In 2017, micro-influencers are having a moment. Until very recently, good marketing strategies relied only on influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers. But now, brands are starting to change course and making their established influencer programs more sophisticated by working with micro influencers too.  Read in Italian.

Micro-influencers are people with an audience of a few thousand fans (Facebook contacts or Twitter and Instagram followers) with whom they have a closer and stronger relationship than larger influencers do. Thus, micro-influencers have a smaller audience but with a much stronger engagement.

A survey of over 800,000 Instagram users recently carried out by Markerly showed how when the fan numbers increase, engagement in terms of likes and comments decreases.

Analyzing five million posts, the survey found that:

• Pictures posted by users with less than 1,000 followers received about 8% engagement.
• Those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers received 4%.
• For 10,000 to 100,000 followers it drops to 2,4%.
• And, finally, users with 10 million fans or more get down to only 1,6% engagement.

According to Markerly, the best influencers are those with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers who can deliver both a wide audience and a good engagement.

But there are many brands who are also working with influencers with less than 10,000 followers, i.e. micro-influencers.

Stance Socks, the brand which made the sock industry fun, fashionable and appealing (they are the official NBA suppliers), selects its influencers based on how they communicate with their followers, who usually number less than 8,000. The selection does not rely on the popularity of each influencer, but on what can be gained from the combination of the product and the influencer’s unique point of view.

The trend has been confirmed by another survey of 6,000 people, carried out by Wharton Marketing which found that micro-influencers (such as emerging YouTubers) deliver the most trusted product testimonials and can deliver quality results via the classic word-of-mouth technique. The survey revealed that 82% of the interviewees were likely to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer, since they are believed to be more reliable, better informed and better at explaining how products work.

“Sometimes the shift calls for deep penetration with a small audience and sometimes it calls for high conversion with a large audience,” explains Karen Robinovitz, co-founder of Digital Architects, a digital agency representing some of the most famous influencers in the world.  “And the micro-influencers aren’t necessarily cheaper just because their audience is smaller, they know they are bringing something else to the table.”

Are you influenced by influencers? Leave a comment or Tweet me @agostinellialdo.

If you liked this post, you should read: How working with influencers will turbocharge your marketing.

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