Influencers are no doubt a fantastic way to promote a product or service, providing you choose the right one for your audience. However, it can be difficult to find influencers - especially micro-influencers who can be more of a benefit than influencers with a mass following.

Influencers are no doubt a fantastic way to promote a product or service, providing you choose the right one for your audience. However, it can be difficult to find influencers - especially micro-influencers who can be more of a benefit than influencers with a mass following.

In this post, I take a look at some great free ways to find influencers.

If you're not sure what kind of influencers to chose, check out our 5 pillars of influencer marketing blog to help you.

Free ways to discover Influencers

There are many listing sites and influencer search engines that can help you sort by niche and follower amount, however, these services usually cost. I'm going to share ways that are free but do require that extra work and research.

Before you start searching away, be sure to understand who your audience is, check out our 5 pillars of influencer marketing blog to assist.

Blogs

Bloggers generally have a following on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

A simple search in a search engine such as"best [your niche] blogs" will bring up a whole variety of websites from direct blogs to websites that list blogs. You may find that this will only show up bloggers with a large number of followers, but sometimes writers include smaller and upcoming bloggers.

You can also use keywords from your niche to help discover blogs. If automotive was your niche you could try searching "car blogs", "mechanic blog" "best alloy wheels blog", etc. Get creative.

Once you find a blogger, you should be able to contact them directly from their blog. They also tend to list their social channels, which you can research to see how they connect with their audiences.

Social Listening

Social listening is a great way to find influencers. You can see who and what is trending and who the current authoritative voices are in your industry. Sometimes you don't have to look outwards - by doing social listening, you can also see who is positively engaging with your brand. People who are already engaging with your content may naturally be suitable..

News

Keeping up to date with news within your sector will naturally open your eyes to authoritative figures. Top tens, awards, breaking news may reveal certain influencers you haven't seen before. You don't have to keep it digital either - a good flick through an industry-related magazine is just as good!

How to contact Influencers