Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube are all leaning heavily into influencer marketing

Awards shows have a habit of turning unknowns into household names overnight.

Could Snap do this for your influencer? The Snappys land March 31, and the categories tell you exactly which creators Snap is betting on.

Categories include entertainment, comedy, music, sports, and beauty, and the specific awards tell you exactly which formats and growth trajectories Snap is prioritizing.

This is your early-mover opportunity to identify and align with creators before the spotlight finds them.

Plus, awards shows create cultural moments, and cultural moments drive attention. If Gen Z is your target audience, being associated with top creators means visibility.

We’re getting a sense of deja vu: TikTok’s 2026 Discover List highlights 50 creators across Educators, Foodies, Icons, Innovators, and Originators.

Each creator gets their own lookbook page, making it easy to assess if they’re suitable for your brand. It’s almost like a pre-vetted influencer shortlist, handed to you for free.

Influencer sourcing is one of the most time-consuming parts of creator marketing. If you’re planning a creator campaign in any of those five verticals, this is your starting point.

And YouTube would like a word. Three actually:

• Creators can now reply to comments with voice notes, a small shift that makes audience relationships feel more like a conversation.
• AI remixing for Shorts is in early testing. Viewers can prompt YouTube to transform clips into new content. File under “interesting, not actionable yet.”
• Premium Lite is adding background play and downloads.

YouTube is investing heavily in keeping both creators and viewers inside the app. It’s not just keeping the lights on; it’s bricking up the exits. Advertisers tend to like that…

Google is losing out to chatbots for search, and TikTok is losing out to Roblox for Gen Z purchases

While Google was busy wrestling with TikTok, a third assailant entered the ring.

And it’s AI-generating all its moves: 14% of consumers, across every age group, now prefer ChatGPT over Google for search, according to a new Adobe Express survey.

That’s double the 7% who said the same about TikTok. And unlike TikTok’s Gen Z niche, ChatGPT’s numbers were consistent across millennials, Gen X, and boomers, too.

Meanwhile, Gen Z’s preference for TikTok over Google actually fell from 8% to 4% since 2024. Just 38% of business owners plan to increase TikTok affiliate marketing spend this year, down from 53% in 2024.

If you’re allocating budget for search visibility, AI is where attention is heading, and getting visible on ChatGPT and other AI-driven tools is a now problem, not a next-quarter one.

And now TikTok’s having to fight Roblox too: According to Retail Technology Show research, Gen Z made an average of 20 purchases on Roblox in the last year.

That’s a 54% year on year jump. And TikTok? A comparatively modest 10% growth.

What’s fueling it:

• Roblox now sells physical goods, not just digital items
• Daily active users hit 150M globally in 2025
• Peer-to-peer community engagement is driving commerce in ways other platforms have stopped figuring out how to replicate.

TikTok still leads in total order volume, but the momentum is shifting, and momentum tends to be a pretty reliable preview of where budgets should follow.

If your audience skews young, Roblox is worth more than a passing glance.

Think branded experiences, virtual product drops, or simply showing up where Gen Z is already spending twenty times a year.

Content marketing is shifting from writing to ownership, and what that means for you as a marketer

Having a “way with words” is great. But it’s better when paired with techniques that get those words in front of people.

Semrush’s study of 8,000 job listings looks into where the industry is actually headed. Spoiler: It’s getting a lot more technical, and the “middle class” of content roles is feeling the squeeze.

1) The content marketing job market has split into two extremes

Demand for mid-level titles has dropped by over 70% since 2023. We’re seeing a market split into two extremes: The Content Producers and the Heads of Content.

Companies either want someone to build the entire machine or someone to keep the gears turning.

2) Analytics and storytelling become primary requirements across all levels

The requirement for pure “writing” has dipped by 28%, while “content creation” has skyrocketed by over 200%.

This isn’t because people stopped reading; it’s because “content” now implies… well, everything. Plus, SEO is no longer a specialist skill; it’s a standard expectation.

3) Data analysis and narrative strategy become the core of content work

Data collection is the most frequent responsibility for senior roles, seeing a massive 369% increase since 2023. Interestingly, storytelling has also surged as a top-three requirement.

This is a direct response to the sea of bland AI content. Companies are desperate for humans who can weave a narrative that doesn’t sound like a robot wrote it.

4) AI literacy is a growing requirement for content marketing roles

While AI Specialist isn’t a common title yet, AI literacy is mentioned in 34% of senior roles and 20% of execution roles.

AI is becoming a tool you’re expected to know. Specialized skills like prompt engineering are still niche, but you need to mention how you work alongside LLMs when job hunting.

5) Technical degrees rise as traditional liberal arts requirements fade

The era of the English or Journalism degree as the default entry point is fading, with requirements for those majors dropping by 47% and 37%, respectively.

Instead, Business has climbed to the number two spot. Even Computer Science degrees saw a 400% jump in leadership roles.

To thrive in 2026, you need to be a hybrid. Part data scientist, part multimedia producer, and part strategic leader.

Semrush has a couple more points to make, which we recommend checking out here.

Most users think of AI as a search engine

If search is the engine, AI is the high-performance fuel.

Users are increasingly leaning on these tools to cut through the digital noise and handle the mental heavy lifting of their daily lives.

Bad news for SEOs? Over half of users (56%) use AI tools as a primary source of information, effectively treating it like a search engine. That’s a lot.

50% utilize AI as a creative collaborator for brainstorming and overcoming blocks, meaning search is now part of the “making” process.

45% see it as an everyday assistant for handling calendars and automating tasks, proving that AI is sticking its nose into every part of the user journey.

We can call this an “Integrated Discovery.” Users are looking for both facts and solutions that help them do things.

Information and utility are of equal value. If you can offer tools, calculators, or templates that AI can suggest to a user during their “creative collaboration” phase, you may win.

AI is rewriting the rules of search discovery, but Pro subscribers don’t panic.

They adapt with weekly strategic insights and ready-to-deploy tactics. $349/year covers your whole team (up to 10 people).