How To Find Influencers For Your Campaigns (The Hard Way)
If this is the first time you’ve stopped by our blog – welcome, we’re glad you’re finally here! You might not know much about scrunch, so let me quickly fill you in - scrunch is an influencer marketing platform based on data that bridges the gap between brands and agencies and their influencer marketing campaigns. Marketers use scrunch to discover influencers, track brand mentions, measure results and report on ROI.
Essentially, Scrunch makes it really easy for marketers to ‘do’ influencer marketing. However, for those who don't use Scrunch (you really should consider it!), the process can be quite tedious and time-consuming to say the
very least because discovering influencers involves countless hours scrolling aimlessly through Instagram hashtags, Googling obscure things like ‘fashion bloggers in Brisbane with cats,” manually sifting through spreadsheets and databases and quite often, crying in despair as you bang your head on the desk (okay maybe not that last one, yet).
We get it, finding influencers who are the right fit for your influencer marketing campaigns is a tough chore, but it has to be done and it has to be done well. Here are our top insider tips to help you find the right influencers for your influencer marketing campaigns if you’re doing it all manually...
Use Instagram Hashtags
Instagram hashtags can be both a blessing and a curse. They’re great because when the right people use them, they can direct you to influencers who are talking about a particular topic, industry or niche, allowing you to find the right people quickly and easily. However, when they’re used incorrectly, irrelevant profiles can flood an Instagram hashtag. Take a look at #fashionblogger for example. You’d assume that genuine fashion bloggers and influencers would be the only people using the hashtag on their Instagram posts, but that isn't the case. If you click onto #fashionbloggers, you’ll find that anyone and everyone (17,072,862 in fact) can, and will, use the hashtag even if they aren’t an influencer or blogger (so annoying, right?!). Use popular Instagram hashtags as part of your prospecting and discovery, but you can’t rely on them alone.
Who Are Influential People Following
Once you’ve found an influencer who is ‘the perfect fit' for your campaign, go through the people they follow on social media platforms because no doubt, they’re inspired by other influencers who post a similar type of content. It’s also a good idea to look at the profiles of your competitors and other influential people or groups in your niche to see who they follow on social media. For example, if you’re a streetwear brand for men, look at your direct competitors in addition to profiles about skateboarding, street art and energy drinks, for example.
Check Out Your Competitors
While we’re on the topic of your competitors, strategic competitor research is one of the best ways to find influencers in your niche that are keen to collaborate with fantastic brands. That doesn’t mean you have to work with all of the same people that your competitors are (in fact, you shouldn't), but it certainly will give you some inspiration when it comes to discovering influencers. You can check your competitors out on social media to see who they have worked with in the past (if they are doing influencer marketing), look through their tagged photos to see who generally likes the brand and niche, and perform a backlink profile analysis to uncover (and then replicate) where their traffic is coming from.
Blog Comments Are A Goldmine
One of the number one tips for new bloggers and influencers when growing their profile is to comment on and engage with other bloggers and their content. So, marketers can tap into that by finding a great blogger (someone you’ve worked with previously, or would love to in the future) and checking out who has commented on their most recent blog posts. Many commenters will include a link to their own blog or Instagram page in their comment if they are an influencer, so all you have to do is scroll through the comments and start clicking around the web. To successfully use this tactic, it is best to look at low and middle tier influencers because quite often, they get a lot of genuine engagement from like-minded bloggers who value their work and opinion. Before using scrunch, I used to do this all of the time to find influencers, so I know it works!
Google Search
The humble Google Search is like finding a needle in a haystack, but it must not be dismissed completely. Google, or the your search engine of choice, is great for finding “top ten” lists of influencers in a particular city, state, country or region who are talking about the same topic, whether that be fashion, sport, travel or food. A simple Google search of the influencers you are looking for (e.g. Californian fashion blogger) can also bring up a bunch of results if you’re prepared to dig a little bit deeper and look through the first 10 pages of results, not just the first one.
Blog Directories
They don’t always exist for the influencers you are looking for, however when they do, they can be super helpful. Blog chicks is an Australian bloggers directory full of female bloggers and influencers across a wide range of industries including health, beauty, fashion, business, travel, parenting and more. Bloglovin is also a good place to start. There a bunch of blogger directories on the web, so find one that caters for your needs and get started.
Influencers Hang Out Together
Influencers are like a flock of birds - they all hang out together and frequent the same places and events, especially if they are based in the same city or talk about the same topic. You’ll be surprised that influencers are quite a supportive bunch, and rather than being competitive with each other, many of them are friends online and in real life (hard to believe they have a life outside Instagram I know!). If you’ve found a couple of influencers who are the right fit, do some Insta-stalking and see who they hang out with, who they collaborate with and who they engage with.
It’s Not Impossible To Get Location Specific
Tap into the influencer marketing activities of other brands and businesses in your city or industry and follow their PR events and campaigns with a keen eye. For example, if you’re looking for fashion influencers in Sydney to promote an upcoming warehouse sale, find out who attended a recent media event in the city, or shared a photo of themselves on Bondi Beach in the last 6 months. Use location tags to your advantage and do your research off the back of a big event or campaign to tap into someone else’s research. We're not encouraging you copy their every move, just be inspired by their campaigns and who they are collaborating with to kick-start your own thinking and research.
Talk To Influencers
The most effective way to find influencers and collaborate with them is to meet them in person, talk to them and build a relationship with them. As I mentioned, influencers often hang out together and they seem to know each other (it comes with the territory), so don’t be afraid to ask your contacts for a recommendation if you’re looking for someone very specific. You'll never know what leads they can give you if you don't ask.
Go Local
It's never a bad idea to start small and local to get some quick wins under your belt with local influencers before you tackle the middle and top tier influencers. Local influencers may not have a large following, however keep in mind that a small and engaged local audience is just as valuable as a big international one.
Of course, if you’re one of our awesome customers, you won’t have to do any of this, because we have done it for you! The scrunch directory is made up of over 20 million influencers and you can filter your results by keyword, hashtag, location, language, platform, social reach and many other metrics so it only returns the people and profiles that are important to you. If you want more info on how we can make your influencer marketing easier, Get in Touch
If you have a secret to finding influencers that you’re willing to share, leave a comment below or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
