If you’ve ever wanted to get more eyes on your social content (and who doesn't?), finding the right social media influencer can help take your brand to the next level. Social media influencers can help you expand your reach by putting you in touch with their own audiences, and helping to win them over more easily.

There’s a reason, after all, why some high-level influencers are paid thousands of dollars for a single Instagram image. According to an article from Shopify, influencers with 5 million followers or more can actually charge $100,000 for an influencer campaign.

Don’t sweat it, though—most influencers do not charge $100,000, and those are the ones that small businesses want. We’re going to go over what you should look for in an influencer and how to find one.

‍Why You Need Micro-influencers

‍When most people think about the top influencers, they think big—maybe too big. Their first thoughts are of celebrities, or the people who are practically celebrities within the industry.

In reality, micro-influencers are the brand influencers most small and medium businesses should be targeting. Not only will their endorsement come at a much, much smaller price tag, they’ll also have more sway within your target audience. The reason for this is simple: they have smaller audiences than big name influencers, but these audiences trust them more thanks to long-term relationships, so they hold more sway. If you’re looking to find Instagram influencers, for example, micro-influencers just need 10,000 followers or more.

What to Look for in an Influencer

‍When you’re looking for an influencer, there are a few qualities that you should always, always look for. These qualities are:

• Having an overlapping audience with yours. There’s no point in getting an influencer’s endorsement if their audience will have zero interest in your brand or product. In the example below, styling company Stitch Fix partnered with a fashion influencer to great results.
• Having an audience who trusts them. There are certain people whose endorsements you will trust, even if you know the influencer was paid to write them. These people hold great social influence for that reason; they need to believe in your business to promote it, and their audience knows that.
• Not spamming affiliate links. We’ve all seen these influencers, who throw out affiliate links like nobody’s business. They drop them in posts hastily, and they do it a lot. Skip the influencers that do this; they won’t do you any good.
• Having a strong social following. Micro-influencers don’t need millions of followers to be effective; they only need a minimum of 10,000 followers on Instagram to have high rates of engagement.

How to Find Social Media Influencers‍

Ready to venture out into the influencer network to find the perfect person to promote your brand? First, you’ll want to get your research done.

Research is a necessary part of the social media influencer marketing strategy. You need to decide which social circles and audiences you want to target with your ad campaigns. Audi, for example, chose a very specific portion of their audience when they ran a Pretty Little Liars influencer campaign. Once you do this, you can start to choose an influencer.

Once you’ve chosen your audience, you can use influencer marketing platforms to find specific influencers that fit your brand’s needs.

Pixlee’s influencer platform (pictured above) will help you find social influencers and brand advocates that would be a great fit for your brand. You’ll be able to see information like their number of followers and their average engagement rates. Once you connect with the influencers, you’ll be able to easily monitor and approve their branded content—including getting detailed analytics on each post.

‍Final Thoughts

‍The influence of social media is significant as is, but it’s magnified when you have a solid influencer marketing strategy in place. Finding the right influencer can be a simple process, as long as you’re using tools like Pixlee’s influencer platform to locate the right people from the very beginning.