14 Best Ways To Find Micro Influencers To Grow Your Brand In 2023

As a social media marketing expert with over 10 years of experience driving influencer campaigns, I cannot stress enough the immense value that micro influencers bring to brands looking to increase awareness and engagement in 2023.

But in order to tap into that value, identifying and connecting with the right micro influencers for your niche and campaign goals is essential.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll leverage my extensive knowledge to provide detailed recommendations and insights on the best practices for finding ideal micro influencer partners this year…

A Closer Look: Who Are Micro Influencers?

Before diving further into search tactics, let‘s build a deeper understanding of what constitutes a "micro influencer" and why they should be a critical piece of your overall influencer marketing strategy:

Follower Count

Micro influencers typically have between 10,000 to 100,000 engaged social media followers
Compared to nanoinfluencers (less than 10k followers) or celebrity mega influencers (1M+ followers), they strike the perfect balance between audience size and ability to drive true engagement

Engagement Metrics

On average, micro influencers achieve 4.5% engagement rates on sponsored posts, over 4X higher than users with larger followings
Their followers view them as peers rather than distant celebrities, fostering community and dialogue

Niche Expertise

Micro influencers establish their authority around very specific topics like parenting, fashion, or technology rather than general lifestyle content
They attract followers who deeply value their subject matter expertise and recommendations

Authentic Voice

As everyday social media users, their content comes across as genuine, relatable and down-to-earth
Followers trust recommendations as sincere reflections of their real opinions rather than paid promotions

Now that we‘ve established who micro influencers are and why collaboration is so impactful for marketers, let‘s explore proven tactics to identify ideal partners…

4 Main Types of Influencers

While micro remains the influencer "sweet spot" for many brands, it‘s helpful to understand variations across the full spectrum of follower sizes and how their value differs:

Nano Influencers

Followers: 1,000 – 10,000
Pros: Hyper-targeted niche audiences, high engagement
Cons: Limited reach per influencer

Micro Influencers

Followers: 10,000 – 100,000
Pros: High engagement, strong expertise, affordable
Cons: Still building broader authority

Macro Influencers

Followers: 100,000 – 1M
Pros: Broad reach, increased visibility
Cons: Declining engagement, higher costs

Mega Influencers

Followers: 1M+
Pros: Massive awareness potential
Cons: Low engagement, extremely costly

While mega influencers were once the most in-demand partnerships, engagement data shows micro collaborations often drive better campaign results and ROI.

Why Micro Influencers Are a Key 2023 Trend

As brands reevaluate budgets amidst economic uncertainty this year, influencer marketing is undergoing a "micro" moment with marketers realizing smaller creators offer unmatched value:

💰 Cost: Micro influencer sponsored post prices typically range from $75 to $250 per piece of content. Very affordable relative to those with larger audiences.

📈 Engagement Rates: While mega influencers fall under 2%, micro influencers reliably achieve over 4.5% engagement – huge on platforms like Instagram.

🎯 Targeting: Micro influencers allow brands to tap into specific niches rather than just broad lifestyle categories. Critical for precise messaging.

🤝 Partnerships: Micro influencers are easily accessible and eager to collaborate. Simple outreach and negotiations.

Now that I‘ve built a thorough understanding around ideal influencer tiers and why micro partnerships are essential this year, let‘s explore the best techniques to locate standout micro influencers for your brand…

14 Micro Influencer Identification Strategies

Over the past decade managing influencer initiatives, I‘ve refined an extensive toolkit of micro influencer search strategies.

Here are my 14 proven approaches to locate vetted, relevant micro influencers for campaigns:

1. Leverage Influencer Marketplace Platforms

Rather than relying solely on manual searches, influencer marketplaces significantly streamline discovery and outreach.

I recommend exploring options like Ainfluencer, a leading self-service platform.

