The Ultimate Guide: How to Identify Influencers for Your Brand (5 Ways)
Influencers are everywhere, you have probably seen a paid collaboration or #sponsored post today already. Because it is a proven method that thousands of brands across the globe are using to increase brand awareness and boost their sales.
Research shows that an average social media user now spends 2 hours and 23 minutes per day, meaning 35.8 percent of our daily online activities are spent on social media. This makes it even more important to sourcing influencers to increase brand mentions across channels.
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing where a brand uses an influencer’s authority to promote its product or service. In today's time, it is a valuable marketing channel to boost your revenue, grow your audience size & increase brand awareness.
An influencer is an online personality who has authority within a given niche. Influencers have a very close relationship with their audience. Their followers follow them for their content and trust their
Influencers usually have a dedicated following and are perceived as a reliable source of information.
You'll find both to be similar, but the key difference between both is just one. The ultimate goal of creators is to connect and engage people with similar goals, values, and lifestyles. While influencers do those things, they also prioritize their brand partnerships and leverage online communities to guide more informed buying decisions.
- Nano influencers have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers.
- Micro influencers generally have between 5,000 and 30,000 followers.
- Mid-sized influencers have between 30,000 and 200,000 followers.
- Macro influencers usually have between 200,000 and 500,000 followers.
- Mega influencers typically have more than 500,000 followers. They are usually vetted influencers with a huge loyal base.
You should also check out this Youtube Video to know more about the types of influencers and their prices.
When deciding the price of an influencer, one big mistake brands make is only considering the follower count, but you should also check out engagement rate across a social media platform and understand if it fits your requirements.
There are 5 proven & simple ways for you to find influencers for your brand.
Hashtags allow you to categorize social media content. Influencers use them to reach social media users & you can use them to find influencers in your niche!
First, you need to know which hashtags are trending right now across social media channels and track them. Twitter & Instagram influencers are familiar with using hashtags on their posts. So if you track and keep an eye for hashtags on these platforms, it'll be helpful.
- Hashtags can be used to find influencers on social media.
- Influencers use hashtags to reach their target audience.
- Hashtags can be filtered to find relevant influencers.
- A free and easy way to find influencers for your brand
The easiest way to find influencers is to use an influencer marketing platform or influencer discovery tools. These tools influencer posts data across social media channels, help in selecting influencers for your industry niche, filter influencers based on location, price, follower count, engagement rate and much more.
Some notable sourcing tools are
Any good influencer search tool is paid, and its pricing varies based on its offerings and database size. But to create quality content for your brand collaborations, you need to research to find the best influencers for your brand, and the price usually pays off for it.
Creator Marketplace by TikTok is an influencer search tool to enable creators to get contacted by brands and form influencer partnerships to promote their products. It helps with Creator Discovery, Campaign management & even Reporting.
You can discover influencers, run a marketing campaign & measure ROI.
Instagram's creator marketplace is a new platform where brands can discover potential creators to collaborate with. Using the desktop version within Meta Business Suite, brands can filter creators by various criteria such as gender, age, follower count, and interests. Additionally, they can refine their search based on the demographics of the creators' engaged audience, including gender, age, interests, country, and city. Brands can also see creators who have shown interest in working with them, tagged them, or followed them. The marketplace offers the ability to find similar creators to those already identified and allows brands to save lists of preferred creators.
One way to find social media influencers is to spend time on the platform itself and keep an eye out for influencer campaigns of other brands.
To discover accounts with high engagement rates, use Instagram's search feature and explore popular posts within your industry. Additionally, make sure to utilize relevant hashtags to enhance your reach and engagement.
- Use the platform’s search bar to look for relevant keywords or topics.
- Explore trending videos and channels within your industry.
- Use third-party tools and platforms specifically designed for influencer discovery on YouTube.
- Browse through the platform’s “For You” page.
- Utilize relevant hashtags.
- Explore TikTok’s Discover page.
- Join relevant groups.
- Follow pages within your industry.
- Engage with content from users who have a significant following.
- Leverage your website traffic: Add a link to an influencer landing page on your website.
- This can help you save time and effort in trying to reach out to influencers.
- Search for key titles like “blogger” or “content creator” on LinkedIn.
- Use LinkedIn’s search bar to find influencers who are relevant to your industry or niche.
But there are so many influencers that is makes super tough for your to find genuine influencers for you industry niche. That's why we recommend other approaches to build authentic brand advocates.
Google search can be used to find influencers, but it requires more time and effort.
