Chapter 6 Exercises

Exercise 6.1 — The Full ACOS Platform Audit

Type: Individual analysis Time: 60–90 minutes Difficulty: Beginner–Intermediate

Choose a niche you are seriously considering for your creator work (or use a hypothetical niche assigned by your instructor). Select three platforms from the chapter's deep dives. For each platform, complete the following four-section analysis:

Audience Section: - Estimate the size of your specific target demographic on this platform (use Statista, Pew Research Internet surveys, or platform-published demographic data) - Describe how your target audience uses this platform: entertainment mode, search mode, or professional-development mode? - Are there active communities in your niche already? List three to five creators currently operating in your niche on this platform and their approximate follower counts.

Content Fit Section: - What is the native content format for this platform? - Describe a piece of content you could produce that fits this native format and serves your niche. Be specific about format, length, and structure. - On a scale of 1–10, rate your current skill level for producing this type of content. What would you need to learn or acquire to get to an 8 out of 10?

Operating Cost Section: - Estimate the equipment cost to produce competitive-quality content on this platform (list each item and its approximate cost) - Estimate the time cost per piece of content, from ideation to publication - Calculate a weekly operating cost if you posted at the platform's recommended cadence for audience growth

Strategic Control Section: - What native monetization options exist on this platform? - Can you export your audience's contact information? If so, how? - What are the primary ways your content could violate this platform's Terms of Service (even accidentally)? - Rate this platform's strategic control on a 1–10 scale (10 = full control, 1 = total platform dependence)

After completing all three platforms: Write a 300-word recommendation for your hub platform, citing your ACOS analysis as evidence.

Exercise 6.2 — Competitive Landscape Mapping

Type: Research and analysis Time: 45–60 minutes Difficulty: Beginner

Select a niche you are interested in. Find five creators operating in that niche who have been active for at least two years. For each creator, complete the following profile:

After completing the table, answer these questions: 1. Is there a platform pattern? Are most creators in this niche concentrated on one or two platforms? 2. Are any of the creators on platforms where the niche is underserved? Does that represent an opportunity or a signal that the niche does not work on that platform? 3. Which creator appears to have the most strategic control over their audience? What evidence supports your conclusion? 4. Which creator appears most vulnerable to platform risk? Why?

Exercise 6.3 — The Hub-and-Spoke Design

Type: Strategic planning Time: 45 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate

Design a hub-and-spoke platform architecture for the following creator scenario:

Scenario: Jordan is a 24-year-old registered nurse who wants to create content about mental health for healthcare workers — specifically burnout prevention, work-life balance, and navigating the emotional labor of nursing. Jordan has strong verbal communication skills, writes well, has a decent smartphone camera, and has about eight hours per week available for content creation. Jordan's target audience is nurses aged 22–40 who are looking for practical mental health tools rather than clinical information.

Complete the following:

1. Hub selection: Which platform would you recommend as Jordan's hub? Walk through the ACOS framework explicitly for your recommended platform and for at least one alternative you considered and rejected.

2. Spoke selection: Identify one to two spoke platforms. For each, explain: What content would be repurposed to this spoke from the hub? How much additional time would this require per week? What specific audience benefit does this spoke add that the hub cannot provide?

3. Production schedule: Given eight hours per week, sketch out a realistic weekly content production schedule that maintains the 80/20 rule.

4. Six-month milestone: What would "success" look like for Jordan's platform strategy at the six-month mark? Define it with specific, measurable metrics.

Exercise 6.4 — Platform Risk Scenario Analysis

Type: Case analysis and written response Time: 30–45 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate–Advanced

Read the following scenario and answer the questions below.

Scenario: Priya, the strategy lead for the Meridian Collective, has just learned that YouTube has issued the Collective's channel a Community Guidelines strike for a video analyzing a professional esports organization's alleged player mistreatment. The video cited publicly available court documents and player statements, but YouTube's automated system flagged it for "harassment." The Collective has 280,000 YouTube subscribers, earns approximately $1,800/month in YouTube ad revenue, and has one previous strike that is now expired. Their Twitch channel has 4,200 followers and generates about $300/month in subscriptions. Their Discord has 8,900 members.

