What is a micro-influencer?

It’s safe to say that influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, the influencer market has become increasingly oversaturated, making it difficult to pinpoint genuine success when it comes to influencing. Traditional influencers with hundreds-of-thousands of followers can be deemed a celebrity, which is unrelatable to most of us, unfortunately. 

When it comes to being influenced to buy anything, it’s safe to say that we’re more likely to trust a friend over a celebrity. This has wedged a gap in the market for influencers who people can actually relate to, the micro-influencers. 

In a nutshell, micro-influencers are everyday people who have a decent social following that’s subjected to a particular passion or niche. What makes micro-influencers so great is that they are relatable and trustworthy. Think of micro-influencing as word of mouth marketing, but without any limits.

Usually, micro-influencers have fewer than 10,000 followers on Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube. Influencer marketing recently has been at the core of many direct-to-consumer brand’s media strategies. Studies even show that merely 70% of millennials are influenced by their peers when it comes to consuming. Another great thing about micro-influencers is that there’s a huge pool to pick from. This makes it easier to market to your niche and build a community that will identify with your brand.

(image sourced from thehill.com)

How micro-influencers can improve your business?

Considering customer’s trust in advertising has never been lower, it makes sense that influencer marketing is so successful for brands. The lust for authenticity when it comes to social media conversations is all based on genuine recommendations. Having a smaller audience or amount of followers means more of a personal connection, and this intimate sense of knowing who a micro-influencer ‘really is’ helps create a sense of understanding between the influencer and their followers. Micro-influencers essentially gain more respect from his or her audience and know how to continue creating content that they know is relatable and will resonate. Micro-influencers are proven to drive a brand’s sales sufficiently. 

On Instagram, when it comes to Influencer Marketing services, as the following base continues to increase – the engagement rate decreases. Micro-influencers with 10,000 followers have a 2.4 percent like rate, versus those with 1 million to 10 million have a 1.7 percent like rate on their photos. Using micro-influencers also allows you to be able to try different strategies to see which performs best with your brand.

Micro-influencing campaigns are a good investment for any company of any size. Especially if you’re a smaller business who doesn’t have a big budget, but wants to build brand awareness online and increase your following. Micro-influencers in short are the perfect social media service to build trust, customer loyalty and promote sales.

How to become a micro-influencer

To become a micro-influencer, all you really need is a social media account. Being an expert or having experience on a certain topic creates a sense of personality that will help you gain followers. When it comes to creating the right content, it’s important to value quality over quantity. Social media video services are a great and easy way to make content that is easily digested and engaged with. Videos can perfectly illustrate your unique message or skill and are easily transferable between social media platforms. 

Knowing the difference between social media platforms will help you build your own brand. For example, if you are interested in fashion or beauty, it makes sense to focus on highly visual platforms such as Pinterest or Instagram, but if you say a marketing agency service, it makes more sense to build a network on LinkedIn. 

As humans, we love telling stories – so much that we even do it in our sleep. Social media is the perfect way to get your own stories out there. Being proactive and consistent online naturally helps build your own profile and account, but being honest and creative will make you really stand out. The rise of micro-influencers in social media marketing proves that there is a universal interest in raw, authentic and genuine reviews and content. Let that be the foundation of your profile.

How to find micro-influencers

A good place to start when it comes to finding the right micro-influencer to represent your brand is knowing your goals. The concept of social media marketing can be daunting, but the right influencer will be someone who will help you reach your target audience. 

Here are the specific steps we recommend when trying to find the right micro-influencers:

Outline key marketing objectives

Since influencer partnerships and campaigns can have multiple results, it’s important to start the process of finding the right influencer by knowing which one is most important to your business. If you’re relatively new to social media marketing as a brand, you may feel it is most important to build brand awareness or identity. If you’re already present on social media, your key objective may be building your audience or engagement. If you’re launching a campaign with a particular message, you may be focused on advocacy or contributing to a trending/generational conversation… or your key objective may just be building loyalty with your customers and boosting sales. Clearly defining your objectives will help you build data and assess the results of your work with micro-influencers, and determine which relationships achieved the best results.

Visualize the campaign you’d like to run

Identifying the type of campaign you want to run will lead you to find the type of micro-influencers you want to work with. Different types of campaigns include: 

• Gifting: exchanging gifts with influencers for mentions or posts 
• Sponsored content: paying an influencer to create or share your branded content 
• Giveaways or contests: creating an incentive that mentions your brand or content for followers to get involved in 
• Takeovers or guest posting: letting an influencer take over your social channels, write for your blog, etc. 
• Discount codes: allowing influencers to give discount codes for your brand to their followers and audience 
• Affiliate schemes: using affiliate codes so influencers can earn money each time someone through their channel purchases from your brand 
• Brand ambassadors: forming a partnership with an influencer who will promote your brand regularly in exchange for perks

Know your niche 

Setting up a google alert on industry-related news is a consistent way to see who is already talking about your niche. Browsing forums and hashtags can also help identify people who are regularly posting about your industry. It’s a good idea to start with popular accounts in your industry when thinking of building brand awareness since they have the biggest audience. Seeing how your competitors are approaching micro-influencer marketing can also help lead to finding the right accounts to monitor or reach-out to. Chances are, if an influencer is already mentioning your competitor or posting content about them, they will be interested in hearing about your brand. 

See who your audience is already following 

The right influencers don’t necessarily have to be tied to your industry. Working with influencers in an industry that overlaps is complementary because it helps you reach a different audience. Conducting a target analysis will help you fully understand your ideal audience and their needs. Monitoring what other sites you target audience visit will also help you build your reach, and find more influencers outside your usual niche. This will help connect your target audience to a space that your competitors might not have been in yet. 

Use #hashtags and keyword searches 

Since most social media platforms have search engines, exploring hashtags and keywords is a great way to find micro-influencers. Some micro-influencers who may not know your brand will still show up in hashtags related to your brand’s message, and they might have the potential to be interested in your brand. Come up with a list of keywords that relate to your business or industry, and routinely search the hashtag on the search engine to identify influencers. Make sure if you’re searching hashtags that they are specific, and go through the posts that turn up and see what discussions are going on in your industry or niche. 

Influencer Agencies and Micro-Influencers 

Influencer agencies use micro-influencing services to create impactful and effective campaigns. Socially Powerful uses a bespoke strategy that isn’t tied to any third-party talent of any kind, to ensure the success of a campaign is driven by metrics and data. Combining social media services is also key to an effective and successful digital marketing campaign. This means using community management services to monitor and create micro-influencer campaigns. 

Micro-influencers have proven with their success that they are much more than a buzzword. Content that fits organically into people’s feeds and shows the products in ‘real-life’ situations is much more likely to resonate with consumers. The great thing about micro-influencer marketing is that it works for any business of any size. Whether a brand has the budget to be endorsed by a celebrity or not, influencer marketing campaigns are a strategic way to grow an online social media presence. 

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

If you want to receive our industry insights, visit our Influencer Marketing & Social Media blogs here.

@ Socially Powerful

[cta]

Popular Blogs

Most Popular Instagram Hashtags | Tiktok Hashtags | Instagram Monetization | Facebook Banner Size | Snapchat Influencers | Most Subscribed Youtubers | Best Time to Post on Youtube | UK Twitch Streamers | Female Twitch Streamers | Popular Tiktok Songs | Male Tiktok Influencers | Lgbtq Tiktok Influencers | The Rise and Fall of Clubhouse  | Influencer Marketing on Clubhouse | LiketoKnowit | Pretty Little Thing Instagram| Social Marketing Agency