Micro-Influencer Discovery Brief

Example output

Micro-influencer discovery brief — Basil & Bloom, Instagram + TikTok

Search terms and content signals
Search hashtags and captions around: "weeknight dinner," "meal prep for busy people," "what's for dinner," "fresh ingredients," "quick healthy dinner," and "meal kit review," including competitor meal kit mentions, since creators who've reviewed a competitor honestly are often open to trying a new one. Look for creators whose existing content already shows a kitchen they cook in regularly, not just polished restaurant content, since that's the visual signal of someone who genuinely cooks at home during the week.

Where to look beyond hashtag search
- The tagged and comments sections of other meal-kit and fresh-food brands' posts — people who engage there are already primed for this category.
- Instagram and TikTok's suggested/similar-accounts feature, starting from 2-3 creators you already admire in this space.
- Local food bloggers and recipe-content creators in target metro areas, if there's a regional angle to the launch.
- Comment sections on "what I eat in a week" or meal-prep content, where genuinely engaged home cooks self-identify.

Audience-fit and authenticity checklist
- Does their existing content already feature cooking, meal planning, or grocery hauls, or would this be a stretch from their usual content?
- Does their stated or visible location fall within your delivery area? A rule that sounds obvious but gets missed under deadline pressure.
- Do they cook for one, a couple, or a family, and does that match who Basil & Bloom actually serves?
- Check their engagement rate relative to follower count, not follower count alone — a 15,000-follower account with genuine comment conversations is often a better fit than a 50,000-follower account with mostly emoji comments.
- Look at 3-4 recent posts for tone: do they read as someone who'd genuinely enjoy a meal kit, or someone who posts any product handed to them?

Red flags to rule a candidate out
- A feed with a visibly inconsistent follower-to-engagement ratio, a common purchased-followers signal.
- Heavy, undisclosed product placement across unrelated categories in recent posts, suggesting promotional fatigue in their audience.
- No prior food, cooking, or meal-planning content at all — even an enthusiastic pitch can't manufacture a content history that doesn't exist.
- Past public brand conflicts or a pattern of negative comments on sponsored posts specifically, which signals their audience distrusts their paid partnerships.

Scoring rubric (rate each candidate 1-3 per category, 12 possible)
- Audience fit (location, household type, life stage): 1-3
- Content authenticity (cooks visibly, existing food content): 1-3
- Engagement quality (comments, not just counts): 1-3
- Category fit (has reviewed or shown interest in similar products): 1-3
Candidates scoring 9+ move to outreach first; 6-8 are a second-tier list; below 6, pass unless a specific strength offsets a weak category.

Candidate tracking template
Columns to track per candidate: name/handle, platform, follower count, engagement rate estimate, score per category above, total score, location, notes, outreach status. Keep this as a living list — discovery should be ongoing, not a one-time sprint before a single campaign.

A note on this stage versus what comes next
This brief stops at a scored, ranked candidate list. It does not include outreach messaging, gifting logistics, or a paid-partnership brief — those come after specific candidates are chosen and contacted.

Want this scoring rubric applied to 3-5 real candidate profiles you've already found?