Talk about unemployment! 6 steps to quickly screen Xiaohongshu bloggers suitable for brand placement!

This article analyzes the experience and evaluation methods of Xiaohongshu influencer selection from six perspectives, and provides ideas for major brands to select bloggers and plan content. It is recommended for people with brand marketing needs.

I have found that in recent years, brands have been paying more and more attention to various marketing channels. In the beginning, they started marketing just before Double Eleven or Double Twelve, but now they are warming up the market 2-3 months in advance.

Competition among brands is becoming increasingly fierce, and the gap is narrowing. At this time, whoever can appear in front of users more and more deeply will be able to gain a larger market share.

Among these, the decisive role lies in the selection of bloggers and the planning of content.

Especially in the blogger selection, the question that people ask more is——

How to judge whether a blogger is suitable for cooperation?

What kind of blogger is considered a high-quality blogger?

Why do the data of my blogger notes look good but the conversion rate is not good?

How can we quickly find bloggers who can promote our products?

Why do the bloggers I choose have good daily data, but their traffic is limited as soon as they start promoting?

In fact, we at Xingyuan have a very complex and strict evaluation system for selecting bloggers. Based on our empirical judgment of bloggers and the evaluation of more than 30 data dimensions, we finally select a list of bloggers to be submitted to the cooperating brands.

This is why our blogger submission approval rate exceeds 90%, and the average rate of popular articles from blogger collaborations reaches over 38%.

Today I will share with you the experience and evaluation methods of our advertising team in selecting influencers on Xiaohongshu, and talk about how we at Xingyuan select influencers who are suitable for brand promotion and cooperation, so as to achieve our marketing goals of spreading seeds and converting orders.

In general, the screening dimensions listed for you mainly include the following aspects:

• Account Basics
• Account matching
• Blogger creative ability
• Account seeding power
• Account growth potential
• Other added value

1. Account Basics

Account basis is the most basic requirement for determining whether an account is suitable for cooperation.

1. Number of fans and authenticity of data

When we manage brand placement, we always have certain requirements for the number of fans of the placement influencer, but the premise for achieving the placement effect that matches this number of fans is that his data is real.

Fans data

As for the authenticity of fan data, we can judge it by analyzing the account fan growth curve.

Generally speaking, the fan growth of mid-level and top influencers is relatively stable.

However, due to content and account base limitations, the growth of fans of KOCs and amateurs fluctuates greatly, and the fan growth curve will overlap with the curve of the account's explosive posts.

For example, for this blogger, the growth trend of fans is exactly the same as the growth trend of likes on the account. This is because a big hit article was produced at the node.

Screening tips:

The growth of fans must be achieved with the exposure of content.

Note data

It is very normal for the note data on the blogger's homepage to fluctuate. No matter what level the blogger is, it is impossible for every note to be very consistent in popularity.

If a blogger's recent note data is very stable, with fluctuations of no more than 10%, then we need to pay attention to identify whether the interactive data contains any human intervention.

At the same time, content that is normally exposed on the platform has a certain period of heat fermentation. After the fermentation period, it may ferment again or gradually reduce exposure, but we can also see an increase in the total amount of interaction, but the rate of growth is decreasing.

If the data of a note ferments rapidly in a short period of time, but there is no increase in interaction or reading exposure afterwards, then the authenticity of the data of this note can be reasonably doubted.

Screening tips:

For a note with normal exposure, no matter how many interactions it has in the early stage, the amount of interactions will increase in the later stage (except for notes with a total interaction of no more than 150).

2. Percentage of active fans

Active fans are the guarantee of basic exposure of an account. Generally speaking, the smaller the number of fans a blogger has, the higher the proportion of active fans.

There is no fixed standard for the ratio of active fans. It can be adjusted according to the brand's marketing needs, and accounts with a high ratio of active fans should be given priority.

But there is no need to completely exclude bloggers under a certain value.

For example, in order to be more strict in selecting bloggers, a certain brand requires that bloggers with less than 90% active fans in their campaigns will not be considered for cooperation.

When the delivery volume is relatively small, strict screening may indeed lead to better delivery results. However, once a certain delivery volume is reached, the number of bloggers who meet this standard may not necessarily meet the delivery needs.

