Since the rise of the internet, fame has suddenly become much more accessible for those who want it. So much so that the question has shifted from if one could be famous to how famous can one be? And the new way to achieve fame in this day and age? You guessed it, social media.
Whilst fame has often been associated with influence, what’s really interesting is the total shift in behaviour in what marketers across the world found to work well for decades. Celebrity endorsements and paying huge paychecks to have someone famous wear, eat, use or speak about your product is no longer bringing back return on investment. Why? Well, consumers are seeking more authentic opinions from people they trust and turning a blind eye to marketing that fakes it.
What’s more is that over the last few years, there has been a significant shift in consumer power, specifically with those that use the fame enabling social media platforms. Today, Gen Zs and Millennials represent the largest proportion of consumers, holding the most significant purchasing power, with reports in the US stating that 93% of parents claim that their Gen Z children influence their household purchasing decisions.
*For the non-marketers wondering who Gen Z is, it’s the children born in the new digital era of the late 1990s to 2012. Millennials, also known as Gen Y, are the demographic population born just before Gen Z, typically in the early 1980s to the end of 1990s.
But who influences Gen Zs and Millennials in the first place? Well, as we mentioned, it’s no longer famous celebrities or sports stars. In fact, having influence today doesn’t necessarily mean being famous or having a big following.
Let’s dive into the different types of influencers to unpack this further.
These are the first types of influencers, with a relatively small following between 1000 and 5000. While this figure may seem low, it can hold great power. Nano-influencers with a high engagement rate have followers that engage regularly and support them like they would support a friend. Followers are often drawn to nano-influencers as there is a genuine interest in their content because it’s niche-orientated and unfiltered, offering transparency and rawness.
According to Rakuten Marketing’s 2019 Influencer Report, almost half of those surveyed said that authenticity and relatability are what drives them to believe or buy a specific product, making nano-influencers a great match if you want to promote your brand.
They may not have the most professional looking feeds but they have something even more valuable, and that’s a high engagement rate, a thing of the past for bigger influencers. This is because they focus on consistency and genuinely engage with content, as opposed to just scrolling through feeds.
According to The State of Influencer Marketing 2019 Report, 85.4% of all Instagram influencers have between 1000 to 20 000 followers, with only 0.3% boasting more than a million followers. This means that working with a nano-influencer or micro-influencer gives your brand a chance to be the very first to partner with them, and if they go on to become bigger, it will reflect well on your brand. As a brand, capturing loyal, young brand ambassadors when they have a small following is so wise as it would assist in the growing trust over a longer period of time. Trust is earned, not granted!
At People Have Influence, we sign anyone starting with 1000 followers, however, we will only put them forward to brands if they have a great engagement rate. Which, by the way, is not difficult to achieve.
Micro-influencers – our favourite! And a force to be reckoned with for sure. These valuable people have between 5000 and 50 000 followers. Much like nano-influencers, these individuals create authentic content, offering promising engagement rates due to their audience loyalty and personal connections.
These types of influencers offer their expertise, and audiences rely on their content for inspiration or advice, giving these influencers the power to build an engaged community that’s there to stay. Brands can tap into their already engaged, niche audience, using influencer marketing as a channel.
What’s great is that micro-influencers understand their audiences so well that they can even assist brands in the briefing process and offer insights into their audience to help predict whether or not the brand will be well received.
Our opinion? This is the best type of influencer to align with as they have a niche audience that is still considered rather large, but most importantly, a niche audience that is fully engaged. Because they’re not celebrities, we’ve found that those we’ve worked with are humble and authentic, having started their pages as creative outlets or to share a passion of theirs. It’s this passion, creativity or talent which grew their tapped-in following in the first place, and which gives great organic impressions, reach and brand awareness.
Once an influencer reaches 50 000 to 250 000, they're classified as a mid-tier influencer. These types of influencers post content that is polished and reaches a significant portion of their audience. They take their image seriously, as social media is now a full-time (and well paid) job.
But, although their status is high, as followers begin to increase, it’s highly likely that their engagement rates will start to decline. What’s more, is that their audiences' intentions for following will shift from niche interest to general interest. Followers will begin to come from many different locations and have interests that range considerably, making it difficult for brands looking to target a specific audience.
