How To Find New Influencers via Niche Social Sites, Your Audience's Spouse, and Local Celebrities

The church of Santa Agueda in Sotillo de la Ribera, Spain, held an incredible secret. But what was more incredible was where the secret was hidden. As technicians were restoring a sculpture of Jesus from the church, they found a time capsule-like message in — get ready for this — Jesus’ butt!

You read right. The rear-end of the sculpture contained a lengthy message written by Joaquin Minguez in 1777. The message spoke of wine and agriculture, illness and fun games. And, of course, praise for the sculptor of the statue.

Archaeologists and restoration technicians are trained to leave no stone unturned. They are always look for hidden historic treasures. Fortunately, as in this story, they looked in the most unusual of places and were rewarded for their efforts.

Influencers can be found in all sorts of unusual, different places as well. If you’re limiting your search for an influencer to places where everyone else is looking, you’re bound to miss out on some hidden treasures. By thinking outside the box, and looking in obscure places, you’ll find influencers that would have remained hidden to you. In this article we’re going to discuss

1. Searching outside popular social media
2. Targeting your audience’s spouse
3. Connecting with local influencers

Let’s get started by looking beyond YouTube and Instagram.

Where is the first place everyone looks for influencers?

Social media right? It’s all the rage right now – using social media for influencer marketing. If I asked you to guess which social media platforms are used the most, I’m sure you’d get the answer right. Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. There’s a couple reasons for this – one is that they are the biggest kids in the social media playground. The second reason is that these three platforms have already proven themselves to work wonderfully with influencer marketing. But there is a lot of treasure waiting to be found if you dig a little further.

The smaller social media platforms aren’t exactly slouches

Twitter is a big player, but not in the influencer marketing world. Why is that? It may have been because of the post size limitations, but those have largely been removed. Today, Twitter is a great place to get into an underutilized influencer marketing platform. There’s also Twitters’ upstart new rival, Parler, which operates very similarly. Social media platforms popular with younger demographics shouldn’t be overlooked.

Tik Tok, Snapchat, and Pinterest all represent opportunity

The user growth curve for each of these platforms is still rising. While these platforms may not be used heavily by your target audience, they are still a great place for brand building. Besides, since we’re using influencer marketing with a long term perspective, as the younger demographic using these platforms ages, they’ll be aware of your business as they move into your target age group. These smaller social media platforms may work great for some businesses, but will they work for yours? It’s a great question. How can we think outside the box when we’re looking for influencers, if we’re sticking with YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook?

Who’s the most difficult person in your life to buy gifts for?

For the majority of us, if we’re in a relationship, it’s our partner. Buying gifts for my wife totally stresses me out. I wish someone would give me ideas on gifts to buy for her. That would make all the gift giving occasions much more enjoyable! Can you see where I’m going with this?

Why not collab with your spouse’s man-crush?

Obviously, your product isn’t for that audience, but think of the possibilities. For example, if one of the YouTube car gurus I watch shaved with a women’s razor, or tried some women’s deodorant (both bad gift ideas, I know), I would take note. Any male who sees a dude using a women’s product, they will be jolted into a state of awareness, and the product will stick in their head.

The same goes for a women influencer and a men’s product. When you’re looking for influencers, think in terms of who is going to be making the gift purchase. Imagine an influencer, who is a Grandparent, making YouTube videos of toy unboxing. Grandparents everywhere will be able to make informed gift buying decision for their grandkids. This can work in many different ways – these were just examples. However, for products in which connecting with an influencer based on age or gender doesn’t work, what other options are there?

Have you ever been star-struck seeing a local celebrity in person?

I have. I was probably ten years old at the time. Sylvia Kuzyk, our local evening news reporter, was walking through the mall, and I couldn’t believe it. I was in the presence of a famous person! Having been only ten at the time most likely contributed to my amazement. But still, she was a celebrity in my city, and she had influencer. At least, on me she did.

Local celebrities can include athletes, business owners, meteorologists, musicians, or anyone that has a social media following in a specific city. Granted, their reach is not as far and wide as your typical influencer, but they certainly do have influence. They represent a great way to introduce your brand to a specific geo-location.

You may be questioning the value in connecting with atypical influencers

Connecting with any influencer is not without risk. There are no guarantees, and I don’t think you’re asking for one. Partnering with influencers that you find outside of the usual sources provides an opportunity for promotion of your brand to new, untapped audiences.

Let’s look at how TenX Beard Products found new influencers

First, a disclaimer – I, Steve Kehler, am the owner of TenX Beard Products. I’m going to share the results we found connecting with influencers. The men’s grooming products space is crowded. Popular influencers are almost overwhelmed with opportunities from businesses. So, I decided to go outside the comfort zone in my search for influencers for TenX Beard Products.

I reached out to women influencers who had husbands with beards. For the most part, they were happy to share our product with their husbands. Based on their husbands’ opinion, they created content suitable for their audience. Their content included the promotion of a special offer to their audience. I’ve been very happy with the results, and continue to connect with influencers that don’t normally promote men’s grooming products.

In summary – influencers are everywhere

There are many opportunities for connecting with influencers that your competition hasn’t already found. Don’t be afraid to look in places you wouldn’t have before. This article discussed three places to find new influencers, which included:

1. Outside popular social media
2. Your audience’s spouse
3. Local celebrities

If the restoration technicians in Spain had not done a through job while restoring that sculpture of Jesus, they would never have found that letter from Joaquin Minguez. When searching for influencers, look everywhere. You will find quality influencers in places you wouldn’t expect.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If you enjoyed it and found it helpful, please share it with your social media. For your next reading on influencer marketing, I’d recommend you read my article titled “How Fewer Influencer Collaborations Can Increase Your Sales.” It discusses how to evaluate influencer marketing campaigns and how to scale them up.

Also published on Medium's subdomain.