The U.S. Presidential Elections are just 5 months away.

“YAY!” said nobody ever.

And it’s between two politicians who have expressed that TikTok should likely be banned and happen to have large TikTok accounts. Hmmm…

But this means you, as a powerful creator representative, will indeed have to answer the following questions:

“Should I voice my political opinions to my followers?”

“Should I build on TikTok with a possible shutdown looming?”

“Am I the subject of a psy-ops campaign from the Chinese government!?”

All good questions. And I have all of the good answers.

NEWS:

Donald Trump Blows Up on TikTok

Donald Trump launched on TikTok with one campaign video and 3 million followers in just the first few days.

This just four months after Biden launched his weird ice cream video getting just 300k followers in the first three months.

And here’s the rub: both candidates have issued full-throated warnings of the dangers of the platform, and there has already been bi-partisan legislation passed for TikTok to either sell to a US entity or be shut down in The States.

It sounds hypocritical but makes a lot of sense. They both need the youth vote, and the youth are on TikTok.

So what should your clients do with this information around TikTok and their point of view on the election in general?

My point of view: no matter what you decide, protect yourself.

First, I would never fault anyone for not sharing their political opinion. Don’t feel you must pick a side if you're dispassionate about politics.

But if you are passionate, voice away, but understand the risks.

If you support Trump, some brands and fans will no longer associate with you.

Likewise with Biden.

I always encourage creators who worry about backlash to focus on a specific cause instead. For example, I support War Child, which helps children globally impacted by war.

I usually know which politician fits my mission, but I will proudly defend my support of this organization.

Likewise, if you are not specifically anti-TikTok, keep posting, but protect yourself.

Diversify your audience. Distribute your clients’ content on other short-form platforms. If they don’t have the time, there are awesome agencies who help with this.

That way if a shutdown happens, you have a Plan B. And if it doesn’t, you’re still growing on a valuable platform.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Are you gonna finish that brand deal?

If you’re a creator rep with access to your talents’ inboxes and they have any scale, you’re likely absolutely buried in brand deals.

And most of them, to say this as nicely as possible, are not…great.

But if there’s a deal that simply isn’t a fit for you or your client, don’t ignore or delete it!

Squad.app has a program where you can send them your clients’ unused brand deals. If they are able to reposition the deal to one of the millions of talent in their network, you will get 5% of the deal.

Plus, if you’re in their network, your talent will also be eligible for repositioned brand deals!

And if it’s a gifting opportunity, I recommend joining a WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, or Slack community of talent managers who may want them. It spreads good will to both the brand and the creator economy.

As always, if you decide to reach out, please let them know ‘The Creator Rep’ newsletter sent you!

SOCIAL OPTIMIZATION:

This is a newsletter promoting newsletters.

Whenever there’s a dramatic change on a social media platform, the concept of ‘audience ownership’ becomes front-and-center.

Now, when we talk about ‘audience ownership’ in the social media world, we mean the ability to reach your audience without a platform intermediary.

There are many wonderful, innovative companies helping creators collect contact information, including DoubleJack (an affiliate platform), Laylo (SMS), or Fourthwall (direct merch sales and community).

But for my money, nothing beats a good old-fashioned newsletter.

They’re reasonably cheap. There has been a lot of recent innovation in the space (I use Beehiiv). As a creator rep, you can make a simple template for your creator to share the content they made that week and participate in newsletter revenue.

Or use it as an incredible service offering to stay in your creators’ good favor!

Then, if anything happens to your creator’s primary platform, whether it be a sudden unexplained copyright strike or a government shutdown, you can still reach your creator’s fans!

INDUSTRY HIRING:

Meta is looking for a Brand Manager, Creator Marketing to add a few more commas to their market cap.

Alo Yoga seeks a Head of Influencer & Social Strategy, and you know they’ll provide a lot of workplace flexibility.

Kairos Media needs a VP - Social, Influencer, Partnerships to bring its UK sensibilities to the big city of New York.

MEME ZONE:

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!

Until next time, protect yo rep.