How to find and vet micro-influencers for your Tunisian online store

Where to look for creators

Among your own customers and followers

Start with people who already talk about you: customers who tag you in their stories, send a photo of their order or leave a detailed review. They know the product, and their recommendation sounds genuine. Many have a small audience, but one that trusts them.

On Instagram and TikTok, in your niche

Search your niche’s hashtags and the location tags of your city or region. Look at who comments actively on accounts in your sector: creators often reply to their own followers there. Note the accounts that already present products close to yours, in a tone that fits your brand. Facebook is still useful for some audiences, especially outside the big cities.

In the public creators directory

Inflow’s creators directory lists creators who turned on their public page, filtered by city and niche. Each page shows the delivered orders Inflow tracked itself and how many brands the creator has worked with. Never a follower count. The directory is new and grows as creators turn on their page.

Inside Inflow, with Find creators

Once your store is connected, the Find creators page lists creators who chose to be visible to brands. You filter by niche, platform, city and minimum delivered orders, then invite a creator with your default commission or a custom one.

Why micro-influencers suit a small store

There is no official threshold: people usually say micro-influencer for an account with a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of followers. For a young store, these profiles have several strengths:

• A close audience. Their followers know them, ask questions and ask for the price in the comments.
• An often local audience. With cash on delivery, you want an audience in the cities you deliver to.
• Openness to commission. Many accept being paid on sales, with or without a small flat fee, which limits your risk.
• Less dependence. Several small creators spread the risk better than one big contract.

Vetting a creator: a checklist

1. Read the comments, not the counter. Real questions (“how much?”, “do you deliver to Sfax?”) and conversations are worth more than generic emojis repeated by the same accounts.
2. Check the audience’s location and language. Ask for screenshots of their audience insights (cities, countries, age ranges). A Tunisian store needs buyers it can deliver to.
3. Judge the content fit. Would your product look natural among their last ten posts? Tone, image quality and the way they already present products all matter.
4. Look at consistency. An account that posts regularly and whose stories get replies is alive.
5. Ask for proof of sales. On Inflow, the public page or the directory card shows verified delivered orders; the verified badge appears from 3 delivered orders attributed automatically.
6. Talk to them. A creator who answers clearly about terms will be easier to work with over time.

The follower count shown in the in-app directory is self-reported by the creator: Inflow does not verify it. Only the order figures come from Inflow.

Red flags

• Comments unrelated to the content, always from the same accounts, always in the same words.
• An audience mostly outside Tunisia, when you only deliver in Tunisia.
• A refusal to share audience insights, or a large flat fee demanded upfront with no sales tracking at all.
• A feed where every post is an ad for a different brand.
• Promises of guaranteed sales, with numbers given in advance.

After a first test, other signals appear in Inflow as badges: several orders from the same phone number, orders placed seconds after the click, or a creator with a high share of refused or returned orders. They are clues to look into, never an automatic verdict: nothing is voided without your decision.

Start small: a test paid on delivered orders

1. Offer commission on delivered orders, as a percentage or a fixed amount, possibly with a small flat fee. With cash on delivery, you pay nothing on refused or cancelled parcels. The details: commission on delivery.
2. Give each creator their own tracked link, and one link per post, so you know which reel or story sold. Add a promo code if their audience prefers codes: promo codes vs tracked links.
3. Send the product if the creator needs to try it before talking about it. On Growth and Scale, the free product request and its cost are tracked on the campaign.
4. Set a period, for example a few weeks, then look at delivered orders, the share of refused or returned parcels, and the campaign’s net result.
5. Keep the ones who deliver and reward them with commission tiers: see how much to pay an influencer.

To understand how each order is matched to the right creator, read influencer sales tracking.

What to put in your first message

A serious creator receives many vague offers. A clear one stands out:

• who you are, what you sell and why you thought of them in particular;
• the commission rate, its base (products only or the order total) and when it is earned;
• how long until payment: on Inflow, a hold of 7 days by default after delivery, then an approved payout is due within 7 days;
• how they will follow their sales: a free creator portal with their links, codes and the status of every order.

On Inflow, the creator also sees your payment reliability next to your invitation. Paying on time is the best argument for recruiting the next ones.