What The **** Is A MICRO Influencer?
Because We Left MACRO Influencers In 2017
What is the most effective way to sell a product? A referral from a friend.
How do you scale that? Influencers.
There’s a huge difference between an influencer and a celebrity.
Kim Kardashian is not an influencer. She’s a celebrity.
Selena Gomez is not an influencer. She’s a celebrity, too.
Lebron? Same thing.
That’s not to say that they don’t wield influence. They certainly do. All I’m saying is that you should think twice before paying Kim $500,000 per post. There are probably better ways to spend that.
This is the key differentiator between celebrity endorsements and true influencer marketing. Celebrity endorsements are timeless; influencer marketing is a revelation of a democratized media landscape.
For Micro Influencers, every one of their followers are a friend. The clout and trust that they carry allows you to derive the same benefits as a friendly referral — higher purchase price, less negotiation, shorter sales cycles, longer life cycles — while tapping into a larger network of people in your key demographic.
What happens when you get too many friends, and you can’t give each and every friend the quality time that they deserve? They feel neglected. They move on. You lose influence.
Macro Influencers have the detriments of being a celebrity without the top line reach to compensate — leaving them in a no mans land.
What qualifies as a micro influencer?
The key metric is influence; not reach. Some will say it is somebody between 5,000–10,000 followers. Others say it is less than 100,000.
These numbers are arbitrary divisions. However, historically, when an influencer hits 100,000 followers, their engagement drops by 20%.
To this note, the only time you should factor top line reach into your decision-making process is when you’re determining your budget and how many people you need to reach. Just focus on finding influencers that fit your brand and have the attention of audiences that are aligned to your brand.
The problem with micro influencers, is they’re MICRO — i.e. hard to find.
Shameless plug time: I started a micro influencer search engine company. It’s $49/month for unlimited searches based on keywords and geography, and you can find thousands of micro influencers that are vetted, active, and don’t have follower bases built around buying followers (because that’s stupid).
You can sign up for a 7 day free trial at influencr.life
Want to build out your influencer campaign but are struggling with any particular step? Is there no particular step that you’re struggling with, and you just need help in general? I’m happy to help. Shoot me an email at tristan@tarpleyholdings.com.
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