How to Find Micro-Influencers on Instagram in 5 Steps W/ Tips

You walk into a Sephora store to buy some beauty products. 

They recommended a product for your skin tone and just as you’re heading to the counter, you open Instagram and Rihanna’s latest post is first on your feed. She’s posted a tutorial on how to use the best foundation (the one that looks perfect for your skin as well).

So now you’re not sure about the product you’re holding – do you choose the one recommended by a brand or by Rihanna?

…we know what your answer will be.🤭 

That’s a description of how effective working with influencers can be for your brand. 

Now, the interesting part is they don’t have to be as popular as RiRi to be effective. 

In fact, they only need a good number of followers to be considered an authority in their niche. 

You probably have some ‘why and how’ questions now but don’t worry, we’ll answer them in this guide.

By the time we’re done, you’ll have learned:

• What a micro-influencer is
• How to find one
• Benefits of working with Instagram micro-influencers

Let’s kick things off!

What is a Micro-Influencer?

A micro-influencer is a social media user whose followers count is between 1,000 and 100,000. 

Micro-influencers produce useful content for their audience in a specific niche and people look to them for lifestyle and product recommendations.  

Aside from enjoying content produced by this subset of influencers, users also actively engage with them.

Micro-influencers have one of the highest engagement rates compared to other types of influencer, and no, we’re not just trying to make them appear good. 

Research has shown that micro-influencers have 22.2x more conversations about what to buy with their followers every week than the average consumer. 

In fact, 82% of consumers said they’d gladly follow the influencer’s recommendation. 

What’s more, micro-influencers typically have an online presence that’s larger than that of the average social media user but smaller than that of celebrities or macro-influencers. 

So, how are they different?

Macro-influencers vs. micro-influencers

The main difference between macro-influencers and micro-influencers is their social media following. 

Macro-influencers are usually highly popular, with an audience of at least 100,000. In many cases, they’re celebrities; models, athletes, movie stars, etc.

Micro-influencers, on the other hand, have a maximum of 100,000 followers.

They tend to focus on a specific niche, while macro-influencers are not niche- or topic-specific.

Both have their pros and cons, but working with micro-influencers is the preferred option for most businesses. 

We’ll talk more about the benefits of working with them in a minute. 

But first, let’s see some examples of micro-creators.

Examples of  Micro-Influencers

If you were asked to point out a micro-influencer’s profile, do you know what it would look like? 

We’ve given you a sneak peek in the previous section but just so you’re better informed, here are some examples:

Example 1: Getting growth (@gettinggrowth)

This account is run by Johannes Kanter on Instagram and it has 35,000 followers, classifying this user as a micro-influencer as we mentioned above. 

Remember what we said about micro-influencers and engagement?

If you go through the posts on this profile, you’d see comments from followers, with some posts having up to 90 responses from his audience. 

He also has an average of 1,000 likes on his Instagram posts. 

That’s the magic touch of micro-influencers: they attract engagement.  

Example 2: Maija Silova (@Silovamajia)

Silova is a micro-influencer with about 30.5k followers. She also happens to be a TV host, fashion journalist, and digital creator. 

Maija’s posts average 900 likes and, of course, all of them have her followers dropping comments on the social media platform. 

Now you know how to point out a micro-influencer, right?

Let’s look at those benefits they bring, as promised. 

5 Benefits of Working with Micro-Influencers on Instagram

Trust is a big issue with consumers today – 7-in-10 of them say they buy products from brands they trust.

In the past, celebrity endorsements used to be a way to get people to trust your brand. 

The modern version of that is collaborating with relevant micro-influencers because they’re like everyday people. 

Consumers are certain that whatever they put out can be trusted because, unlike some celebrities, they won’t do absolutely anything for money. 

Let’s unpack other reasons why you should work with this type of influencer. 

Benefit #1: Accessible to startups and small brands

When people think of influencer marketing, their minds sometimes race to a big macro-influencer endorsement. 

You know, the type where they have to contact the macro-influencer’s hard-to-reach manager and have several meetings to discuss when they can slot you into their busy schedule. 

