How the Koinon Fair Score Is Calculated (Third-Party Creator Scoring Methodology)
Every creator in our index gets a Koinon Fair Score (0–100). Once a creator verifies they own the account, they can claim their own certificate and use it in a media kit or a pitch. This page opens up the whole method, because a score you cannot audit does not deserve to be called fair.
In one line: it measures whether the numbers are real, not whether they are big
Follower count carries zero weight. Followers can be bought, and the number does not answer the question a brand actually has: are those people my customers? Size enters the calculation in exactly one place — building the peer cohort so like is compared with like.
The four components
| Component | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Authenticity | 35% | Whether the follower/engagement structure looks natural: large followings with near-zero engagement, follow-farming ratios, and high-follower accounts that barely post all lose points |
| Engagement quality | 25% | Real engagement relative to the account’s own size |
| Audience value | 30% | Whether the audience is decision-makers and practitioners rather than a general consumer crowd (from audience profiling) |
| Focus & activity | 10% | Whether the account consistently serves one defined niche and is still publishing |
The three rules that make it fair
1. Percentile first, weight second. Raw values are not comparable across platforms or sizes: LinkedIn does not publish follower counts, and engagement rates on short-video platforms are structurally higher than on text platforms. So each component becomes a position inside a platform × size × industry cohort before it is weighted. Your score answers "where do you sit among your peers", not "what is your absolute number".
2. Missing data is not a low score. If a component has no raw material — for example the audience profile has not been built yet — that component is excluded and its weight is redistributed, rather than being scored as zero. Scoring it zero would punish creators for what we failed to collect. The certificate states whether it is the basic or the full version.
3. Too few samples, no claim. A component needs at least 8 comparable peers in the cohort to be scored at all, and a cohort needs at least 30 members before the certificate shows a ranking. We would rather say less than say something unfounded.
The three bands
- Koinon Verified — ownership proven, no integrity flags
- Koinon Certified — Fair Score in the top 30% of the cohort
- Koinon Elite — Fair Score in the top 5% of the cohort
Upgrades apply immediately; downgrades require 14 consecutive days below the line. Without that hysteresis, borderline accounts would flip bands weekly and nobody would display the badge.
How the fair partnership range is derived
The range on the certificate uses exactly the same formula as our public rate estimator:
range = average real engagements per post × cost per engagement × (0.7 – 1.4)
Two things have to be stated plainly. First, it is the average post, not the best one — those differ by multiples, and using the peak as if it were typical overstates a creator systematically. Second, the cost-per-engagement input is the estimator’s default, not a market rate we measured, which is why it is printed directly on the certificate for anyone to recompute with their own assumption. The range only appears when we genuinely hold average-basis engagement data; when we do not, the field stays empty rather than guessing.
What we refuse to do
- We do not sell badges. The score cannot be purchased: no payment, ad spend or partnership moves it. The moment a badge is purchasable, its value to brands is zero.
- We do not accept self-reported analytics. Creator-supplied screenshots are exactly what this system exists to replace.
- We do not publish bad news. Accounts below the threshold get no "failed" verdict and no public low-score page. This system exists to prove who is worth working with, not to label anyone.
- We do not publish per-creator pages. Certificates go only to verified owners, and those pages are noindex and excluded from our sitemap. Everything we publish externally is aggregate statistics — never an individual creator’s handle, contact details or audience profile.
How brands should read the score
The Fair Score answers "is this account real and is its audience valuable". It does not answer "is this creator right for you" — that depends on whether their audience and your customers are the same people, which is what audience matching is for. A 90-scoring creator whose followers are not your buyers is still a zero for you. Do not collapse the two questions into one.