Have you considered working with micro-influencers in your marketing campaigns? These people have smaller followings on social media but have a very engaged and loyal audience. This a great opportunity for companies to connect with specific audiences and increase their reach. If you want to know what a micro-influencer is and why to include it in your brand strategy, keep reading.
What is a Micro-influencer?
Micro-influencers are content creators on social networks that generally have a community of between 1,000 and 100,000 followers. They are a type of influencer characterized by directing their content towards specific niches with specific themes such as travel, health, mechanics, and many more, as many as you can imagine.
They are a fundamental part of brands within the influencer marketing strategy due to the ability to reach more segmented and loyal audiences than popular influencers.
Why hire a micro-influencer?
1. Highly Engaged Audience
Although micro-influencers don’t have as many followers as larger influencers, they do have a highly engaged and loyal audience. This is partly because its community is smaller and therefore easier to manage and maintain.
Micro-influencers often have close relationships with their followers, which allows them to interact with them more personally and create a stronger bond. Because of this trust relationship, followers of a micro-influencer tend to trust their recommendations and opinions more than those of a larger influencer.
2. Better engagement rates
Instagram is a prime example of this phenomenon. Compared to the average celebrity, micro-influencers have double the engagement rates. This means that your audiences are more likely to like or comment on the content.
Pages full of bots or inactive users are not very attractive to companies. By partnering with micro-influencers, they will expose the company to real people who interact with content related to their product or service.
3. Affordability and flexibility in collaboration costs
Another reason micro-influencers are attractive to brands is that they are more affordable than larger influencers.
Since micro-influencers have a smaller following, brands can work with them at a lower cost and still make a big impact. Additionally, micro-influencers are often more flexible and willing to work in collaborations that are tailored to the specific needs of the brand.
4. Greater authenticity in product and service recommendations
Micro-influencers are often more focused on specific niches and have a more engaged audience in that area. Because of this, they can offer more authentic and personalized recommendations for products and services compared to larger influencers, who often have a larger and more diverse audience. Followers of micro-influencer know that their recommendation is genuine and not just a paid promotion.
5. Specialization in specific niches
As we mentioned in the previous point, micro-influencers often specialize in specific niches, which means they can reach audiences highly focused on a particular topic.
Steps to follow to become a Micro influencer
1. Choose a niche
It is necessary to choose a subject of which you have great knowledge or a trade in which you are an expert. It is an important decision since it will be the basis of all the content that is created and the image that your followers expect. Learning is progressive, and many of them start out as fans of a subject and end up being experts in the field. Remember that focusing a profile on a specific niche means focusing communication mainly on a specific topic.
2. Generate content adapted to each platform
It is the cornerstone of a Microinfluencer. The content you create will be what makes you gain or lose followers. Nobody knows him, he doesn’t matter. What really matters is your content, until you manage to establish your personal brand.
You have to take into account which social network you display your content on since depending on the platform you will have to offer different content.
3. Be a MicroInfluencer on and off the Internet
Promote meetings and events where you can interact in person, further narrowing the connection between both parties. The content of a Microinfluencer is close and credible, qualities that are strengthened by combining them with attendance at forums, conferences, and any type of event related to their sector.
4. Transmit confidence by being consistent with the content
The content they post daily is under judgment. Thousands of followers see it and any slight inconsistency can unleash a barrage of criticism and a consequent decrease in the number of followers. You need to lead by example to gain their full trust, meaning that if you promote a vegetarian lifestyle, they can’t see you in a restaurant eating pasta bolognese.
5. Interact with your followers
As the number of followers grows, it will become unfeasible to answer all the messages. Even so, making your followers feel that you care about their opinion is an inexcusable duty of any micro-influencer who wants to create a consistent community.
How to find micro-influencers?
If you want to start working with micro-influencers within your strategy, here are different ways to do it:
- Choose an influencer marketing platform
- Use search hashtags on the social network you want to use.
- Check among the followers of your brand.
- If you want to have a local impact, use location tags to narrow down popular micro-influencers in your area. Include hashtags to be more precise.
- Research events related to your industry and discover influential people.
- Use social listening tools to track people who are talking about your brand or other relevant topics.
- Check the followers of an influencer that fits your brand. Within them, you can find micro-influencers related to your needs.
In short, micro-influencers are important to brands because they have a highly engaged audience, are more affordable and flexible in collaboration costs, offer more authentic and personalized product and service recommendations, and specialize in specific niches.