why has UGC become an MLM?

[@marinemanaphy101]

The Mike’s Mic x Swell Entertainment crossover is something I didn’t expect but was extremely happy to see

[@EmilyinEPCOT]

Oooh I’m excited

[@melodyhaviland9393]

unbelievably excited by this comment

[@ChloeTheePayne]

THE CROSSOVER OF THE CENTURY

[@Jadeeee2323]

Just opened the vid, but this comment made me excited af lol

[@skye2847]

My absolute dream blunt rotation

[@lisahoshowsky4251]

Adam Ellis, a well known artist/cartoonist (with 1M FB followers) was just approached by Wicked to make them free art under the guise of “Fan Art” for some promotion they’re doing. Wicked, which has made over a BILLION dollars at the box office felt it was okay to ask a person also in the creative industry to make them free art for the exposure of it. He’s not a micro-influencer but I feel this anecdote fits into the narrative of UGC and how it hurts all creatives and creators. Not just those looking to make a living in it either because you know when one creator says no to their disgusting proposition they’ll just move down the list until they find someone desperate or not knowledgeable enough to say yes and it hurts even those doing it for fun.

[@RinaLoProduction]

Boosting to hope that Swell see's this

[@duckinaswing]

i was just watching a video by wait in the wings about what constitutes as a broadway flop and one of the people he interviews was saying broadway is first and foremost a business. the fact that this happens all the time to artists is sad

[@imsotiredofthiscrap2341]

i go to see broadway shows and every time i hear a story like this it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. i think people shouldn’t feel “guilty” per se for going to see broadway shows, but i make sure to look for off-off broadway and off broadway theater when i stop in nyc, otherwise i just feel like shit LMAO

[@nerdoftheatre]

He was offered 2 tickets to the show. So, they did offer something. *However,* as Adam said, 2 tickets to see Wicked on Broadway won't pay the bills. And I agree. It is not good compensation. It's something, but it's not good. (Besides, what if he wasn't living in NYC or in a place that has a nearby tour? He'd still have to pay for lodging, travel, food, etc.) Adam never mentioned liking Wicked, nor has he ever talked about Wicked on his platform. As far as I know, this was out-of-the-blue. Wicked has been on Broadway for a loooong time. Longer than most Broadway runs..... And they can't afford better compensation. Musicals on Broadway are all about the money. It's the only reason they can keep the lights on. They need to make their money back. And, with how it is still on Broadway, by no means is it struggling. They can afford to commission artists and PAY THEM.

[@gaerekxenos]

I look the other way for "fan art contests" -- but this is inexcusable. Fan art is done because people *want to* and enjoy the work and are *going to do it anyway* (there are others that get motivated by contests, but that is a slightly different thing that I am choosing to ignore but is still ridiculously significant). This one... is straight up a commission, and they are trying to pay with... a token. That *expires*. This is literally one of the worst taboos in the industry outside of straight up breaking copyright

[@nicole27126]

I'm a professional actor, and UGC has become a really annoying and somewhat disrespectful thing. Because of Covid, we film self-tapes instead of going to auditions in-person. The prevalence of UGC has skyrocketed since then. We are being asked to film ourselves in "reviews", skits, demos, etc. almost as often as submitting an auditions for real commercials. This includes taking care of lighting, sound, wardrobe, makeup, set, etc. It's a lazy way for products/brands to get commercials for their social media without having to pay professionals. It's really sad because the lighting designers, sound engineers, costume dept., set dressers, makeup and hair artists, let alone the crews are now being replaced by one person with an iphone and a TON of time on their hands. Covid hit our industry really hard, and people continue to suffer because of it. Brands should pay professionals instead of taking advantage of desperate, young, inexperienced actors who then unknowingly hurt the industry they are trying to break into.

[@gretchenthom4976]

I believe it will be years before we realize all the ways COVID changed our world/society. I will say, the ray of sunshine is that people seem to be leaning back towards authenticity. Consumers are extremely fickle. You stay true to your craft and don't give in to the "flavor of the week". 😊❤️ up

[@GlamGoddes101]

just to point out, if a brand or business wants to go through the route of working with a whole production company they always will, if they choose other options (content creators & influencers) they probably weren’t likely to work with real production companies anyway

[@empressfreya9872]

@@GlamGoddes101 that's funnily enough a similar argument I see from people who believe that those who pirate books would have never bought those books anyways when that has been proven to be wrong. When they aren't given another choice, they will go for what is actually worth their money

[@lindsenddddd12345]

i HATEEEE self tapes.

[@emilied5517]

Oh my god it's so annoying!! You look into the "audition", you realize you're basically auditioning to make TikToks and reels for their social media accounts. I'll act in your *commercials* sure, but get your SM marketing to make those reels instead

[@crazyinnocentturtle]

Swell : be careful of UCG content Me, a non content creator with no interest in making content: 👁️👄👁️

[@Natalia-ex8xi]

This is me watching every swell review for a product I can’t buy lmao

[@bluz1864]

@@Natalia-ex8xi Yes! Amanda is so engaging that I'd watch her talk about paint drying.

