Small influencers: the new secret weapon of small and large businesses alike that want to succeed on Instagram. Despite their modest following they have the most engaged audiences. What makes them brands’ favorite partners is the authentic relationship they forge with their followers, their relatable nature, and their expertise in their niche.
Lower-tier influencers can be nano-influencers with a follower size of 1,000 to 10,000 and micro-creators with audiences ranging from 10,000 to 50,000. Due to their small size, they charge less than mega-stars, making them a preferred choice for small businesses and companies with limited budgets.
However, their smaller audience size prompts many companies to search for numerous small influencers on Instagram so that their campaign is effective. So what ways can you identify these marketing powerhouses? How do you find Instagram influencers with a few thousand followers?
This article will introduce you to 18 methods that enable you to discover mini-influencers. From leveraging influencer marketing tools, diverse Instagram search options, and other techniques you’ll gain practical tips and tactics to identify Instagram influencers that help you amplify your brand’s impact.
How to Find Small Influencers on Instagram?
Do a keyword search on Instagram
Instagram’s Search bar is a powerful tool for finding small influencers. It allows you to search by keywords, hashtags, and mentions. If you start your search by keywords, for example, you enter "trx trainer" in the search bar, you’ll be presented with a list of hashtags and accounts that use this term in their bios, and usernames.
Search through the list focusing on accounts that seem personal. The sad thing is that you have to review each account manually to ensure they match your criteria including the influencer's size, location, posting frequency, etc. You may refine your results by experimenting with more keyword variations, like "trx instructor" or "trx coach".
Find small influencers on Instagram through hashtags
If you have the right hashtags in mind, which could be industry-, product- or location-relevant hashtags, a hashtag search can also provide potential low-tier influencer partners. During a hashtag search, the social media platform will display a collection of posts, and reels that use the searched hashtag in their captions. You can follow hashtags so that you don’t miss out on the latest content that uses them.
The good thing about keyword and hashtag searches is that Instagram’s search feature suggests multiple phrase and hashtag variations that include yours. So if you type in #naturalskincare, Instagram lists other popular hashtags, like #naturalskincareproducts, #naturalskincareroutine, etc. Going through the posts with these additional tags can unearth even more creator candidates.
Search your brand’s mentions
As a third option, a search for your brand’s handle in the search bar can uncover users who mention your brand’s name. Identify those who regularly feature you in their posts or leave positive reviews. If you see that they have a genuine interest in your brand you should evaluate their engagement and their followers’ size and quality.
Working with individuals who are already a fan of your brands is a win-win scenario for both of you. These small influencers will be ecstatic that one of their favorite brands reaches out to them for collaboration. And your promotions will be credible and you’ll ensure that they reach the right audiences.
BirchBabe was mentioned by @litefootcompany. The nano-influencer made a ‘pretend’ unboxing reel featuring BirchBabe’s products.
Review the Explore page on Instagram
Instagram’s Explore page features content that the platform’s algorithms determine you’d be interested in. It curates content based on the posts and accounts you interact with and it updates as the user’s activity and interests shift.
The Explore page is like a collection of recent posts and reels and many of these were posted by small influencers. Make it a habit to regularly check this grid of content, since it showcases accounts that are in an upward trajectory or feature trending themes.
Check the Suggested for You page
The Suggested for You page works similarly to the Explore page, except it recommends accounts the algorithm considers you may want to follow. The suggestions are based on your interactions and the accounts you already follow. Reviewing this list of profiles can also reveal influential users.
Click on the ‘Tagged’ tab to see who tagged you
The Tagged tab is a section in Instagram, where you can see all the posts and reels in which your brand was tagged. The content that is displayed here was created by people who know and like your brand and its products. In other words, the Tagged tab is a pool of possible brand advocates and fans, so it’s worth taking the time and checking it every now and then.
Use Instagram Insights
Creator and Business accounts can access, Instagram’s native analytics feature, Instagram Insights. Among others, you can check your content’s reach, how engaging it is, and how many times your reels’ were played. Identify posts that generated a lot of interaction, and reels that were viewed by many users.
