Best Practices for Managing Content Creators

Your companies bureaucracy is limiting your creator communities performance and killing your bottom line. Most DTC brands only capture 1/3 of the value by only focusing on affiliate revenue. But creator communities drive full funnel performance, support brand goals, and performance goals. When you have 300+ pieces of content being posted monthly from your community: - New TOF channel that is getting your brand in front of new audiences at $2-$5 CPM - 50+ UGC/whitelisting ads you can test to scale paid media - Incremental revenue from affiliates - Halo effect, you'll see a 15% bump in amazon revenue + 70% more revenue thats captured on DTC outside of your last click attribution window. - Improved peak moments/ campaigns by having an army of creators posting about your biggest promos and marketing moments. Is your organizational structure killing your creator ROI? Creator initiatives often underperform when trapped in silos. Affiliate teams focus solely on revenue, brand teams on creative/awareness, and growth teams on conversion. This fragmented approach limits the true potential of creator partnerships. The solution? Reposition creator communities as a cross-functional asset that delivers value across multiple marketing objectives and departments. Our Process: 1. Map community benefits to key stakeholder objectives. Get everyone in a room and educate the team on the cross-functional value they are sitting on. Align creator activities with goals for brand, growth, and performance teams. 2. Establish clear measurement benchmarks. Do deep discovery on what metrics matter most to each team. Ex: New customer revenue, brand lift, CPM, impressions/engagement, and Meta CAC/ROAS. 3. Create cross-functional workflows Develop systems to leverage creator content across channels, from social media, and paid ads. This maximizes the impact of each piece of content. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet that's shared with media buying teams with links to organic creative that can be run as an ad. 4. Report on holistic ROI and share it with all teams. Make each department the hero by providing them a report on performance that supports their goals. By breaking down silos and repositioning creator communities as a value add for the entire business, brands can unlock significantly higher ROI from their partnerships. It's time to stop limiting creators to a single department and start leveraging their full potential across your organization.

You can follow every content tip in the book: Use trending audio. Post 3x a day. Put text on screen. And still get stuck. Those aren’t wrong… they’re just surface-level. If you want to play the long game, you need more than beginner tactics. I’ve spent over 16 years helping creators shape content that lasts. These 5 principles come up time after time: 1. Use Data to Guide the Next Post → Build a simple tool to rank your posts. → Spot the patterns. Let winners guide what’s next. → It’s like giving your content a report card—except you should take this one seriously ;) 2. Remix Your Top Performers → Artists don’t make one hit and move on. → They remix, drop an acoustic, or get someone else to collab on it. → Turn your best posts into templates. 3. Innovate Your CTAs (Calls-to-Action) → Super direct CTA’s often kill reach. → Figure out a way to make your audience aware of your thing without the ask. → Ex: If you’re a vlogger selling an energy drink, always show yourself cracking one open mid-video. 4. Tailor to the Platform → TikTok ≠ IG ≠ LinkedIn. → Optimize for each platform individually → Don’t just repost, re-package 5. Tracking Everything Isn’t Productive → More data ≠ more clarity. → Pick 2–3 metrics that actually change your decisions. → Ours? Conversions, views, and watch time These aren’t just the latest “hacks” They’re habits of thoughtful creators who build brands that last. These are some of mine—what’s one content lesson you wish someone told you earlier?