[@Zectifin]

@@bluz1864 thats basically 80% of what I watch on youtube. "I have no idea what this is, but I love this person's personality and delivery so I'll enjoy it anyways." Me watching Hbomb talk for 2 hours about a game/show I've never experienced.

[@ArtisticlyAlexis]

I'm just sick of our hyper capitalist society we're all stuck in now. Almost everyone online is obsessed with money & monetization of everything. Influencers are no longer care about their audience or the entertainment factor of their content, only seeing viewers as dollar signs. As a regular person, I'm just bored watching people shove their wealth or products their selling down my throat.

[@PsRohrbaugh]

I'm old. The internet I started with, you were expected to create content as a passion project and lose money paying for things like web hosting. Even running banner ads was controversial. I have no problem with creators getting paid for making our lives better, but things have swung too far the other direction where (some) creators see dollar signs instead of an audience.

[@ArtisticlyAlexis]

@@PsRohrbaugh I’m 39, so I grew up as the internet did; from getting a Macintosh beige cube with 2 colors when I was 6, to the birth of the internet and having to pay by the minute just to use it when I was 10, (remember making new free trial accounts to use it when my parents didn't want to pay for more time.) When it finally became monthly, easy access & fully open for everyone to create, it was the Golden Era, because people who were passionate about a topic were the ones making websites. Now we have an internet where everything is ads/monetized or formatted precisely for the almighty algorithms that control if you'll get those interactions w/ your content & hopefully get the precious click-through, so you can get paid for all that sweet sweet engagement w/ ads & sponsors. There's millions being thrown around via monetizing how long our eyeballs view content, so when one guy does it & it gets views/clicks, everybody just copies.

[@PsRohrbaugh]

@@ArtisticlyAlexis We're from the same era. This is a good comment. I guess my point is that there should be a middle ground between today's "hyper capitalist" media, and days gone by where you had to spend money to even get your content seen.

[@jenniferlynnkarr]

@@ArtisticlyAlexis this, god, i'm so sick of fucking late stage capitalism. all these cookies on every page keeping track of everything i click, monitoring how long i spend looking at items so the algorithm can suggest similar items to me, code designed to remind me about the item i was looking at, code that ties my online presence to my relatives so my mom ends up seeing ads for the item i looked at, and brands getting around people using adblockers by having youtubers include ads in the video, i know they need to do it to make money but oh my god it's infuriating. ads in my apps, ads on youtube every few minutes if I'm not watching on my desktop where i have adblock installed, ads on subscription based streaming platforms unless you pay for the more expensive ad free version! this all feels so weird, like is this it? is this progress? ads everywhere, everything monetized? here's something you can buy, here's a side hustle to pay for the thing, make some content about the thing you bought and make more money! everything feels so hollow and soulless. i'm 35 so i got to experience pre-advertising internet too. now if i turn off my adblocker on a news article there's a banner ad between every paragraph, a banner ad at the top of the page, and two videos playing on the side of the window.

[@dorkvania7212]

Agreed. It's like everyone is trying to treat their communities line their downline, even if it's not a proper MLM type situation. This shreds communities and the benefits people get from being in them, usually for like almost no money.

[@halplease]

"...and then on Twitter, I'm considered annoying" 💀

[@TheVirtualObserver]

The over-saturation of UGC is especially funny to me because so many of these micro-influencers probably think they’re “gaming the system” when in fact they’re being played instead.

[@imjustdandy9799]

UGC is just another way for corporations to get free labor by further merging the employee with the customer with the product.

[@21kaduku]

This isn’t super related to the video, but it’s really cool how competent you are in this business. I don’t really follow anyone else who talks about the business of content creation, so it’s essentially a black box to me, but your info is super clear and well-spoken.

[@prachiarora6245]

Try ColinandSamir. Their whole KZbin channel is based on understanding Influencer economy.

[@Vagitarian01]

@@prachiarora6245 And on the streamer side of things, I highly recommend Devin Nash.

[@annaissodone]

I always say, when there are "guru"'s in the space, and a lot of creators that talk about the creator business, it means the bubble is about to pop

[@ramalam98]

I'm a booktoker and it does genuinely feel like we're just a groupchat of booktokers liking each other's content, most of the time. There are a handful of big booktokers with 50k, 100k+ subs but the majority of us are in the 1-5k sub range just promoting books to other booktokers lol

[@fluffyfish7151]

I'm in the indie perfume niche on Reddit, and we're similar we're just advertising to ourselves, although I'm sure our Perfumetok is equivalent to your experiences..

[@ghoulchan7525]

Sounds like a book club with extra steps

[@Vale-nh6ey]

@@fluffyfish7151 im curious if you've ever heard of scents of wood, we had them as a client in my email marketing agency. I never got to try the perfumes but they looked fancy lol

[@witchingbrew3]

I'm a big reader and I just couldn't get into booktube for this reason

[@belovedwinter]

I know this is an old comment, but it may help to know that, in general, this is just the "person who likes books" experience, lol. You're only ever recommending books to other people who like books. So, you know... in case it helps you feel better, haha.

