Profile of a good creator: 8 selection signals
In Stage 1 you learned the minimum bar — 500 followers, business account, activity. That's 'can recruit'. Stage 2 is learning to see, in 60 seconds on a profile, whether a creator will actually activate and earn. Not 'on a hunch' — by 8 concrete signals.
Signals 1–3: reach and engagement
(1) Audience size in the working range. 500–100K — nano and micro. Smaller — no reach; larger — the creator already works with agencies and won't respond to a scout. (2) Engagement rate. Comments + likes ÷ followers. For nano (500–10K) — 5–10%+, for micro (10–100K) — 3–5%+. This is the single best predictor of whether the audience actually buys. (3) Niche clarity. One of the five targets (fashion, beauty, lifestyle, tech, food), readable from the first 9 posts. 'A bit of everything' is a weak signal.
Signals 4–6: commerce readiness
(4) Commerce intent. Does the creator already tag products, do reviews, hauls, write 'link in bio'? Someone who already sells-adjacent activates faster. (5) Posting consistency. A steady rhythm over the last month — not 'a burst then silence'. Chaotic posting means they won't keep up with Trendweave's rhythm. (6) Content quality floor. Not 'glossy', but 'watchable': decent light, product visible, their own voice. A low floor means low CR even with active posting.
Signals 7–8: trust and reachability
(7) Audience authenticity. No signs of bought followers — sudden follower spikes, generic bot comments, a follower/following imbalance. (8) Reachability. DMs open, contact info in the business account, a bio that signals openness to collaborations.
How to weight them
The 8 signals aren't equal. The heaviest are engagement rate (2) and commerce intent (4): they directly predict activation. The lightest is absolute follower count (1): 8K with 9% engagement beats 80K with 1%. If a profile fails (2) or (4), the other six won't carry it.
An AI assistant is coming
Trendweave is building Scout AI: it will automatically pre-score these 8 signals on a profile and suggest a score. Until it ships, you check by hand — which is actually useful: manual checking builds the instinct that later lets you double-check the AI rather than trust it blindly.
Key takeaway: The 8 signals are a framework, not a tick-box checklist. The two heavy ones (engagement + commerce intent) are enough to filter out 80% of irrelevant profiles in 20 seconds.
Next step: Take 5 creators from your short-list. Run each through the 8 signals, marking strong and weak. Lesson 12 turns this into a 60-second express checklist.
- Learning outcome
- You can read a profile against 8 concrete signals and judge whether the creator will activate.
- Action in product
- Run 5 short-listed creators through the 8 signals.
- Success metric
- Can name all 8 signals and the 2 heaviest ones.
- Unlock / Reward
- Lesson 12 — the 60-second checklist.
- Format
- Video + interactive.