Posted by We all know that there are many different forms of marketing being used all over the world. Can we also agree that the most organic, raw, effective, and easy form of marketing is word of mouth?
Influencer marketing is just a touch above that. The basis is the word of mouth since they’ll try the product or service first and then promote it. The only difference is that they’re spreading the word to a much larger audience than would be considered for regular word of mouth.
Because of this, brands have realized that this form of marketing could do very well and reap some bountiful profits.
Having someone that already has a large audience promote your brand, product, or service is a big plus point!
However, because all people are different and like different things, it can be pretty daunting to find an influencer that fits your niche or that has a big enough audience for your niche. This is why some tools and websites have come up with an idea to find eager influencers and hire them based on your niche and upcoming campaign themes.
I’ll share a few of these sites and tools here, and if you’re a brand or an influencer, you can sign up and start your journey in marketing!
Before I start, however, let’s look at some of the more generic and organic ways to look for influencers.
1. Google
This might be the one method that will get you a thousand results. The only catch here is that it won’t be as filtered as you want it to be. You’ll have to spend some time sifting through the results before you find the right people for your brand.
Your Google search can include combination keywords like your niche+experts, your niche+influencers, etc. For example, if you’re a sports brand selling apparel and gym equipment, you can look for either athletes or athletic experts, or influencers. Or you can look for gym experts or influencers.
You must ensure though, that you have the time to filter through or you have someone you can delegate this to.
2. Audience
Your own audience will have a handful of hardcore fans that get the conversation going on your posts. You may begin to notice other audience members interacting solely because of these ambassadors of your brand.
You can always reach out to these individuals to further promote your brand to your own audience and also his audience.
This will help you get some new traffic to your brand. And since you already they’re your fans, you can be sure they’ll do all they can to properly promote your brand.
3. Hashtags
Over the last few years, hashtags have turned into some kind of search engine. You can search for influencers using hashtags on Instagram or Twitter. The idea is to use words describing or relating to your brand or theme. Once you get your search results, try to identify users who could be considered influencers. People who have a certain number of followers, or people who portray and project the idea behind the post well.
Using the same example as before, you can search for #gymrats, #athleisure #gyminfluencer, etc.
This method will require thorough sifting as well.
4. Competitors’ influencers
It’s not stealing if they’re not declared exclusive right? You can always look in on your competitors to see if any of their content is doing better because of a certain influencer. And as long as they’ve not exclusively signed on with your competitor, there’s no harm in contacting them to promote your brand as well. You never know, they might even like your products or service better and end up sticking with you. You can also keep a lookout for the people engaging with their content. There may be influencers looking for work on your competitors’ pages and you can reach out to them if you like their work.
If none of these methods are proving fruitful for you and you need a more filtered and authentic search, you can sign up on one of these sites/apps.
5. Upfluence
Upfluence is a site that will help you look for micro-influencers, celebrities, or KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) in your niche. You can filter using content themes, audience, and influencer performance so that you can have the best for your brand. You can also find influencers from a list of people that already know and love your brand. If they’re already familiar with your products or service, it’s more likely that they will agree to work with you.
With apps like Upfluence, you can also avoid possible awkward interactions on post comments or DMs. They have user-verified data and once you’re matched with an influencer, you get access to their email and you can write to them in a much more professional manner.
6. Post for Rent
Aiming to be an all-in-one Influencer Marketing Solution, Post for Rent is another good option to consider when looking for Influencers.
In addition to planning and running a marketing campaign, Post for Rent also has an inbuilt tool called the ‘Discover Tool’. This helps you filter and look for relevant influencers to aid you in your marketing campaigns and promotions.
This tool, once you’ve filtered a list of influencers, allows you to export available influencer data. You can also analyze each influencer’s audience data and have the tool provide an estimate of the results each influencer will bring to your campaign.
7. Keyhole
Keyhole is mostly known for its analytics and reporting features. Social Listening is one of their most used features.
What most people may not be aware of, is that they also offer influencer tracking and marketing. Keyhole uses Keyword or Hashtag searches to find relevant influencers for you. Your keywords can be your own brand name, your competitors’ names, your industry, or specific products or services.
Once you get some results from this search, you’ll be able to view the influencers’ engagement details, sentiments, and regions.
These details will help you make an informed decision about whom to select for your campaigns.
8. HypeAuditor
Another all-in-one solution for Influencer Marketing. HypeAuditor offers Influencer Analytics, Influencer Discovery, Campaign Management, Media Plans, Trends & Rankings, Competitor Analysis, and Market Landscape.
With their Influencer Discovery tool, you can search their database for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok influencers’ profiles. For the perfect match for your brand, you just need to apply some filters like audience demographics, engagement, audience quality, etc.
You can also search for influencers who already know your brand using Social Mentions. Other filters on their tool include age, ethnicity, region, gender, and interests. This way, you can be sure that you’re promoting your brand, via the influencer, to your target audience.
Hashtags are another way to look for influencers on HypeAuditor.
Once you’re comfortable with a selected candidate, you can also duplicate the search to look for more, should you need them. The feature is called the ‘lookalike search’.
Bonus!
9. Crowdsway (By Crowdfire)
Crowdsway is a new tool launched by Crowdfire to help brands look for influencers and vice versa.
As a brand, you can sign up and choose your niche and industry. Share your website and social media links and you’re ready to start a campaign!
You can set up the campaign by entering a start and end date and a budget. Within the campaign, you can create activities and allot a part of the budget to each activity. Next, you can select the skills and niche or industry you want your influencer to have, add a description, and voila!
Influencers can use your campaign link and start working on the different activities you’ve created within the campaign.
That’s all folks!
What are your favorite methods to look for influencers? Let me know in the comments below.