[@Xpndable]

William's freeze frame skills at work 16:20 🤣

[@Swell_Popcorn_Simps]

UwU? 🍿

[@desertels5119]

Personal friendships/networks being used for advertising feels kind of dystopian

[@Anna-dd4rh]

Welcome to every MLM! Yes, it’s awful and a great way to make sure you no longer have friends

[@Natalia-ex8xi]

Getting real close to the Ad Buddies from Maniac, the company pays what you buy at the store and in exchange a stranger follows you around talking about a product for a while

[@jspihlman]

Whenever you're being sold a program to teach you how they did it, just know they absolutely still don't do whatever they're selling you on and make money from the rubes who do the program. Also the reason they don't bother to build a brand first and then take advertisers for products they like/support is because they see a "get rich quick scheme" and want in on it with little effort on their part.

[@ilznidiotic]

This is INESCAPABLY true with sports betting gurus. Just remember, if someone knows how to get rich quick, why do they need to sell you lessons on it?

[@acksawblack]

@@ilznidiotic For capital.

[@k80_]

This reminds me of folding ideas’ video on the mikkelsen twins and that seo spam audiobook industry. They’re only selling the method because the method itself isn’t making them money anymore. If someone is selling you a course, you’ve already missed the boat

[@yourfriendlyneighborhoodsm4708]

Dang, I just learned about this in my advertising class and yeah, we had a whole unit on UGC. They’re really putting a focus on that now

[@GlamGoddes101]

Could I ask what was talked about?

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

Yeah big brands love it because it makes them look popular

[@yogoshun]

The internet has become as saturated, which is killing its appeal to me. I am getting more into reading lately because I know I won’t be advertised to in the middle of the book.

[@ally939]

Shhh, don’t give publishers any ideas

[@starknit]

definitely oversaturated. our virtual selves all feel fake now

[@madimiss]

Same!!! Even watching shows nowadays is full of marketing because that’s how these companies are staying afloat.

[@pompokkko]

True. Like this is what I feel about reading articles online. It's either have a paywall or that it has too many confusing adds/pop ups.

[@victoriapride7575]

popular author Terry Pratchett once discovered the german translation of one of his books had an ad for a soup company written into the novel back in the early 90's

[@emi.mp4]

you're so right. we see the top 0.1% of creators winning, and it looks easy because we don't see the literal hundreds of millions of people who aren't winning!

[@gaerekxenos]

Reminds me of how once certain "secrets" get out, they lose value almost immediately. Eg. An artist had a particularly desired art style with colored pencils (way prior to AI), decided to sell the technique in classes due to how in demand it was -- then got quickly replaced by all of his students and people who picked up the technique, losing commissions and the higher pricetag he used to be able to charge

[@jauwn]

I think this is part of the reason a lot of creators have moved towards Patreon / donations for 100% of their income, and make no attempt to do brand deals or advertising. People are sick of watching content by people who are obviously bought and sold to say whatever. Like you said, these examples you showed are people who's entire online persona revolves around promoting crap. People doing that is only going to bring down the value of advertising, as the average person sees so many ads on a daily basis that they don't even bother clicking anything anymore. But hey, what do I know, maybe people are buying stuff from these pyramid scheme UGC people and not just lying about everything?

[@gretchenthom4976]

You are not wrong. You are 100% correct. I never look at any adds any where. The only way to influence me is if I purchase a product and it works. Or if free chocolate is involved.😊❤️

[@AnOtterNamedMoMo]

"On twitter I'm considered annoying" I feel that

[@ZamShazam1995]

I'm a mico-influencer but for tarot decks. It's wild, I get people in my inbox asking me to review or take their PR and i kindly tell them that if i like their product, i will buy it. My collection is curated, not just random free shit. I think thats why people follow me in the end.

[@ZamShazam1995]

okay i finished the video. one time a lady hopped in my inbox and asked to by my entire collection

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

I love that! I’ve worked with several Tarot readers on their websites and I have a friend who creates custom decks. So cool

[@ealixir7597]

thank GOODNESS someone is talking about this. i’ve been selecting “not interested” on every UGC post that comes up on my feed for the past week

[@jspihlman]

We got a message on instagram asking us if we would purchase something at a discount from an online store that sold pet stuff and then take some pics or videos with our dog and post them on our social media and plug the company. We had gotten messages like that before and ignored them, but decided to try it just for shits and giggles. The store ended up going under before we could even post content, but I've gotten a lot of these over time because I post a lot of pics of my pets and I've noticed the stuffed toys and bandanas, etc. they all have in their store are all the exact same, like it's just drop shipping with extra steps.

