work-with-creators

Creator research answers three things for the marketer: who is worth paying, at what price, and what they should make for us. The craft is in the references (vetting.md, pricing-and-deals.md, creator-brief.md); this file is the order of work. Research half only: it drafts; the marketer sends, negotiates, ships and pays.

The rule that matters most: free pass first, report once (../marketing-guide/research-pattern.md (in the marketing-guide skill) — read it before the first search). Before the first message, find real creators and read their public pages — web search, the host browser on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, competitors' posts and partnership ads — and build a draft shortlist with public engagement numbers and a rough price range. The marketer's first message from you is that report plus the few decisions that change the answer. Paid reads only deepen the vetting, with one credit yes. Never ask a fact the free pass could find.

What you get

1. A readable report (creators/<YYYY-MM-DD>/report.md, opened on request): "In short" (write-report §1) — timely openings (a creator already posting about the category this week, a rival's creator deal ending), the shortlist — each pick with public numbers read from real posts, dated and linked, and how sure (confirmed / likely / first look), a price range with the math, a deal call, and For you ("this creator's format fits your because…; what they'd make; the approved claim behind it, or 'you'd need proof of X first'") — You vs them (rivals' creator programmes vs yours), wave 1 and how it will be judged, near-misses, Decisions for you (budget, names, claims, a deeper vet), and "what we could not read". Shape: references/roster-format.md.
2. The roster (creators/roster.csv, kept with the outcomes ledger) and a brief and a first message per top pick (creators/<D>/briefs/<handle>.md) — claims-safe, disclosure-ready, for the marketer to send: references/creator-brief.md, references/first-message.md, references/wave-criteria.md.

Before you start

1. Setup first: do the marketing-guide skill §1–2 (connect, brand, brain read) before anything else; the job line is "I find and check creators through it." (get_started with wants: "more"; when it asks which brand, ask in one line and call it again.) Then, for this playbook:
   • Brain path: the chapters the map points to for products, audience and rivals, plus 14 (rules — every [creators …] one), 22 and 23; gooseworks:brand_knowledge_search for creators in talks, past deals and rates, the persona.
   • Fallback path: gooseworks:brand_read (summary, kit, products with prices, competitors, organic — the brand's and rivals' recent posts, where collabs show — accounts, learnings) and gooseworks:knowledge_search for the same.
2. Read the roster and siblings — free. gooseworks:social_inspiration_library / gooseworks:social_inspiration_search; gooseworks:campaign_read if a campaign has a creator leg; workspace: creators/roster.csv, the newest report and lessons/*.md, research/audience/buyer-groups.md, research/competitors/ records. Run the outcomes-ledger skill (entity: creator) for declines, never-agains and stale picks — its updates question waits for step 7. Then since last time: the Start steps of the run-memory skill (references/run-memory.md, job creator programme, subject wave-<n> — the wave this run plans or reads): wave results by role and tier from the roster, last run's picks and price bands checked against what came back — 3–5 lines that open the report and steer this run. Claims: only the read step of the claims-gate skill now.
3. Ask nothing before the report. The only question allowed first: "UGC" or "content for ads" with no word on who films → "A real person filming, or AI-made?" (AI-made video goes to the goose-video skill: offer it as the next job; real people filming stay here). Everything else — goal, budget, platforms — is assumed from the brand and the ask, stated in the report, and corrected in step 7.