Benefits include:

Search profiles by industry, location, content tags, follower size, engagment metrics
Directly contact, vet, and collaborate with thousands of micro influencers
Manage end-to-end campaigns and partnerships at scale
Free access to database of influencers

For SMBs launching first campaigns, marketplaces provide tremendous efficiency.

2. Hashtag Monitoring

Hashtag searching should form a piece of any influencer identification strategy.

Brands should compile targeted hashtags aligned to niche, product or campaign themes. For example, if promoting a new snack product, relevant hashtags could include:

#snacks
#foodie
#foodreviews
#foodblogger
#foodvlogger

Monitoring these tags (and location variations) will reveal micro influencers actively discussing related topics. The most consistent, engaging profiles warrant further evaluation as potential matches.

Tactical Tips:

Search hashtags via Instagram Explore and Facebook to uncover nano + micro influencers
Compile lists of about 10-20 topically relevant hashtags to monitor weekly

Curating niche hashtags takes experimentation but helps intercept quality micro influencers.

3. Evaluate Your Own Followers

Before looking externally, review your company‘s existing social media followers for hidden gems.

Analyze follower accounts on platforms like Instagram and Twitter seeking creators that meet micro influencer criteria:

Follower size 10k – 100k
3%+ engagement rates
Quality, consistent content
Good aesthetic match for brand
Ideal topical focus

These followers already connected to your brand organically. They present natural partnership opportunities to create brand content leveraging existing affinity.

4. Partner With Bloggers

Seeking out bloggers operating within your company‘s niche can yield fruitful micro influencer collaborations with aligned content goals.

Outreach is generally welcomed as most bloggers actively cultivate partnerships to fuel their sites. Ensure the arrangement offers clear value.

Consider incentives like:

✅ Providing blog content and quotes

✅ Offering products to feature/review

✅ Compensating for sponsored blog posts

✅ Cross-promoting their content

5. Explore Instagram & TikTok Explore Pages

Instagram and TikTok‘s Explore pages spotlight trending content including rising influencer names.

The intuitive Explore feed curates posts it thinks you may like based on your activity. But you can further customize it by:

Instagram

Following niche hashtags like #foodblogger, #techreviews etc
Liking + commenting on desired content types regularly

TikTok

Specifying topics of interest upon signup like Food, Fashion or Lifestyle
Consistently engaging with certain hashtag challenges

As their algorithms understand your preferences, Instagram and TikTok will surface better recommendations to aid micro influencer discovery.

6. Attend Industry Events

Industry conferences and trade shows provide tremendous in-person networking with influencers operating in your space.

In your pre-event research, comb through social feeds of featured speakers or sponsors. Follow relevant hashtags. This reveals active influencers to connect with onsite.

Upon meeting promising prospects, capture key details:

💡 Content focus & genres

💡 Ideal partner brands

💡 Previous collaborations

📧 Email address

These inputs help segment leads for ideal micro influencer targeting for future campaigns.

Building authentic relationships yields better long-term partnerships.

Expand beyond manual searches with social listening technology identifying influencers already discussing your brand organically online.

Tools like Mention analyze keyword instances across social networks, forums, blogs and more. Alerting on branded term mentions exposes ideal micro influencers for future collaboration.

Key inputs for configuration include:

📌 Branded keywords

📌 Industry keywords

📌 Competitor keywords

📌 Product names

Regular monitoring uncovers micro influencers to thank, incentivize for continued discussion, and partner with on dedicated brand content.

8. Create a Review Program For Customers

Leverage satisfied customers as "everyday influencers" with a formal review program incentivizing UGC and recommendations.

Tactics like offering free products in exchange for content creation can fuel powerful word-of-mouth on social platforms. Ensure proper partnership disclosures.

This review content holds tremendous credibility with prospective customers researching opinions. Plus it helps convert existing buyers into brand advocates – essentially homegrown influencers.

Over time, some regular reviewers may even cross the 10k follower micro influencer threshold as their audience grows.

9. Review an Influencer‘s Own Followers

Vetting doesn‘t stop at analyzing a potential influencer themselves. Auditing their followers, who they follow and related conversations offers further guidance.