[@Mycozymnbooks]

THEY MADE YOU PAY FOR THE PRODUCTS?!?! even discounted that's a nope for me

[@RyeBreadMels]

I had a company reach out to me asking to make my cat into a spokesperson for their brand. I had to buy a bunch of products first to show off on insta so I said no LOL

[@angie.2757]

I get alot of these too anytime i post a pic of my cats. and usually the stuff still seems high priced with the discount

[@svby]

That’s not UGC!

[@kiearacelina]

Awesome video and I think you made some great points but there are a few things I would like to clarify if that’s ok. I personally don’t see a big difference between influencers and UGC creators. Being an influencer does mean that you know how to grow an audience but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re able to convert viewers into sales which is what social media marketing is about all together, making money. A brand might collab with a large influencer who doesn’t convert and then connect with a micro influencer who is much better at that skill and more profitable for them + these brands are brands that the micro influencer probably would’ve still worked for as an influencer if they were one. At the end of the day, it’s a money game and being an influencer doesn’t make your content more genuine because you have an audience, a micro influencer can collab with brands they genuinely like too and many influencers simply collab with brands for a check as well. My other point is that, Ugc videos actually perform way better when the persons face is showing and I think that goes for all content forms because it allows the viewer to connect with the creator. Yes you can make Ugc without showing your face, just like there are many faceless KZbin channels but that is definitely not what is preferred. Let me wrap it up before I bore everyone lol, but my last point is that, the pages you’re talking about that have lots of other UGC pages following them are usually pages that give UGC tips. If you’re giving tips to creators on how to land brand deals or scale ugc, then naturally, you will have other smaller creators following you trying to learn from you, just like if you were a KZbinr teaching people how to grow on KZbin, the people who would follow you would most likely be smaller KZbinrs or people wanting to start a channel. Every page is different and it all depends on how the creator structures their page and what they choose to post because UGCers who are strictly posting beauty content for example, if you look at their comments, it’s people who are into beauty, not Ugc creators commenting for the most part. I do agree that the whole course sales thing can be a bit iffy but UGC can also be very lucrative . I slowed down A LOT on posting since about nearly 2 years ago to work as a Ugc creator, why? 1: Because I love the creative process of making a video but I don’t like sitting down for hours just to record and edit 1 video when I can spend much less time and get paid the same amount or more 2:You can’t predict how well a video is going to perform on KZbin so knowing that I have the skill to create high quality content and that I can still do what I love without worrying about views takes a lot of anxiety off my shoulders, that stress is now on the brand. 3: I still get to connect with brands that I genuinely like and want to work with and that I would’ve connected with as a KZbinr too, id just rather save the time. There are crooks everywhere but I do think that UGC is still something that is VERY misunderstood especially by influencers crazy enough 😅 anyway, love the content🙏🏽

[@MinhNgoc-ni6zi]

this is so very helpful, thank you so much for your words on this

[@jessicadukharan]

I agree 100% with this comment 👏

[@Viele_Katzen]

Honestly i just assume that any "get rich quick"-scheme was an opportunity at some point, but by the time I hear about it it's already exploited to it's limit

[@idkalison]

As someone who runs a hobby fashion page/outfit diary, it is WILD to watch the fishbowl of some mutuals who create ad posts being like "use my code" where the only ppl using their code are friends/family trying to be supportive, and then one if those people will promote a different thing and that person will buy that to support them back and like,, its a whole weird lil ecosystem?? Kinda dystopia?? THOSE GLAMNETIC NAILS ARE ALWAYS ONE! I genuinly don't know if anyone buys glamnetic nails of their own volition of if it's just entirely funded in some sort of microinfluencer fishbowl 😭😭

[@TheStitchWitchPodcast]

Don’t buy from glamnetic they suck lol Using this dog pile to plug myself 🤪🤪🤪Check out my nails instead 😂 @by.ourielle

[@Bumblebearry]

Amanda coming out with the content that specifically I needed. My mom is starting up her cleaning business so she posts on TT/FB and was looking at doing UGC.

[@katehafner284]

As someone in influencer marketing, we don’t equate the two! We look at them as totally separate strategies (and budgets) - not all influencers are great content creators for brand marketing usage, and UGC creators are not influencers. They work in harmony, imo

[@TheStitchWitchPodcast]

Left this comment also!

[@taylorlien569]

I've worked in social media for a few years and I always worked for companies who liked to seek out ugc for free because if you can get it with customers who just are loyal fans of your product that's the best promotion of all and you just repost it. And it makes them feel like a celebrity

[@lilymitchell5224]

30 days have past. We've overcome a lot of ups and downs, joy and tears, THE GREAT RECOVERYs, amazing game plans, slapping scammers, a total of $14 million recovered, and here we are - the end of the journey. It was fun while it lasted, but every series has an ending. Hope Grind Techiei reach 10 mil subs soon for your hard work.

