Where can you find your ideal influencer? Influencers are everywhere, on every social media platform and increasingly on television, billboards, and the radio. Given their prevalence, you would think that finding one to work with would be simple. While it is not so difficult that it can feel impossible, it also isn’t as easy as you might think.

Where to Look for Your Ideal Influencer

Yes, you likely can name several influencers off the top of your head, but it is not likely they are the ideal influencer for you. Unless you are a very large brand, those well-known influencers will likely be too expensive for your budget, and also more focused on followers than engagement—which is also a no-no for smaller brands. So, where should you look?

Start by Exploring

Your brand has a niche, and part of being successful within that niche is exploring it. While you will be doing this with the goal of finding quality influencers to work with, it is also good for just helping you better understand the world your brand operates within. There are many strategies you can use for exploring your niche. A few to consider are:

Use niche-related hashtags to find posts
Check out trending content on Bitly
Browse the comments on the biggest blogs in your niche
Look into blog rolls by bigger bloggers
Try Topsy to find older popular posts
See who is sharing posts

Now, all of these options require a lot of legwork on your part. That is not inherently bad, but for many brands who have it within their budget, using apps and services to find the right influencer works better. If you want to go the easier route, there are some tools we can suggest.

Traackr

Traackr is an influencer marketing and analytics platform. Using this tool, you can discover and track influencers and find the best ways to connect with them. Influencers have profiles that you can browse as well to learn more about them and discover their profiles for you to evaluate.

Linkdex

Originally, Linkdex was an SEO tool. However, it has switched things up to keep up with the times. Now, it is a SaaS solution that is designed to help those getting into influencer marketing. It has search, social, public relations, and content channels that you can use as well as analytics and planning tools.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a rare free tool that allows you to search for influencers by helping you find the most popular content in a niche as well as the contents’ creators. You search by topic to find what is trending based on social shares. You can also export your finds for easier analysis.

Klout

Klout is an oldie but a goodie. Long known as the top tool for discovering influencers, even if you want to try other options, this is one you simply must use. It will cost, but the reach of this tool ensures that you will find influencers who fit your brand well.