Being Rejected

Quitting your corporate 9 to 5 to become a full time content creator?

Deciding to move cities so that you’ll be more available for entertainment gigs, collab with other creators and rocket to stardom?

Are these simply delusional fantasies or the best decisions you’ve ever made?

It’s hard, and yes, some creators have talked briefly about how hard it is.

Not only will you need: money, time, resources - you’ll also need a constant stream of inspiration and creativity. As well as tools, accessories, props, a good eye for editing and good instincts for scammers to avoid.

One 15 seconds Tik Tok collaboration could have taken 6 weeks to orchestrate. With back and forth emails, contracts, terms and conditions, NDAs and even payment procedures.

How big is this company? How big is this influencer? Has their following stagnated by the time this content is being published? How many of their followers are real, and not bots?

It’s risky from both sides - some marketing managers are so outdated, it’s hard for them to be presented with any innovative ideas of adaptation. They wouldn’t know how to measure their KPIs based on your creative suggestions. They don’t know where to begin to track the success of this campaign.

How can they attribute the success of this one Tik Tok without applying further discount codes? (And more and more, they are becoming very reluctant to offer discount codes).

As a content creator, or even small/micro-influencer, you may also be feeling, “I just want some experience, I want to build a portfolio” - or, you know your audience, you know your followers and their personality types, you know what will get their attention and what won’t, so you know your worth, “This is at least $1000 of my time and efforts” - to which then the company might say, “Nah, we haven’t budgeted for that.”

It’s the Wild Wild West of user generated content campaigns and there’s plenty more failed campaigns and proposals than successes (I’ve assumed, based on my own personal experience!).

The Truth is that there is no “get rich quick” way to create content or become an influencer. There is, very rarely, that “stroke of good luck - this just went viral overnight!” - most of the time, there was a barren wasteland of low views and small businesses working, and toiling away, losing sleep over their business and not getting any recognition.

It’s almost like a social media lottery that they’ve won.

And when a really big celebrity suddenly makes a feature, eg. Kim Kardashian featuring a slime product that her daughter North was playing with (without any monetary agreements) - that is a one in a million.

It really doesn’t happen very often.

Rejection can be felt from both companies and content creators’ perspectives. Perhaps this company wants that influencer but they’re way too expensive. Then they’ve been approached by a small creator, but they feel like their content isn’t polished enough for their brand aspirations.

My advice to companies is to give feedback to small creators. Let them know how they could adapt their content to suit your brand. If they’ve approached you with ideas and you are not resonating, let them know “why” - and then let that small creator re-assess in themselves whether or not they wish to change or simply accept that, yes, that’s right, we’re actually misaligned.

It helps when companies state a minimum following or platform requirement on their websites. It helps when you have a clearer list of criteria of the kind of influencer you’re looking for.

If you’re going to cast the net out wide, “Contact us to collab!” And then reject those enquiries with nothing more than “Thank you but no thanks” - that’s probably going to the burn the bridge for that content creator, even as a customer of your brand and products.

I am in that boat right now and I'm not giving up, but it isn't easy.