[@mrsGasky]

So I've been creating content (mostly photos) for beauty brands socials for a few years now, it started when I was blogging about makeup, brands loved my pictures and I thought, why not make it a side hustle? I worked in a social media agency at a time and the therm 'user generated content' was associated with something that came for free from people that tagged the photos, shared stories and the brand could repost it without paying a dime. So I just called myself a product photographer, because that was so much easier for higher ups at brands to understand. Because why would they pay for 'ugc' when they could have it for free.

[@TheAwesomes2104]

I wasn't even this early to my own birth. Thanks for teaching me what UGC even is. I love learning about sketchy things before I come across them irl.

[@robblatt9120]

Getting an ad for an actual MLM while watching this was really something.

[@panama1942]

I create UGC. I do it full time, and it’s enough to pay the bills and a bit more, but its not a get rich scheme. There is a problem of creators selling a course within their first month of doing UGC (which I absolutely hate) the good thing though is there is a strong community that calls out people that are scamming others

[@Audreylalaland]

Hoe did you start ?

[@TheStitchWitchPodcast]

I’m a small biz owner and love UGC creators.

[@LadyPinkster]

@@TheStitchWitchPodcast thank you sis

[@Isbah-Izzy-Lou]

I just got a trailer for cocaine bear for like the 5th time and I just need Amanda to review it because that trailer plagues me

[@olivia7438]

the irony of getting an MLM ad on this video 💀

[@sweetyouths6916]

omg!!! thank you,, i've been noticing this as well! its literally flooding my feeds, theyre just ads being forced fed in an 'aesthetic' way. so annoying. even clicking 'not interested' and blocking those creators does nothing. I have no interest in ads being shoved down my throat in such a deceptive way...

[@molybdomancer195]

Whenever I see a video or advert from someone saying they have a way I could make a lot of money I immediately think “it is that good, why aren’t YOU doing it instead of trying sell training on how to do it?” I’ve seen ads for drop shipping, selling audio books etc etc.

[@Merjacevi]

I see it a lot with "artists" saying "I'll teach you how to make lots of money from selling art" but you go to their page and there's no art there, there's only ads for their course lmao it's such a scam

[@taylorgayhart9497]

I’ve seen this happen too, I will follow a micro-influencer because of a review they posted, but then everything else the post is like “girl boss like me and learn to be an influencer!” and then I get mired and unfollow.

[@oddity8332]

I plan on getting into ugc, but thank you for the advice on how to better protect myself. I never imagine getting rich, and im working on learning other skill sets, too, just because i can't afford not to in this economy. Thank you for keeping it real and keeping people informed.

[@bangbang-te9lt]

yea me too I wanna get into it because I genuinely love making content and i love shooting videos and pictures. have you started it?

[@ellekim2617]

Can’t wait for the parade video. I made the mistake of buying the pitch and spent a good chunk of money on a set of underwear and they were AWFUL. they look pretty online but the waistband weirdly bunched and wrinkled permanently the first time I washed them before I even got to wear them, even though I hand washed and dried them!! They were also really uncomfortable and the fabric is itchy. I really resent when there’s finally some diversity in models for a campaign and the product is absolutely crap.

[@abroogie]

I used to do QA for Parade customer service and that was liiiiiiiterally 90% of all the messages we would get... I have a crap ton of their underwear from working with them but I'm not treating them like a little delicate princess that needs to be hand washed when they're just underwear. I did it like twice and was like, "this is never going to be worth it, you get washed with my walmart underwear same as everyone else". Very meh product but like, their marketing and branding is why so many people buy. Kinda frustrating to see that diversity and inclusion and be so excited about that to be let down, I'm right there with you.

[@goldenovaries]

They tried to get me to do content for them. It didn’t seem legit and it seems sketch

[@tdosage]

I feel like UGC works best when there aren't people looking to make a career out of it. My wife did microinfluencing for a few months before the pandemic and it was cool. Few free meals or products just to post to her followers that were mostly people we knew irl. The posts were spaced out between her other posts so it comes off more naturally and the point seemed to be real people really trying these products. I think when people are looking to make this a career but start at this micro level instead of starting with a following, then you get the situations of people only following other influencers and every post being sponsored and it comes off much more fake. Then nobody is winning in that exchange.

[@HeraMenae]

I'm in marketing and we get approached by micro influencers all the time for ugc. The issue is those who reach out to us all tend to be the type who make ugc for our industry that could be for anyone. It cheapens them honestly because I feel like I can find 500 of them within 2 minutes with the right tags. We tend to prefer seeking out the right kind of content ourselves and contracting that one person to do their thing. Having your own vibe is 100% important.

[@TheStitchWitchPodcast]

Right! It’s not a one size fits all. Each UGC creator has their own flair too.

[@VonVikoGoat]

i love how you posted this during Mikayla's lashgate

[@ANNA_lysis]

I just really love how blunt Amanda is. Like it’s so great.

[@DKamui06]

I honestly think you are spot on with this video. So many people want to focus on only making money off content for sponsors and do not think of the fine lines of the law and the do's and don'ts of the actual job of advertising. It's never always that simple as everyone tries to make it out to be.

