An influencer’s status on the social media fame spectrum is dependent mostly on their follower count. From nano influencers, to micro, macro, and mega, influencers are not hard to come by. But that does not mean you shouldn’t choose wisely when it comes to finding an influencer for your next social campaign. When it comes to choosing an influencer on the growing social fame spectrum, most brand’s will utilize influencers that live in the the micro to macro range. This is because nano influencers are just getting their feet wet in the influencer world with a “low” thousand to a couple of thousand followers, are building up credibility, and are quite far from the reach your influencer campaign is hoping for. While mega influencers are movie stars, pop stars, etc. that have gained fame in the “traditional” sense and are far from needing to work with brands for monetary gain.
The difference between macro and micro influencers and which are better presents an ongoing debate in the influencer marketing world. Macro influencers have the power to give marketers the widespread brand awareness and “celebrity” status they are hoping for. While, micro influencers can you give you the engagement you want at a price you love. Before we dive into choosing which influencer is right for your marketing campaign, let’s learn about the pros and cons macro and micro-influencers can bring to your marketing strategy.
MACRO INFLUENCERS
100,000 – 1 million plus followers. Trend setters or thought leaders in their respected industries or niches.
Pros:
- Reach – Due their impressive following, macro influencers can reach outstanding numbers of people with a single post on social channels.
- Professionalism – Macro influencers are usually managed by talent agencies, giving them a higher level of a professionalism when it comes to negotiating contracts, managing their time, and producing branded content.
- Exclusive – If a macro influencer endorses your product, it becomes associated with their online “celebrity” status.
Cons:
- Cost – Because macro influencers are usually represented by a talent agency or manager, their costs can be quite high. A post can range anywhere between $2000 and $50,000.
- Competition is fierce – Landing the right influencer can be hard, especially if they’re working with your competition.
- Less credibility – – Followers are not oblivious to #ads. With macro influencers constantly pushing out branded content, followers look at the posts as advertisements rather than recommendations, and will even question if the influencer uses the product.
MICRO INFLUENCERS
10,000 to 100,000 followers. Just a step under macro, micro influencers curate content and share opinions on social networks in their respected industries and niches as well.
Pros:
- Authenticity – Probably the biggest pro of all, when micro influencers rave about a product, their audiences believe it. Micro influencers are able to have a deeper more authentic relationship with their social media followers because well, they simply have less. This gives them more time to create quality content that they are passionate about. This leads right to pro number two, engagement rates.
- Higher engagement rates – Micro influencers have higher engagement rates in comparison to macro influencers. As their audiences are more niche and relate to influencers on more personal levels, followers are more inclined to engage with posts.
- Cost – Micro influencers cost substantially less, and sometimes will even accept your product as payment for a post or two.
Cons:
- Limited branded content due to smaller niche audiences.
- Time – To make up for a lack of follower count, you will have to manage more than one or two influencers at a time. This means allocating more time to manage multiple social accounts to make sure the content you want is being correctly displayed across channels. It also requires more time for negotiating contracts and tracking results.
- Fake followers – Some micro influencers concerned with getting the attention of brands may purchase fake followers in an attempt to illustrate a larger following.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT INFLUENCER
What are your goals?
Like the start of any campaign planning, you’ve got to think goals. Do you want visibility? Is there only a singular message you are trying to get across? Or do you want conversions and engagement?
If a large reach or visibility is what you want, it’s a no brainer that a macro influencer is the one for you. Macro influencers have the following to increase brand visibility and heighten brand status.
If it’s engagement you want, with their credibility and friend like following, a micro influencer may just be the way to go.
Think logistics
What does your budget look like? What is your time frame? What does your team look like?
A macro influencer may cost more, but they save time when it comes to setting up contracts and management due to their higher levels of professionalism.
Don’t have the budget? Save money by utilizing micro influencers.
But as always, remember the marketing golden rule, any choices you make should be in alignment with your intended campaign goals.
A round of applause from our…audience(s)
First, who are you targeting with your campaign? If it is a very specific audience, build brand trust with a micro influencer. If it is a large and diverse audience, go big or go home with a macro-influencer.
Take Coke’s #ThisOnesFor campaign for example. In order to promote their beverages to a broad audience across Europe, they utilized a diversity of social influencers from fashion to travel to sport to generate over one million likes and all the social buzz. As their campaign goal was to garner brand awareness in Europe, their use of macro influencers got the job done.
Make-up brand Glossier did quite the opposite. With their niche beauty and social media loving audience, they turned towards micro influencers to build credibility around their products. With Glossier’s CEO preaching “every single woman [is] an influencer,” audience engagement is at the top of their priority list. In a recent campaign, Glossier flew our thirteen micro influencers to NYC for 48 hours. Youtuber Amy Serrano with a “micro” amount of 48,000 subscribers, vlogged her experience and dedicated a few Instagram posts to her trip. She gave her smaller audience and inside look into the ins and outs of their favorite beauty brand boosting Glossier’s credibility as a brand.
Second, who is following the influencer? It should go without saying, but the influencer’s audience is your target audience. Make sure this is in alignment with-you guessed it-your brands overall campaign goals.
Choosing the right influencer for your next influencer marketing campaign should live right under the umbrella of your campaign’s goals, your brand values and the audiences you want to reach. Like most things, influencer marketing is not a one size fits all solution, but we’re here to help. Reach out today to learn more influencer marketing best practices.
