Please don’t quit your job to make UGC
User Generated Content is not the get-rich-quick hack TikTok thinks it is.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, from Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci.
The new thing on TikTok is just the same old thing, part 1,000,000. —Kate
UGC, or user-generated content, is not new. It’s what you see when brands repost or repurpose organic content made by their customers on their own social media feeds—like if I took a picture in a Zara dress, and Zara got permission (and ideally even paid me) to use that photo for their own branding. You’ve probably come across this on Instagram, but you’ve definitely seen it on TikTok, because in order for ads and sponsored posts to not seem completely out of place on For You pages, the content needs to look as much like regular TikTok content as possible.
“From the brand side, I understand why a ‘UGC creator’ might be trending,” Rachel Karten, social media consultant and writer of the newsletter Link In Bio, tells me. “TikTok and Instagram are prioritizing more personality-based, lo-fi videos so brands are now scrambling to get more ‘real’ content for their social feeds.”
In the past few months, however, another side of UGC has been infiltrating my TikTok algorithm: Users hailing UGC creation as the next big thing. Creators are promising me that I can make thousands of dollars a week by getting into the UGC game—meaning, making videos for the express purpose of getting them licensed by brands.
Several things about this are alluring. The main draw is that you can (theoretically) make money from your content without having a big following. But the hundreds of videos promoting this have an eerie MLM quality to them, presenting UGC creation as a guaranteed, lucrative avenue that anyone can pursue.
This isn’t to say you can’t make good money as a UGC creator. “I think because brands are in this scramble right now, they are more likely to outsource this work and pay a premium,” Karten says.
But it’s not easy work. While brands do tap regular, unsuspecting customers for content, making the work seem more attainable, UGC creation as an income stream is just freelance branded content creation by another name—and content creation is a skill.
I made a TikTok along these lines a few months ago, when a creator recommended that people looking to quit their 9-5s get into freelance writing, where they could make “SO much money.” As someone who has done freelance writing on and off for years and been part of the media industry for a decade, I can confidently say that presenting freelance writing as a financial well anyone can just decide to tap is 1) inaccurate, 2) offensive to those who have spent years honing the skill, and 3) just irresponsible advice. To me, encouraging hoards of people to pursue UGC is no different.
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“While I do think you can make a lot of money being a UGC creator, I wouldn't say it's easy work,” Karten says. “From some of the screenshots of prices I've seen, you need to pump out A LOT of content to get a decent check. You're basically making yourself a full-time influencer for brands. That means waking up every day to film yourself and products and ultimately needing to please a large handful of clients.”
TikTok loves to throw itself head-first into trends, but it makes me uneasy when the trends go from “coastal grandmother” to something that actually affects the finances and careers of its participants.
“I wonder a bit about how long [UGC] will maintain, given that a lot of brands are now understanding this is likely the future of social, and hiring content creators and personalities” full-time, Karten says. “Maybe in the short term this pays well, but I worry about what happens when brands eventually bring this kind of work in house.”