How To Work With Influencers on Social Media
If you’re reading this post you’re likely aware that the creator economy is currently valued at $21.1 billion dollars (as of the end of 2023) and is only expected to grow from there.
Influencer marketing is extremely powerful— the right post can launch a career, sell out a product or even change a life.
Usually when I create blog posts about the influencer industry, I’m sharing tips and strategies for the creators themselves.
However, I’ve also received questions from my friends on the brand side about how to find influencers to work with their brands—whether that means putting together a guest list for an upcoming event, building their PR list or actually paying to create content.
If you’re looking to work with content creators to promote your brand, this post is for you.
1. Define your goals (and fill us in)
Before you start searching for influencers, it's important to understand what you want out of working with a creator. Ask yourself some of the following questions to get started:
Do you want content to share on your brand's social media?
Are you aiming to share your story and create brand awareness?
Are you looking to generate sales?
Do you want long-term brand ambassadors or multiple influencers for a broader reach?
The reason this is an important step for brands to take is that clear goals will help you outline expectations.
This will later make decisions about how much budget you want to spend and what kind of creators you want to work with much easier.
Once you establish a KPI (key performance indicator) for a campaign or event, write it down and include it in your initial outreach to us!
Communication with brands is important for us to evaluate if a project is the right fit quickly so there are no surprises later down the road and no time wasted in back and forth exchanges.
2. Understand influencer categories
Influencers come in all shapes and (audience) sizes. Here's a quick breakdown of influencer tiers based on follower count:
Nano influencers: 10,000 or fewer followers
Micro influencers: 10,000 to 50,000 followers
Mid-tier influencers: 50,000 to 150,000 followers
Macro influencers: 150,000 to 500,000 followers
Mega influencers: 500,000 or more followers
In general, nano and micro influencers will likely have the highest engagement out of all of these groups and a deep trust with their followers.
Macro and mega influencers will have a much more broad reach but could have lower engagement as a result of having a larger audience.
As a very general rule, you’ll also be spending more as you go up the tier ladders if you’re looking at running paid influencer campaigns.
Nano influencers will cost the least amount of money and mega influencers will be paid the most.
These ranges can vary depending on a creator’s skill level and years of experience, but they provide a good framework for planning your campaigns.
3. Start with your own loyal fans
Once you have identified your main goal and what type of influencers you’re hoping to target, it’s time to begin the search for potential partners.
Before you start searching far and wide, you might want to take a peek in your own backyard.
Begin by checking who is already following your brand on Instagram and engaging with your content.
Your current customers and brand fans will likely be some of your best advocates. Here's what I’d recommend to get started:
Searching through followers
Scroll through your Instagram followers
Look for influencers among your followers
Engage with their two most recent posts
Record usernames of influencers in a spreadsheet for potential outreach
Searching through feed
Scroll through your own Instagram feed
Look for creators who have left comments
Reply to those comments or reach out with a DM
Record usernames of influencers in a spreadsheet for potential outreach
DM’s are a great place to connect with creators. However, if you’re planning to work with that creator in an official capacity, getting their email is best.
You can either visit a creator’s Instagram page to see if they list an email in their bio or have a contact button featured on their profile.
Pro tip: If you don’t see a contact email listed, you can ask for one via direct message.
Before searching far and wide for creators, take a peek in your own backyard.
4. Check tagged photos
Next, explore the tagged photos section on your brand’s Instagram profile to see if any creators have shared your brand in their feed posts or reels.
See what creators are posting about your brand
Engage with these posts
Save the posts and re-share them to your stories as a thank you
Record usernames of potential influencers in a spreadsheet
Content that users have organically created could also potentially be licensed or used in paid ads later on.
If there aren’t content creators posting about your brand or products, think about what you might be able to do to encourage that.
Can you start adding a thank you card in any orders you ship out encouraging people to share their new product on Instagram and tag the brand?
Do you have a branded hashtag in your bio that creators would know to tag in a post?
Make it as easy as possible for people to share to start building that momentum.
5. Get into the hashtags
Now that you’ve thoroughly vetted your own community and found creators who are most likely to agree to promote your brand or product, it’s time to expand the search.
Search Instagram using relevant hashtags. Here are three types to consider:
Location-based hashtags like #nycblogger
Influencer size hashtags like #microinfluencer
Category hashtags like #beautycreator
Brainstorm 15-20 hashtags that are related to your niche and products and explore the content tagged with them to find influencers who could be a good fit and add them to your spreadsheet.
While browsing influencers profiles keep an eye out for a creative style and aesthetic that you think pairs well with your own brand style.
You can also tap into some of the creator’s content to see if they’re tagging brands, sharing PR or doing paid partnerships to get a sense of how often they work with brand partners.
6. Utilize the Instagram search bar
You can also take some of the keywords or phrases you came up with in the hashtag portion above and type them into the Instagram search bar.
If influencers have these keywords in their profile name, they’ll show up in the results.
For example, I have "NYC creator" in my bio so that brands can quickly see that I am a creator and that I’m based in the New York area.
You’ll be able to easily identify influencers and creators who list that information in their Instagram bios and make it accessible.
7. Consider influencer platforms
If you have the budget, influencer platforms like LTK, Fohr, ShopMy, Aspire, Shopify Collabs, or the InfluenceHer Collective can streamline your search.
These platforms help you do a few things:
Host large databases of influencers
Allow you to set specific criteria like location or follower size
Enable direct invitations or campaign applications
Most of these platforms will charge brands to join but it could certainly speed up the process of finding the best creators.
Tips for a great partnership
Once you’ve found your list of influencers to reach out to, you’re in great shape.
As you connect with your creators, I thought it would be helpful to share a few tips about what makes a successful partnership from my experience as a creator.
Set realistic expectations
Understand that each individual influencer is different and may work with brands differently as such.
Mutual benefit and respect is key: don’t ask a content creator for extensive work and only offer minimal compensation.
The time and effort that goes into creating content is labor that deserves compensation.
If you can’t afford to pay creators yet, be willing to share products with no expectations and let us create content organically in a way we think our audience would love.
Email etiquette is key
I’ve heard lots of brands complain about influencers not being on top of their emails, but I’ve also run into brands who are slow to reply.
This is something to avoid, especially if we’re working together on a paid project. As an influencer, I typically try to reply within 24 hours whenever possible.
Even if you’re waiting for approval on something, sending an email that says, “I’m looking into this for you and will report back soon,” is much better than leaving us on read.
If something has changed with the campaign whether it’s good or bad, let me know as soon as possible so we can work something out.
Sustainability matters
If you’re sending out PR mailers to creators, keep in mind that influencers are getting products sent to them by many companies, not just yours.
Ask them which product they’re most interested in receiving and if you’re a beauty brand ask them which shade of a foundation would be best or what their hair type is so you can send the appropriate products.
There’s no need to send an entire shade range or put together overly fancy PR boxes—sustainability matters both in terms of packaging and being selective about which products you send.
Finding the right influencers can significantly enhance your marketing campaigns and your brand’s online presence.
Start with these steps and build connections with influencers who genuinely love and “get” your products.
I really hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions about the process of finding influencers that I didn’t answer here, please leave me a comment.
yours,
Austen