How To Find Influencers for Creative Collaborations

Are you wondering how to find influencers? Is it still a good idea to collaborate with influencers as part of your marketing strategy? 

For those with a limited marketing budget, influencer marketing offers many options, depending on your needs and financial capabilities. These days, brands must explore all available marketing channels if it’s within their means. 

Read on to learn everything you need to know about running an influencer marketing campaign!

Top 3 Influencer Search Tips

Embarking on an influencer search for a potential collaboration can be time-consuming. Influencers are on every social platform. You’ll find a social media influencer for every micro-niche, niche, industry, and whatever category you can think of. 

There are different types of influencers for every budget and for all types of audiences. 

Finding the most suitable influencer for your brand is another story. These should be your top three considerations when shortlisting influencers and choosing the best match for your brand:

1. Know your target audience. You need to prioritize your target audience’s interests and content preferences when searching for an influencer. It’s critical that you and the influencer you choose to work with share the same audience. What your audience values and enjoys should guide your influencer selection. They must be able to relate to your brand/product ambassador instantly to ensure the success of your influencer marketing campaigns. 
2. Pick an influencer based on the quality of their followers. A mega- or macro-influencer may offer the potential for the broadest possible reach. However, choosing highly engaged followers over follower count delivers more rewarding results. You want to reach fans who will not only tap your follow button but also interact with your brand. The quality of an influencer’s followers also helps substantiate their credibility, authenticity, and relatability. Make sure to conduct an influencer profile audit to check for fake influencers. 
3. Choose an influencer who shares your values and complements your style/aesthetic. The person who represents you must genuinely mirror your identity and mission. Don’t select somebody just for window-dressing, i.e., because they’re popular or trending. Get to know an influencer beyond their posts and numbers. Find out if they’ve done similar collaborations successfully. Ask questions that will give you deeper insights into their character, work ethics, and relationship with their fans.  

Where To Find Influencers Online

Once you know exactly who you’re looking for, the next step is knowing where to find influencers with the best potential. Later, we’ll also dig deeper into how to make influencer connections on leading social channels. 

Here are the top three online channels for discovering and connecting with influencers:

1. Social media platforms. Want to know how to find social media influencers? Look no further than social media platforms, particularly on the exact platform you’re using. Each platform offers specific avenues to connect with potential influencers for brand collaborations. The fastest way to discover influencers for a specific category is to use the platform’s search tool. Conduct a search using a hashtag or keyword relevant to the category. Look at the top-performing posts in the search results.
2. Influencer marketing platforms. Check out dedicated sites for influencer marketing. These sites can instantly match your brand with the most suitable influencers based on your specified filters/requirements. Use your preferred search engine tool to search for “influencer marketing platforms.” These sites are fairly straightforward to use and can be a good starting point for your initial search and discovery. Create a short list of influencers and check out their social media pages to do more in-depth profile evaluations.
3. Search engines. For a broader search, use your preferred search engine. Conduct a search using the name of the platform + niche/industry/category + “influencer,” such as “TikTok beauty influencers.” You can also do a local search based on a location and your niche or industry, such as “San Francisco lifestyle influencers.”

How To Find Influencer for Your Brand on TikTok

Are you ready to tap into the incredible potential of influencer marketing on TikTok? Wondering how to find influencers for your brand on the video-sharing platform? Are influencers and creators one and the same? 

There are a lot of overlaps between influencers and creators. Influencers typically create content for brands. Creators create content around their interests and for their niche community. 

If you’re on TikTok, collaborating with creators is more advantageous. On TikTok, creators rule. So, if you want to know how to find TikTok influencers or creators, check out these dedicated discovery platforms:

• TikTok Creative Center. Discover the hottest TikTok creators in your region based on follower count. Get a preview of their most popular content for a quick evaluation. You can also browse through trending hashtags in your industry to see related creators. 
• TikTok Creator Marketplace (TCM). TCM is the platform’s primary channel for creator and brand collaborations. If you’re using TCM as a brand/business, you’ll get access to the largest database of TikTok creator profiles. You can search for creators based on your brand’s unique criteria, including demographics, performance, and video topics. 
• TikTok Explore Page. The Explore page is one of TikTok’s main feeds if you’re browsing via a desktop computer. It features the most popular videos based on your location. You can browse the feed according to the available categories or conduct a keyword search. 
• TikTok’s search tool. Use a hashtag or keyword relevant to your purpose, and then check out our top videos or accounts using the hashtag/keyword. If you’re looking for a creator to promote a product or service, conduct a search using the product/service’s general category. 