It’s worth scanning the comments under these posts and reels and pinpointing users who talk about your brand or products passionately and earnestly. If, by any chance, they have over 1K followers, then bingo, you found a possible mini influencer on Instagram.
Have a look at your followers
Instagram’s algorithm lists your followers alphabetically if you have less than 200 followers. If your account is bigger than that, then it sorts them based on how they interact with your content. So, users on the top are those who regularly like and leave comments under your post. This is another way to identify Instagram influencers who can be your next advocates.
How to Find Influencers on Instagram with Tools?
Sure enough, there are plenty of different means to identify Instagram influencers for your next campaign, like social listening tools, influencer marketplaces, discovery tools, and the list goes on. These tools can help marketing teams save tremendous time and take off the tedious workload of constant manual searches. But what if there is a platform that provides you with all of the before-mentioned solutions and more? Introducing the HypeAuditor influencer marketing platform.
HypeAuditor is an end-to-end platform that provides a best-in-class influencer search engine and analytics tool. Numerous options are available for brands to locate small Instagram influencers and they can continue their campaign execution without leaving the platform. Here's a brief overview of HypeAuditor's diverse toolbox for identifying small creators.
Use the Influencer Discovery tool
Brands that work with small influencers on Instagram want to reach distinct users, therefore their goal is to find content creators whose audiences will very likely engage with their content. To increase their chances of finding the right match in very specific niches or locations, businesses need to search a large influencer database and apply numerous filters. HypeAuditor fulfills all these requirements.
HypeAuditor’s creator database boasts over 137 million influencers, including over 47 million on Instagram from all over the world. Businesses can filter their search by the influencer’s category, location, gender, language, ER, audience quality score, and audience demographics among others. Since small influencers usually create content around exact topics, brands can search creators by niche as well.
For example, you can find more than enough Argentinian fashion influencers with less than 50,000 followers with an ER higher than 1%. You can specify the audience’s gender, location, and age as well.
A demonstration of how the Discovery tool works
Find similar Instagram influencers with the Lookalike tool
Many brands want to work with creators similar to those with whom they already closed a successful campaign. Other brands have a few big influencers in their minds who would be suitable for their coming campaigns but they are too expensive. With an influencer lookalike tool, both cases are solved.
HypeAuditor’s Lookalike tool helps businesses identify similar influencers to the one they type in for the tool. Companies can filter the results by location and influencer size. So brands who want to update their creator roster with new faces can benefit from it, as well as those who can’t afford a mega-influencer but want to work with identical smaller creators who share the same values.
Browse top trending and most mentioned accounts
Every month HypeAuditor accumulates the top trending accounts on three social media platforms, including Instagram. These accounts are on an upward trajectory and managed to grow their popularity and followers outstandingly. Check out this list if you want to profit from the momentum of these emerging creators.
You may refine the list by location, influencer size, category, and account type.
Top trending mini influencers on Instagram from Germany in the Fashion category
HypeAuditor amasses monthly the most mentioned accounts as well. This allows you to monitor the most mentioned brand and personal accounts. You may use this list as part of your competitor research or as a social monitoring tool if you want to see how many brand mentions your competitors generated. Or you can analyze the most mentioned personal accounts of an industry and investigate whether they were acknowledged by a brand on social media.
Check your competitors’ influencer campaigns
You may manually vet your competitors’ Instagram feed post by post and try to identify small influencers they worked with. You can also check who tagged them in the Tagged tab. However, the easiest and most time-saving alternative is to use tools for researching their marketing activities.
Here you have two options: either use HypeAuditor’s social listening tool and track their brand and campaign hashtags or their mentions, or use the Competitor Analysis tool. The tool creates a comprehensive report based on a hashtag or a social media username. It includes multiple performance, revenue, audience, and content data along with influencer top lists, such as creators who achieved the highest reach, and who are the most popular and most active partners.
It also provides a graph showcasing influencers by their size who mentioned the hashtag or brand name. By clicking on the nano- or micro-influencer category you’ll see a list of all influencers engaging with the brand with their key metrics, such as followers, top audience gender and age, AQS, ER, percentage of quality audience, and reach.
