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Now more than ever, brands are turning to social media influencers to market their products.
Micro-influencers are becoming a crucial part of the process! A verifiable cash cow for many companies.
Micro-influencer marketing is highly effective at promoting your brand compared to traditional marketing tactics.
Generic advertisements may miss a considerable chunk of your target audience.
You’re going to see a massive gap between you and your competitors unless you start engaging with micro-influencers!
In fact, if you’re to have any hope of gaining a foothold on platforms like TikTok or Instagram, then leveraging micro-influencers to create social media video content isn’t optional — it’s essential.
Brands are getting wise about the influencer marketplace, but there’s a lot of fumbling about still.
Finding the best micro-influencers can seem like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Luckily, we’re here to help! There are tactics and tools every brand can use to streamline the process.
TL;DR
Choosing the Right Influencer:
- Select influencers whose target audience aligns with your brand.
- Ensure the influencer's niche matches your product or service.
- Collaborate with the right influencer to achieve better results than paid ads.
Defining Your Ideal Influencer:
- Identify your product's purpose and target market.
- Set clear campaign goals, such as brand awareness, promotion, website traffic, and sales.
Criteria for Selecting Influencers:
- Focus on engagement rates, particularly for micro-influencers (over 60% engagement).
- Analyze the influencer's audience authenticity through follower interactions.
- Track influencer engagement metrics, adjusting for privacy policies.
Finding Instagram Influencers:
- Manual search using hashtags, locations, and influencer followings.
- Utilize influencer marketplaces like FameBit.
- Employ custom Google searches specific to Instagram.
- Consider using influencer databases like inBeat for efficient searches.
Finding TikTok Influencers:
- TikTok is a valuable platform for targeting Gen Z audiences.
- Discover TikTok influencers using location hashtags, geotags, and Google Maps.
- Calculate influencer engagement rates for effective collaborations.
Leveraging inBeat for Influencer Search:
- inBeat's influencer search tool streamlines the process of finding micro-influencers.
- Custom search features help pinpoint influencers based on specific criteria.
- Use filters to sort and manage influencer results efficiently.
Pitching to Influencers:
- Gather influencer contact details, preferably email for better response rates.
- Use email outreach tools like Mailshake or Gmass for scaled cold emails.
- Keep pitches concise, clear, and personalized, highlighting mutual benefits.
- Hire an experienced influencer agency for better results.
How to find TikTok influencers
TikTok is rapidly becoming a platform of choice for brands seeking to target a Gen Z audience.
The platform motivates members to make and share short-form videos, between fifteen and sixty seconds.
TikTok is now at the heart of a new generation of influencers, which rose to fame with the platform.
As with any new platform, the engagement for a given post is disproportionately high, which opens the door for early adopters to leverage the situation.
This guide will show you how to find TikTok influencers for free.
If you are seeking to scale your TikTok influencer marketing efforts, I recommend you use a tool, such as inBeat, to help you with the TikTok research.
Finding TikTok Influencers by Hashtags
Tiktok users use hashtags to organize their content (just like on Instagram).
To search influencers using hashtags, type your relevant queries (i.e. “fashion”) in the search bar under the discover tab.
Use the “TOP”, “USERS”, “VIDEO” or “HASHTAG” tabs to find and organize the best profiles for your specific keyword.
Go through each profile to make sure their follower count, engagement rate, and sense of aesthetics match your specific needs.
Finding TikTok Influencers by Country
You can’t use TikTok to find influencers by country specifically.
A lot of influencers will mention their country in their biography, but it is not a sure shot.
You can use a tool like inBeat, which allows you to search TikTok influencers by country.
Finding TikTok Influencers by City
TikTok users typically use location specific hashtags (i.e. #nyc, #la, #usa, etc.) You can leverage this behavior to find hashtags by location.
It is similar to finding influencers on Instagram using location hashtags.
You can also filter your content by changing the language in your profile settings under “Content Preferences”, which is useful to narrow your targeting.
Finding TikTok Influencers By Follower Count
Finding influencers by follower size inside the app is a hit-or-miss scenario, similarly to finding influencers by city.
You are better off looking for influencers by country and excluding those that are outside the follower count you require.
