In a world where everyone’s glued to some device or other, and an estimated industry worth of around $24 billion, there’s no denying that influencer marketing is here to stay, but how much do we know about it? Today we’ll be talking about the different categories this industry supports to figure out whether you too could have the potential to get involved.
Whether you’re a macro-influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers or a micro-influencer with a smaller, niche audience, your reach can significantly impact brand promotions. Your target market’s location is also a crucial factor that needs proper consideration.
In New Zealand, for instance, influencers might even collaborate with businesses like free spins online casinos (visit NoDeposit365 New Zealand), leveraging their following to create targeted and effective marketing campaigns. And such an example, despite random, exemplifies how you can pick literally any niche. You just need to market it effectively to generate the results you need, and, of course, gain a solid following.
Understanding your influence level is crucial for aligning with brands that match your audience, driving engagement, and ensuring authentic collaborations. Curious about your influencer type? Explore how your follower count aligns with different influencer categories and discover potential partnerships.
Social media influencers are individuals who have amassed huge and loyal following on social media. Their strong online presence or one or multiple platforms often allows them to be perceived as role models and industry experts by their followers.
Even though celebrities have leveraged on their status, with Cristiano Ronaldo landing the Guinness World Record for having the most followers on Instagram for example, the main difference is that influencers regularly share intimate details of their lives, making them highly relatable. They often also share a friendship of some sort with their followers, cultivating an amicable bond that bounces back and forth and allows them to gain more trust within their fan communities.
From a digital marketing perspective, there are several ways that marketers and business owners can collaborate in order to improve their business. Apart from widening their audience and increasing brand awareness, there’s also the chance to target a new potential target audience directly if they’ve selected their influencer wisely.
Follower count is one of the first ways that social media influencers are assessed on. This directly reflects their engagement, reach and clout within the industry. Here are the four main sub-categories based on follower count.
Audience: Over 1 million followers
Best Choice For: Wide audience branding projects
Mega influencers include industry leaders, celebrities, athletes, and other extremely popular personalities who enjoy a massive online following. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they all happen to be experts in their respective fields, with certain profiles such as the Hawk Tuah girl Hailey Welch blowing up and going viral overnight. Nevertheless, their reach is so strong that a single post from their end could take your business to the next level. This also implies however that there’s also a substantial budget allocated for collaborations with influencers of this level.
Audience: Between 100,000 and 1 million followers
Best Choice For: Engagement and acquisition projects.
Macro influencers typically include content creators that hopped onto this bandwagon a couple of years ago and now sustain huge followings across various social media platforms. Cultivating a rapport with their fans over the years, these influencers come with wide appeal, making them an excellent option when it comes to brands looking to gain traction and hit the online space with a bang.
Audience: Between 10,000 and 100,000 followers
Best Choice For: Lead generation projects
Because micro influencers still enjoy a decent following, they need to work hard to make sure their engagement remains right up there. This category of influencers generally comprises people who have managed to stay true to themselves while still promoting paid content. By this point they usually also enjoy a particular niche and will usually choose to keep collaborations strictly within their wheelhouse.
Audience: Between 1,000 and 10,000 followers
Best Choice For: Tapping into niche markets
This category is made up of the bulk of today’s social media influencers and represents people who have managed to garner a respectable following over time. They are usually known to connect with their fan base on a personal level by posting credible, relatable and genuine content, and for this reason, are known to have some of the highest targeted engagement rates in the industry.
As you might have concluded by now, the influencer community is made up of all sorts of characters and brands, and for this reason, they each tend to prefer specific formats, or content types, when it comes to promoting third-party brands and products that could include one or more of the following for you to consider: