The typical micro influencer is a female millennial. She’s between the ages of 18 and 34 with 2,000 – 5,000 followers on Instagram. However, micro influencers could have up to 10,000 followers. She uses social media platforms to build her personal brand and her top passions include fashion, beauty, travel, and fitness. This millennial female tends to spend more monthly than the average female too.
Macro Influencer
A macro influencer has millions of followers across all social media platforms. They’re celebrities and have the ability to reach enormous audiences. Using a macro influencer is expensive and doesn’t always have the ROI that’s expected. The idea of a macro influencer supporting your product sounds ideal but may not always be the best choice. Consumers are aware that celebrities get paid to promote products and don’t always believe the content being posted is genuine.
Benefits of a Micro Influencer
Many brands are beginning to lean towards hiring multiple micro influencers on social platforms, such as Instagram, rather than one macro influencer. A micro influencer is a real person who has a smaller following but in the long run, tends to have more benefits than a macro influencer. They have high engagement rates when compared to macro influencers. According to recent research, as the number of followers on Instagram increase, engagement rates begin to drop. Users with < 1,000 followers have a “like” rate of 8% and those with 1,000-10,000 followers only have a 4% “like” rate.
Not only does the audience tend to engage with posts more, the audience of a micro influencer is more targeted. These influencers are typically more connected with their audience because they cater to a specific niche. Micro influencers have more focused content on their pages and have a deep passion or expertise in the subject matter, making the content being promoted feel more authentic.
Measuring Success
Influencers are ideally raising awareness to your brand in a positive way and helping you target the desired audience. Measuring their success brings the brand more success. Promo codes are an easy way to track how many followers took advantage of a code influencers post and an easy way to see how each individual is performing. Custom URLs are a similar option that works just as well. Tracking user engagement on both influencer and brand channels can give a better picture of your ROI.
Final Thoughts
As the social media world’s growth continues at a rapid pace, as marketers we have to keep up. Micro influencers can help brands engage more and better understand their target audiences. It may take a little more work having to manage multiple personalities at once but having different types of people promoting a brand will expand the brand audience and hopefully generate sales.