Calculating a TikTok Influencer’s Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is a metric typically used in the influencer marketing space.
It is used to show how much a user’s content gets seen in regards to their following.
It is calculated by adding the likes, comments, and shares of a each post and dividing it by the influencer’s following.
Here is the formula:
[(Number of hearts + number of comments + number of shares) / number of followers]x100
You can also use our TikTok Engagement Rate Calculator.
How to Find TikTok Influencers Email Address
TikTok users generally link to their Instagram, allowing you to go check a TikTok influencer’s profile on Instagram in a single click.
If your influencer strategy is focusing on outreach email marketing rather than Tiktok or Instagram DMs, you can check a full flow on how to find tiktok influencers' email.
- Find the email address of the influencer in their TikTok bio (0 taps)
- Find the email address of the influencer in their Instagram bio (1 tap)
- Find the email address of the influencer using the Instagram “Email” snippet. (2 taps)
- If their Tiktok or Instagram bio links to their LinkedIn, use an email finder to look up their email via their real name or company domain.
After finding the email address, make sure to verify them so as to have better conversions from your cold outreach campaigns.
Final Word on Finding TikTok Influencers
I went through strategies to find influencers that match your needs for your influencer marketing campaign on TikTok.
Even if it might be time-consuming to find influencers, trust me, it is worth it.
If you don’t have the time to scroll through TikTok and browse for countless hours, you can use an all-in-one influencer research tool like inBeat.
The software isn’t free, but makes sense for anyone looking to scale their TikTok influencer marketing.
I would not recommend such a platform to someone looking to work with a handful of TikTok influencers.
Here is a video revealing tips on you how to find Tik Tok influencers:
How to find Instagram influencers
Not all Instagram influencers can fulfill your campaign goals.
You need to define your target market, buyer persona, and analyze the audience of the influencer.
They need to match. A dissonance will result in pitching your product to irrelevant audiences.
As a result, you will lose time and waste your social media marketing budget.
To avoid pitfalls, you must find Instagram influencers whose personality and style resonate with your brand.
Their niche has to align with your products, services, or business.
For example, if you sell luxury watches, find Instagram influencers from the luxury fashion and accessories niche.
Relevance determines the success of your influencer marketing strategy.
The fate of your campaign depends on finding the right influencer.
Content from the like-minded people that your customer trust will augment your brand loyalty and boost sales.
Collaboration with the right influencer can beat any of your paid ad campaigns and take your brand recognition to the next level.
It is especially true for fashion products, wellness services, or dining experiences.
Finding Good Instagram Influencers
Finding influencers on Instagram that are right for your brand can seem challenging at first.
In this guide, I will outline ways you can use to find Instagramers who match your requirements.
It will help you streamline your social media marketing efforts and save you a ton of time finding the right influencers.
Before you start, ask yourself these questions to define your ideal influencer:
- What is your product, and why did you design it?
- What is your target market, and who is your buyer persona? What problem is he/she trying to solve?
- What are the goals of your influencer campaign? The most common objectives of influencer collaborations are increasing brand awareness, promoting a product launch, driving traffic to your website, and increasing sales.
Now you found your niche and identified your target audience.
It is time to discover the right influencers to make your campaign a success!
How to Find The Right Instagram Influencer For Your Brand?
These questions will help you define your influencer marketing strategy.
So you can find Instagram influencers that will fulfill your goals:
- How important is follower count to you? Do you consider working with micro-influencers? Remember: micro-influencers have the highest engagement rates (over 60%). They are the best to build trust by having real conversations around your brand. And they are more affordable than top-tier Instagram influencers.
- Who is your ideal influencers’ target audience? Define their followers’ location, age, gender, and interests. Read followers comments, questions, and personal statements. This tactic also helps understand how genuine the influencer is.
- What is the influencer’s engagement rate? Since Instagram Privacy Policy has changed, it became challenging to calculate engagement rate percentages on the platform. So you may need to dig into different metrics or use software to measure the engagement.
Leveraging social media marketing starts from defining who you ideal customer and influencer.
Knowing who to find makes your job easier and saves time contacting the wrong people.
