How to Find Nano Influencers

Finding the right influencers for your brand doesn’t mean you have to chase creators with hundreds of thousands of followers. In fact, some of the most powerful collaborations come from nano influencers - passionate, niche experts with smaller crowds who hang on their every word. This guide gives you actionable, step-by-step strategies for discovering these hidden gems and building authentic partnerships that truly resonate.

What Exactly Is a Nano Influencer (and Why Should You Care)?

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly cover the "what" and the "why." Nano influencers are typically defined as creators with audiences between 1,000 and 10,000 followers on a social media platform. They might not have celebrity status, but what they do have is far more valuable for many brands: influence rooted in trust.

Here’s why they’re so effective:

• Sky-High Engagement: Nano influencers often have a much more personal relationship with their followers. Their comments sections are filled with real conversations, not just fire emojis. Because their community is smaller, they can interact more directly, leading to engagement rates that often blow larger accounts out of the water.
• Authenticity and Trust: A recommendation from a nano influencer feels like a suggestion from a trusted friend. Their followers see them as peers and value their opinions highly. They aren't just selling products, they’re sharing things they genuinely love with a community they’ve carefully built.
• Budget-Friendly Partnerships: Partnering with a mega-influencer can require a massive budget. Nano influencers, however, are far more accessible. Many are open to collaborating in exchange for free products, and those who charge for sponsored posts typically have rates that are manageable for small and medium-sized businesses.
• Hyper-Targeted Niche Audiences: Need to reach rock climbers in Colorado who love sustainable gear? Or home cooks in the Pacific Northwest who specialize in vegan baking? There’s a nano influencer for that. Their niche focus allows you to connect with a highly specific, motivated audience that’s a perfect match for your product.

Before You Search: Define Your Ideal Influencer

Jumping into a search without a clear idea of who you're looking for is like grocery shopping without a list - you’ll get distracted by shiny things and forget what you actually came for. Before you start searching, take a moment to define your ideal influencer persona. This focus will make your search significantly faster and more effective.

Ask yourself these four questions:

1. Who is my target audience? Be specific. Don't just say "millennials." Think about their interests, values, and where they spend their time online. The best influencer is someone your ideal customer already follows and trusts.
2. What are my campaign goals? Are you trying to boost brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate sales, or source user-generated content (UGC)? Your goal will shape the type of creator and content you need.
3. What are our brand values? Your chosen influencers will be an extension of your brand. Make sure their values - whether it’s sustainability, inclusivity, humor, or craftsmanship - align with yours. A mismatch here can feel inauthentic to both audiences.
4. Which platform makes the most sense? If you sell a highly visual product, Instagram or TikTok might be best. If you're a B2B service, a LinkedIn nano influencer could be a great fit. Focus your search on the platform where your audience is most active.

Once you have these answers, sketch out a simple Influencer Persona. For example, a sustainable skincare brand might look for: "An LA-based creator, age 25-35, who focuses on clean beauty and low-waste living. Their content aesthetic is bright and minimal. They have an engaged audience of women who value product ingredients and ethical sourcing."

With this profile in hand, you're ready to start the hunt.

7 Actionable Ways to Find Nano Influencers Today

Ready to find your perfect matches? These methods are practical, mostly free, and can be started right now. Dive into one or try a combination of a few.

1. Look Through Your Existing Brand Advocates

The best place to start is often right in your own backyard. Your most passionate and authentic advocates are the people who already follow you, love your products, and tag you in their posts for free. These are your warmest leads for influencer partnerships.

How to do it:

• Scan your followers: Look for profiles that match your influencer persona. Check their follower count and content. You might be surprised to find some great potential partners already in your community.
• Check your tags and mentions: Who is posting about your brand and tagging you? Keep a running list of anyone creating high-quality content featuring your products. These are people who genuinely love what you do.
• Review your comments: Look for followers who consistently leave thoughtful, engaging comments on your posts. A quick click on their profile might reveal a creator who’s a perfect fit.

2. Master the Art of Hashtag Exploration

Hashtags are direct pathways to niche communities. The key is to think beyond broad, popular tags and dig into the hyper-specific ones where your ideal creators are having conversations.