Influencers can be found by searching for keywords related to a product or service.
- Influencers can be found by searching for bloggers who are related to your niche on Google.
- Search for bloggers who have a strong, engaged following on social media
Most of the influencer discovery tools are not just tools, but tools to build a full-stack influencer marketing program.
At its core, an Influencer marketing platform connects brands with influencers. These platforms provide metrics to base decisions upon & many have inbuilt affiliate tracking. You can find Instagram influencers, track brand mentions to run your influencer marketing campaign. Find not only the best influencers but macro influencers, micro influencers or even nano influencers based on your marketing strategy.
Spur Affiliates is a new influencer marketing platform that allows you to directly connect creators' Instagram posts to your Shopify products for comment automation, more sales and accurate tracking.
Know more about it here.
Upfluence is an influencer marketing platform with influencer search capabilities. You can filter influencers by demographics and engagement rates. A must-have for businesses looking to optimize their influencer marketing & find influencers.
HypeAuditor is an influencer discovery and analytics platform that gives you deep insights into influencers’ authenticity and engagement metrics. AI algorithms assess influencer credibility so you can make informed decisions for your influencer campaigns & identify influencers.
Bazaarvoice is not just an influencer search tool, it is for discovery and campaign management. Find influencers across social media platforms. Get detailed analytics and seamless communication with influencers. Harness the voice of the customer is more important than ever because shoppers trust other shoppers. Consumers seek UGC, context and communities throughout their shopper journey – from awareness to purchase to loyalty. Inspire confident purchases with star ratings, consumer reviews, Q&A, social content, sampling, creator and influencer marketing and more.
Influencer marketing is a big part of modern marketing. But to get the results you want, you need to vet to find a suitable influencer. This post will walk you through the process of vetting influencers, building relationships with them and running influencer marketing campaigns.
When choosing an influencer look for:
- Audience Demographics and Engagement Rates: Check the influencer’s audience to see if it matches your target market. High engagement rates mean an active and interested following.
- Content Quality and Brand Alignment: Check the quality of the influencer’s content. It should be professional, relevant and in line with your brand.
- Sponsored Posts Transparency: Look for influencers who clearly disclose sponsored content. Transparency builds trust with their audience and adheres to advertising regulations.
Vetting influencers is key to making sure they’re right for your brand:
- Check Credentials and Past Collaborations: Research the influencer’s past partnerships to see if they’ve worked with reputable brands and delivered successful campaigns.
- Content Quality and Brand Alignment: Continuously check the quality of their posts and if their content is in line with your brand’s message and tone.
- Sponsored Posts Transparency: Make sure the influencer is upfront about sponsored content to keep credibility with their audience.
To ensure authenticity and relevance, check the potential influencers credentials:
- Social Media Profiles and Content: Check their profiles across all social media platforms to see their reach and influence.
- Audience Demographics and Engagement Rates: See if their followers match your target market and engagement rates are high.
- Sponsored Posts Transparency: Confirm their transparency with sponsored posts, as it shows their honesty and integrity.
Building relationships with influencers can lead to better collaborations:
- Show Interest and Engage: Follow the influencer on social media, comment on their posts and tag them in your articles. Invite them to be a guest on your blog to get to know them.
- Present a Killer Proposal: Write a proposal that explains who you are, how you found them, and what you can offer in return. Include a call-to-action to get them to engage.
- Follow up and Pursue: Follow up with the influencer nicely and persistently to explore collaboration opportunities.
Running a successful influencer marketing campaign requires strategy and measurement:
- Campaign Strategies: Talk about campaign goals and involve the influencer in the planning. Make sure the campaign benefits both parties.
- Measuring Success: Track engagement rates and sales generated. Measure the campaign against your objectives.
Follow best practices to make influencer marketing a breeze:
- Why Finding the Right Influencer Matters: Influencers are brand ambassadors, connecting your products or services to their audience.
- Social Media Influencers Sourcing: Use social media search features, browse relevant hashtags and join industry groups to find influencers.
- Influencers for Your Product or Service: Define your target market and brand values, then research influencers whose content is in line with your brand.
- Small Influencers: Use social media search features, browse niche specific hashtags and join relevant communities or forums to find micro-influencers who can deliver high engagement rates.
Be personal when you reach out to influencers, show them how your product or service can help them. Choose the right influencers for your brand and launch a campaign to get the most out of influencer marketing for your brand. This is an essential channel to build brand reputation by leveraging influencers audience.