Working with these types of influencers can also get pricey, and you're not the only one paying for space on their feed. Audiences are aware of this and therefore, in our honest opinion, trust in this category is not as high as using influencers with a lesser, but more engaged following.
After hitting 1 million followers, an influencer reaches superstar status, but before that, they're considered an A-list influencer, boasting above 250 000 followers. If you work with these influencers, your brand will be guaranteed the highest amount of exposure and receive professional service as these influencers are accustomed to working with brands. But that isn’t necessarily an added bonus, and this experience will likely cost you an arm and a leg, coming in hot with big price tags and less room for negotiation.
It is believed that superstar and A-list influencers lack real converting influencer power due to their full ‘sponsored-by’ feeds, which affects their saturation rate – a key metric to consider. It also doesn't help that their audiences are so diverse both demographically and psychographically.
It’s important to keep in mind that working with these influencers is best suited for top of the funnel marketing campaigns that promote products that aren't niche, and which please the masses. At the same time, consumers know that posts from these influencers are paid for which means they will carefully consider before making a purchasing decision.
Working with these influencers can often be difficult as they might not be passionate about your brand and what you do, and in turn, it can show, coming across as inauthentic – a brand’s worst nightmare.
There are certain things in life where less is more, and this logic applies to the success of your brand's influencer marketing strategy too. Nano and micro-influencers may have smaller, dedicated followings, but their engagement rates are far higher than A-listers, thanks to their rich content and relatability with their followers.
To sum it all up, the higher an influencer’s following is, the less their engagement is likely to be. The good news is that the majority of the purchasing power is held by Gen Zs and millennials that seek out truth and transparency, which both nano and micro-influencers can offer.
We only work with the very best talent, and if you're looking for guaranteed ROI on your next influencer marketing campaign, get to know our diverse family of nano and micro-influencers, or Golden Nuggets who can increase your brand reach and drive engagement in a big way! Get in touch with us today and let’s chat about how we can incorporate influencers into your marketing strategy or head on over to @peoplehaveinfluence_ on Instagram where you’ll find us doing what we do best.
Since the rise of the internet, fame has suddenly become much more accessible for those who want it. So much so that the question has shifted from if one could be famous to how famous can one be? And the new way to achieve fame in this day and age? You guessed it, social media.
Whilst fame has often been associated with influence, what’s really interesting is the total shift in behaviour in what marketers across the world found to work well for decades. Celebrity endorsements and paying huge paychecks to have someone famous wear, eat, use or speak about your product is no longer bringing back return on investment. Why? Well, consumers are seeking more authentic opinions from people they trust and turning a blind eye to marketing that fakes it.
What’s more is that over the last few years, there has been a significant shift in consumer power, specifically with those that use the fame enabling social media platforms. Today, Gen Zs and Millennials represent the largest proportion of consumers, holding the most significant purchasing power, with reports in the US stating that 93% of parents claim that their Gen Z children influence their household purchasing decisions.
*For the non-marketers wondering who Gen Z is, it’s the children born in the new digital era of the late 1990s to 2012. Millennials, also known as Gen Y, are the demographic population born just before Gen Z, typically in the early 1980s to the end of 1990s.
But who influences Gen Zs and Millennials in the first place? Well, as we mentioned, it’s no longer famous celebrities or sports stars. In fact, having influence today doesn’t necessarily mean being famous or having a big following.
Let’s dive into the different types of influencers to unpack this further.
These are the first types of influencers, with a relatively small following between 1000 and 5000. While this figure may seem low, it can hold great power. Nano-influencers with a high engagement rate have followers that engage regularly and support them like they would support a friend. Followers are often drawn to nano-influencers as there is a genuine interest in their content because it’s niche-orientated and unfiltered, offering transparency and rawness.
According to Rakuten Marketing’s 2019 Influencer Report, almost half of those surveyed said that authenticity and relatability are what drives them to believe or buy a specific product, making nano-influencers a great match if you want to promote your brand.
They may not have the most professional looking feeds but they have something even more valuable, and that’s a high engagement rate, a thing of the past for bigger influencers. This is because they focus on consistency and genuinely engage with content, as opposed to just scrolling through feeds.
