Picture this: you are scrolling through your Instagram feed, and you see a classmate from high school. Your old friend's profile prominently declares that they are now an #influencer. After a few seconds of hesitation, your curiosity gets the best of you, so you click the tagged account and see that they only have ten thousand followers! Wait a minute! Aren't influencers people like Kim Kardashian with many millions of followers? So what gives? Is your old friend just living in a fantasy world, or is there something more to it?
There are over a billion Instagram users and almost three billion Facebook users. That's a lot of users, but how many of them are influencers? Well, that depends on how you define influencers. Influencers are simply those who influence others by creating content of interest to a particular audience. So while big names like the Kardashians or Jake Paul may spring to mind, almost everyone on social media influences someone, even if their audience is just their immediate
family or closest friends. It is helpful to consider the different types of influencers and decide which ones are appropriate for your marketing strategy. Here is a list of different types of influencers.
The Everyday Influencer
The first type of influencer is the Everyday Influencer. The everyday influencer is your typical social media user who influencers their circle of family members, friends, and acquaintances who follow them on social media. Everyday influencers seldom consider themselves influencers: their tastes and dislikes drive their social media actions. They typically have the smallest following of our influencer types. However, they represent the vast majority of social media influencers. Basically, anyone with a social media account can consider themselves to be an everyday influencer.
Brand Advocates
Brand Advocates are loyal customers who promote a company through word of mouth. This type of influencer does not get paid for their work. Instead, brand advocates share about a company because they had a fulfilling experience. There is a high chance that you have participated in brand advocacy without even realizing it! For example, if your social media account has tagged a favorable store or restaurant, you most likely drew one of your followers to their account.
Micro-Influencers
A micro-influencer typically has a follower count ranging from 2,000 to 50,000 followers. Micro-influencers tend to have fewer followers but a more concentrated audience. Brands can hire a micro-influencer as an inexpensive yet quick way to reach a local group or an audience with a shared interest.
Macro-Influencer
If a company wants to reach a wider audience and has a large enough budget, it can hire a macroinfluencer. This type of influencer usually consists of B-list celebrities or experts in social media. A macro-influencer has over 50,000 followers; however, they achieve less engagement than a micro-influencer because there is a lack of personal connection within their posts. In addition, since macro-influencers are known for their content creation, they usually work with established brands.
Celebrities
Celebrities are an obvious type of influencer as brands with the budget have long employed celebrity endorsements to connect their brand with celebrities' image and reach their fans. Celebrities usually have a following of over 1 million people. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson ranks third in most-followed accounts with 247 million followers. Therefore, this type of influencer is expensive to hire, and they endorse a limited number of products. Think of celebrities like Kylie Jenner, who signed a $1 million deal with Puma, or Tom Brady, who most recently signed to endorse the beer company Sam Adams. Both these celebrities have a large fanbase that can help to grow a company's following. When deciding to engage in influencer marketing, it is essential to select the appropriate types of influencers.
Understanding the different types of influencers makes it easier to identify and plan your influencer campaigns.
If you are considering influencer marketing, contact the experienced team at Absolute Marketing Solutions to speak to one of our experts.