This kind of arrangement might work for established brands but what about small businesses? It’d take a lot of time, effort, and money for maybe a single post. 

Micro-influencers, on the other hand, are way more accessible to startups and upcoming brands than macro-influencers. 

Some of them have emails or other forms of communication on their bio for brands to reach them. 

And since they’re usually engaging with their audience, you can be certain that if you drop a comment on their post, they’ll probably see it. 

Benefit #2: Producing relatable and valuable content

Micro-influencers are generally considered to be an authority in their field. 

When they create content, it’s usually about specific topics for an engaged audience composed of people who share similar interests. 

So, if people want to learn about some software, for example, or the best hacks for using it, they turn to micro-influencers in that niche.

Micro-influencers in your industry can be a huge asset to your marketing campaign.

Aside from the fact that they might be interested in your product, the content they’ll produce will get their followers to be more interested in your brand because the influencers are authoritative figures. 

The content will be touching something their audience needs and that’s something you want to leverage in your campaign.

Benefit #3: Getting high engagement rates

We touched on this earlier but we have to mention it again because if you’ve ever heard about influencer marketing, getting engagement is a challenge many marketers face.

They feel that celebs on Instagram don’t have good engagement rates. 

In fact, how would they have engagement when their audience is filled with fake followers?

A report by Statista showed a lot of mega-influencers on Instagram have been involved in fraudulent activities to raise their figures.

And you need engagement because it increases your chances of getting sales. 

Marketers don’t have to worry about that when they work with micro-influencers as they’ve got good engagement rates.  

According to statistics, they have an engagement rate of about 8% which is quite high when compared to the 4.5% macro-influencers bring to the table. 

Benefit #4: Reaching an already segmented audience

Working with micro-influencers allows you to preach the gospel of your product to a specific audience that’s willing to buy from you. 

Micro-influencers have a niche audience that makes you reach a more focused set of consumers.

If you hired a celebrity artist to promote your product on their profile, it’ll probably be seen by an audience that enjoys the artist's work.

But would they enjoy your product, enough to consider buying it?

The chances of that happening are pretty low. You might see comments on the post about how good the celebrity looks with the product but chances are you’ll rarely see conversations about purchasing. 

People who follow micro-influencers, on the other hand, do so for two reasons: 

• They enjoy their content or find it useful  
• They’ve developed a connection with them

In other words, they’ll be more inclined to consider buying your product when the micro-influencer recommends it and talks about it because the influencer is an authority in that niche. 

Benefit #5: It’s cost-effective

Hiring the right micro-influencers for your digital marketing campaigns costs less than you’d imagine. 

On Insense, the average cost is $80-$400 depending on whether you want the original content, prefer they post it, or you want to use creator licensing.

That’s quite affordable for brands of all sizes, right?

What’s even more interesting is that you’ll get a much higher return on investment (ROI) when you collaborate with micro-influencers. 

Aside from the engagement they bring, partnering with micro-influencers can lead to conversations surrounding buying or trying the product as stated earlier. 

Actually, according to research, 74% of micro-influencers directly recommend products to their audiences. 

Additionally, 92% of consumers say influencers do a better job of explaining how a product works. 

They’re the kind of people you want in your inner circle. 

Now let’s get practical and show you how to find them. 

5 Tips on How to Find Micro-Influencers on Instagram

Finding influencers to work with is no easy feat. 

About 73% of marketers surveyed say identifying the right influencer to work with has been their biggest challenge. 

But don’t let that scare you, that’s why we’re here. 

We’ll walk you through different ways to find the best micro-influencers on Instagram.

Tip #1: Identify popular hashtags relevant to your niche

Popular hashtags relevant to your brand are a good place to start this journey.

The general idea about hashtags is that they help people find your post more easily. 

But beyond that, they can be a great research tool. 

You’ll find people who post content similar to yours and if you look closer, you’ll identify micro-influencers you can work with. 

We did an Instagram hashtag search of #skincaretips, for example, and as you can imagine, the hashtag accompanied over 9 million posts. 

