Local creator marketing glossary: words worth getting right

Because the money, the deadline, and the rights all hide inside the words. If deliverables are vague, a creator does unpaid extra work. If usage rights are vague, a business may run a post as an ad it never licensed. If local reach is confused with follower count, a business books the wrong creator and a strong local creator gets passed over. Plain definitions prevent all three.

Use this page as the shared reference. Quote a definition in a brief, a profile, or a booking note, and the conversation starts from the same place. For the visit itself, read what a comped creator visit actually includes alongside these terms.

Local reach. The share of a creator's audience that lives in the creator's market, and the number of local people that share works out to. It is a percentage and a count. SIGNL ranks and surfaces creators by local reach, not by follower count. The full explainer is what local reach is and why brands care more than follower count.

Local creator. A creator who lives in a market and posts to an audience that substantially lives there too. Local is about where the audience can act, not about a creator's follower total or how professional their setup looks.

Follower count. The total number of people who follow a creator, everywhere. It is useful context and a weak predictor for a local business, because it counts followers who will never be nearby. Never use it alone to judge a local booking.

Momentum. On SIGNL, points a creator earns for posting on time. Momentum rewards reliability and raises a creator's visibility to local businesses. It is a record of delivered work, not a popularity score. See how Momentum gets you booked more.

Comped visit. A visit where a business provides a meal, service, or experience at no cash charge, and the creator posts about it honestly in return. On SIGNL, a comped visit means 1 post or reel plus 1 story that shares the post, posted within 48 hours, honest and disclosed. Comped means the product is the compensation. It does not mean free with no obligation, and it does not include cash.

Paid booking. A booking paid in cash at the creator's own listed rate. Creators set their own rate, there is a $50 paid floor, and the creator keeps 97 percent. Deliverables for a paid booking are the ones set in the booking terms, not the comped visit standard, unless the terms say so.

Deliverables. The exact posts a creator owes for a visit or booking, written down before the visit: format, count, timing, and any required disclosure. If a deliverable is not written down, it was not agreed. A clear brief states facts and must-mentions and leaves the verdict and the voice to the creator. The method is in how to brief a creator.

Rate. The price a creator lists for paid work. On SIGNL the rate is the creator's own, starting at the $50 floor. A complete profile carries the rate where a business can see it before booking, which is why your creator profile is your rate card.

Disclosure. A clear statement in a post and in a story that the creator received something of value, such as a comped meal or a paid booking. Disclosure is required, it belongs where people will actually see it, and honest posts are the standard. The full rules are in FTC disclosure for comped posts.

Usage rights. Permission to reuse a creator's post beyond where the creator first published it, for example reposting it on a business account or running it as a paid ad, for a stated period. Rights are always limited and priced. They are never automatic and never in perpetuity on SIGNL.

Native share. Sharing a creator's post in its original form, on the same platform, with the creator credited. A comped post on SIGNL is native share only: a business may reshare it that way, and that is the limit.

License. A specific permission to use a post in a specific way for a specific time. A paid booking on SIGNL includes one standard license: 90 days of repost and paid ad use, inside the booking terms. Licensing a comped post is separate: the business sends a license request at the creator's listed licensing fee, for 90 days, the creator approves each use, and the creator keeps 97 percent of the fee.

UGC. Short for user generated content: content made by a creator or a customer rather than by the business itself. UGC is an asset a business can reuse on its own channels when it has the rights. A creator post is different: it is distribution to that creator's own audience first. Which one you need is covered in UGC vs. influencer posts for local businesses.

• ✓Creators: put your local reach, your categories, and your rate on your profile in these exact terms, so a business can compare you fairly without a pitch deck.
• ✓Businesses: write the lane into every offer, comped visit or paid booking, with the deliverables and the rights that follow that lane. Do not blend the two lanes on one visit.
• ✓Both sides: if a word in a brief or a message could mean two things, replace it with the definition on this page before the visit, not after the post.

For context on cost, business founding plans on SIGNL are Self-Service at $199 a month for up to 5 creator visits, Growth at $349 a month for up to 10, and Managed at $699 a month for up to 20, with $100 off the first month, a 3 month minimum, and unused visits rolling into the next month, then expiring. Those are plan terms, not creator pay. Creator pay is always the comp itself on a comped visit, or the creator's own rate on a paid booking.

Now the words can do the work.

Creators join free, set a rate for paid bookings, and get found by local reach. Businesses browse creators by local reach and run comped visits and paid bookings with deliverables, disclosure, and rights set before the visit.