Influencer marketing has become a core facet of social media strategy in the digital landscape of the 2020s. Investments into the digital creator space totalled over $5 billion in 2021, with figures steadily rising yearly. However, working with mega-influencers commanding millions of followers can feel unattainable, especially for smaller businesses with less budget to spare. That’s where micro-influencers come in.
Influencer marketing offers brands a way to connect with new potential customers, with trusted figures promoting products or services on various scales. This blog will offer insights into building a micro-influencer strategy, so you can start connecting with new audience sectors in ways that your brand might not have otherwise been privy to. Consider it an effective way to take your broader social media plan to the next level.
What is a micro-influencer?
Micro-influencers are essentially digital creatives with small but not insignificant audiences. The micro-influencer follow count falls somewhere between 10,000-100,000 followers, often boasting particularly engaged or dedicated followings. While mega-influencers can start to bleed into full-blown celebrity status – with many who started their careers elsewhere also entering the space – micro-influencers are popular with their following and not really beyond.
This lends itself to a more intimate relationship between creator and fan, bringing with it several benefits, such as:
- The smaller audiences of micro-influencers tend to be more proportionally engaged when compared to macro or mega-influencers, with their followers generally taking a more active interest in the content.
- In the same vein, this smaller audience is much more likely to be a niche community, which offers businesses a super-targeted avenue for connecting with a demographic.
- Mega-influencers can struggle from getting a little bit too big, losing their appearance of authenticity with increasing follower counts. Micro-influencers are seen as more relatable, helping to maintain their “realness”.
- Micro-influencers are much cheaper to work with than the larger influencers. Accounts with 1 million followers or more charge up to tens of thousands per sponsored post, whereas smaller accounts stay well within the hundreds.
According to AdParlor, working with micro-influencers can be a great choice for smaller brands looking to level up their digital marketing approach, while also being beneficial for larger companies with more specific target audiences.
Find local influencers to target specific areas
Knowing how to find local influencers is an effective way to connect with a location-specific geographic area. This is especially useful for businesses like restaurants, cafés and vintage clothing outlets – the kind of places that don’t often have multiple locations (at least beyond a single city).
How to find micro-influencers
If you’re eager to find local or industry-specific micro-influencers, you need to know where to start looking. However, for many, the worlds of business and social media simply don’t meet. Some useful tips for discovering the right micro-influencers for your brand include:
- Searching social media channels based on keywords, hashtags and other criteria.
- Using specific influencer marketing platforms.
- Going to industry events to network with other professionals and influencers alike.
- Asking colleagues, friends and your children who they’re following.
- Look for smaller accounts with high levels of engagement.
- Search for accounts that appear to authentically represent you are of operation.
- Use localised search terms to find more area-specific creators.
- Check within your existing follower base to see if there are any content creators.
You should be able to find micro-influencers relatively easily if you’re sufficiently engaged with your industry. Keeping your ear to the ground of social media is the kind of thing that didn’t matter a couple of generations ago, but now it can’t be ignored.
Micro-influencers can make a huge difference to your social media strategy, bringing your products and services to a dedicated, trusting audience.