[@gigitastic90]

The way I misread that as " Why has UGGs become an MLM" I was like Say what now?

[@aimee5340]

I'm so glad I have you to explain internet things to me. My 25 year old brain needs another 25 year old brain to tell me what's going on

[@music_YT2023]

User-generated content in the makeup tutorial space really soured me to certain brands. Just be upfront if you received product from a brand and are giving it a glowing review when we can see it's patchy on you. I appreciate your honesty with reviews Amanda. 2:58 Ha William, I've been trained to spot 0.1sec 'mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell' memes from ChubbyEmu, I see you.

[@itskaylajessica]

Not me learning about UGC literally yesterday 🤣 thank you ima need this 😅

[@gretchenthom4976]

Same here. You are not alone.😊

[@Alltheworldsillz]

Awesome video! Anyone upset is apart of the group wanting to deinfluence but have a social page for ugc and use it to influence.. alright 😂

[@jacobcalvin1713]

I feel like there is a big conversation and a lot of speculation/planning that could and probably should be happening when it comes to advertising, content creators/influencers, and laws/regulations that probably won’t happen until it’s too late

[@taylorgayhart9497]

“On Twitter I’m considered annoying.” 💀💀💀💀💀💀 god I love you!!

[@ccdaly2561]

"And on Twitter I'm considered annoying" I choked on my juice

[@Tokahfang]

Makes sense - even in gold rushes with objectively existing gold in the ground, it was the people selling supplies to the miners that had a reliable income stream.

[@DIYYALL]

I am an Amazon Influencer, which I have been for quite some time. I have always been on the fence about UGC and as such, have not created this kind of content. I think it is disingenuous to have creators making content that is designed to 'feel authentic'. I have brands that approach me all the time about doing UGC work, as I have roughly 1,000 videos on Amazon and my answer is always the same. I make videos about products that I love and that I use organically in my life. If that was your product, which I paid for and you happened to like the video, we can talk. Otherwise, it's a no. Everyone has to decide where their line is, but I will have to say that I 1000% agree with how you feel about this, though I am sure that a lot of UGC creators will feel differently. It dilutes the customer experience for people who are natively enjoying content on their chosen social media platform to now have to question whether or not this individual actually likes this product or if they have simply been paid to say that they do. Thanks for filming this video. I have felt this way for a very long time.

[@Housewarmin]

I don't see why we are calling these types of people, influencers. Maybe a creator at best. But they are essentially, contracted workers for a brand. The brand is outsourcing marketing to a creator to make an ad for them. Just becuase an Influencer and a "creator" both make content for brands does not mean they are the same thing. Just like Postmates and Pizza Hut aren't the same but they both deliver food.

[@sumlem]

I can see what you're saying but the goal is to be a vessel to reach a new audience. They influence the buying habits of their audiences whether they speak about a product/service genuinely, via a contract with a brand, or through unpaid user generated content.

[@trainerhex3354]

I was a micro influencer for an illegal 3rd party video game accessory company, and a big toy company for a brief few months. The toy company one was cool because they’d send me a box of 5 or 6 board games to play and review. But they wanted me to play them and review them all so fast, even after I told them I don’t have a group to play with during the week. It was weekends only for me, and that was even if our game night went through. All stuff I told them when they asked me why I should be selected for it. They selected me knowing my group and I only meet on weekends and only get to play like 3 games at max. Some of them were really time consuming. But I’m grateful to them both. I have a collection of board games now and it’s a decent size with some pretty expensive ones in there too. And I have some cool Switch & Ps4 accessories I got to test out and keep. I only ever had like 3,000 followers too. I think at the time I was at like 3,600 on Instagram and now I’m at around 3,100. No growth lmao, so nobody else wants to take the chance with me.

[@ChloeTheePayne]

BIG SISTER SWELL COMING THROOOOOUGH, hell yes thank you this is legit so helpful. ever since i started putting more effort into my channel and making regular insta posts about my youtube videos, my dms have been FLOODED with offers that seem too good to be true, like nah why would any legit company want to send me free stuff and have me be a "brand ambassador" to my measly 300 followers, nope sounds like a scam. i could never quite put my finger on what felt weird about the whole thing, and now with the points made in this video i'll have a much easier time articulating my thoughts when i talk to other people about it too 👍

[@rebooshka]

OKAY LITERALLY HAVENT WATCHED THE VIDEO YET but my feed has also been flooded with this stuff and it's giving major mlm vibes so very excited to watch!!!