Going through the posts led us to three micro-influencers. Just by inputting a hashtag. 

Natalie, a beauty influencer with over 50k followers, was one of them. 

Caroline Groth was another influencer we found during our search. 

She has close to 70k followers and even has the verification tag. 

See what we mean?

If you’re in the beauty industry, we just gave you a free hack. 

… you’re welcome!😌

Tip #2: Look for local micro-influencers

Sometimes, you’ve got this desire to work with top influencers who are known in the international space, probably because they have more reach.

While that’s a great idea, it’s better to look for influencers within your community if you’re an upcoming local business. 

This way, you’ll find it easier to connect with your audience since they’re in the same neighborhood as the local influencers. 

Now, how do you find them?

1. To begin with, you can use specific hashtags for this too. For example, you’re a pizza restaurant in the Chicago area. You can start by searching for #Chicagofoodblogger on Instagram. 
2. Secondly, you know how you tag locations when posting on IG? 

You can click on that location to see content from other people in that community. There, it’ll be easy to check their profiles and find a micro-influencer you can reach out to.

3. Another option is to run a Google search. 

Input your industry and influencers in the location of your choice as seen in the screenshot above.

Tip #3: Search your existing follower base

You probably don’t expect this but the right influencer you’re searching for might just be one of your followers.

Sure, searching among thousands of people to find them might seem scary but there’ll be some who stand out in terms of their names and profile pictures. 

Micro-influencers like to have catchy names like @thebeautyrecluse or something beauty blogger-related, as well as high-quality profile photos. 

So look out for followers who stand out from the crowd and your work will be much easier.  

Tip #4: Check industry forums, social media groups, and blogs 

Online forums within your industry also happen to be a great place to find micro-influencers. 

If you’re active there, you’ll probably have noticed them already. They’re usually the guys who have great takes on new trends in the industry. 

If you’re not a regular, you can simply ask the community to recommend one for you.

When you find influencers this way,  you can be 100% certain they understand your target audience and industry. 

Other options will be to check social media groups dedicated to your industry. 

Facebook is the best bet for this but you’ll need to find a group that resonates with you and then you can start searching or ask other participants. 

Tip #5: Leverage influencer marketing platforms

Last but not least, you can use influencer marketing platforms to search for micro-influencers to work with. 

You wouldn’t have to go through so many steps before you find what you’re looking for in no time. 

One such service is the Instagram creator marketplace – a virtual destination where brands can source influencers for their marketing campaigns. 

They can search for influencers using filters like follower count, demographics, gender, age, and more. 

The only drawback with Instagram’s creator marketplace is that it’s not available for brands outside of the U.S. at the moment. 

But that’s not too big a challenge as there are other platforms providing similar services such as our very own tool –Insense. 😉 

Let’s show you how to find influencers with our platform.

How to Find Micro-Influencers on Instagram with Insense in 5 Easy Steps

If you’re sold on using influencer marketing platforms, sit back and relax as we show you how to get started. 

When we’re done, you may never need to try another way.

              …well, that’s what we want.🤭

Before we begin, you want to sign up or log in to Insense so you have access to our dashboard. 

You can do that by clicking the blue icon or Try it out button at the top right corner of our homepage, shown here:

That said, let’s jump right in.

Step #1: Fill out your campaign brief

The first thing you want to do once you’ve got access to the dashboard is fill out a creative brief. 

That’s a form where you indicate what kind of influencer you’d like to work with and the type of content you want them to create. 

Where do you find it?

From the dashboard, click the +New campaign button shown in black below: 

You’ll then be redirected to another page where you can fill out your brief. 

Here’s how… 

Step #2: Provide details about your brand

Begin by selecting or adding your brand name for the campaign in the brief. 

That’s the first thing you’ll see when you start. 

Depending on the pricing plan you’re on, you might be able to add one or more brands. 

Then, enter a name that describes what your campaign is about in the Campaign name box. 

Essentially, this first section helps introduce your brand to prospective influencers. 

What’s next?

Step #3: Describe your campaign 

Just below the Campaign name box, you’ll see something like a poll asking you to choose your campaign type. 

