Feed & Attention
Building a shortlist without scrolling all day
A repeatable weekly workflow for agencies to build influencer and partner shortlists from public activity, with evidence per pick and a refresh cadence.
Shortlists fail in two ways: they are built from whoever is easiest to find, or they go stale before anyone acts on them. A small, repeatable workflow fixes both, and it takes far less time than scrolling.
The weekly routine
- Collect candidates from who your client's buyers follow and engage.
- Read their last ten posts and note one piece of evidence each.
- Score relevance against the campaign or partnership goal.
- Shortlist the top ten and share the reasoning with the client.
- Refresh the list quarterly, and after every campaign.
Criteria that survive review
| Criterion | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Audience fit | Do their readers match the buyer? | Reach to the wrong people is waste |
| Engagement quality | Do real people reply? | Signals trust, not bots |
| Topic overlap | Do they post about the problem? | Message lands in context |
| Consistency | Are they active now? | A dormant account cannot help |
Keep the evidence
For each shortlisted person, keep a link to the post or interaction that earned the slot. When a client asks why this person and not a bigger account, the answer is already written down.
Small lists move faster
Ten well-argued names get approved faster than a hundred unsorted ones. The shortlist is the deliverable, not the long list.
Automate the reading, not the relationship
A feed can collect the candidate posts for you. The judgment and the outreach stay human. That is what keeps the shortlist defensible and your client's accounts safe.
Common questions
How often should a shortlist be refreshed?
Quarterly, and after each campaign. People change roles and go quiet; a stale list produces wasted effort.
How many candidates should we start with?
Twenty to thirty candidates for a ten-person shortlist is usually enough. More adds noise without improving the pick.
Can the tool score influencers for us?
It ranks posts against the goal you define. The final judgment, and the relationship, stay with your team.
A shortlist your team can defend
Surfolks collects the candidate posts and ranks them against the goal, so the evidence is already there.
Get started30-day money-back guarantee · Cancel anytime
Keep reading
Feed & Attention
How agencies find influencers and partners
How agencies find relevant influencers and partners without scrolling all day: follow who the client's buyers follow, and build a shortlist with evidence.
ReadOctober 26, 2026Relationship Building
Best LinkedIn and X relationship tools in 2026
A comparison of the tools for staying close to your network in 2026: relationship feeds, alert tools, CRMs and content suites, and how to choose.
ReadOctober 26, 2026Feed & Attention
Best LinkedIn feed tools in 2026
A comparison of the tools that customize, filter or collect your LinkedIn feed in 2026, from extensions to server-side relationship feeds.
ReadOctober 26, 2026