How to Find Micro Influencers

Micro influencers are a more budget-friendly category of influencers who should definitely be on your radar. Find out why you should work with them and learn how you can find micro influencers to work with.

Social Media Influencers are in high demand and are replacing traditional forms of advertising such as organic search or television advertisements. In fact it’s been predicted that brands will spend up to $15 billion on it by 2022.

Influencer marketing is one of the easiest ways to gain brand recognition and promote customer acquisition. However, using famous influencers for this type of marketing is not always realistic to a company’s budget. This is why a micro influencer is so valuable.

What is a Micro Influencer?

At Sway, we define a micro influencer as a person who has anywhere between 10,000-100,000 followers on any given social media platform. They usually have a specific niche, such as lifestyle, food, DIY, etc.

Micro influencers tend to have higher engagement rates than a macro influencer. While they may not have a giant following, their audiences tend to be more active and loyal to the micro influencer. Generally, as an influencer’s follower count rises, their rate of engagement decreases.

Besides the difference in engagement rate, micro influencers are also less expensive than larger influencers due to their lower rate of followers. This is an excellent path for companies to incorporate influencer marketing campaigns into their strategy.

How do you find micro influencers?

There are many ways to find micro influencers, and much of it depends on the social platform you want to use and your specific niche.

Here are some general ways to find micro influencers for your brand.

1. Check Your Own Following – Start by looking at people who already follow your brand. Is there anyone who would fit the type of personality you’re looking for to promote your products? Usually, someone who follows your brand is already a fan of your products, so this is a great place to start.
2. Hashtag Search – Identify a few hashtags that fit within the vertical you want to reach. Search through those popular hashtags to find a variety of influencers who already have a voice in your specific industry. This gives you a chance to look through their current content and assess how it will fit with your brand.
3. Ask Previous Influencers – If you’ve already worked with a great influencer in the past, reach out to them again. You can ask them for recommendations of others who may fit with your brand. Influencers network with each other, so it’s likely they have other influencers in mind.
4. Check Recent Shares – If you have followers that consistently share your content or comment frequently, they could be a potential match for your brand. Check to see if they have a large audience or if they’re already promoting your content for free. These are great partnerships to try to create because they already love your products.
5. Influencer databases or platforms – Check through databases to find influencers in your niche if you want to execute an in-house campaign. There may be some free databases available online. However, most databases are going to require you to pay a fee to access any information.

Work with a micro influencer agency

Finding the perfect micro influencer isn’t always as easy as you might think.There are various reasons you might consider using a micro influencer agency, like Sway Group. A few of these reasons might include:

• Limited Knowledge: Depending on your business size, you might not have the full knowledge or staff to execute an in-house campaign. If trying to launch one is going to take away from your primary business priorities, it’s time to find an agency to help you with your influencer campaign.
• Specific Target Audience: Whether you’re looking for a geographically targeted niche or simply a hard to find topic, it can be hard to find potential micro influencers to work with you. Using an agency will match you with the perfect micro influencers for your brand.
• Looking for influencers at scale: If you want or need to work with 1-5 micro influencers at a time, you can likely handle that on your own. However, if you want or need 20, 60, or 100 micro influencers at one time or over the course of a year, an agency is your best bet to ensure your campaign will go as expected.
• Alleviate Your Workload: Not only is finding a micro-influencer challenging, knowing the legal jargon and paid media rules before posting is a learning curve of its own. Using a professional influencer marketing agency will save you the time and headaches of making mistakes.

What to look for in a micro influencer

One benefit of working with a micro influencer agency is that they work around the clock to ensure your list of micro influencers is the best for your brand and your money.

Here are a few things that agencies will keep in mind when choosing the best influencers for your company.

• Content: We’ll match the style of content you’re looking for to your potential micro influencers. For example, if you’re a light and bright brand that loves to share personal stories and tidbits, you want to have micro influencers that mimic that same type of personality and content. Using someone who uses very few words and darker images would not be a great match for your company. Agencies will work to find the best matches depending on your specific brand goals.
• Ratio of sponsored content to non-sponsored: We’ll check how many companies your micro influencers are already promoting. Sometimes influencers are continually promoting new brands or products, which means that yours will get lost with the rest of their content. We’ll ensure you are paired with an influencer who can make your products shine. We can also make sure that they aren’t planning to work with your competitor the week after you launch your campaign.
• Audience Overview: Before working with a micro-influencer, we check to ensure that their stats and audience analytics match your brand’s target audience. These analytics are also checked for engagement rate and comment quality. We also have the ability to flag influencers who may have large followers that have been purchased.

Wrap Up

Influencer marketing is something every brand should be using to grow their audience. It’s the most effective way to convert customers. However, not every influencer will be within your budget.

Micro Influencers are an underutilized influencer market that companies should consider when they look to expand their marketing reach. Using an influencer agency, like Sway Group, will help you find the best creators for your micro-influencer marketing campaign.