Social media
Content creator
A content creator is someone with their own audience who talks about a product in their own words for a fee. Follower count is the least important number: what matters is whether their audience matches your customer.
What it means in practice
Collaboration takes three usual shapes: a one off post, a series during a campaign, and a long term partnership. For companies outside consumer goods the third works best, because a single mention from someone who does not know you reads as an advert. The agreement covers the number of deliverables, dates, the right to use the material in your own advertising, and mandatory disclosure of the partnership. That disclosure is a legal duty, not a suggestion.
Why size does not decide: a creator with two thousand followers in a narrow field delivers more than a general profile with a hundred thousand. A workwear manufacturer partnered with someone who films workshop repairs and got dozens of concrete enquiries. Prices run from a few hundred euros per video with smaller creators to thousands with bigger names, so it is usually better to split a budget across three than to give it to one.
How to choose: ignore follower counts and read the comments. If there are real questions under the posts, the audience is alive. Then look at that person's last ten partnerships, because if they promote something different every week their recommendation carries no weight. And give them the product far enough in advance to actually use it.
Where it goes wrong: a script written line by line. When a creator reads your copy, the audience notices and the effect disappears. Give them facts and boundaries, leave the rest to them. The second risk is reputational: you are working with someone whose other content you do not control. And if the product is not good, a creator only spreads that faster.
Before any partnership we ask the creator for one sentence about what they genuinely think of the product, before anything is signed. If they are unconvinced, we would rather not do it. Try it today: look at five creators in your field and read the comments under their latest post rather than the follower numbers.