Assessing followers can confirm niche alignment and indicate genuine user interest vs artificial inflation. No matter their personal metrics, low account quality among followers is a red flag.

Additionally, examining who influencers follow and interact with helps spot closely connected peers suitable for your goals.

regularly audit not just influencers themselves but their conversations and circles for vetting. The best partnerships feature complementary objectives and audiences despite differing categories or verticals.

While most social platforms offer basic search functions, mastering native advanced filters provides additional micro targeting parameters.

Twitter Advanced Search deserves particular attention with robust filtering including keywords, usernames, date ranges, locations, engagement types and more. This powers deep investigations to pinpoint quality micro influencers around topics.

Study all advanced options available within tools like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook to tailor queries and accelerate influencer research.

11. Join Industry Facebook & LinkedIn Groups

With over 1 billion daily users, Facebook groups focused on special interests present huge potential to discover engaged micro influencers around shared topics.

Groups also help brands identify key trends and challenges to inform content strategies.

Similarly, fostering an active presence within LinkedIn‘s 500 million members reveals passionate professional voices posting career advice. Consider connecting micro influencers back to your company‘s LinkedIn Showcase page.

Regularly share perspective and value with both platform‘s group members. Thoughtful contributors warrant further vetting as formal influencer partners.

12. Reverse Engineer Competitor Partnerships

Examining the influencers your competitor brands partner with for campaigns can significantly expedite your own research.

Study cross-promoted social content and hashtag discussions to identify collaborating micro influencers.

These creators likely remain open to sponsorships if non-exclusivity arrangements, allowing you to replicate your rival‘s success. Ensure any outreach provides value rather than just pitching however.

reverse engineering successful influencer initiatives informs ideal profiles to replicate results.

13. Commission Custom Analytics Searches

For advanced influencer filtering beyond basic platform tools, consider commissioning custom analytics reports from providers like Socialinsider or HypeAuditor.

Submit lists of handles for batch analysis across 10+ criteria:

Gender Split
Follower Count
Engagement Metrics
Follower Demographics
Content Analysis
Keyword Usage

These insights allow ultra-precise vetting and segmentation to pinpoint micro influencers with perfect audience alignment.

14. Always Ask For Referrals

Even after compiling thorough research, insider recommendations from existing industry contacts, partners and even other micro influencers can yield high quality suggestions.

Prompt them to share creators they personally follow or collaborate with across social media that might suit your brand‘s niche, values and objectives.

Often these direct referrals skip much of the initial vetting needed with external finds using other tactics. Prioritize reviewing referrals to maximize word-of-mouth potential.

Top Micro Influencers To Consider By Niche

Now that we‘ve thoroughly covered methodologies to locate micro influencers, I wanted to provide a shortlist of top recommendations to get you started if looking for collaborations within key niches:

Photography – Dan Carter (35k followers)

Beauty – Cris Ordaz (29k followers)

Food & Recipes – Simply Food By Mandy (12k followers)

Fashion – M’Taylor (15k followers)

Fitness – Leah Bowman (16k followers)

Technology – Stefan Warecka (29k followers)

Take time to research niche-specific hashtags, groups and keywords related to your category as well. This surfaces countless micro influencers to evaluate.

Prioritize working with influencers that embody the voice, values and objectives aligned to your brand campaign goals.

Start Connecting With Micro Influencers Now

As this extensive guide demonstrates through detailed explanations of each methodology, tactics and examples – brands have endless options to identify relevant micro influencers for 2023 initiatives.

Their authenticity, engagement and affordability provide tremendous marketing and word-of-mouth potential.

I hope these thorough recommendations, hard-earned through my decade of social media marketing experience, provide an actionable blueprint to begin finding and vetting micro influencer matches to drive results.

Don‘t wait. Start searching and collaborating with incredible niche micro influencers this year!

Find Micro Influencers on Ainfluencer →