Finding Influencers on Instagram Manually
There are multiple ways to find influencers on Instagram.
After you have done your research and answered the questions we’ve outlined above, it should be easier to discover top Instagram influencers.
The best ways to find influencers on Instagram are to:
- Browse hashtags
- Browse locations
- Browse the relevant influencers’ following
Finding Influencers on Instagram by Hashtags
Start by building a list of relevant hashtags.
With a few of these, you can create a sizable list by using Display Purposes. It is a free tool that allows you to find additional related hashtags:
What are the relevant hashtags?
- Top hashtags that your target audience explores.
- Hashtags your ideal influencers use in their Instagram posts.
- Hashtags of the relevant influencers who purchased your product in the past (if any).
Finding Local Instagram Influencers by Location
No matter what type of business you run, you want to be where your potential customers are and speak the same language.
Your target audience will connect to your brand on a deeper level if they see someone they know and trust using your product or service.
A high schooler from New Jersey is more likely to trust his schoolmate.
A mom in Wisconsin would relate more to another mom from the neighborhood.
So knowing how to find Instagram influencers by location is detrimental to your campaign’s success. This guide will show you how to search for local influencers using various tools and methods.
- Using Instagram Geotags
There are several ways to find influencers by location.
Instagram Geotags are a simple method for targeting creators who live in specific states, cities, and even districts.
Use the Instagram app on your mobile.
If you are using a desktop version, your results will be minimal. Alternatively, you can try one of the open-source Instagram Desktop Apps, like Ramme, that offers a full mobile experience on desktop.
Type the name of the state in the search bar and click on the map pin symbol to see locations:
Select “recent” to see the latest posts in that location.
You can also check “popular” posts to see photos and videos that had the most engagement:
To verify that the influencer lives in your target state (not just passing by), click on the profile, and check other posts for geotags.
If most of the geotags are in your target location - the chances are that you found the right creator:
If your target instagram influencers live in particular cities, it will make sense to do the research first instead of searching for the city’s geotag.
Google Maps can help.
For example, to find people who live in Houston, go to Google Maps.
Search for popular places in Houston, such as parks, restaurants, squares, malls:
Pick a place and use the same method I described above to search for the location on Instagram.
Some cities will have parks with similar names.
So make sure you are picking the right one.
Then scroll through the posts, pick one, and check the profile for more information about the location.
In this example, the influencer mentions location in her bio, which makes it easier.
Sometimes you will have to go through multiple posts to see where most of their geotags are.
My hack: when scrolling through influencer’s posts in your target city, check for group photos. Most creators love tagging their friends or other creators. The chances are they live in the same location or close by. For example, in this group photo, I found three micro-influencers who live in Houston. Great catch!
2. Using Tagged Profiles
This method is more complicated and time-consuming than using geotags but can produce quality results if you need to target influencers in precise locations and niches.
Suppose you are looking for gym-goers in Atlanta, so type: “gyms in Atlanta” in Google maps search:
Then visit the place’s website to check their Instagram handle (many gyms have similar names, so better to check their website for social profiles).
Go to the Instagram profile of the gym.
Then scroll through their posts to see if they tag any of their members or trainers.
For example, we found a fitness micro-influencer in Atlanta tagged at this Gym:
You can use the same method to search for micro-influencers on Instagram profiles of restaurants, schools, universities, stores, etc.
3. Using Location Hashtags
Another way to find influencers by location on Instagram is to search location hashtags.
You can use tools like https://www.tagsfinder.com to discover hashtags.
For example, I get the following results using the #newyorkcity:
Like with previous methods, double-check the selected influencers’ profiles to ensure that it wasn’t their one-off visit to your target location.
Finding Recommended Influencers
Why do any heavy lifting? Some social media sites practically gift wrap your next influencer.
YouTube & Instagram both have features that recommend parallel accounts of influencers you already know; influencers you collaborate with.
This is an excellent option if you find an influencer you like, but they don’t quite meet your brand needs.
Here’s how to find them on Instagram:
- Locate an Influencer’s profile in your niche.
- Click the “arrow” next to the “Following” or “Follow” icon.
- A row of suggested accounts will appear to scroll through.
