How to Find Influencers for Authors

Collaborating with influencers is an important marketing tool that can get your self-published book to people who will love it. Where your readers spend time determine where you should begin looking for influencers to collaborate with. Do people who enjoy your book spend time scrolling through spooky houses on Instagram or are they collecting Amish-style recipes on Pinterest? After figuring out where your readers are, you can use the tools below to identify and contact the influencers that your readers follow.

Instagram: Influence.co

The average influencer platform simply cannot do what Influence.co allows you to achieve. Because it acts as a social media platform itself, Influence.co means that you can connect and build relationships with at least 150,000 influencers. With a pool this large, you will be able to find an influencer right for your book. Depending on your needs, this platform also hosts more than 70,000 businesses and 30,000 other professionals. Because of this unique platform’s nature, it lends itself to more genuine interactions and stronger relationships.

Influence.co offers two options: free and paid. Try out the free version to build your profile and access the community. In the free version, you can conduct limited searches, experiment with campaigns, and send up to 12 messages per month. If you think you can find the right influencers for your book with 50 search results and 12 messages per month, this might be the right option for you. Unlock the paid version to access unlimited advanced searches, multiple profiles, analytics on your campaigns, and lead sourcing. 

TikTok: InfluenceGrid

InfluenceGrid operates as a search engine to help you find the TikTok influencers who will be most interested in your book. With this tool, you will be able to find influencers in your book’s niche, filter for a variety of analytical data, and export a list of verified contact information to begin making connections.

If you already know a few TikTok influencers who are connected with potential readers, you can use InfluenceGrid’s username search to find their contact information. Then, it is a short step to make contact. However, if you do not know which influencers are right to help bring your books to readers, the search filters can help. To verify that an influencer’s message is a good match for your book, InfluenceGrid’s dashboard shows each influencer’s most recent videos.

This search engine comes in varying price levels that offer different degrees of functionality. A free option makes it possible to search without filters and to see the first five results. If you pay for a subscription, you can apply filters like location and category to your searches to make it easier to find the right influencers. Data can then be exported into a CSV file.

Twitter: Crowdfire

If you would rather spend time writing your next book than finding, creating, and cross-posting content, Crowdfire might be for you. It is a robust tool that allows you to find pertinent content and post it to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and, with a paid plan, Pinterest. Once you figure out where your readers spend time, you can begin building profiles packed with good content to attract new readers and retain the readers who already follow you.

By posting a mix of your own content and third-party articles, you will maximize engagement with your readers. To help you find interesting third-party content, Crowdfire provides a feed of scrollable articles on a variety of topics. The scheduling feature means that you can spend less time posting to social media and more time writing. Filling your social media profiles with intriguing content is one of the best ways to keep your readers engaged. Engaged readers are more likely to share your posts with their friends which means introducing your book to whole new communities of potential readers.

Snapchat: gen.video

If you prefer a hands-off approach, gen.video might be the platform for you. From start to finish, gen.video handles strategy, influencer discovery, content creation, and contracts. This keeps your inbox clear and means that you can devote nearly all of your attention to doing what you really love: writing.

Access to an intuitive dashboard means that you can check in to see how effective your campaigns are. At any time, you can see each campaign’s reach, how many times it has been shared, and how much engagement each influencer is achieving.

With gen.video, you will have access to professional-level engagement. This company has orchestrated successful campaigns for some of the most recognizable businesses in the marketplace today. If your readers spend time on Snapchat, gen.video is one of the best tools to reach them.

Youtube & Pinterest: Upfluence

Depending on how you use it, Upfluence can be both ‘an all-in-one influencer service or a way to identify which influencers have the right audience to receive your book. A massive database of three million influencers is constantly updated and indexed by an artificial intelligence system.

Finding the right influencers in a number that large might seem as impossible as finding a needle in a haystack. However, the powerful search engine makes it pretty easy. You can use keywords to filter results until you have a manageable shortlist. Unlike other search engines, you are also able to assign weight to each keyword.

With a free Chrome browser extension, Upfluence allows you to take the driver’s seat to get your book to the influencers who will make the biggest difference. While you are on an influencer’s page, the extension shows you an influencer’s real-time analytics across all of their platforms. By knowing at a glance how much reach an influencer has, you will be able to know which to track down and connect with.

Email Addresses & Contact Information: Hunter.io

Not all influencers are Instagram stars and TikTok personalities. Maybe many readers interested in your niche follow a blog or other, more traditional, website. Finding who to contact to collaborate with this content creator can be difficult. That is when Hunter.io becomes useful. All you have to do is search the domain name in Hunter.io, and you will find any email addresses associated with that website. Armed with the appropriate contact information, you can reach out to begin the collaboration process. With the free plan, you can conduct up to 100 searches every month.

Hunter.io also works in reverse to verify email addresses. Maybe you have an email address, but you want to make sure it belongs to someone on a specific website. Enter the email address in the search bar, and you will find any domains attached to it. This verification can save you time, effort, and embarrassment.

To make it as easy as possible to find the information you need to find, Hunter.io is also available as a browser plugin. Without having to open a new tab, you can discover any email addresses that are attached to that website. This way, you do not have to lose your focus as you go down the research rabbit hole.

How to Find Influencers

From the do-it-yourself approach to the all-inclusive platform, there are as many ways to connect with influencers as there are different genres of books. Which one is right for you and your book depends on your niche. Of course, you may need to use all of these tools in combination to achieve the perfect approach. Once you have connected with an influencer, you can begin building a relationship that will last beyond this book and into your future projects.