4 Types of Social Media Influencers You Must Know

What is an Influencer?

An influencer is someone who influences the buying decisions of people on social media. People listen to them because they have built trust with their followers and people respect their opinions.

Influencers usually choose a niche that they are passionate about, and promote marketing products or services from brands in that niche. For example, someone who is passionate about travel may promote things such as tourism packages/ resorts on their page.

Social media influencers are content creators

First and foremost, the answer to what are social media influencers is, at the heart of it “they are content creators,” because you can’t yield influence in social media without digital content. This covers a large variety of activities, from blogging to video production and photography. No matter what they create, however, their content is of a certain quality and relevance to their audience. Otherwise, not many people would consume it. Furthermore, the content is focused on a particular niche. If it wasn’t, then they would have a harder time building a sphere of influence. Focus is also important to building trust with an audience over time.

What are the qualities of a good influencer? 

The most important quality of a good influencer is that they are authentic and trustworthy. Not only do they align with your brand, they also have the best intentions of their followers at heart.

Second, to promote your product well, they should be sociable and friendly.

Finally, they should be an expert content creator with the marketing skills and creativity to match it.

Types of influencer

Nano Influencer

Nano influencers are defined as having between 1k-10k followers on their social media channels. Their smaller audience does not mean their influence is less, because their followers are typically highly engaged and trust their opinion. Nano influencers foster a strong relationship with their digital followers, who they’re likely very connected to. As a result, their engagement rates tend to be high.

If you have a smaller budget but want to dip your toes into the successful world of influencer marketing, then yes, nano influencers are perfect for your brand. Less expensive than influencers with bigger followings, their high engagement rates can bring excellent value to your brand.

Micro Influencer

Micro influencers are defined as having between 10k-100k followers. Despite having a larger following than nano influencers, they still manage to maintain a similar “relatability” or “authenticity” factor. Which, in turn, means they still have high engagement rates. Often, micro influencers fall into a particular niche or category, that can be specific to a particular location, job, hobby or…pretty much anything.

Micro influencers aren’t celebrities, so they build their following based on high value content and trust. Since people follow micro influencers for this closer relationship and the value they offer, they make great brand ambassadors.

Macro Influencer

Macro influencers have between 100,000 to one million followers. Their reach is much bigger than micro and nano influencers.These are often content creators who have made careers out of their social media presence – Internet famous. They could be bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, TikTok influencers, Instagram\etc. What differentiates them from mega influencers is the very fact that their fame tends to be due to online growth rather than celebrity growth.

These will have higher engagement levels than mega influencers, but perhaps less engagement in a specific niche than nano or micro influencers.

Mega Influencer

Mega influencers have more than one million followers and are usually offline celebrities as well as online celebrities. The sheer number of followers is the highest in the influencer category. Due to their celebrity status and huge following, they tend to be expensive to work with. What’s more, their audience is too large to be operating within one single niche, so their audience will be broad and span numerous demographics and interests. As such, their value for your brand may not be as high as micro influencers, for example.

How to work with an influencer

Once you find your influencers, you need to convince them to work with you. As influencer marketing grows more popular, the demand for influencers is rising. A few ways to connect with influential figures include:

• Gifting them with goods and services: Identify people who share the same values as your brand and give them free versions of your product in exchange for a review. Publish your reviews to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and your website.
• Sponsor posts: Seek out bloggers with impact in your industry and pay for them to write a blog or article relevant to your space. This is a less labor-intensive way to work with influencers.
• Guest posts: Ask people to write on your website, or request to place a piece of content on their site instead. This helps to boost brand reach.

The benefits of working with influencers

• Increases brand awareness: Gain exposure to your influencer’s existing audience. This market is already engaged and waiting for relevant content.
• Builds trust: Consumers already trust the opinions of the influencers they follow. Influencers instantly boost the credibility of your brand.
• Improves customer relationships: Strengthen relationships with your customers through the intimate existing connections influencers have with them.
• They improve your brand: The positive connection influencers already have with customers causes a “halo effect” which strengthens the company in the eyes of the consumer.
• Improves SEO: Working with influencers offers opportunities for link-building. More links lead to better search rankings.