[@alwaysjiji7198]

I misread the title as "UGG" but I stayed when I realized that there's something I"m not aware about and....it's a swell video

[@insidiouschaos812]

my dad’s done two or three deals with brands - he gets discounted stuff for his truck, and they ask him to put a post or two on instagram and keep their brand sticker on his car for a year - 18 months. he reached out to them for the discount. its very strange being the adult child of someone who does brand deals for truck parts

[@FutureWisdom]

Mikes sound being used in an ad reminds me of the gorgeous gorgeous girl mug I saw at target last season. Like the girls in that TikTok sound deserve a check 😤

[@abbythenelson7809]

Oh man what a great title. I’ve been wondering why this topic has been all over my fyp

[@lylyv5631]

got a very creepy ad for another mlm on this video lmao

[@gin2943]

Social media marketing agency employee here. Until now, my understanding of UGC was just that it was when brands repost content from accounts that highlighted their product without being told to do so. So this is just one side of it and doesn't really fall under what you're covering here, but the example I was told was that Glossier has been sharing UGC (basically just posts using their tags) because it's more relatable than hyper-stylized "editorial" style content. I didn't know about this whole side of it, but it explains a lot about what I've seen lol.

[@ThisIsMeMorgan]

I’d love a video on the core core trend on tiktok! I’ve been targeted by TONS of UGC content creators all selling courses, I’m glad your talking about it

[@ArtemAlexandra]

If I could have just one ounce of the energy you have in this video ... I would be going places 😅🖤

[@TheAdequateMedia]

I genuinely thought i was the only person who says "commits shenanigans" WOW. this was super helpful! Makes me proud that i refuse to compromise my personal style when creating content for some companies. but unfortunately i haven't stepped it up to proper brand deals, though I'm getting affiliate links for some knife websites.

[@TheEagleEnigma]

no reasonable business person would recruit their own competition which is the telltale sign that these so called gurus are making more from content about UGC than actual UGC

[@peachreed]

This and drop shipping. It was BAD when the pandemic started. I saw “How I bought my house at 20 years old blah blah blah” videos. Drop shipping. I felt it was SO unethical and morally wrong to buy some pos product off Alibaba and drop ship it with some bullshit stock photo website, basically scamming people. It’s so icky.

[@SamanthaBeen]

I also keep getting hella ads about UGC and I keep debating if it would be a worthwhile investment of time and effort but I'm glad I did further research, thank you for the enlightening information and citations!!

[@94Kirkman]

"You should protect yourself if you do UGC content". Person who does UGC content: *GASP* "How dare she!"

[@smoothsailing7325]

Yea like you said it’s not technically an MLM but I get the connection. I think “ongoing grift” might be a better description.

[@greggoat6570]

Current political policy and messaging has gotten to the point where people have to treat an economic recession like it is a matter of opinion lest someone somehow be offended by economic data. Great video as always!

[@JonBirdSr]

I would like to thank you kindly from the bottom of my heart. I never realized that this was a scam, and I'm so glad I didn't get scammed there.Once again, this is very useful information. 🏆

[@thatbberg]

I feel like UGC creators are more like freelance creatives than micro-influencers. Both are paid to create creative assets for brands for their platform on a contract basis. Maybe being a "creator" is just more in vogue than being a "freelancer" right now?

[@veronicamaine3813]

As soon as people become more aware of this practice it will pretty much die - it’s the definition of inauthenticity.

[@kirbysleeping34]

Been waiting for someone to point out that UGC is an MLM, GG!

[@KreatorVee]

It’s not though, you’re still not listening correctly. There have been creators advertising ugc as a get rich quick which is false.

[@tropezando]

Meanwhile, I'm over here like "what's money?"

[@SB-eh5gd]

😂

[@cynsational7225]

“On Twitter I’m considered annoying” 😂

[@GKhagah]

thanks for the insight. on your Air bnb story I had something simular happen. I'm a micro tiny channel for a gaming, just make the content because I like to do video editing, its fun; Recently I was contacted by a unknown Chinese person asking to repost my content to Chinese media platforms, told them they had to do something to the video to make it fair use, put bloody translations, take the music off or something, I have no idea what ever happened to it. if its worth anything I think you embody what KZbin is all about, Love your content and honest reviews.

[@lorrygoth]

Thanks Amanda. Copyright isn't a great system but it does protect people who have the money to use it. Corps will always use you, it is all they can do and with more desperate people they can pick and choose who to use. It is a little harsh saying don't make yourself someone else's asset if you need that money but I agree that people should be aware that the status quo is changing. Thank you for being both pretty and quality.

[@theadventuresofzoomandbettie]

in Australia the authorities are absolutely going after "influencers" now to ensure lots of different kinds of laws are being followed...... and that's a good thing really. On a tangent, your tik tok is so very different to mine. I never see the things you always say you see everywhere lol

[@svby]

I don’t think you have that much context in terms of UGC. I work for an agency and we pay creators every single day. Barely any videos we make don’t include the face and voice of the creator. UGC creators need to be well versed in Marketing, Psychology, and be all round entertaining. The content isn’t replaceable - you can’t replace someone’s personality, editing style, filming style. I don’t know what you expect brands to do to sell their products. Influencer marketing isn’t performing as well on TikTok. That’s just a fact. Some creators are very hard working and don’t create courses to make more money, I know someone who has retainers and makes 5k per month. It’s much more of a case of “if you can’t play, you teach”. I disagree with creators who have been doing ugc for 2 minutes making courses. But I do think some of the arguments made in this video are from an outside perspective with a fairly big gap in terms of context