The man behind Alex Hormozi & Gary Vee's brands: Caleb Ralston. Jay Klouse interviewed him on how he helped grow Hormozi's audience from 1.2M to 11.5M followers & Gary's TikTok from 300K to 3.5M in just 3 months. Here are the 8 biggest takeaways: 1. Top creators produce 300+ pieces of content PER WEEK. Not to flood people’s feeds… But to acquire data. Quality is subjective. Your audience determines what "quality" means, not you. The more you publish, the faster you learn what resonates with them. 2. Use the "Accordion Method" to optimize content. Start with high volume to collect data… Then contract: Take the effort from 14 posts and put it into 7 higher-quality ones based on what performed. Then expand volume again with your new knowledge. Constant refinement > trying to execute perfectly. 3. Start with the "Brand Journey Framework" to avoid random content: • What outcome do I want? • What would I have to be known for to achieve it? • What would I have to do to be known for that? • What do I have to learn to do those things? This prevents building an audience around topics you'll end up hating. 4. 80/20 rule for content topics: 80% focused on your core expertise. 20% showing yourself as a human with interests. "Have 80% of your content be about your core thing and use the other 20% to make yourself an interesting human." This prevents burnout and builds deeper connections. 5. For new creators without experience: Share your journey of learning, not just outcomes. Document mistakes so others can avoid them. Be an "expert learner" not a fake expert. "Share your unique perspective on how you're about learning the thing." 6. Get comfortable repeating yourself in different ways. Stories are the key. They let you teach the same principles in different contexts. "I'm going to say the same things over and over in slightly different ways because you never know when it's going to hit home for somebody." 7. Track what matters, not everything. Only track metrics that change your actions. Report on multipliers/outliers, not raw numbers. Instead of saying "150K views," say "1.5X outperformer" compared to your benchmark. This immediately shows what to continue & what to stop. 8. Educational content builds trust, and trust precedes transactions. "What you are doing with educational content is trying to scale trust." When people associate you with their success, they trust you massively. Focus on making it easy for the audience to take action after consuming your content. What's your biggest takeaway from this thread? Let me know below. & if you enjoyed this… Follow me for more content like this.

As talent managers, we walk a fine line when it comes to how our creators position themselves. Too niche? They’ve doubled down on one lane—100% mom-of-toddlers content, only hands-in-pan recipes, or exclusively local restaurant reviews. It makes them clear, yes, but it also limits brand opportunities. If they’re not even “on the field,” they can’t get at-bats. Too broad? They’re posting about everything—family, fitness, food, fashion, travel. Brands can’t figure out who their audience is or why they should partner, so they skip to someone with a clearer throughline of who they serve. The sweet spot is somewhere in between. I think about it as the 55/20/20 rule: 55–60% core content (the niche they’re known for) 20% secondary arena (a complementary lane) 20% flex space (variety + opportunities that expand their reach) One of my creators, Lorraine C. Ladish (62), is a perfect example. Her core is aging well and health awareness. Her secondary is fitness and movement. Her flex is travel. Because of this mix, she’s done health partnerships, fitness campaigns, and even walked El Camino de Santiago with EF Foundation, a campaign that hit all three lanes. As managers, this balance is something to pay attention to when hiring for your roster and when guiding your creators long-term. Does their content mix leave room for a variety of collabs? Or are they so focused on one niche that they’re limiting themselves? Are they so scattered that brands can’t see a clear throughline? This is where our role matters: helping creators stay marketable without losing their authenticity. To other managers out there reading this, when you’re building your roster, how much do you weigh niche vs. variety? Do you want to like their content on a personal level or is it strictly business when it comes to making roster choices?

An influencer ghosted our $100k campaign. The solution was surprisingly simple. A major brand launch was days away. One of our top creators stopped responding to messages. Emails bounced. Texts went unanswered. Most agencies respond to ghosting creators in three ways: - Sending more messages - Escalating to management - Moving on to new creators We tried something different. First, we acknowledged a truth about creator partnerships: when creators go dark, there's usually more to the story. I learned this lesson years ago from a negotiation case study with Professor Linda Ginzel at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business: Two sisters were fighting over a lemon – both shared their *position* that they wanted the stinkin’ lemon. But talking it through, they discovered one needed only the zest for baking, the other only the juice for lemonade. Their *interests* [the rind and the fruit] fit together in ways their position did not.  The same principle applies to creator relationships. That creator who "won't make a simple edit"? They might have just lost their editor. The one who "missed every deadline"? They might need help with project management. The creator who "ghosted the campaign"? They might be dealing with technical issues they're embarrassed to admit. So we developed a simple framework: 1. Stop digital communication immediately 2. Get them on the phone within 24 hours 3. Ask open questions about their process 4. Listen for the real obstacles 5. Solve the underlying problem When we called our ghosting creator, we discovered their editing software had crashed, corrupting the campaign footage. They were frantically trying to recover it, too embarrassed to admit the issue. We connected them with our post-production team. The campaign launched on time. Now, when we onboard new creators, we track more than just performance metrics. We document: - Preferred communication channels - Resource constraints - Common obstacles After managing 10,000+ creator partnerships, I've learned that being a good partner matters more than being a good manager. Sometimes the simplest solution is just picking up the phone.

