Influencers are individuals and groups who have generated a large social media following

As influencer marketing continues to grow, more and more businesses are wondering how to find Instagram influencers who are the perfect fit for their brand.

From monitoring relevant hashtags to searching for influencers who are already fans of your brand — finding the right influencers can help you level-up a campaign, build brand awareness, and reach new engaged audiences.

Here are my three tips for finding the right influencer for your brand.

• Check Out Influencers Already Talking About Your Brand

If you’re looking to collaborate with an influencer on a branded campaign, it’s a good idea to find someone who is already interested and engaging with your bran

Because when you find influencers who are already talking about your brand or products, it’s a perfect match.

To find influencers who are already engaging with your brand, search your tagged posts, comments, DMs — if an influencer has tagged you in their stories or posts, it’s a good sign they’re already sharing content about your business or products with their followers.

The best part about this is that the partnership will feel like an organic fit for their community.

• Look at Who Your Target Audience is Already Engaging With 

Finding influencers that resonate with your target audience is arguably one of the most important steps in the influencer search process.

To do this, look at your existing community. Select anywhere from ten to fifteen followers who represent your ideal audience, and check out their following lists.

What type of influencers are they already following? What content do they typically engage with?

This should give you valuable insight into the type of influencers you should be partnering with, and what content might work best.

Once you have a few potential influencers in mind, try sharing one of their posts on your Instagram feed or stories.

You’ll need to get approval from the influencer, and should always clearly credit their work, but this can be a great way to see how an influencer resonates with your community — before investing any of your marketing spend.

• Monitor Relevant Hashtags

If you have a branded hashtag or a collection of hashtags you regularly use, it’s a good idea to keep track of these hashtags to help find influencers for your campaign.

Searching through who has shared content under your branded hashtag could turn up hundreds of potential influencers to reach out to.

If you don’t have a branded hashtag for your business, try searching relevant hashtags, you could find some awesome influencers to partner up with.

What are some of the ways you connect with Instagram influencers?