Therefore, there is no need to stick to a certain ratio. I would rather recommend that you calculate the actual number of active fans of the blogger according to this ratio.

3. Update frequency

Check the blogger's update frequency in the past two months to see if he maintains a certain frequency of stable updates.

If there is no update for a long time, or only one or two updates a month, the account activity is low, and the performance of past content cannot provide us with valuable reference.

Give priority to bloggers who can steadily update 2-4 notes per week. If the blogger's update frequency is too high, you should focus on the content quality of the notes.

4. Median number of recent interactions

The number of interactions is the total number of [likes + favorites + comments + shares] after the note is published.

The higher the number of interactions, the more attention and discussion the content has received.

When we choose to cooperate with bloggers, I don’t recommend cooperating with them just because they have a popular article. This is because the generation of popular articles is random.

Therefore, we can check the median number of interactions of bloggers in the last month as a reference for the level of interaction we can achieve after the launch.

At the same time, we can look at the overall likes, favorites, and fans ratio of the account. If the likes and favorites are much greater than the number of fans, it means that the account has a lot of popular articles in the past and is a communication expert. If the ratio of likes and favorites to fans is less than 5:1 but greater than 2:1, it means that the account has a certain personality and can attract the attention of new users through content. Such an account has stronger fan stickiness.

If the ratio of likes to fans is less than 2:1, then we need to investigate the source of his fans and the fluctuation curve to see if there is any human intervention.

Since the number of fans of amateurs and KOCs is not high, you don’t need to look at the ratio of the overall number of likes and fans, but instead focus on the content interaction performance in the last two months.

2. Account matching

1. Blogger’s personality

See whether the blogger’s personality matches the brand’s needs/tone, whether she is a down-to-earth girl next door, a petite bourgeois woman, or an educated blogger, etc.

At the same time, the blogger’s identity may be a skin care expert, a trendy student, or an international student, etc.

The blogger’s personality will affect the fan portrait and is also one of the important factors in whether a brand can accurately achieve grass-roots promotion.

2. Daily content direction

Whether the content direction of the blogger's daily output is consistent with the content direction of the notes we planned, and whether it can be naturally implanted into the product.

At the same time, when launching, it is also recommended that brands can plan implantation based on the content direction of individual bloggers and the hot spots of previous content. This will ensure the popularity and normal push of the notes.

If a blogger posts daily life VLOGs, and all implants are shared through life fragments, and the brand forces the blogger to introduce a single product verbally, then the interactive feedback of the notes will not be good.

For example, in the brand placement I was managing, the brand wanted to display its products in a larger area in the first picture. However, after analyzing the account, our content team found that the hot spot of the blogger's account was actually the interaction between two people, that is, only the interaction between two people could attract fans' clicks and interactions.

So we adjusted our content strategy. In the first picture, we showed the blogger’s product from the side based on his/her daily sharing style, and in the second and third pictures, we focused on showcasing our products.

You know, if the notes are not exposed, no one will see them no matter how strong their influence is.

3. Authenticity of content

Give priority to content accounts that feature real people and real footage, and avoid simply posed photos.

At the same time, it is necessary to observe whether the same person appears in the video, whether the personality of the same account is inconsistent or the content is inconsistent, such as saying in the previous article that the person is in the preparation stage for pregnancy, and in the next article saying that the baby has just been born, etc.

An account with strong fan stickiness and more valuable content is often an account with a distinct personality and that constantly conveys real life status. Such content will also make ordinary users who do not follow it feel more involved.

4. Fans portrait

Analyze the fan portrait of a single blogger, such as the crowd, interests, gender, region... and whether it is consistent with the target crowd we want to promote.

5. Account Tags

Summarize the account tags in the background to see whether they are consistent with the keyword direction and target audience focus that we want to layout in the content planning.

At the same time, through the field coverage of the account label, we can also determine whether the content of this account is vertical.

If the content is not vertical, the fans' attention will be relatively scattered.

6. Historical cooperation brands

We can also judge whether a blogger is suitable for us by looking at the brands he has worked with in the past.

Is the tone of the cooperating brand consistent with ours?

If he has only cooperated with international brands in the past, then if we want to do content such as Pinduoduo and 1688's free shopping, the match will not be high.

At the same time, if the brands you have cooperated with in the past are all petty-bourgeois brands, then even if you implant more down-to-earth products, the feedback will not be very good.