How to do it:

• Go niche: Instead of searching for #fitness (with millions of posts), try something more specific like #postpartumfitnessjourney or #nycyogateacher.
• Add qualifiers: Combine niche topics with locations or descriptors. For instance, a vintage clothing store could search for #denvervintagestyle or #chicagothrifter. A vegan coffee shop could look at #bostonveganeats.
• Use the "Recent" tab: When you search a hashtag on Instagram, the platform defaults to "Top" posts. Switch over to the "Recent" tab. This shows you content in chronological order, allowing you to discover newer and smaller creators who aren't yet hitting the top results.

3. Dig into Location and Competitor Tags

Geotags and tagged posts on other accounts are goldmines for discovery. This strategy helps you find creators who are active in relevant locations or who are already interested in your industry.

How to do it:

• Explore location tags: If you're a local business, this is a must. Search for your city, neighborhood, or even nearby landmarks and businesses (like a popular coffee shop or park). See who’s posting high-quality content from those places.
• Check competitor's tagged photos: Go to the profile of a direct competitor or a larger complementary brand. Look at their "Tagged" photos section. This will show you all the public posts where other users have tagged them - a ready-made list of people interested in your industry.

4. Sift Through Your Competitors' Collaborations

Why reinvent the wheel? See who your direct competitors are working with. This gives you a list of creators who are already vetted, active in your niche, and open to brand partnerships.

How to do it:

• Scroll through the feeds of a few of your top competitors. Look for posts that are clearly sponsored (they should be marked with #ad, #sponsored, or use the platform’s "Paid Partnership" label).
• Pay special attention to the smaller influencers they collaborate with. If a competitor saw value in partnering with them, there's a good chance they could be a fit for you too.

5. Read the Comments Section

This is a clever and underutilized tactic. Thoughtful people with a specific point of view often hang out in the comments sections of larger accounts in their niche. These people are frequently nano influencers themselves.

How to do it:

1. Find a popular post from a macro-influencer or big brand in your industry.
2. Scroll through the comments. Ignore the one-word replies and look for thoughtful, relevant, or funny comments that add value to the conversation.
3. Click on the profiles of the people who wrote them. You'll often find they are creators in that same space, building their own engaged communities.

6. Put Google to Work for You

Your search for social media influencers doesn't have to be limited to social media apps. With a few smart search strings, you can use Google to uncover blog posts and articles that list emerging creators in your niche.

How to do it:
Use specific search phrases like:

• "top [your niche] bloggers in [your city]" (e.g., "top Toronto food bloggers")
• "best [your niche] Instagram accounts to follow"
• "up-and-coming [your niche] TikTok creators"

These searches will often surface list-style articles that are perfect for discovering nano influencers you might have otherwise missed.

7. Check Out Influencer Discovery Tools

If you have some budget and need to find nano influencers at a larger scale, dedicated influencer marketing platforms can streamline the process. Tools like Grin, Upfluence, and Aspire allow you to filter creators by niche, location, follower count, engagement rate, and more.

While some of these platforms can be expensive, many offer different tiers and can save you a lot of manual search time if you plan to run a larger influencer program.

Found Some Candidates? Here’s How to Vet Them

Finding a potential partner is only half the battle. Now you need to vet them to make sure they're a good fit. This quick quality-control checklist will help you separate the great from the good-on-paper.

Vetting Checklist:

• Content Quality and Alignment: Does their content style, photo quality, and overall vibe match your brand's aesthetic? Imagine their content on your feed. Does it fit?
• Audience Engagement: Look beyond the number of likes. Are their followers leaving genuine comments? More importantly, is the influencer responding and fostering a community? Lots of followers but a dead comments section is a major red flag.
• Authenticity and Voice: Does their personality shine through? A creator who is passionate and authentic will be a much more convincing advocate for your brand than someone who feels generic.
• Follower Health: Check for signs of fake followers or engagement. Warning signs include a high follower count with very low engagement, a large number of followers with no profile pictures, or generic comments like "Great post!" from bots.
• Previous Partnerships: A quick look at their past sponsored work is important. How did they disclose the partnership? Was the content creative and in their own voice? You want a partner who can integrate a sponsored message naturally.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right nano influencers is about looking for genuine connection, not just follower counts. These creators pack a powerful punch with their trusted voices and engaged communities, and by using a mix of strategic searching on social platforms and thoughtful vetting, you can build partnerships that drive real results.

Once you start building these creator relationships, keeping your content plans and collaborations organized is the next step. At Postbase, we designed our visual content calendar with exactly this in mind. It lets you see all your scheduled posts - including influencer-generated content - in one clean view, helping you manage campaigns without cluttered spreadsheets and ensuring your brand messaging stays cohesive across all your channels.