What Type Of Influencer Are You?

The trust in social media influencers has never been higher, with 84% of millennials admitting user-generated content influences some aspect of their buying habits. Advertisers recognize this, too, and their spending reflects it.  

Getting on board the money train to claim your share of the profits is not as simple as switching your Instagram profile to business and then watching the money in your bank account multiply like rabbits. Every train runs a track with set stops along the way, so you’d better understand the path to success before starting. 

Micro Influencers

Sitting firmly in the 1,000 to 100,000 followers range, micro influencers make up the lower and largest bracket of paid influencers. This type has a well-defined audience who are passionate about a niche and loyal to the influencer. 

The influencer has strong credibility regarding their subject and most of their content pertains to it. Think of a cosmetologist producing makeup tutorials. They are unlikely to branch out into culinary recipes because their expertise does not exist in that trade, nor do their followers possess a passion for it.   

This is the ideal group for advertisers to work with who have a limited budget or a specialized product. Not every business is suitable for multimillion-dollar ad campaigns that hit every demographic on the market. 

Although a micro influencer has a narrower appeal to advertisers, that does not mean they have less appeal. Because of their specialization, they can actually be more effective at driving actions than celebrity accounts with more followers. That is why this type of influencer finds so much success utilizing cost per action marketing methods. 

Businesses that do their market research can increase their return on investment by tactically using the influencers that have already segmented an audience from the general userbase. 

Macro Influencers

The bracket directly above micro influencers is macro influencers. They have followers in the range of 100,000 to one million. Their specialties usually have a stronger emphasis on media, producing podcasts and vlogs. 

Since their content reaches large amounts of people but lacks the two-way connection that micro influencers have, they are great at building awareness for a product in a short window of time. 

Think of a popular comedy podcast hosted by two women. Their following will likely be made up largely of women who are looking for entertainment, but they won’t have many other commonalities across the group.

A business whose consumer base is primarily women will be able to reach them easily and quickly by buying ad time on the podcast. The podcast will be able to deliver an ad that is of some relevance to their fans. And some portion of the fans will end up making a purchase.

Macro influencers present a more cost-effective opportunity when compared to the upper bracket, mega influencers. 

Mega Influencers

The most famous and sometimes infamous of the lot, mega influencers are everyone over the million-follower mark. Despite some exceptions, mega influencers usually achieve their fame apart from their social media profiles, such as acting or music. While macro and micro influencers tend to achieve their notoriety directly from social media, gaining followers slowly along the way.     

Their path to success is important to note because it partially explains the makeup of their followers. Rather than being cultivated around a passion for a greater topic, the only trait their audience shares is an interest in the celebrity. 

This makes it difficult for a business to know if they will receive an acceptable return on investment from the costly price of an advertisement (sometimes upwards of seven figures per post). But, as with macro influencers, if the aim of the campaign is to drive awareness then it could be worth it for them.  

What Type Will You Be?

Whether you are just beginning your pursuit of becoming a social media influencer, or if you already have a sizeable following, there is always the opportunity to reinvent your appeal. 

Reconcile your present strengths with your goals for the future. If you are not producing the type of content that will lead you to your desired destination, pivot your creative process to be proactive towards those ends. 

What kind of people do you want following you and compare that answer to the demographics who currently are. That is your starting point in crafting your persona.