Meta, Snap, and YouTube insiders reveal common mistakes new creators make
At a SXSW panel titled "Your First 90 Days as a Creator," leaders from the creator partnership teams at Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube shared best practices for creators just starting out. They also shared common mistakes made by new creators, along with insider tips on how to get the almighty algorithm's attention.
The panel was hosted by Antonia Alakija, a creator economy strategist and Meta and TikTok alum herself, and featured advice from:
Julia Hamilton Trost, head of creator partnerships at YouTube
Brooke Berry, head of creator development at Snapchat
Katie Sollenberger, head of the Scaled Partner Activation team at Meta
All the experts work with early-career creators to help them grow their following and careers.
So, based on their advice, here are the biggest mistakes creators should avoid in their first 90 days and beyond.
Chasing trends can be cringe
“I think it's understanding right out of the gate, don't hop on every trend just because it's a trend. And just because it's trending, it doesn't mean you need to make something about it,” Berry said.
“You need to identify trends that make sense for you to participate in, and that you feel confident that you can execute with a unique perspective or execute in a certain way that's different.”
Trost also urged creators to use AI and other tools to monitor the life cycle of viral trends.
“Where are you in the life cycle? Are you going to come in at the end and kind of be cringey because, you know, the trend is over? Does it really make sense for your audience?”
Finally, Sollenberger urged creators to follow the 70/30 rule.
"So we say [at Instagram], like 70/30. Seventy percent of your content should be original, and then roughly 30 percent [should be] trends... For the most part, you need to move fast with a trend, like, within the first 24 hours. If it's everywhere, it’s already too late.”
Not planning ahead for brand deals
You probably won't get any brand deals in your first 90 days, but it's never too early to start planning for success.
"Your public profile, for example, is your home on Snapchat," Berry said. "If a brand is looking to hire you for an opportunity, and you don't have, say, Stories, and there's nothing to showcase the consistency of the type of content or formats they can see themselves plugging into, they're going to move on to the next person.
So you want to make sure that you have content that supplies the type of opportunity you're trying to attract.
"So if you were someone who [says], ‘I want to do more travel brand deals,’ but there's no travel content on your profile, they're going to go to the next person. So you want to make sure that you have content that supplies the type of opportunity you're trying to attract."
Not knowing which metrics really matter in 2026
This is something I heard over and over again at SXSW: follower counts aren’t as important as they used to be. What really matters now? Engagement metrics. How many views does your average video or Reel get? On YouTube, how long are people watching your videos before dropping out? How do they find your content?
For Instagram and Reels, Sollenberger also had some specific advice for new creators.
“First, make sure that you switch to a professional or creator account if you haven't already. That's free, but it unlocks a range of insights at both the account and content level. And then I would say, take a look at the past month and look at your top three best- and worst-performing posts. Understand commonalities across those and then also look at when your audience is most active and make sure that you're posting then.”
All the panelists agreed that knowing how to read the data will be key to growing your audience.
Crucially, Sollenberger had some advice on influencing the Instagram algorithm.
“Send and share rate is a really good metric, because if your audience is sending your content, reposting your content, that's a signal to the algorithm to distribute it to non-followers,” Sollenberger said. “And then I also think it's good to similarly look at reach for non-followers, so you can understand how well the algorithm is distributing your content.”
On Snapchat, Berry said watch time is also a critical metric for getting the Discover feed to notice you.
“The creators and the Snap stars you see surface on that page, it's going to be heavily attributed to watch time, so that is the metric that you guys want to pay attention to as you guys are evaluating your Snap content," Berry said.
Misunderstanding consistency
"Post consistently!" This is probably the most common advice for new creators, but it means different things to different people and on different platforms.
“The algorithm rewards consistency, and so any breaks really kill momentum,” Sollenberger said about Instagram. She also shared the best advice I’ve heard yet on consistency as a creator: “Specifically, pick a posting cadence that you can sustain on your worst week, not your best week.”
For Snapchat, where you can post shorter, unedited clips, Berry said consistency is crucial as well. “You're not going to find success on your public stories posting one or two Snaps, and then that's kind of it. People who are getting service on the Discover feed are posting anywhere between 20, 60, 100 times a day, sometimes. But they are posting consistently.”
Berry did clarify that creators don’t need to post 20-100 Snaps a day to break through the algorithm, and that consistency will look different creator to creator. The key, she said, is to train your audience so they know when to expect your new content.
“Specifically, pick a posting cadence that you can sustain on your worst week, not your best week.”
Trost echoed that advice.
“The cadence of when you post is more important than how often you're posting. So with YouTube, if you want to do it once a week, you pick that, and your audience starts to learn. ‘OK, I'm going to come on Thursdays for new content.’" She added, "That cadence is more important than having a huge volume of content.”
Not using Trial Reels and other tools
The big social platforms all have tools and features that let creators try out new content formats or poll their audiences. On Instagram, Trial Reels in particular are a good tool for testing new topics and formats.
“So I hear consistently from newer creators that they're hesitant to experiment because they don't want their family or their friends to see certain topics or see them testing in new areas. And that's literally why we built this product. So with Trial Reels, the content goes to your non-followers first, and if you hit, you can convert it to your grid. If it doesn't work, it's just a learning," said Sollenberger.
Start with Shorts and Reels, not long-form videos
Multiple creators have told me that in today’s oversaturated creator space, beginners should start with short, vertical videos. That’s especially true of YouTube, where audiences expect long-form videos to be highly polished.
“I talked a lot of creators here this week at SXSW, who came in and said, ‘OK, Shorts is how I came into YouTube,” Trost said. “You might want to start with Shorts, and that's easier to create. Long-form takes time and more of a commitment.”
One of the biggest YouTubers of all time shared the same advice at another SXSW panel on the creator economy.
“I think that you have to have a short-form presence to begin with now,” Rhett McLaughlin, of Rhett & Link fame, said. “I mean, even we rely on discovery and rediscovery via TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts…So I think that the discovery process for a lot of creators I know who have kind of started in the past couple of years is: You pop on TikTok or Reels, then figure out how to translate that into long-form. That makes a lot of sense.”
And McLaughlin’s advice echoes exactly what Mrwhosetheboss, aka Arun Maini, told me last year when I interviewed him: Start with Shorts until you see some success.
"Make [YouTube] Shorts in your spare time, and you'll realize very quickly, either this isn't for you, it's too time-consuming, you hate editing, you hate being on camera, or you've got something here, and you love the feedback cycle, and you can get better very quickly," he said.
Trying to be a general lifestyle creator
The era of the generalist influencer is over, Berry believes. “I cannot stress it enough,” Berry said at the panel.
"I feel like, really strongly about this. I'm actually gonna kind of yell at everybody because I feel strongly about this, but I do think the internet is oversaturated. We are. We are moving away from being a generalist creator. Even saying you're a travel creator is generalist; saying you’re a food creator is generalist. Tell me you’re a travel creator who specifically spends 24 hours in cities. So, niche wins, specificity wins. It's OK to have multiple interests, but you need to have defined lanes within those interests and developed formats within those interests.”
However, new creators may need to experiment until they identify their niche.
Sollenberger and Instagram call this the T-shaped approach. Cast a wide net at first, then narrow in on what works.
So, is all hope lost for the next aspiring Alix Earle? Not quite, Alikaja told me in an interview after her panel.
“My theory is that once you go really deep, then you can become kind of like that Alix Earle personality. But to just become a personality, I think that might be a little bit different process now," she said.
Honing in on a specific niche has other benefits, too.
“You have to start with what you love and branch from there," Berry said.