is the new key to unlocking reach, with share rates possibly topping the charts over watch time, comment rates, and like rates when it comes to what the algorithm favors. Keep all this in mind as you craft your next post, and you could see your content fly further than ever before.
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That's a wrap on today's episode of Creator Daily. I'm your host, Michael, and it's been a pleasure bringing you the latest and greatest from the creator landscape.
Before you go, don't forget to swing by the show notes for all the juicy links and extra information on the stories we covered today. Got thoughts, questions, or a story idea? We'd love to hear from you! Shoot us an email at creatordaily@podcraftr.com, and who knows—your message might just make it into a future episode.
Thanks for tuning in, and remember to keep creatin