According to The State of Influencer Marketing 2019 Report, 85.4% of all Instagram influencers have between 1000 to 20 000 followers, with only 0.3% boasting more than a million followers. This means that working with a nano-influencer or micro-influencer gives your brand a chance to be the very first to partner with them, and if they go on to become bigger, it will reflect well on your brand. As a brand, capturing loyal, young brand ambassadors when they have a small following is so wise as it would assist in the growing trust over a longer period of time. Trust is earned, not granted!
At People Have Influence, we sign anyone starting with 1000 followers, however, we will only put them forward to brands if they have a great engagement rate. Which, by the way, is not difficult to achieve.
Micro-influencers – our favourite! And a force to be reckoned with for sure. These valuable people have between 5000 and 50 000 followers. Much like nano-influencers, these individuals create authentic content, offering promising engagement rates due to their audience loyalty and personal connections.
These types of influencers offer their expertise, and audiences rely on their content for inspiration or advice, giving these influencers the power to build an engaged community that’s there to stay. Brands can tap into their already engaged, niche audience, using influencer marketing as a channel.
What’s great is that micro-influencers understand their audiences so well that they can even assist brands in the briefing process and offer insights into their audience to help predict whether or not the brand will be well received.
Our opinion? This is the best type of influencer to align with as they have a niche audience that is still considered rather large, but most importantly, a niche audience that is fully engaged. Because they’re not celebrities, we’ve found that those we’ve worked with are humble and authentic, having started their pages as creative outlets or to share a passion of theirs. It’s this passion, creativity or talent which grew their tapped-in following in the first place, and which gives great organic impressions, reach and brand awareness.
Once an influencer reaches 50 000 to 250 000, they're classified as a mid-tier influencer. These types of influencers post content that is polished and reaches a significant portion of their audience. They take their image seriously, as social media is now a full-time (and well paid) job.
But, although their status is high, as followers begin to increase, it’s highly likely that their engagement rates will start to decline. What’s more, is that their audiences' intentions for following will shift from niche interest to general interest. Followers will begin to come from many different locations and have interests that range considerably, making it difficult for brands looking to target a specific audience.
Working with these types of influencers can also get pricey, and you're not the only one paying for space on their feed. Audiences are aware of this and therefore, in our honest opinion, trust in this category is not as high as using influencers with a lesser, but more engaged following.
After hitting 1 million followers, an influencer reaches superstar status, but before that, they're considered an A-list influencer, boasting above 250 000 followers. If you work with these influencers, your brand will be guaranteed the highest amount of exposure and receive professional service as these influencers are accustomed to working with brands. But that isn’t necessarily an added bonus, and this experience will likely cost you an arm and a leg, coming in hot with big price tags and less room for negotiation.
It is believed that superstar and A-list influencers lack real converting influencer power due to their full ‘sponsored-by’ feeds, which affects their saturation rate – a key metric to consider. It also doesn't help that their audiences are so diverse both demographically and psychographically.
It’s important to keep in mind that working with these influencers is best suited for top of the funnel marketing campaigns that promote products that aren't niche, and which please the masses. At the same time, consumers know that posts from these influencers are paid for which means they will carefully consider before making a purchasing decision.
Working with these influencers can often be difficult as they might not be passionate about your brand and what you do, and in turn, it can show, coming across as inauthentic – a brand’s worst nightmare.
There are certain things in life where less is more, and this logic applies to the success of your brand's influencer marketing strategy too. Nano and micro-influencers may have smaller, dedicated followings, but their engagement rates are far higher than A-listers, thanks to their rich content and relatability with their followers.
To sum it all up, the higher an influencer’s following is, the less their engagement is likely to be. The good news is that the majority of the purchasing power is held by Gen Zs and millennials that seek out truth and transparency, which both nano and micro-influencers can offer.
We only work with the very best talent, and if you're looking for guaranteed ROI on your next influencer marketing campaign, get to know our diverse family of nano and micro-influencers, or Golden Nuggets who can increase your brand reach and drive engagement in a big way! Get in touch with us today and let’s chat about how we can incorporate influencers into your marketing strategy or head on over to @peoplehaveinfluence_ on Instagram where you’ll find us doing what we do best.
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