Social media is growing rapidly with extraordinary talent online including influencers, content creators, and more who have a huge influencer online. The changes are becoming so fast, that brands are hiring specialists to analyse influencer data to see which types of influencers cater to the brand’s vision and brand goals.
When it comes to marketing “big brands”, it seems that most marketers would rather use micro-influencers, rather than celebrities. Of course, there are benefits of using both and it’s dependant on your brand requirements. However, the question in place is why do large organisations prefer to use micro-influencers over those with over 1 million followers on social media.
According to a study in 2022, it stated that 77% of marketers say micro influencers top their list of ideal influencers, shortly followed by macro-influencers (64%). If you are new to the terms micro and macro influencers, these depend on the following of the influencer. A micro-influencer has a following of 1000-100,000, a macro influencer has between 100,000 to 1 million, and anything above that mark is a mega influencer/celebrity.
Although smaller than their peers, micro-influencers engage more with their audiences. Can you imagine Kim Kardashian going through thousands of comments, and interacting with her followers? If she did, her following would probably grow even more, but does she have the time and is it a necessity for her? Clearly not.
Ramzan Miah, a micro-influencer based in London was invited to attend a Cartier event. Why has a brand with 14 million followers on Instagram, invited an influencer with 78 thousand followers? Firstly, he gets a reaction from his followers – reaction in the form of likes and comments. People interact with Ramzan’s content and he takes time to reply to some of those comments from those who have taken their time to appreciate his post. Another reason is his content.
Yes, there can also be celebrities whose niche is fashion or jewelry, however, micro-influencers are more diligent with brands they select as they want to be true to their image. Celebrities have a team of people who sometimes select brands for their talent or only want to work with luxury brands, whereas mirco-influencers will work from a range of brands from small homegrown companies to global brands.
Celebrities can have millions of followers from everywhere, and therefore it’s hard to market a product not knowing who it’s reaching georgraphically. Micro-influencers can also have followers from everywhere, but they are more of a tight-knit community where the followers are there for one thing only, and that’s the niche the influencer is in. Celebrities can have anyone from anywhere with any background of interest, whereas influencers have followers interested in one thing – their chosen niche. That means big brands can really gain the attention and awareness of groups of people who they know will be interested in their products.
There are benefits of having a micro-influencer and celebrity for a big brand campaign, it just depends on the awareness you want to raise and your brand goals. For micro-influencers, they should reach out to small brands and big brands as marketers would like to explore their options and see a wide range of options. You never know a brand’s requirements if you don’t ask and if you have the engagement, interaction, or reach, then you have nothing to lose.
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