Selecting hummingbirds for your campaign

selecting hummingbirds for your campaign

Selecting hummingbirds is when your campaign really starts to come to life! If you opted to let our team choose your hummingbirds, you can set your sights on designing your hummingbird engagement plan, or getting your brick-and-mortar space ready. But if you chose to select your own hummingbirds, we have five things to keep in mind during your review process.

account type

Enhanced Profile

We officially rolled out Enhanced Profile Badges in November 2023 for hummingbirds who have a Creator or Business Instagram Account and connect it to our platform. This public profiles allow us to pull their posts and stories into our platform in real time!

Basic Profile

A basic profile is any hummingbird without an Enhanced Profile Badge.

Many brands won’t consider selecting hummingbirds with private accounts because they can’t view the content. However, this could be a huge mistake! The amount of influence a hummingbird has in their community isn’t determined by the type of account they have, but rather how much their followers trust them and look forward to their recommendations.

Additionally, you can see their content in the dashboard and if you request to follow them on IG! We recommend following them with your business account so you’ve already made a connection when the campaign goes live.

The only true downside of selecting a private account is not being able to share their user-generated content (UGC) to your story for all your followers to see. But, if your goal is customer acquisition or reach and impressions, the ability to use UGC isn’t as important.

Previous campaigns

Take a look at the other campaigns hummingbirds have participated in to get a feel for how they produce content. However, don’t rule out new birds because they’re often excited to go above and beyond for their first campaigns!

Follower Counts

It’s easy to associate a large follower count with more reach, and often that’s true. But before selecting the accounts with the most followers, look at their post engagement. Hummingbirds with 500 followers could receive the same amount of likes and comments on their posts as Hummingbirds with 3,000 followers. It’s the followers interacting with the posts that trust their recommendations and therefore will build great trust with your brand.

Image and Reel Style

Every brand has a style. If you plan to use the user-generated content (UGC) from the hummingbirds on your own accounts, search for birds that fit with your brand style. For example, if your brand shares pictures of customers interacting with your product or service, look for hummingbirds who share people-focused content, rather than product-focused content.

Content They Produce

Do you want single images, carousel images, or Reels? Some hummingbirds capture beautiful images, and others create fantastic Reels, and others are great at both! Take a look at what content they share most frequently on Instagram because that’s likely what they’re best at.

If you’ve always stuck to posting single images, now may be the perfect time to diversify your content! Ask the hummingbirds to choose between one or two content styles so you have a nice mix.

Read the ‘Bird Blurbs’

When a hummingbird expresses interest in your campaign, they have the option to add a message explaining why you should select them. Some will also include post ideas or additional content they want to produce, like a TikTok video. Hummingbirds who take the time to do this are likely very excited about your brand and will go the extra mile to produce great content!

Selecting hummingbirds can be the most challenging part of your campaign setup. Keep in mind that the birds you do not choose for this campaign can be selected for your next one if they choose to express interest again!

If you need assistance or help making a decision, reach out to our team. We’re here to help your campaign be as successful as possible!