Answer the following: 1. Assess the severity of the Collective's current platform risk. What is their exposure if they receive a second strike within 90 days? 2. What strategic actions should the Collective take in the next 30 days to reduce their platform dependency, given this event? 3. If you were advising the Collective on platform diversification, which platforms would you add, and why? Be specific about how each new platform would reduce risk rather than just adding presence. 4. What does this scenario reveal about the relationship between content subject matter (esports accountability journalism) and platform risk? Are there content categories or niches that are structurally more exposed to platform risk?

Exercise 6.5 — The Equity-Adjusted Platform Recommendation

Type: Written analysis Time: 45–60 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate–Advanced

This exercise asks you to apply the chapter's equity lens to a platform recommendation.

Part A: Read the following creator profile.

Amara is a 22-year-old aspiring creator in a rural county in Mississippi. She lives in a house with unreliable broadband (average download speed: 8 Mbps, frequently dropping). She works 35 hours per week at a retail job and has about six hours per week for content creation. She has a two-year-old Samsung Android smartphone. Her niche idea: natural hair care for Black women transitioning away from chemical relaxers. Her target audience is primarily Black women aged 18–35.

Part B: Without considering equity constraints, identify the "theoretically optimal" platform for Amara based on audience fit and content fit alone.

Part C: Now apply the full ACOS framework, including the real operating costs and access constraints in her situation. Which platform(s) are actually viable? What adjustments does her real situation require to the theoretical recommendation?

Part D: Write a 400-word recommendation memo addressed to Amara. Your memo should: - Acknowledge her specific constraints honestly without being patronizing - Recommend a platform and posting cadence that is genuinely sustainable given her time and equipment - Identify one achievable upgrade (equipment or skill) she could realistically make within six months that would expand her options - Avoid the implicit assumption that her goal should be to match the production quality of creators who have more resources

Exercise 6.6 — Platform Saturation Signal Identification

Type: Analysis exercise Time: 30 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate

The chapter describes "saturation signals" — indicators that you have reached the limits of what additional investment in your current platform will return. For each of the following creator scenarios, evaluate whether they are experiencing saturation or something else (algorithm change, content quality decline, normal growth plateau, posting frequency drop). Explain your reasoning.

Scenario A: Sofia has 45,000 Instagram followers in the home decor niche. For the past four months, her new posts are averaging 400–600 likes, down from 800–1,200 a year ago. She is posting at the same frequency (five times per week) and her Reels are cross-posted from TikTok where she has 12,000 followers and steady growth.

Scenario B: Darian has a personal finance YouTube channel with 92,000 subscribers. Monthly subscriber growth has dropped from approximately 3,000/month a year ago to 800/month now. His video views are stable (40,000–60,000 per video), but new subscribers are not converting at the same rate. He recently introduced more monetization-focused content (course promotions, affiliate links).

Scenario C: Keisha has been podcasting about Black travel for 18 months. Her downloads per episode have hovered between 600–900 for the past eight months, with no significant movement. She posts weekly, has been a guest on three other podcasts in the past six months, and has not changed her format or production quality.

For each scenario, your analysis should: Diagnose the issue (saturation vs. another cause), recommend one diagnostic action the creator can take to confirm your diagnosis, and, if saturation is diagnosed, recommend one specific next platform and explain why.

Exercise 6.7 — Debate: Hub-and-Spoke vs. Omnichannel

Type: Class debate or written position paper Time: 60 minutes (debate) or 45 minutes (written) Difficulty: Advanced

The proposition: "For individual creators and small creator teams, a focused hub-and-spoke strategy produces better long-term outcomes than an omnichannel approach."

Preparation: Research and prepare arguments for both sides. Consider: What does "better outcomes" mean (revenue, audience size, platform safety, creator wellbeing)? Are there cases where omnichannel is clearly superior? What creator types, niches, or growth stages might change the calculation?

Written version: Write a 600-word position paper arguing either for or against the proposition. You must acknowledge the strongest counterargument to your position and explain why your position holds anyway.

Debate version: Split into two groups. Each group has 10 minutes to prepare, then presents opening arguments (3 minutes), responds to the opposing team's argument (2 minutes), and delivers a closing statement (1 minute). The class votes on which argument was more persuasive — importantly, not which position is "correct," but which team argued more effectively.

Debrief question for both formats: How does the right answer to this debate change depending on the creator's resources, niche, and stage of growth?