ive been the creator/influencer for brands such as HubSpot, Notion, and Tracksuit and ive hired creators/influencers for my clients. most creator partnerships fail because brands and creators talk past each other. here's how to set up your next creator relationship for success (part 1 here, part 2 in the comments): I. set up the right foundations 𝟭/ 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 instead of dumping ten features that you need featured in the posts, nail the one core insight you want your creators to talk about. creators thrive with constraints, not checklists. 𝟮/ 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 "post between march 15-20" beats "post on march 17." creators know their audience rhythms. a range lets them pick when engagement peaks. 𝟯/ 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 give them the story like you're pitching a reporter. the why it matters, what makes it newsworthy to get them excited about why their audience should care. they dont have the internal context. 𝟰/ 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 / 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 / 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 "i got early access to this, here's what i found" beats "here's what the brand told me to say." exclusivity creates authenticity. 𝟱/ 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 don't make creators guess what resonates. share 2-3 customer testimonials, case studies, or problem statements. gives them ammunition for authentic storytelling. 𝟲/ 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 one low-stakes post lets you see their style, gauge audience reaction, and adjust the brief. cheaper than committing to 10 posts and realising the fit is wrong. part 2 in the comments (linkedin character count limit lol): II. creative control & execution III. contracts & compensation IV. measurement & optimisation == the uncomfortable truth? most creator/influencer partnerships underperform because brands give no direction or too much control. clear vision + creative freedom + contractual clarity = actual results.

27k LinkedIn followers drove +30 meetings per week. Then I realized we were leaving money on the table. Here’s what changed everything: March 2025: I was doing all our content creation solo. The problem? I was burning out creating content every single week. The solution? Turn my entire team into content creators, have agents create ideas & re syndicate content. Over the past few months, every person at Trigify.io posts 1-2x per week in their expertise area: - I post daily content - Piers Montgomery posts about is road to CMO - Hugo Millington-Drake about social data and influencers strategy - We’ve even got our CTO Morgan Parry 🧑🚀 posting occasionally I’m not asking them to sell Trigify. I’m asking them to share knowledge freely in their field and let organic growth happen. Here’s the content syndication strategy: 1. Create once on LinkedIn 2. Repurpose for YouTube, Twitter, newsletters 3. Turn best performers into case studies 4. Scale what works, kill what doesn’t My prediction: we’re seeing this already but companies are creating “in-house media agency”. We will continue this approach will 3x our inbound pipeline by Q4. Most founders think content creation is a marketing team responsibility. Wrong. In 2025, every employee is a content creator whether they know it or not. The companies that embrace this will dominate organic reach. The ones that don’t will pay 5x more for the same leads.

UGC is crushing and that's no surprise. It's fun when it works. But you know what's not so fun? Managing 100's of creators. Unless you're a brand like Dr. Squatch, or an agency the size of Mars, you probably don't have many, if any, creators in house. And it gets even more interesting if you're on a tight schedule to get the content, i.e. ahead of BFCM 🙃. We've seen things like: • Creators disappearing mid-project with no explanation (worse, after the product was received) • Receiving a message on the deadline day that they're on holiday • Not sticking to the briefs, having to reshoot all the content resulting in delays • And more.. There are also situations completely outside of your or their control - had a creator get into a bad accident mid-project which resulted in her having to go to the hospital for a few weeks (thankfully she is fine now). All this to say - building strong long-term relationships with creators is crucial if you hope to have any success with UGC content. It's the only way to minimize potential risks and make it a win-win for everyone. Here are some of the things we've implemented to avoid hiccups in the process as much as possible: ✅ Dialed in our communication & relationships (email ➝ Slack) ✅ Provide them with specific and clear instructions on what we need including detailed briefs ✅ I can't believe I have to say this but paying people well and paying them on time This was a major contributing factor that helped us complete a major project (for us at least) for a well known 8 figure ecom brand last month with over 70 pieces of UGC in deliverables. Dropping another post with the challenges & learnings on that tomorrow, so stay tuned