A new study from Pew Research Center reveals that mid-tier content creators, not mega-influencers, represent the largest segment of creator accounts, followed by U.S. adults on TikTok.
The research examines posting habits, content trends, and profile characteristics across different creator segments and highlights that creators with 50,000 to 499,999 followers constitute 42% of all creator accounts followed by U.S. adults on TikTok. Those with more than 1 million followers represent only 10% of followed accounts.
Source: Pew Research Center
The research defines creators as accounts with at least 5,000 followers whose owners build their following primarily through social media rather than offline fame.
The study identifies distinct posting patterns based on follower count. Creators with over 1 million followers maintain a median of 777-lifetime posts, compared to 154 posts for creators with fewer than 10,000 followers.
Larger accounts also produce longer content, averaging 39-second videos versus 21 seconds for smaller accounts, and incorporate speech in 40% of their posts compared to 20% for smaller creators.
Content Strategy and Monetization Indicators
Entertainment and humor remain consistent themes across all creator segments, but promotional content appears more frequently in posts from accounts with larger followings.
Profile optimization varies significantly by account size, with 94% of studied creators maintaining bio descriptions. Link inclusion shows a clear correlation with account size: 82% of the most-followed accounts feature profile links, compared to 33% of smaller accounts.
Linktree dominates as the preferred link service, representing 34% of all creator bio links, followed by YouTube at 7% and Beacons.ai at 5%.
Despite their industry designation, fewer than 1% of creators use the terms “creator” or “influencer” in their account descriptions, with “creator” appearing twice as frequently when either term is used.
A new study from Pew Research Center reveals that mid-tier content creators, not mega-influencers, represent the largest segment of creator accounts, followed by U.S. adults on TikTok.
The research examines posting habits, content trends, and profile characteristics across different creator segments and highlights that creators with 50,000 to 499,999 followers constitute 42% of all creator accounts followed by U.S. adults on TikTok. Those with more than 1 million followers represent only 10% of followed accounts.
Source: Pew Research Center
The research defines creators as accounts with at least 5,000 followers whose owners build their following primarily through social media rather than offline fame.
The study identifies distinct posting patterns based on follower count. Creators with over 1 million followers maintain a median of 777-lifetime posts, compared to 154 posts for creators with fewer than 10,000 followers.
Larger accounts also produce longer content, averaging 39-second videos versus 21 seconds for smaller accounts, and incorporate speech in 40% of their posts compared to 20% for smaller creators.
Content Strategy and Monetization Indicators
Entertainment and humor remain consistent themes across all creator segments, but promotional content appears more frequently in posts from accounts with larger followings.
The research indicates that news and political content decrease as follower counts rise.
Source: Pew Research Center
Profile optimization varies significantly by account size, with 94% of studied creators maintaining bio descriptions. Link inclusion shows a clear correlation with account size: 82% of the most-followed accounts feature profile links, compared to 33% of smaller accounts.
Linktree dominates as the preferred link service, representing 34% of all creator bio links, followed by YouTube at 7% and Beacons.ai at 5%.
Despite their industry designation, fewer than 1% of creators use the terms “creator” or “influencer” in their account descriptions, with “creator” appearing twice as frequently when either term is used.
Read the full report here.