As a social media professional, especially for small brands, you’ll spend a good bit of your time coming up with new ways to attract and engage followers. I personally devote a a couple hours each week to brainstorming new ideas and developing existing ones. I find my businesses generally prefer being pitched new social media marketing ideas every couple of weeks. But through this process, I’ve come accustomed to having clients reject ideas or tell me they’re not quite ready.

The most important thing when this happens:

Stay Calm

You’re going to need some thick skin to make it in this profession (or really any field). Rejection is all part of the job, so don’t get upset with or explode on your client. You have to remember — the client always has the final word. They generally know when an idea won’t work for their brand. Take a deep breath and go back to the drawing board.

The next couple points are a few of the things you can do with your idea after you avoid freaking out.

Scrap It

Some ideas just won’t work. You know it and your client knows it. This is okay. I generally end up ditching approximately 50 percent of my ideas before they even reach the client. It’s important to remember that it’s not about making all your ideas work, it’s about making the right ideas work. Ask yourself, “Is this idea the best use of resources to accomplish the client’s objectives?” If you don’t think so or are hesitant to say “yes,” then the idea goes in the trashcan.

Polish It

Sometimes your idea might really be worth spending time and resources on. After all, you are the social media expert. When this is the case, but your client isn’t completely sold on the idea, listen to their reasoning. What are their needs? What are their concerns? Get an understanding of where the holes are and polish your idea, making sure you cover the bases. Tactfully pitch this idea to them again, hitting on their pain points this time around.

Repurpose It

Never throw out an idea that has potential. I tend to write all my ideas on sticky notes that eventually make their way into an Evernote document. Whenever I’m brainstorming and need something to kickstart my thoughts, I take a look through previous ideas. They can be a great jumping off point for new marketing tactics. At the very least, revisiting my thought process for past concepts get the gears going as I attempt to come up with fresh ideas.

Archive It

As I just mentioned, I keep a number of old ideas. I’ll generally make an Evernote document for each client with ideas that are great, but just aren’t right for the moment. It might be that there isn’t enough resources at the time or maybe the idea revolves around the holidays or another event, like a company anniversary. Revisit it a couple months down the road when the time is right.