If you’ve seen that, you’ll need to decide whether you want influencers for a partnership or simply to produce content. 

For this article, we’ll go with Influencer Partnership (creator licensing) because that type of campaign tends to have even better results.

After selecting the campaign type, choose Instagram as the social platform and how long you want the partnership to last. 

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Once that’s done, you’ll need to:

• Determine how many creators you want to hire.
• Input your budget range – how much you’re willing to spend.
• Choose the campaign’s goal – Conversions (to drive action) or Reach (to drive brand awareness).

•  Provide information about your product. To make this happen, you have to upload an image of the product, write a description about it, and determine how you’ll send it to them if the need arises.  

…and now to the part you’ve been waiting for!

Step #4: Define your micro-influencer persona

All the previous steps have led to this. Here, you’ll define the criteria for the kind of influencer you’d like to partner with. 

First, you need to decide whether you want creators who fit your persona to apply if they see the brief or if you want to personally add them. 

If you want them to reach out, select Public; choose Private if you want to do it yourself.  

Then, you can define your Desired creator’s profile by using the available filters such as:

• Location (you’ll need to select a location before other filters become available)
• Engagement rate (ER)
• Categories (specific niche)
• Followers (you can set it to between 1k and 100k)
• Views
• Age
• Gender
• Language and more!

There are other optional details you might want to provide in this section, including:

• Links to examples of your ideal creators
• Screening questions
• If you want to send the brief to creators you’ve worked with in the past
• If you want to handpick creators for the campaign

The next part is the Creative assets section, where you’ll decide what kind of content you want the influencer to provide and how it should look.

‍

 Here, you want to:

• Choose your preferred ad creative – video or photo (we chose video in the screenshot).
• Select Posting if you want the influencer to post the content they create on their Instagram account or No Posting if you don’t want that. 
• Pick what format you want the content in.
• Select the minimum and maximum duration of the video.
• Decide if you want Raw Footage (unedited content), Ready to use Ads (edited content), or Ready to use Ads + Raw Footage (for both edited and raw content).
• Specify the content type – testimonials, product demos, unboxing videos, how-tos, and more.

• Provide detailed instructions on how the content should look and what should be avoided.
• Share an example of content you’d like them to use as a reference.
• Click Save or Add creative if you want multiple content items.

What’s left to do?

Step #5: Publish your campaign and accept creators’ proposals

You’re almost there; there are just a few additional choices left and they’re optional. They include:

• Tagging your brand in their post
• Adding hashtags to the post 

Lastly, click the Send to review button at the top right corner to get the brief approved.

The moment it’s approved, it’s automatically published and sent to influencers matching your criteria. Once they send in their request, you can start accepting their proposals. 

You see; easy peasy.

Another way to find micro-influencers is to manually browse through the Insense creator marketplace. 

             …yup, we’ve got one of those too. 😉

To begin, head back to the dashboard where we started from and click on Marketplace as seen in the screenshot below: 

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like so you’ll know it when you see it: 

Click on All platforms on the left side of the screen and select TikTok.

Then, begin your influencer search using filters such as Categories, Ethnicity, Followers, ER, Price, Views, and more to search for creators you can work with for micro-influencer marketing campaigns.

Insense will display potential micro-influencers as you select different filters using our influencer search tool. 

You can then click on the + sign over their thumbnail to add them to the Creators list on the right side of the screen.

Click Create campaign to proceed.

Enter a campaign name and select Create campaign.

You will be redirected to the brief page where you’ll provide the required details about your campaign as we showed earlier on.

Once you’re done filling out the brief, hit Submit and it’ll be sent to the creators you selected. 

Alright guys, let’s bring this piece to an end.

Find Micro-influencers on Instagram Hassle-Free

Congratulations on making it to the end of this guide. 

It was insightful, yes? 😊

Of course, and now you can’t wait to get started. 

Make sure to book a demo with Insense to get a better understanding of how our platform works firsthand before fully committing.

We can’t wait to see you launch influencer marketing campaigns with micro-influencers you find on Insense.