Have you ever cooperated on the same product category?

How is the content performance, overall interaction and feedback in the comment section?

If the collaboration has taken place within the past two months, you also need to consider the competition situation. Even if the blogger has not collaborated with other bloggers, collaboration between two competing products within a short period of time will cause controversy and distrust among fans.

If the blogger is very high-quality, we can establish an alliance first and then cooperate after the competition period.

3. Blogger's creative ability

Content has always been a hotly debated aspect of Xiaohongshu’s marketing. Precisely because of this, the cooperation and screening of influencers have more evaluation dimensions and flexibility, rather than just “data-only” considerations.

Although at Xingyuan, our content team will provide guidance on the creative direction of each blogger and perform one-on-one content optimization before submission, if the blogger's own creative ability is very good, the effect of 1+1>2 can often be achieved.

For brands that are relatively lacking in content optimization capabilities, the blogger’s own creative ability becomes even more important.

It not only determines the dissemination and conversion rate of the content to a large extent, but can also help circumvent the platform's review red lines.

1. Sweet potato grade

The sweet potato level is not a necessary evaluation factor, but the higher the sweet potato level, the more experience he has accumulated in content creation on the Xiaohongshu platform.

2. Recent hot article rate and direction

A brand once asked me what a viral article is.

If we have to give a statistical standard, it would be notes with total interactions ≥ 1000.

But if you look into it more deeply, you will find that it is not rigorous, so I suggest setting different standards for popular articles for different accounts.

For example, for an account with only 5,000 followers, a total interaction of 400-500 is already considered quite good.

But if the number of fans reaches 10w+, the total interaction of 1000+ may be able to be met by relying solely on the sticky interaction of active fans. At this time, 1000+ can only be regarded as normal exposure rather than a hot post.

At the same time, with the same number of fans, for example, 50,000+ fans, it is relatively easy for a food account to achieve 1,000+ interactions, while for maternal and child accounts, 500+ interactions are considered a good performance in the category.

Therefore, based on the data of popular articles, you can make flexible adjustments based on the average situation of your account and your category.

Accounts that have recently produced popular articles are more likely to produce popular articles again, especially when the direction of the popular articles is consistent with the content direction we have planned.

At the same time, we also need to consider the reasons for the emergence of explosive articles, whether it is based on the number of fans, platform recommendations, or exposure and heating through marketing tools such as French fries, information flow, etc.

3. Selling point presentation

In the cooperation notes, especially the unreported notes, whether the blogger's presentation of the product selling points is natural.

Can you introduce and display the product naturally?

Can you convey the product's selling points and functional points based on your own experience?

Can it address or answer user concerns?

Like this note, it is full of selling points. Users can’t even feel how great your product is, and it’s doubtful whether they can understand it. How can the final conversion effect be good?

Only when bloggers express their experience of using the product in their own words can they gain more resonance and achieve the goal of conversion naturally.

4. Topic selection angle

From the blogger’s previous collaboration notes, we can analyze his entry points and topic selections.

When implanting a product, can he plan the topic selection based on the unique usage scenarios or product features of the product, instead of placing the product abruptly in his own content, affecting the user's reading experience?

5. Hotspot Binding

Following hot topics is one of the important factors that helps us gain traffic, whether it is the platform’s latest hot spot or the continuous hot spot of this category.

When screening bloggers, we can also observe their previous content to see whether they follow up on hot topics in a timely manner and what their online sense is like.

Of course, the premise of judgment is that we have sufficient understanding of the hot trends of the platform.

6. Content Innovation In our Xingyuan blogger database, with other conditions being the same, bloggers who can independently innovate content will be our top priority for cooperation.

Following hot topics can only help us get the current traffic, but when the hot topics have already fermented, it will be difficult to get particularly good feedback unless our content is high-quality enough or there are not many related content platforms.

But if we can innovate in content, such as themes, content, implantation methods, forms of expression, etc., we will have the opportunity to become the next hot spot on the platform and let others follow you.

At the same time, since there are too many brands on the platform and the content is highly homogenized, only innovative content can make users’ eyes light up and quickly remember our products!

4. Account seeding power

1. Account Business Capabilities

I will evaluate the business capabilities of an account from two aspects.