[@tieracarlock168]

I agree with this, whatsgoingon. Swell, this is a real cold take. You're making UGC out to be pay-to-play when it's not that. MLMs *require* buy-in, like Herbalife and Amway. You can build your UGC portfolio out of things that are just sitting in your house- no purchase needed. You don't *have* to buy a single course or pitch email template to be successful.That's just what people do, whether they're selling their knowledge or buying it to learn. Knowledge for sale don't make it or the person who packaged it less legitimate--unless their account only dates back to two weeks ago. Then they're fraudulent. To me, UGC is no more manufactured authenticity than this very video or any video on KZbin where you ensure you have the proper lighting, a clean background, no distracting noises, clear audio, a conveniently placed picture of a vector human pyramid in the background, and no spaghetti sauce on your shirt. If unmanufactured authenticity, I'm assuming, is better or preferable, then you'd just turn on your camera and start talking at it. But you won't and I'm sure you know why--and honestly, who would? You said you started making content because you wanted to be famous, hence the KZbin. That requires research, planning, execution, and content curation. UGC is no different.

[@Jas-gn2gv]

Omg I’m so happy you made a video on this. It has flooded my FYP

[@annagarcia2416]

Omg I just now saw a video about UGC last night and was considering exploring it further 😮 thanks for making this video

[@brees3]

On the FTC thing, influencers would really be helped by looking into the other ways brands make money, like affiliate marketing, paid media, etc. In most ways, influencer programs are just another channel that operates in an incredibly similar way. Just like Buzzfeed has to disclose when a blog is sponsored or affiliated, ANYONE posting paid content should be doing the same.

[@jessdaisy8496]

I just want to say you are always so ON the trend. Like how do you see a trend on tiktok or somewhere and pop out a video so fast. Most content creators are way behind on the videos. I feel like you are in sync with my FYP lol

[@bunnibonezx]

Woke up sick and still goin to work cuz I'm like eehhhh it's my friday and now I see you upload :) day better

[@GlamGoddes101]

What UGC was before this whole thing was a customer just casually & truthfully posting about a product, it didn’t necessarily exclude identifiable factors. A lot of the “professional UGC creators” now do try to create w/o showing face but some of them do

[@grabrielle]

I'm only midway through the video, but had to pause to say I totally agree with you re: separation of UGC creators and influencers. at this point, UGC creators are more so production houses or vendors at this point. In my experience (large CPG company), macro influencers w/ millions of followers are the most effective at driving impactful POS. true micro influencers don't really drive anything because their actual "influence" is so low

[@Chewbarta]

So I used to play a game called LittleBIGPlanet that was UGC based as well. I LOVED the game and it helped me foster my love for game develop. However, I was often reminded that there was a ceiling of success that I could achieve in the game and achieving that success wouldn’t translate to a game development career. Now the creators made another game called Dreams. It’s amazing, it looks so fun and zany and full of colour. But I have never played it once. I can’t bring myself to sink any time into something that essentially is wasted effort and something that’s not even my own product. Maybe Dreams translates well to game develop? But I am much less willing to make UGC in **any** game that gives me the option. I could go on and on about the standardization of toolsets going a long way, but I’ll cut myself off here. ~L

[@anirudhviswanathan3986]

There's a dude by the name of Elca Gaming who's made an Avatar: The Last Airbender game using Dreams. I recommend you checking it out. He's even made several progress logs since the beginning stages.

[@alextcherdak5896]

I was so confused UGC is a French cinema chain 😂 so until it was defined as User Generated Content I thought we were mad at this random cinema chain 🙈

[@boots1622fan]

I swear KZbin suppressed this video I saw it in my feed maybe twice and it never recommended it again which is kind of unheard of tbh omg

[@kaseyingham395]

amanda winking at the end of the video was my favourite part of this video

[@astraynaught9343]

I got a Mr Beast Shopify ad before this video and uh..... what in the "your socks are Mr Beast socks, of course the business will take off in seconds you numpty" was that

[@yanivshemtov9430]

just watched so many videos from years ago, quite surprised me to see its a fresh video

[@Anotherbrokenegg910]

This feels like super relatable to industry folks, but as an outsider, this video was confusing and even at the end of it I had no idea what any of this means :( this was a niche too niche-y for the general audience

[@gaerekxenos]

I think it is all of the acronyms and slang thrown around. Multi-level marketing (MLM) => pyramid scheme. Basically the people inside the pyramid are paying the people higher up and the money consolidates at the people who are there, but everyone at the bottom loses out. Late entries are always at the bottom, which are newcomers to User generated content advertising. And is likely going to be hit by regulations, so even less money is going to be there

[@lizbogonia]

Can you talk about the new Netflix changes? Interested to hear your take