So you’re looking to grow your brand and you want to use Social Media Influencers to do it. Influencer Marketing is quickly becoming the most efficient way for brands to reach their end consumer. Instagram Influencers are among some of the most powerful of social media influencers; other major digital influencers include YouTube influencers. But how exactly do you find the right Influencer to fit your brand? Just below we are going to break down, Instagram Influencer Research for Your Brand in a Nutshell!
Here’s How to Start!
To give you the best influencer research method possible we are going to a full case study to follow along with! In this case study, we will be analyzing the brand Leather Face LLC; they specialize in unique motorcycle riding gear. The first place to start is to do an overall brand analysis. Make sure to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is; what exactly defines your customer.
The target audience for Leather Face LLC is motorcycle owners; specifically, motorcycle owners that wear half helmets. Their mask is specifically made for motorcycle riders that wear half helmets. Let’s solidify this target audience into a singular customer profile, we will call them “Scrap” because they’re bikers.
What’s the Product?
First, let’s take a look at the product. We first have to analyze the product. Who is this mask good for and what behaviors, interests or lifestyles do they live?
Looking at the overall product design the styles we see are skulls, flames, & warriors. Typical style from a male biker that is trying to look cool or be an “outlaw”. Which is exactly why their brand motto is to “Unleash Your Inner Outlaw”. So what exactly is an outlaw?
The Webster Dictionary defines outlaw as,
“a person excluded from the benefit or protection of the law; a lawless person or a fugitive from the law; a person or organization under a ban or restriction; one that is unconventional or rebellious.”
So Who’s Scrap?
Referring back to Scrap, let us just assume it’s a he, he doesn’t belong to any organization. Scrap is a loner that live’s by his own rules. His bike of choice is a Harley Davidson, Victory or Indian; more specifically a Sportster or Bobber. He is someone that isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and fix things himself. Whether that be in life or on the job. Referring to Scrap’s occupation, he is a blue-collar American that has a slight surplus in income. We know this from the price point of the Leather Face Mask, €100.00 is a lot for one person to pay if they don’t already have brand loyalty. Leather Face is a brand new company, so most motorcycle riders haven’t heard of them.
Perfect! We have a detailed outline of our customer, now let’s find communities on social media that closely resemble Scrap.
Finding Influencers in Communities on Instagram
If you want to find active social influencers to represent your brand, look on Instagram (or use the Best Influencer Marketing Platform). Instagram Influencers are quickly rising to be one of the best marketing strategies for building brand
Instagram Explore Page
Looking for Influencers that are going viral? Then check your Instagram Explore Page. Thanks to the New Instagram Explore Page Algorithm, content on Instagram is not categorized into specific niches. These categories include but are not limited to Auto, DIY, Food, Dance, Style and so many more! With content being broken down into these subcategories, Instagram is looking for influencers to promote in these niches.
This is why it’s so easy to find Instagram Influencers on the Explore Page. Influencer content is being promoted drastically by Instagram in these niches. Start looking through some of the subcategories that best fit your brand. For Leather Face the Auto section is where I have found a ton of great influencers.
#Community
One of the best places to find huge communities around hyper-targeted content is hashtags. Thanks to Instagram, Hashtags can now be followed, which allow for the creation of massive communities around any topic! Of course in any community, there will always be an influencer. The best thing to do is to plug in keywords that describe your customer profile. Here are some keywords that describe Scrap: #outlaw, #biker, #motorcycle, & #harleydavidson.
As you can see these communities are massive. This is where you will find Instagram Influencers of all sizes. Go through your hashtag communities and start looking around at all the accounts that have a lot of attention. The top posts in these hashtags communities are typically published by Instagram Influencers. The key here is to find quality Instagram Influencers that are:
- Actively posting on their account. Ideally, they should be posting on their account feed 1-3 times a day and their Instagram Stories daily.
- Publishing content that aligns with your brand’s beliefs, you don’t want to have a vegan influencer represent a new beef jerky brand.
- Actively Responding to followers comments and questions. Influencers should be communicating with their audience and creating a solid relationship. An influencer with good credibility in the community is extremely powerful.
These checks will become faster the more you do them. However, we recommend taking your time initially to analyze each one. Read through the comments of the top 10 post to see who the loyal & active followers are for this influencer. What are their views and how do they feel about this particular influencer or their content? Watch the demo video below:
Suggested Accounts
It’s Instagram’s mission to keep you on their platform for as long as possible. One of the features that helps them do that is the suggested accounts tab. This feature triggers when someone follows an account. What Instagram does is a overall analysis of the content that is posted on the newly followed account. Then, they suggest other accounts that closely match those interest. The best part about this feature is we can use it to find similar influencers that match the one’s we found previously! We can use Instagram’s Algorithm to help us find quality influencers quickly. Check out some of the results we got from our suggested accounts below.
Check Out IGTV
One of the big changes that came to the Instagram platform, was the introduction of long form video content. IGTV allows Instagram users and Influencers to start creating, watching and subscribing to IGTV Channels. If you want to find an influencer that would make a creative product video for you, look at the Instagram Influencers that are actively using IGTV. Most IGTV Creators put serios time into perfecting their content and their talent is widely undervalued. Use these IGTV Creators to your advantage allow them to have creative control to produce a wide variety of promotional video content. Checkout some of the IGTV Creators we found to represent Leather Face LLC
Wrap Up
In order to find the right Instagram Influencer for your business, it’s important that you look in the right areas. Thankfully, you now know all the top locations to find active Influencers to use for Influencer Marketing. We cannot stress enough just how important it is to understand your target audience first before searching for any influencer. Without full knowing who your audience is, how can you expect to find a proper high profile person? The answer is you can’t! Make sure to always do your research before making any type of investment.