6 Effective Ways to Find Instagram Influencers for Your Brand

Instagram is one of the most popular platforms for influencer marketing. Instagram influencers are an effective way to promote conversations, brand awareness and attract a wider audience.

However, before you go into influencer marketing, you have to find influencers that align with your brand values. Finding the perfect Instagram influencer can be daunting. You must consider several factors, including your budget, reach, and engagement rate. 

In this post, you'll learn how to find influencers on Instagram:

Use Instagram’s Built-in Search Feature

Instagram’s built-in search feature is a free and easy-to-use tool.  

You can find potential influencers with high engagement rates by searching for keywords related to your brand. This strategy is helpful, especially if you are just starting and don't have any influencers in mind just yet.

To use Instagram's search feature do the following:

Open the app → click on the magnifying glass icon → type the keywords related to your brand → click search. 

Instagram will generate a list of profiles and posts related to the keywords. You can then explore these profiles and see if they are a match for your brand.

Here’s what happens when I type in the keywords “skin care,” “cosmetics,” “beauty products,” etc:

Once you’ve found real influencers who meet your criteria, the next step is to check their follower size, average engagement rate, and the type of content they post. With the information from these metrics, you can determine if the influencers are ideal for your brand. 

Note, though, that while influencers with a huge following on Instagram can increase your reach, high engagement rates are a better indicator of an influencer’s ability to drive conversions. Additionally, consider the influencer content quality. After all, they will be representing your brand if you choose to collaborate with them.

Search for Relevant Hashtags

Here’s another way to find influencers on Instagram for free: use hashtags. 

Search for popular hashtags in your niche. You can find accounts that create high-quality content and have followers that might be interested in your products or services. 

On Instagram, when you search for a hashtag, Instagram will generate a list of posts that include that hashtag. The key is to come up with hashtags that are relevant to what you’re looking for. So, if you are searching for a lifestyle influencer, you can type in #fashionblogger, #styleinfluencer, etc:

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You can also look at the related hashtag suggestions by Instagram if you run out of hashtags to type. 

You can also perform advanced searches on sites like All-hashtag.com that compile well-known hashtags. Here is an example: 

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As you scroll through the posts and accounts you generate, look out for accounts with high engagement rates and quality content. If you see any content with a lot of likes and comments, it means that the influencer creates content that resonates with its audience and drives meaningful interactions. So, if the same influencer publishes content about your brand, chances are, that content will generate good engagement as well.

To determine if an influencer is ideal for your brand, check, too, their number of followers. Do you prefer mega-influencers with more than a million followers or nano-influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers? Or maybe you want something in between?

Established brands typically go for mega-influencers. But if you’re just starting out as a brand, micro influencers or nano-influencers with 10,000 to 50,000 followers may be the ones for you. These types of influencers have less followers but they hold more sway over their audience. So, these influencers can help you, not just generate engagement or gain more followers on Instagram. They can help you with sales, too.

Besides, they can help you with brand localization.

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Once you find the perfect influencer, send them a private message and clearly state your proposal.

Check out Instagram’s Explore Page

You can also scroll through the Explore page on the mobile app to find Instagram influencers. This page shows content related to your interests and the accounts that are creating it. The Explore page helps you discover influencers or new brands you can collaborate with.

To access the Explore page, click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen. This will take you to a list of suggested posts and accounts.

You can then browse through this page. See if you can find relevant influencers for your brand. Pay attention to the accounts suggested, as they are likely to be popular and relevant to your niche.

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The images, videos, and stories displayed on the Explore page are selected automatically by Instagram. The Instagram algorithm uses information like your followers and favorite posts to decide what to show on the Explore page. 

Again, as you vet the influencers, look at the type of content they post to see if they align with your brand values. Also, follow the golden rule in content marketing. Whether it’s social media, eCommerce or SaaS content production we’re talking about, you want to go only for high-quality content. So, make sure the engaging posts your potential influencers are publishing are high-quality.

Look for Competitors’ Followers

If you are struggling and thinking of how to find influencers on Instagram in your niche, one effective way is to look at your competitors' followers. 

In SEO, you’ve probably scrutinized competitor sites to identify techniques you can use to improve your website authority. You can apply the same competitor research strategy on social channels.

Look at the accounts that follow your competitors and see if there are influencers in your niche or industry. This will provide you with a list of potential influencers for your brand.

To find your competitors' followers, go to their profiles and click on their followers' list. You can then scroll through their followers' profiles to see if any influencer who follows them would be a good fit for your brand. 

If you come across niche influencers that aren't interested in your brand, there are several ways to pique their interest. For instance, you can try collaborating with influencers by offering them free samples.

Most of the time, you can send them a direct message or pitch to them via email. 

Use Influencer Marketing Platforms

Influencer marketing platforms allow brands to connect with thousands of social media influencers. Although this method isn't free, it is efficient and less time-consuming. Many of the social platforms are user-friendly, too. With just a few clicks, you’ll know how to find influencers on Instagram.

These platforms allow you to search for top influencers in certain niches using parameters like:

• follower size
• work experience
• follower demographics 

They also provide relevant information like social media handles and contact details to help you get in touch with them. 

However, you'll need to be careful as some of the companies offering this service may give out-of-date information. So ensure you do proper research before you decide. 

Several influencer marketing tools are available to help you find influencers on Instagram. Some popular influencer platforms include Upfluence, Tribe, Grin, and HypeAuditor. With the aid of these platforms, you can get data on the influencer's engagement rates, follower count, and other metrics to help you make informed decisions. 

Here is an example:

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The image shows Upfluence providing detailed analytics of an influencer's engagement rate, audience demographics, and percentage of real followers. With this information you can select authentic influencers to help you reach your target audience and increase brand awareness. 

With the aid of influencer marketing platforms, you can avoid the hassle of manually searching for influencers to work with. 

Once you have your chosen influencer, use Iconosquare's collaboration tools to monitor your influencer marketing campaigns. 

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The tool gives you insights into your engagement and community growth. If you’re running multiple campaigns, you can check all your data in one single dashboard. You can even choose the types of metrics you want to display. 

Ask For Recommendations

Another way to find relevant influencers on Instagram is to ask for recommendations. 

Sure, you could seek recommendations from people who aren’t necessarily in your niche. However, their recommendations aren’t likely to fit your influencer criteria. After all, the influencers they know or worked with are probably in their niche, too.

So, the best people to ask for recommendations are your colleagues, industry peers, or your customers. But when you ask for recommendations, make sure you give as much information as possible about what you’re looking for. 

It helps to provide details about your brand, goals, and target audience. This information ensures you get more relevant influencer recommendations. 

In Closing

Instagram influencers can help you grow your brand. They hold sway over their followers, and can, therefore, help you with engagement and conversions.

In this article, you learned tips on how to find influencers on Instagram. You can use Instagram’s built-in search feature, search for relevant hashtags, check out Instagram’s Explore page, or look for competitors’ followers. You can also use influencer marketing platforms or ask for recommendations.  

Follow these tips, and you’ll find Instagram influencers who will help your brand in many ways.