Micro-Influencers: Marketing agents of today
Influencing marketing has come a long way from using high budget giant media stars to taking less expensive and more effective social media honchos on board to promote a business, product or a brand. It all started with the advent of ‘start-up’ world. Where big brands like P&G, Ford, and PepsiCo etc. could afford to run their marketing campaigns featuring Bollywood stars with great fan following, small booming businesses like UrbanClap — Local Service Biz., nearby.com etc. chose to go with a new way of marketing. This new way leverages the social media platforms where millions of people connect via internet. And the key drivers and the change makers of these social media platforms with followers ranging from 10k — 100k plus in number started to be known as “Micro-influencers”. Today, no marketing campaign is complete without having these influencers on board to spread the word to a larger audience.
Micro-influencer can be any netizen from blogger to a normal person with high followers’ engagement on his/her social media channel like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat etc. They are found in almost all the sectors like food, fashion, beauty, sports, health and wellness and companies reach out to them with a goal to increase product or brand awareness and boost outreach strategies. Interestingly, the established business and the ones just starting out, both are reaching out to micro-influencers to raise audience’s curiosity quotient. The brands have realized how influencers’ perception among their fan following is changing the attitude and behavior of potential customer and leveraging it to create brand image in the market.
‘Micro-influencers’ — a new wave of marketing
Micro-influencers’ followers engagement is typically seen in terms of like rate, comment rate, and follower-ship. Studies have shown that activating multiple micro-influencers starts more number of conversations around the product than traditional marketing channels. There is a simple reason behind it. For example, if a health and nutrition company collaborates with a celebrity with 2 million followers, it can reach a large pool of audience, but 80 percent of them may not be interested in health products — the company would be able to gain more customers if it collaborates with micro-influencer who is an athlete or a body builder.
The marketing agencies use this new form of marketing as it helps them segment the customer base on the basis of age, demography, behavior etc. and target accordingly.
Recently, Instagram changed its feed algorithm in order to show the quality content. Now, posts from profiles which users follow and interact with the most will be shown first. It means a micro-influencers post is no less than a big brand promoted content and as a result will get more visibility. The rise in demand of micro-influencers has made them a new type of celebrities which fans have trustworthy and engaging relationship with. An interesting fact –
Micro-influencers can play a catalyst role in marketing campaigns. One of the plus points of collaborating with micro-influencers is the outreach depth. The level of engagement that micro-influencers have as compared to other big influencers is considerably high. Small size audience connects better, engages well, and forms a perfect segment to target.
Second, micro-influencers are more affordable and accessible when compared to top influencer and celebrities. The 2016 Bloglovin’ Global Influencer Survey indicates that — “59% of micro-influencers think Instagram is the most effective social media platform to engage their target audience”. Below is an interesting analysis of influencers’ outreach and the price they charge –
“What else does a company want other than a better ROI on marketing campaigns.”
Finding the right micro-influencer on social media
Firms use social media monitoring tools to look for micro-influencers. One important thing here is that one cannot choose an influencer just on the basis of the number of likes or followers. Bigger isn’t always better. Large numbers can sometimes be misleading as there is a possibility of fake profiles on social media. Best way is to use monitoring tools like Hootsuite, TweetReach, etc. to find if a profile is genuine by considering active and engaged followers, profile visits, visitors’ sentiments via ‘post’ reactions. Another useful Social Media Management tool — Agora Pulse automatically ranks influencers of your choice and gives you an option to pick the best amongst all.
A micro-influencer can play multiple roles for a brand. They can introduce a brand and act as ‘connector’; they can amplify the brand and its content and act as ‘megaphone’; they can give covers, reviews and be the ‘reporter’ for a brand, and so on. For a successful influencer marketing program it is imperative for the company to understand which role it wants influencer to play and chose strategically. Authenticity of a micro-influencers’ profile, kind of audience (age, demography, interests) and content shared by them, level and periodicity of followers’ engagement are some of the critical success factors to look for before hiring a influencer.
Alright, time for some final thoughts!
Undoubtedly, micro-influencers are playing the role of trend setters which was once controlled by big celebrities. All size brands — big and small, are looking out for the right micro-influencer to spread brand awareness, high scale social media engagement and building a new image especially in the online environment. Companies don’t reply only on number of likes and followers but using smart tools to pick the right influencer-fit for their marketing programs. As per past two years’ Google Trends Influence marketing is closing gap with video advertising and other traditional forms of marketing. On the basis of facts and results, it can be firmly stated that by including micro-influencers in marketing strategy, a firm can increase sales and create buzz in the market.
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