 |
| Jo Wong |
On July 1st, Angela Nikolau and Ivan Kuznetsov - better known as the "Skywalkers," the daredevil influencer couple behind a 2024 Netflix documentary - scaled all 1,454 feet of the Empire State Building, livestreamed it on social media, staged an engagement at the top of the spire, unfurled a peace banner, and were promptly arrested on multiple felony charges. By the time they were in handcuffs, the footage had already circled the globe. It was audacious, cinematic, and wildly illegal. It was also, in the language of the internet, extremely viral.
Here's the thing: for them, it probably worked. Angela and Ivan didn't stumble into this. They have 1.5 million combined followers, a Netflix deal, and a carefully built brand around boundary-pushing climbs of the world's tallest structures. The Empire State Building wasn't an impulsive act - investigators believe the pair had been planning it as a content play, likely timed to generate publicity for their next project. The stunt is on-brand. And the global headlines will almost certainly accelerate their career. So I'm not here to call it a mistake.
I am here to ask the more interesting question: what happens next? The news cycle moves fast. Within 48 hours, something else will dominate the feed. So what does Angela and Ivan's business look like on the other side of this moment? Do they have a direct line to the fans who watched that livestream - an email list, a community, a way to convert that wave of attention into a lasting relationship? Is there a product, a membership, a documentary pre-sale waiting to catch it? Or does the moment peak, the algorithm moves on, and they're left planning an even bigger climb to do it all over again?
That question matters because it sits at the heart of everything that's broken about how we talk about success in the creator economy. Attention has become the metric - the currency that creators are told to chase above all else. And so the pressure to do something bigger, bolder, and more outrageous than the last post keeps building. What starts as creative ambition can slide, gradually and then suddenly, into something reckless. Even when the stunt lands perfectly, as this one did, there are real costs: felony burglary charges, supervised release, a court date in August. The algorithm doesn't pay your legal fees.
This is the conversation I wish more creators were having - especially at events like VidCon - the world’s largest creator economy event - where follower counts still dominate the room. A follower is a number. A community is a relationship. The creators who are actually building sustainable careers are the ones who have stopped optimizing for reach and started optimizing for depth: for the fan who buys, who comes back, who tells their friends, who shows up not because an algorithm served them a clip, but because they genuinely trust the person behind it. That kind of audience doesn't require a skyscraper. And it doesn't disappear when the news cycle does.
So where should creators draw the line? The legal one is obvious. But the strategic one is just as important: the question worth asking before any stunt, any spectacle, any bid for attention is - what am I building with this moment? If the answer is "owned audience, direct relationships, sustainable revenue," then the risk might be worth it. If the answer is "views," then you're just borrowing attention you don't own, and it will be gone as fast as it came. Angela and Ivan captured the world's attention on July 1st. What they do with it in the days and weeks ahead will matter far more than the climb itself.
Virality is a moment. A community is a business. The creators who understand the difference are the ones still standing when the news cycle moves on.
***
By Jo Wong, General Manager, POP.STORE.
X recently suspended my account for “violating our rules against inauthentic behaviors.” That was the entirety of the explanation. X cited no specific post, identified no pattern of misconduct and offered no definition of what, precisely, it considered inauthentic about my activity. 
While YouTube doesn’t count the largest total number of active users, it stands out as the most widely used platform across all generations, according to a report.
Bluesky took the social media world by storm last year. But activity and engagement on the platform appear to be declining.
Social media sites are quickly replacing search engines as the preferred method for looking up information online, particularly among Gen Z audiences.
Social media has evolved significantly in the past few years, upending B2B social media marketing. Here are some of the biggest developments B2B marketers should be aware of as they refine their social media strategies going forward.
