4 Types of Influencers: Which Type do You Need for Your Campaign
Influencer marketing has skyrocketed in recent years and become one of the most important marketing methods of the social media era. The fact is that many influencers either build trusting relationships with their followers that can be leveraged to promote downloads of your app, or have such a large reach that can be leveraged simply for brand exposure.
However, there are different types of influencers based on follower count and it can be overwhelming to know which ones are right for your app marketing campaign. Let us help you with top advice from our Influencer Marketing team.
What is an Influencer?
The answer to “what is an influencer” can be subjective, but generally speaking: an influencer is someone who has the ability to use their knowledge, authority, audience relationships etc. to influence the purchases of others. Social media influencers use their platforms to develop self brands, foster relationships and engage with followers, and share their knowledge in particular niches. Their followings can vary in sizes, and there are ways of defining the type of influencer they are according to the size of their following.
Influencers are often employed by brands to be ambassadors, promoters, partners or simply to promote their products in creative ways. If you want to find out more about how to work with influencers, check out our influencer campaign strategy guide here.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing involves using influencers as part of your brand’s marketing campaign to promote your product, increase brand exposure, reach target consumers, hit your KPIs and more.
Are you in need of an Influencer Marketing Agency? Our Influencer Marketing specialists are here to help you achieve success.
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How can Influencer Marketing Help Your App?
Influencers have audiences of varying sizes, and varying engagement levels. The amount an influencer can help your app depends on certain factors that you need to determine as part of your strategy. For example, some influencers have millions of followers, but those followers are not particularly engaged. Other influencers have only ten thousand followers that are super engaged. Oftentimes, the latter is more valuable to a brand, particularly when their audience niche overlaps with your app’s category.
Some influencers may have a totally engaged audience, but their audience may not be your target market, in which case they’re unlikely to work with you and if they did, it’s unlikely the partnership would bring you ultimate value.
If you choose the right influencer for your app, which is something we at Moburst help our clients with, then they can bring you a plethora of positive results. They can increase your app downloads, they can reduce your churn rate by giving users an insight into your app before download so that they’re less likely to download it and abandon, they can encourage a more loyal userbase, they can simply increase your app’s brand awareness, or they could encourage in-app purchases. The possibilities are endless.
Influencers have developed relationships with their audience meaning their recommendations are trusted, which is why they often achieve such effective results. As such, they are often more likely to motivate potential users to download your app than a traditional ad. It’s the direction marketing is moving in, so why should your app marketing strategy be any different?
Their relationship with their followers is built upon them consistently supplying their audience with valuable, creative content. They can create this very content for your app.
Different Types of Influencers by Follower Count
The different types of social media influencers defined by follower count are:
Nano Influencers
Micro Influencers
Macro Influencers
Mega Influencers
1. What is a 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 followers, who they’re likely very connected to. As a result, their engagement rates tend to be high.
Often, nano influencers have a following within a particular community, whether that’s location based, a specific online niche or career oriented.
Are Nano Influencers Right for My Brand?
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. Their authenticity and trust they share with their followers can bring you loyal app users. Nano influencers are also a cost effective solution to testing your marketing within a new audience demographic.
2. What is a 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. They produce content in a particular niche, so they’re often considered experts in this area. For a brand trying to access an audience in this niche, this can be invaluable. It can’t hurt to have a respected expert on board, can it?
3. What is a Macro Influencer?
Macro influencers have between 100,000 to one million followers. Their reach is much bigger than micro and nano influencers. Macro influencers 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 influencers 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.
Macro influencers will have higher engagement levels than mega influencers, but perhaps less engagement in a specific niche than nano or micro influencers.
Are you in need of an Influencer Marketing Agency?
Our Influencer Marketing specialists are here to help you achieve success.
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Micro vs Macro Influencers
First and foremost, micro influencers have a smaller following than macro influencers. Beyond that, micro influencers also tend to be more invested in their audience. Perhaps it has to do with the size being more manageable, or the effort to grow, or their following being dependent on that feeling of a personal relationship. Because of this, they often have a stronger influence over their audience and can be more effective at driving results as part of an influencer marketing campaign, especially within a specific vertical or demographic.
4. What is a 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.
It’s generally accepted that mega influencers’ fame outweighs their genuine influence. People follow them because they are famous, not necessarily because they have fostered a close relationship with them and trust their opinion. Their volume of followers makes it hard to develop these close relationships and a higher level of engagement.
For example, all of the Kardashian/ Jenner clan would be considered mega influencers because all of their follower counts are in the tens of millions. However, they rose to fame from their family’s hit reality TV show rather than on social media, which came secondary to their TV fame. Their posts have huge reach, gaining tens of millions of likes, but it’s hard to tell how many of those likes come from your target users, or how many people are actually influenced to invest in your brand based off of these posts.
How to Choose the Right Influencer for Your App
The answer to this question depends on the goals of your campaign and your budget. Is it a brand awareness campaign? Then a mega influencer might be the answer since they have the biggest reach. Do you have a small budget? In that case, you probably can’t afford a mega influencer and a nano influencer or micro influencer might be the way to go.
Kylie Jenner, for example, costs around one million dollars per sponsored post on her social media channels.
When to use…
Nano influencers: when you want to specifically target a particular user base relevant to a niche.
Micro influencers: when you want to take advantage of someone’s “expert” status and close relationships with their followers for ultimate engagement. Their followers tend to be interested in what they have to say – why else would they be following them – so you can benefit from their strong influence.
Macro influencers: for brand awareness/ brand exposure campaigns where your budget won’t get you a mega influencer, and you want a little more engagement.
Mega influencers: for brand awareness/ brand exposure campaigns where the goal is to expose your brand to as many people as possible and reach as broad an audience as possible.
Consider how many followers an influencer has, their engagement rate (which you can ask them for), and whether working with your brand would look authentic for both you and them. Authenticity is key in influencer marketing. You need to also consider whether your campaign goals align with what the type of influencer can achieve for you – brand awareness, conversions, etc.
Take into account the influencer’s main platform. A YouTube vlogger is going to offer different potential for showcasing your app than micro influencers on Instagram because the content they create is a totally different format. Would your app come across better in the mostly visual or short form video style of Instagram, or would it look better in a long form YouTube vlog?
Where to Find the Right Influencers for Your App
Firstly, there are both tools and agencies that can help you do this. An influencer marketing agency like Moburst can help you with the whole campaign funnel, including finding the right influencers. Secondly, if you attempt to go at it yourself, you can find influencers by exploring hashtags that are relevant to either your brand or your niche. You can also keep tabs on influencers that already post about your brand or competitors. Or, find influencers who have an audience base that overlaps with your target user base.
Are you in need of an Influencer Marketing Agency? Our Influencer Marketing specialists are here to help you achieve success.
Contact us!
FAQs
What is an influencer?
Simply put, an influencer is someone who shares content on social media and has the ability to use their knowledge, authority, audience relationships etc. to influence the purchases of others. This can be on any platform ranging from TikTok to Facebook, and their followings can vary in size from one thousand to one million.
What are the different types of social media influencers?
In order of following (from largest to smallest), there are: mega influencers, macro influencers, micro influencers and nano influencers.
How many followers do the different types of influencers have?
Mega influencers have more than 1 million followers, macro influencers have between 100,000 to 1 million followers, micro influencers have between 10,000 to 100,000 followers and nano influencers have between 1,000 to 10,000 followers.
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