Today, an influencer equals a celebrity. Such is the influence of social media on both consumers and brand. In fact, influencers accounts on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook are touted to be more reliable and impactful than brands’ advertisements, celebrity endorsements and promotional campaigns.
After a fair-share of trial and errors with high-powered, internet celebrities and influencers, brand have now narrowed down their search to ‘micro-influencers’ to create engaged communities of consumers.
Micro-influencers are anyone with 1,000 to 10,000 followers on their social media accounts. Their interests could be anything from beauty, DIY, technology, health, fitness, yoga, fashion and others. In the Instagram world, they are the ‘promising starlets with higher conversion potential’!
Also, the engagements are economical i,e 6.7X cost-efficient and with 22.2 percent more weekly conversations than that of regular consumers.
If your brand is still wondering why, then below are some of the advantages that make a collaboration with a micro-influencer seem worthwhile:
Micro-influencers have a reach to a smaller audience groups than a celebrity with a rather large follower/fan base. Moreover the audience in a micro-influencers’ account are homogeneous groups with similar interests, age and demographics which makes it easier for brands to target a product or service that is purely intended for a particular group of customers. Macro influencers have thousands to millions of followers with diverse interests which results in diluting the campaign impact.
Moreover, with fewer followers that are legit and micro-influencers’ content that are personally curated for the audience, it make their accounts more relatable and reliable unlike that of a macro-influencer who may have purchased engagements and followers.
Owing to the size of the group, interaction between a micro-influencer and followers are easier and quicker to note and analyze audience/followers’ responses to a product or service.
Most brands prefer their story to be presented by a real person whose ideas and value systems resonate with what their vision or products advocate. It may require minimal effort to research and create content and posts for a micro-influencer with a pretty straight-forward followers groups. The content can be easily aligned with audience’s interest and also promote the brand with super-structured campaigns.
Additionally, micro-influencers tend to have more realistic insights about their niche content which gives all the more reason for followers to trust their product or brand recommendations.
According to Forbes, an account with over a million followers can earn upwards of $50k for a single sponsored post (depending on its engagement). Realistically, not every brand can manage to shell out a huge sum on posts and campaigns that are not sustainable. While partnering with celebrities and influencers with a very large following on social media, brands have suddenly shift opinions and are more aware of the inherent risks of campaign failures and financial losses. Affordability and cost per engagement matter more than the number of followers, comments and likes in the long run.
Micro-influencers are affordable and due to their higher engagement, the campaigns also tend be more efficient as the brand mascot is a regular user or consumer of a product.
As the gig-economy continues to surge and the charm of massive internet influencers lowers with exposure of fraud and inauthentic social media strategies, micro-influencer are the next big source of self-employment.
The credibility of micro-influencers is purely based on the audience’ perceived levels of trust and brand sentiments. The low risk and higher returns factor of micro-influencer collaborations is laying down the foundation for campaigns that pave the way for nano-influencers to disrupt the space.