- Select “see all” to view every suggested profile.
Finding Influencers by Browsing Their Following
You can head to Instagram and start going through hashtag feeds.
Each hashtag page will order the posts by popularity and freshness.
Pick profiles that match your marketing campaign and add them to your list.
Don’t forget to view the following of each profile you discover.
Relevant influencers follow other relevant influencers.
Finding Influencers by Browsing Influencer Marketplaces
There are multiple Instagram influencer marketplaces out there (FameBit, for example).
These marketplaces are directories where brands can browse through the lists of social media influencers.
Use these marketplaces to find relevant profiles.
They usually categorize them by reach, niche, and engagement rate.
You can contact the Instagram influencers you picked inside or outside the marketplace.
If you are looking for a more formal way to reach out to them, you can contact them via email after finding and verifying their email addresses with an email validator API.
I recommend you try reaching them outside the platform as the cost will be lower.
You can estimate the cost/return of influencer marketing campaigns with our Instagram Collaboration Cost Calculator.
How to find influencers with Google Search
Let’s be honest - this is probably the first way that many brands will look for an influencer.
“Googling” is now a conditioned response in us, but using it to find your influencers may not yield the best results.
Google allows you to narrow the search with advanced options, but, from our experience, they filter too many influencers out.
Elite, expensive influencer accounts are going to show up at the top.
You can leverage the Google search to start finding influencers in your niche and work your way from there.
Google search “your Niche” + Top Influencers + (preferred Social Media Platform)
Lists of the top influencers in your niche will appear first.
You can check out the top profiles and then work your way down through suggested accounts, tagged content, or relevant hashtags in their posts.
Using Google Advanced Search
Advanced search is a handy feature of Google.
You can specify additional requirements for your search to help the search engine refine the results.
This feature makes looking for influencers easy.
Head over to Google and type in the following query:
site:www.instagram.com “[Your keyword]”
Let’s give this a try: site:www.instagram.com “mom”
You can try the exact same approach and replace "instagram" with "tiktok".
Once you find relevant influencers, you can do more in-depth research on their hashtags, locations, and target audiences.
Just follow as we did in the previous steps.
How to find influencers with inBeat
Our Influencer search tool is the #1 way to find a micro-influencer for your brand on Instagram or TikTok! Our proprietary platform features robust features to pinpoint influencers that match exactly what you are after.
All the influencers featured by our tool have been verified and approved!
Search micro-influencers by hashtag, mention, username, & bio keyword.
If you don’t have any hashtags in mind, our system will recommend your niche’s best ones. Set your search parameters to match the influencer’s username, bio, and posts to refine the results.
Once you’ve established search criteria, a list of matching influencers will populate.
You can export the influencer list into an excel spreadsheet that contains contact details to get the ball rolling with your top picks.
In this demo, I will walk you through our new custom influencer search feature and share some tips on how to find influencers on Instagram in your niche and location.
Login to inBeat.co and click on New Search.
Select Instagram Search:
Select client.
You can always click on "manage client accounts" at the bottom of the drop-down list to create a new client account.
Then name your list:
Enter the number of influencers you would like to find.
Note: the more influencers you want to find, the more profiles you will need to provide for the custom search later on.
For example, if you would like to discover 100 influencers, you will have to provide two or more profiles; for 300 influencers, five or more profiles, 1000 influencers, 17 or more profiles, etc.
Click next:
Enter the minimum and maximum follower count.
This information is optional but highly recommended if you are targeting influencers with a specific follower count:
Enter other details, such as Location and Language.
Tip: the location filter only identifies influencer's country if they have used a location in any past posts (not all influencers do that). It can affect the number of results you will get from the custom search.
We recommend using Language as a filter instead of location, then go manually through the profiles and remove those that are not in your target location:
Then you enter sample profiles for the custom search.
Don't know where to find sample profiles?
You can find them on Instagram manually or use inBeat to find them in bulk.
Then click Next, confirm and run search:
Check back in a few hours to get the results.
You can use the same filters to sort your influencers as in the regular inBeat.co search:
Let us know your feedback about custom search feature! Or book a demo to learn more about our influencer search engine.