Implant space

For product placement and promotion, there are more spaces for placement of accounts, such as sharing of good things, life vlogs, etc., which can fully display products from multiple angles. Users will be more receptive to long introductions.

At the same time, some accounts, because they focus on plot creativity or practical output, will not have a large space or the opportunity to introduce the product at the beginning, and the front-end implantation space will be smaller.

However, there is no difference in advantages or disadvantages between the two in terms of grass-roots promotion and brand cooperation.

For example, digital products, electrical appliances, or some categories that are not well known to the general public and require a certain amount of user education will require more functional descriptions. In this case, when placing ads, we can focus on choosing accounts with larger implantation space.

But when we need to expand brand awareness, expand user base, and let more people know about us, we will choose accounts with high dissemination and high interaction value but smaller product display space.

Number of past collaborations

For example, the number of past collaborations, competitive products, reputation and conversions.

These can reflect the blogger’s brand cooperation experience, but the more cooperation does not necessarily mean better.

If a business accepts advertisements at a high frequency within a short period of time, fans’ trust in the business will drop sharply, and the overall interaction of the account will also go downhill.

The advertising here includes reporting cooperation and soft advertising.

For daily advertising, select accounts with no more than 4-8 ads in a month. On the eve of a big sale, give priority to accounts with daily shares/ad placements ≥ 2.

Except for accounts that simply share good things.

2. Comment word cloud

By analyzing the word cloud of comments on the blogger’s recent notes, we can understand where the users’ focus is, whether it is the products shared by the blogger or the blogger himself, and analyze the blogger’s ability to promote products and bring goods.

For example, for these two accounts, the focus on the left is on the blogger himself or the plot. Even if the interaction data is good, it is invalid exposure and interaction for us.

However, if the comments at the front of the note are all focusing on the product’s brand, functions, price, etc., it means that the note has a very strong ability to promote product ideas.

At the same time, you can also look at the comments on the blogger’s popular articles to find out what his explosive point is, whether it is because his plot triggered interaction, or because the introduction of the product aroused everyone’s interest.

3. Fans’ acceptance

This item can be used as an alternative reference item.

Some bloggers have very good daily sharing and interaction, but once there is embedded promotion, fans will express dissatisfaction. However, this type of situation cannot be quickly queried through a certain indicator and requires long-term observation of the account.

4. Fans’ purchasing power

The purchasing power of fans and bloggers is generally relatively equal. Only when fans have purchasing power can our recommendations be converted.

5. Brand Partner

Brand partners have the same level as sweet potatoes, reflecting the operating experience of the account.

At the same time, if we need cooperation reporting notes, we also need expert certification to become a brand partner.

6. Public opinion management and purchase guidance

Pay attention to whether there is negative information in the word cloud of the blogger's comment area, whether the blogger will deal with it in a timely manner, how he will deal with it, whether it will be deleted or scolded, etc.

Even if you use a blogger’s account to promote your brand, the way the blogger handles it will also affect users’ impression of the brand.

At the same time, if someone asks questions about purchase channels or products in the comment area, whether the blogger has a positive interactive response is also one of the important factors in whether the potential customers can be quickly converted.

5. Account Growth Potential

If Xiaohongshu placement is a marketing sector that our brand wants to cultivate in the long term, then the growth potential of the account is also a dimension that is worth considering.

Compared with marketing campaigns on e-commerce platforms, a unique feature of Xiaohongshu marketing is long-tail traffic.

High-quality content and active accounts can help us maintain exposure and promote our products on the platform.

If we cooperate with accounts with huge growth potential, the value of long-tail traffic will be more obvious.

At the same time, because cooperation has a certain periodicity, especially for high-quality KOCs with a small number of fans, if the account is in a period of rapid growth, it is very likely that we are still a KOC with thousands of fans when finalizing the cooperation, and by the time the final version is released, it has become a mid-level KOL. This invisibly helps the brand save a lot of marketing costs.

1. Recent growth trends

Like this blogger, although he currently has only more than 12,000 fans, the average interaction of his recent notes has remained at around 8,000+. He also recently produced a hot article with more than 40,000 interactions, and his number of fans is also increasing by 600+ per day.

Not only is there a high possibility that he will produce a hit article in the near future, but his account is also in a stage of rapid growth. We can then contact the blogger, give priority to the cooperation schedule, and finalize the later cooperation based on the blogger's current fan base.

