How to read a media kit you did not commission

Every creator media kit is a marketing document about a marketing service. That is not a criticism: it is a reason to ask for the underlying exports before making a decision with a budget behind it.

Which exports should you ask for?

Platform-native exports for the last ninety days, four of them, and each one leaves something out:

• Reach. It does not show how much of that audience the other creators on the list also reach.
• Audience demographics. They give location, age and gender, not the language the audience speaks.
• Top posts by saves. The list does not say which of those posts were sponsored and which were not.
• The follower growth curve. It shows when a step happened, not why.

Fig. 02 · At a glance

The four exports to ask a creator for

All four are two taps away in the creator app. A creator who will not send them is telling you something.

Read the growth curve first

A follower graph should look like a staircase, with jumps that line up with a post you can go and find. A vertical step with nothing behind it may be a paid promotion or a purchase, and it is worth one question before it is worth a conclusion.

Fig. 05 · At a glance

What to do with a vertical step in the growth curve

Then read the comments

No export captures whether an audience is present. Open the last ten posts and read the replies. The full order of checks, from the exports to the comments, is in how to check an influencer’s audience.

Specific, on-topic comments from accounts with histories are the signal. Emoji strings from accounts with no posts are not an audience, whatever the reach figure says.

Fig. 07 · At a glance

What a present audience looks like in the comments

Questions brands ask

Why ask for exports and not the deck? A media kit is a marketing document about a marketing service. The platform-native exports are the underlying record.

Which exports? Reach, audience demographics, top posts by saves and the follower growth curve, for the last ninety days. Each leaves something out: overlap with other creators, the audience’s language, which posts were sponsored, and why the curve stepped.

What if a creator will not send them? A creator who will not send them is telling you something.

What should a follower graph look like? A staircase, with jumps that line up with a post you can go and find. A vertical step with nothing behind it is worth one question.

Do the exports show whether an audience is present? No. Open the last ten posts and read the replies: specific, on-topic comments from accounts with histories are the signal.