Top Influencer Instagram: Sourcing Through Social Anthropology

Molly Cole, an influencer marketer with nearly five years of experience and creator program lead at Epic Gardening, breaks down her Instagram sourcing process in under two minutes. Rather than relying on databases or third-party tools, Molly treats discovery like social anthropology: she maps who follows who, who comments on what, and which accounts cluster around gardening, homemaking, cooking, and organic living.

She specifically looks for creators who already follow Epic Gardening, and flags anyone commenting on their own content as a higher-priority outreach target. She takes it one step further by cross-referencing prospects in Shopify to see if they have purchased from the brand before reaching out, which makes the conversation warmer from the first message. Molly also runs a private Instagram account that creators follow, giving her an additional touchpoint for building real relationships before any formal partnership begins.

If you want a repeatable, low-cost system for finding top influencer Instagram talent hiding in plain sight inside your own community, this is worth your two minutes.