2. Content expressiveness

There are many bloggers who, even if their number of fans is still at the level of KOC with thousands of followers, the quality of their content is already comparable to that of mid-level KOLs.

Although this type of account does not have a large fan base, it has strong content creation capabilities. On the Xiaohongshu platform, which uses content quality as the main push logic, its explosive power is very strong. If you are a merchant with a limited budget, you can choose more bloggers of this type to help us achieve big gains with small investments on the platform.

3. Flow stability

For mid-level bloggers with a certain fan base, I would recommend that brands choose bloggers whose traffic, although fluctuating, basically remains at a reasonable level.

For example, among the ten most recent notes, eight had an average interaction of between 500-700, one had an interaction of 300+, and one had an interaction of 2000+.

This type of blogger is great for collaboration.

However, if the blogger’s recent notes have dozens of interactions, hundreds of interactions, and tens of thousands of interactions, then this type of blogger requires the brand to have a stronger psychological endurance, because the account traffic is very unstable.

At the same time, if it is a KOC or even an amateur with a low number of fans, we do not need to pursue very stable traffic too much, but focus on the proportion of content with better data. For example, among the ten most recent notes, 4-6 notes have good interactions, which is also suitable for cooperation.

For example, this blogger has only 8,353 followers, but looking at his recent notes, there are 4 notes with over 6k interactions, and the other notes also maintain an interaction level of 800+.

This shows that the blogger's content creation ability is relatively stable, and the data fluctuates only due to the fan base and basic exposure. At the same time, the account weight and activity are very good.

Once this type of blogger has done a good job of content optimization, their explosive power is very strong, and their ability to promote products and influence will even be stronger than many mid-level bloggers. At the same time, the cost of cooperation is relatively affordable.

When evaluating this factor, it is also necessary to pay attention to whether the blogger has deleted notes with bad data.

For example, these three notes of this blogger cannot be seen when we enter the blogger’s homepage, which means they have been deleted or hidden by the blogger. The contents left on the homepage are all the contents that the blogger thinks are good.

Brands need to be careful in this case, because the account traffic is extremely unstable and the possibility of an upset is very high.

6. Other added value

1. Professional identity provides endorsement

For some products that require professional identity verification or endorsement, if the blogger has relevant identity, they can also be given priority in planning.

For example, baby nanny, master of chemistry, fitness trainer, parenting expert, etc.

2. Private Domain Promotion

Many bloggers have their own private domain pools, such as WeChat groups, etc. You can ask the blogger whether he is willing to promote for free in his fan group or circle of friends.

Many bloggers we work with at Xingyuan will promote our products on their own private channels and in their circle of friends.

3. Synchronize with other platforms

When we recommend bloggers to brands, we will attach the blogger’s accounts on other platforms, such as Guanguang, Douyin, Kuaishou, etc., including whether they can be published simultaneously for free.

This is also one of the very important exposure methods for brand promotion.

4. Material Authorization

Does the blogger authorize the brand to use the note material? What is the scope of use?

5. Daily exposure

Because we have a lot of brand investment projects, we maintain high-frequency cooperative relationships with high-quality bloggers on most platforms. Under the premise of theme matching, bloggers are very happy to help us expose products multiple times for free in daily sharing. This also helps brands save marketing costs and increase exposure and frequency.

If the brand contacts the blogger for cooperation, you can also ask if they can help get more exposure on a daily basis.

Today, we have listed a lot of evaluation angles and factors for you. This does not mean that we have to conduct a comprehensive evaluation when screening every blogger, especially when brands with insufficient experience or manpower are managing the Xiaohongshu campaign on their own.

These dimensions can be integrated and screened according to our delivery needs, comprehensively evaluating the cost-effectiveness of influencer delivery, summarizing experience in actual delivery, reviewing frequently, optimizing our influencer screening criteria, and achieving quantitative indicators that better meet our needs.

Finally, regardless of whether the final effect of the blogger’s delivery meets our expectations, maintaining a good relationship with the cooperating blogger will be very helpful for future cooperation processes and the brand reputation in the blogger circle!

Author: Bobo Marketing Circle

Source: WeChat public account "Bobo Kaixiaozao" (ID: gh_8d3fe32c1b38)