After narrowing your list by influencer size, AQS, and performance, you’ll be able to spot quality small Instagram creators who may be interested in working with you as well. Or you can search for similar matches with the Lookalike tool.
Create ambassador programs for small influencers
Brands that collaborate with small influencers on Instagram usually look for partners who understand their industry, even better use and like their products, and share their liking with other users on social media. How awesome would it be if businesses could turn them into brand ambassadors? Well then turn them!
You need to work out the details of your program and publish it on a website. Many businesses create separate landing pages for their brand ambassador programs, where they provide more information about the requirements expectations, and perks. This is where HypeAuditor’s customizable Landing Page creator can help you. Instead of you searching for small influencers, let them apply through your webpage.
Monitor conversations on social media
Last but not least, HypeAuditor provides a social listening tool, where companies can set up hashtags, keywords, and brand mentions they want to track. It creates a list of accounts that used the provided keyword, hashtag, or mention in their content in the past 90 days.
Social media listening uncovers users who mention hashtags and ideas associated with your industry or your competitors. Check out these individuals’s profiles. If you see they fit your requirements, such as having more than 1K but less than 50K followers, mentioning regularly industry-specific keywords and tags, and sharing valuable and engaging content then you may approach them or continue analyzing them with our analytics tool.
Other Approaches to Discover Small Instagram Influencers
Search for creators on Google
It takes some time and persistence but you can uncover numerous influencer lists on Google. However, the longer keywords you use the fewer results you get. For example, if you’re looking for lower-tier Instagram pet influencers in Canada, you may enter this particular key phrase and look through the accounts.
Still, you should try something shorter, like ‘Instagram pet influencers’ as well. The names that will pop up on Google will probably be celebrities and creators with several hundred thousand or millions of followers. Nonetheless, review those lists and analyze the accounts you like. After that yu can look for similar but smaller influencers in your location with our Lookalike tool.
Check other social media platforms
A lot of content creators are present on several social media channels so that they can reach more diverse audiences and enrich their content with posts, and videos of varying lengths. For this reason, you should expand your influencer search to other platforms as well. Study YouTube creators in your niche who share your values and post interesting content. Look for those who have a modest subscriber base and have added their Instagram account in their bios.
TikTok is the number one platform for teenagers and people in their early twenties. Search for influential users by hashtags and brand mentions. Who knows, there might be some creators who praise your products or services on TikTok but not on Instagram.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can also unearth valuable candidates. Although they are often overshadowed by TikTok and Instagram, you can still explore relevant groups and communities because these can be hotspots of lower-tier creators.
Hire a marketing agency
Not just any agency, but an influencer marketing agency. Many of them have an extensive network of influencers and the experience and expertise to find the right partners for you. Research agencies before you contact them. Read the case studies and reviews written about them and check their portfolio. Make sure they have worked with other businesses in your industry and understand your needs.
Create a UGC campaign and identify small creators
Today’s word-of-mouth marketing is the user-generated content on social media. Instead of well-composed generic ads the majority of people trust their peers’s reviews and opinions, and that’s exactly why UGC campaigns are becoming popular among companies.
UGC campaigns involve brands asking their followers, customers, and fans to showcase their products in usage or share content related to the brand. The results are authentic and diverse endorsements provided by real users that will incentivize people to get familiar with the brand or its products.
These campaigns can surface devoted individuals with a few thousand followers. Businesses need to monitor the participants' content and analyze their profiles to identify those who appealingly feature their products and align with the brand's messaging.
In Conclusion
There you have it! 18 ways to find small influencers on Instagram. Remember that to succeed in influencer marketing, you need to build rapport with your creator partners and this is especially important for small influencers. They place a lot of weight on authenticity and credibility when it comes to the relationship between them and their followers and when it comes to promotions. Whatever method you choose to find mini influencers on Instagram, make sure that they are well-experienced in your industry, have a quality audience, and can add that extra touch to your ads that will make you stand out from the crowd.
