When it comes to influencer marketing, people tend to lump “influencers” all into the same category.
The fact is though, not all influencers are created the same. Different types of creators do what they do for different reasons, and as someone representing a business or brand, you are going to want to choose the right influencers based on your objectives.
Here are the 4 main types of influencers and the general attributes of each:
Nano Influencers
These are generally smaller creators, with follower counts of between 1000-10,000 on social media. These creators will generally post to their accounts more than most, typically at least once a week.
Just because these creators are small, doesn’t mean they are not mighty! Smaller creators often have much higher engagement rates than large influencers. Why? Because they are normally much closer to their audience. Participating in conversations via comments, getting in touch with people via DMs etc. Nano influencers are typically really engrained into their niche communities.
Nano influencers generally create on social media as a hobby and it is not their primary income. Due to this, in general, these creators are much more likely to accept opportunities of gifted collaborations from brands.
Micro Influencers
Micro influencers are still on the smaller side of things, typically with follower counts from 10,000-100,000 on social media. These influencers typically post regularly, often multiple times per week.
Micro influencers tend to earn at least a part-time income from social media, but are still very often more open to gifted collaborations with brands than larger creators.
Micro influencers are a great option if you are wanting to do gifted collaboration campaigns or running paid collaboration campaigns with multiple influencers to test the waters. I always find this strategy helpful when it comes to finding the most effective creators (and the ones that are nicest to work with – no one likes working with assholes!).
Macro Influencers
Macro influencers sit in the 100,000-1,000,000 follower bracket on social media and most times are social media creators on a full-time basis.
If you are wanting to get a lot of reach in one hit, macro influencers can be a really good bet for a paid campaign. That said, if you are limited on budget, it could be a risky move just working with a single creator. A paid collaboration with a macro influencer is likely to cost you thousands of dollars and if for whatever reason the post they create doesn’t do well, you have not diversified your risk.
The other thing to note is that though as we get into the larger creators the follower numbers are good, oftentimes the engagement rates go down. Larger creators are less likely to be as close to their communities (I mean heck, the sheer volume is a lot to cope with!).
Celebrity Influencers
Celebrity influencers are the largest influencers in terms of following – typically having 1 Million followers and beyond on social media.
These are folks that are household names, or at least extremely well-known within their niche or category.
Working with influencers like this can be great for brands, especially if you want your brand associated with certain popular personalities, that said it comes with a price as working with this sort of creator doesn’t come cheap.
Again, engagement and actual influence is something to really scrutinise at this level. It’s definitely possible to be “famous” and not actually carry a whole lot of influence. If you’re going to spend your money here, tread carefully and understand the community of followers of each creator.
In Summary
I hope that this breakdown of the four different types of influencers was helpful and helps you to be clearer on the kind of influencer that would be useful for campaign/s for your brand.
Questions? Drop me a message on Twitter!