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How to Find Influencers in Your Industry

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If you ask any marketer who’s spearheaded their own influencer campaign, you’ll find that one of the most challenging and time-consuming parts is figuring out how to find influencers in your industry that really complement your brand.

There are more obvious obstacles like fake influencers with purchased followers.

But moving past that, you’ll need to do your research to make sure that the influencers you choose have truly interested and engaged fans whose lifestyles fit seamlessly with your products and services.

Understandably, this can be a pretty intimidating process.

How do you know which keywords and hashtags to use in your searches? Where can you find industry-specific pockets of activity, like where all the beauty influencers, travel influencers, and food influencers hang out online?

This article has got you covered. We’ll drill down into the top 5 influencer marketing industries (beauty, fashion, travel, fitness, and food), as well as give you some general Google search tips so you can streamline and master the process of learning how to find influencers in your industry.

In this article, we’ll look at:

  • How to use your brand identity to power your search
  • Tips and tricks for finding influencers via Google search
  • Tools to help with keyword and hashtag research
  • Industry-specific hashtags and online communities for finding:
    • Beauty influencers
    • Fashion influencers
    • Travel influencers
    • Fitness influencers
    • Food influencers

Let’s get started!

Use Your Brand Identity to Power Your Search

First things first: find those influencers.

Later in this ebook, we’ll go over tips for finding the right Instagram influencers, YouTube influencers, and Facebook influencers specifically for those channels.

But before you dig into hashtag and keyword research, you should have an idea of which hashtags and keywords even fit with your brand to begin with. This may seem like common sense, but can leave many entrepreneurs feeling stumped.

The best way to start is to know your brand and its mission. Ask yourself things like:

  • Who is my target audience? What are these people interested in and passionate about?
  • What’s my brand’s image? What are its defining characteristics and attitudes?
  • What’s my brand’s core value for my customers? Why do they choose me over competitors?

Come up with a list of adjectives that describe your brand and your customer base. Things like:

  • inspiring, empowering, motivating
  • intellectual, educated
  • chic, dapper, trendy
  • controversial, opinionated
  • offbeat, eccentric, alternative
  • fringe, edgy
  • bohemian, hippie
  • carefree, free-spirited
  • green, sustainable, ethical
  • trend-setter, leader
  • creator, designer, producer
  • disruptive, innovative

Pro tip: Make a physical spreadsheet or list of everything you come up with, so you can easily reference it later. A list like this might change, but will never become obsolete.

 

Then, you can use some of these words as keywords and hashtags when you’re searching for influencers on various channels and tools.

For example, a sustainable and ethical fashion store can start by searching ‘new ethical fashion influencers’ in Google. It yields plenty of great results:

Tweak your search terms to include different types of influencers, as well as different channels you’re open to marketing on, like blogs, vlogs, Snapchat, Twitter, and the channels we’ll go into later.

Once you have a whole bunch of these brand-centric keywords, you can get creative and use them for all kinds of influencer and market research via:

Pro tip: Keep a detailed list with contact info, social account details, and other notes. This way, you can keep track of who you contacted and when. We made a handy spreadsheet you can download here.

 

Tips for Finding Influencers via Google Search

One of the most important things to remember is that it will take time and search savvy to really find special influencers that mesh with your products or services.

So don’t stop at the first few searches!

If you’re executing your influencer strategy manually, you’ll likely spend several hours on the searching process alone.

But thankfully, there are a handful of built-in Google advanced search options that can help make things easier and quicker.

Here are some tips for making the most of your Google searches.

Dig Deeper and Use Google’s Suggestions

It’s unlikely that you’ll find everything you need on the first page of your search results. Go past the first page to find hidden gems and micro-influencers that haven’t hit the mainstream yet.

For more search ideas, check the dropdown search suggestions that Google gives as you’re typing in your search, as well as at the bottom of each search engine results page (SERP).

Here’s what the dropdown suggestions look like:

SERP influencers

And here’s what the suggestions at the bottom of each search page look like:

search engine influencer hunt

Take Advantage of Search Operators

Do you ever feel like your search results just aren’t what you’re looking for?

Google search operators are magical little ‘shortcuts’ that can make your searches more specific and targeted, and more likely to deliver the results you want.

Here are some top operators to boost your searches:

Operator Purpose Example Search
“  ” Ensure that every result will contain the exact term inside the quotation marks – not just synonyms “ethical fashion” bloggers
OR (all caps) Show results for one search term or the other (these two operators are interchangeable) ethical fashion OR sustainable fashion
( ) Group different terms and control the way Google performs the search (ethical OR sustainable) fashion influencer
– Exclude any words with a dash before them if you don’t want to see results related to that term ethical fashion -instagram
site: Only show search results from web pages that are hosted on one specific website ethical fashion site:instagram.com

And you can even use more than one in a search!

Here’s an example of a search where I’m looking for articles about ethical or sustainable fashion influencers, but I don’t want any ‘slow fashion’ influencers:

search operators influencers

 

Adjust Your Search Settings

Use Google’s built-in search settings to get even better searches. My two favorites are…

Custom Date Range

You don’t want to look at a list of hot fashion influencers from 2014. Especially in the crazy world of social media, things change fast. So I recommend changing your time range to less than one year ago. (Try six months or less first, then increase if you need to.)

To do this, click ‘Tools’ under the right corner of the search bar. Then go to ‘Any time’ ➔ ‘Custom range…’ and select your dates.

 

Change Location

Google automatically caters your searches to the region or country you’re in right now. If you want to see popular influencers in other places, you can manually change this so Google gives you results for those regions.

To do this, go to ‘Settings’ under the right corner of the search bar. Then go to ‘Search settings.’ It will take you a settings page. Scroll to the bottom and click your region of choice, then click save.

 

Tools to Help with Keyword and Hashtag Research

  • Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest
  • RiteTag
  • Hashtagify.me

Let’s take a look at each.

Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a great tool for getting keyword ideas from your core keywords. Just pop them into the search bar, and you’ll see plenty of keyword suggestions, along with their traffic (how many people search that keyword per month).

It also shows you top websites that show up for those keywords in a Google search, so you can see what everyone’s talking about.

ubersuggest

RiteTag

RiteTag analyzes photos and selected text from the web and suggests related hashtags. You can sign in using your Facebook, Twitter, or Buffer account or install the Chrome extension. Just right click the image and select ‘Get Hashtag Suggestions.’

Say you’re a bakery looking to get some more visitors. RiteTag gave these suggestions for a photo of these unicorn-style cupcakes:

  • #baking
  • #cuppies
  • #ilovebaking
  • #foodstagram

It even includes platform-specific hashtags, like #cupcakelove for Instagram.

You can then search different social platforms for these hashtags to bring you closer to your ideal influencers.

 

Hashtagify.me

Hashtagify.me has a free version that lets you explore hashtag variations, along with some other handy info like top influencers related to those hashtags, popularity trends, and other info.

Just click on the related hashtags to look at more, and more… and more.

hashtagify.me

Now, let’s look at how to find influencers in your industry if your brand is in beauty, fashion, travel, fitness, or food.

For each industry, we’ll give you a heaping list of popular hashtags, as well as some top online communities where you can learn more about your niche and scope out some possible influencers.

Beauty Influencers

Top hashtags to help find beauty influencers:

General Beauty

#beauty

#beautycare

#beautyful

#beautybasics

 #instabeauty

#beautyaddict

#beautyblogger

#beautybloggerlife

#beautytips

#gorgeous

#beautyjunkie

#beautyguru

Natural Beauty

#natural

#greenbeauty

#cleanbeauty

#naturalbeauty

 #naturalbeautyvibes

#naturalista

#organicbeauty

#naturalbeautylife

#naturalbeautytips

#naturalbeautyshoutouts

#naturalbeautyproduct

#naturalbeautyproducts

Hair

 #hair

#haircut

#hairtutorial

#hairgoals

 #naturalcurls

#perfectcurls

#curlyhair

#hairofinstagram

#hairstyle

#hairstyles

#hairoftheday

#menshair

Makeup

 #makeup

#makeuptutorial#instamakeup#makeupjunkie 		#makeupaddict

#makeupblogger

#makeupoftheday

#motd

 #wakeupandmakeup

#eyes

#lips

#lashes
Skincare #skincare

#intaskincare

#healthyskin

#glowingskin

 #skincaretips

#skincareaddict

#skincarelover

#skincarejunkie

#skincareproducts

#skincareroutine

#clearskin

#facial

Top online communities to help find beauty influencers:

Fashion Influencers

Top hashtags to help find fashion influencers:

#outfitoftheday

#ootd

#lookbook

#lookoftheday

#mylook

#mylooktoday

#todaysoutfit

#whatiwore

#wiw

#whatiworetoday

#streetstyle

 #fashion

#fashiongram

#instafashion

#instastyle

#fashiondiaries

#fashionpost

#fashionblogger

#fashionista

#fashionable

#fashiongirl

#fashionnova

 #fashiondesign

#fashiondesigner#fashiondaily#fashionaddict

#fashionlovers

#fashiontrends

#fashioninspo

#clothes

#clothing

#clothingline

#dress

 #mensfashion

#menfashion

#mensfashionpost

#mensstyle

#menstyle

#mensstreetstyle

#menswear

#mensweardaily

#menwithstreetstyle

#menshoes

#menwithclass

Top online communities to help find fashion influencers:

Travel Influencers

Top hashtags to help find travel influencers:

#travels

#travel

#traveler

#traveller

#travelling

#travellife

#travelblog

#travelblogger

#traveladdict

#traveldiaries

#travelingram

 #travelphoto

#travelphotography

#travelgram

#mytravelgram

#instatravel

#ilovetravel

#igtravel

#instago

#traveltheworld

#travelpics

#travelbug

 #aroundtheworld

#globetrotter

#seetheworld

#visiting

#wanderer

#worldtraveler

#bucketlist

#bucketlistadventures

#wandergram

#wanderlust

#wonderfulplaces

 #adventure

#adventures

#adventurer

#adventuretime

#backpacker

#backpacking

#explorer

#explorers

#exploretheworld

#exploremore

#getaway

Top online communities to help find travel influencers:

Fitness Influencers

Top hashtags to help find fitness influencers:

#fitness

#instafitness

#fitnessgoals

#fitnessmotivation

#fitnessjunkie

#fitnesslover

#fitnessblogger

#fitnesstips

#fitfluential

#fitlife

#fitfam

 #fitspo

#getfit

#youcandoit

#goalsetting

#trainhard

#noexcuses

#exercisetime

#gymlife

#gym

#gains

#workout

 #healthy

#healthyeating

#healthyfood

#healthylife

#healthylifestyle

#healthyrecipes

#fitfood

#nutrition

#eatclean

#cleaneating

#mealprep

 #girlswholift

#bodybuilding

#yoga

#crossfit

#instarunners

#sundayrunday

#legday

#chestday

#run

#running

#runners

Top online communities to help find fitness influencers:

Food Influencers

Top hashtags to help find food influencers:

#food

#foods

#foodporn

#foodgasm

#foodie

#foodies

#foodphotography

#foodblogger

#foodstagram

#foodbeast

#foodlover

 #instafood

#igfood

#foodtruck

#foodart

#foodoftheday

#foodpic

#foodpics

#foodgram

#foodblog

#healthyfood

#cooking

 #vegan

#veganfood

#chefmode

#breakfast

#lunch

#dinner

#eat

#dessert

#hungry

#hangry

#tasty

 #eat

#eating

#eats

#delish

#yum

#yummy

#nomnom

#forkyeah

#recipe

#recipes

#recipeoftheday

Top online communities to help find food influencers:

Okay. Your influencer marketing knowledge arsenal now contains all the steps for finding great influencers. Now, let’s turn our sights to building awesome campaigns.

Keep Reading: How to Build a Winning Influencer Strategy & Avoid Fake Influencers →

Influencer Marketing: Grow Your Business With Digital Influencers

Chapter 1: 6 Top Types of Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Chapter 2: Why You Should Choose Micro-Influencers over High-Profile Influencers
Chapter 3: How to Find Influencers in Your Industry
Chapter 4: How to Build a Winning Influencer Strategy & Avoid Fake Influencers
Chapter 5: How to Successfully Contact Influencers
Chapter 6: Top 8 Influencer Marketing Platforms and Apps
Chapter 7: The Ultimate Guide to Working With Instagram Influencers
Chapter 8: How to Unlock the Power of YouTube Influencers
Chapter 9: The Secrets to Working with Facebook Influencers