Finding Influencers on Instagram

Are you eager to know how to find an influencer on Instagram? The good news is the best influencers are on Instagram. The bad news is Instagram influencers who have an impressive pull don’t come cheap. 

Instagram has recently intensified its efforts to help its creators get more exposure and opportunities to collaborate with brands. Early this year, Instagram’s Creator Marketplace began expanding to new markets and testing smarter recommendations. 

Like TikTok’s similar feature, Creator Marketplace on Instagram connects brands with top-performing creators and vice versa. These collaborations can take any form, and brands can work with one or multiple creators simultaneously. But Instagram’s Partnership Ads (formerly known as branded content) offer the best opportunities for scaled collaborations. 

If you’re a brand on Instagram, you need access to the Meta Business Suite to join Creator Marketplace. The platform is currently testing “new custom, machine learning-powered creator recommendations for each brand.” Brands can conduct their own filtered creator search or check out the portfolios of creators who have shown interest in a collaboration. 

How To Find Influencers on Facebook

Influencers are not as big on Facebook as they are on Instagram or TikTok. If you’re already running ads on Facebook, reinforcing your marketing strategy with an influencer collaboration won’t hurt. 

You can try accessing the Meta Brand Collabs Manager if you have a Facebook business page. Like TikTok Creator Marketplace, Meta Brand Collabs Manager is a free marketplace that connects brands and creators. 

Once you can access the creator marketplace, you can search for and discover creators via the Home page or Search. You can search for creators using hashtags, keywords, or the creator’s name. You can specify your preferred creator’s minimum and maximum follower numbers. You can sort search results based on your target audience’s country, age, gender, or interests. 
If you’re a brand, marketer, advertiser, or sponsor interested in gaining access to Meta Brand Collabs Manager, you’ll first need to submit an application.

How To Find Micro Influencers

Why should you consider working with a micro influencer? Reaching a new and bigger audience is the main purpose of working with influencers. But micro-influencers offer unique advantages:

• They’re more affordable and an ideal option for small- to medium-sized brands with a limited budget.
• They often have a dedicated and enthusiastic following so that you can expect consistently high engagement. 
• Their content gets higher visibility within their niche community. Unlike macro or mega influencers with a scattered, albeit higher, viewership, micro-influencers enjoy a more targeted exposure. 

Micro-influencers have a following that ranges from 10,000 to 100,000. If these numbers suit your needs, here are tips on how to find micro influencers to shortlist for a collaboration:

1. Take advantage of the dedicated influencer channels on social media platforms. Or conduct a hashtag search on your preferred platform to identify top creators using the hashtag. Alternatively, you can perform a keyword search using your preferred search engine. Specify your niche, industry, category, or location and add the word “micro-influencer.” 
2. When shortlisting candidates, note their audience size and engagement rates. To understand their performance, you can use an online profile analyzer or engagement calculator. 
3. Take a deep dive into their follower base. Make sure the influencer is not using fake followers. You should also check if you share the same target audience. 
4. Review their most popular posts. Is their content style consistent with what you’re looking for? Are they relatable and authentic? Pay close attention to the comments sections and evaluate the quality of their audience’s comments. Additionally, check if certain followers consistently engage with their posts.
5. Find out if they have collaborated with other brands before and if it was successful. 

Should You Team up With an Influencer or a Creator on TikTok?

If you’re on TikTok, should you work with an influencer or a creator? The right answer depends on your brand’s needs and marketing goals. However, creators offer a unique advantage you’ll rarely get from influencers — authenticity. 

Creators rule on TikTok because they echo the platform’s commitment to promoting positivity and authenticity. The video-sharing platform delivers a satisfying user experience in many ways; its authentic and relatable content tops this list. 

If you want to build a solid online presence for your brand, you can’t do better than TikTok and its creators. 

Brands with a presence on social media must know how to find influencers on any platform. But keep in mind that your target audience and their interests may vary depending on the platform they’re using. You need to consider this when choosing an influencer or creator to work with.

Influencers offer the most direct path to new audiences who will likely become your new followers. Why not sign up for a High Social plan to tap into the service’s roster of more than 13,000 influencers? 

High Social’s advanced, proprietary AI technology also doubles your audience-targeting power, while influencer shout-outs boost organic content promotion. Start growing your TikTok today!

TikTok Tips