What is an Influencer in Social Media?

Are you active on social media? Did you ever purchase under the influence of individual flaunting products online? If yes, you have already been contrived under influencer marketing.  

Not yet? But you might have heard the term influencer used in marketing for a very long time. Epic marketing budget has been flowing into social media and nowadays the word doesn’t only apply to corporate. 

Let’s define the term

An influencer is someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decision of others due to their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience. They actively engage with a distinct niche and that following size can be large or more concentrated depending upon the size of their topic or niche. 

It’s only used to be sports stars, film stars, and celebrities with this power but now thanks to the explosion of social media that made all kinds of people reaping the benefits. 

Talking about social media in specific, influencers are those who build up a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic. They post content for their enthusiastic audience to their platform of choice, be it Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok regularly. 

The reason brands love influencers so much is because they can create trend ease and encourage their followers to buy the products they provide. As mentioned earlier, the term influencer is longer for those with millions of followers. 

There are now four different types of them. You might even be sitting there and without realizing it are an influencer in some way shape or form. What does it mean? It means you could have a small following but still have considerable influence or the opposite. 

Besides, you can say that celebrities might have gargantuan followings but have less influence because they lack expertise and a dedicated niche. A number of surveys have found that nano and micro-influencers have a tremendous impact on their followers meaning that they can be very effective in promoting a product in a particular sector. 

Let’s categorize the types of influencer

Influencers can be grouped based on their following size or by the niche they operate in. Mentioned below are the types and brief about them. 

 Mega-influencer

A mega influencer is a person, who has an epic number of followers like The Rock or Ronaldo. In actuality, their following is overkill and there is no official benchmark. Generally, people with over a million followers are considered under this category. 

The approach towards these influencers is for the big in the town and their service cost can be around millions of dollars for a single post. It’s not just the amount of money that could fetch these influencers but depends upon their fussy choice of choosing a partner to work with. 

Macro-influencer

This segment includes individuals ranging between the count of forty thousand to a million in terms of social media followers. Generally, this segment comprises b-grade celebrities or successful online experts. 

Macro-influencers have a high profile and can provide a powerful way to generate awareness. Firms find working with them beneficial for their businesses. The reason behind the success of individuals becoming macro-influencers is of course their hard work and the way they changed the relationship between the company and consumers. 

Micro-influencer

 The term micro might encapsulate you that these must be a group of teeny-weeny people, is it? You are wrong as this isn’t the case! These are ordinary folks who become known because of their knowledge about a specific topic. 

The following count is somewhere in between a thousand to forty thousand. So, as discussed earlier, you might have just realized that you are an influencer. Quit your job as there’s a million-dollar proposed coming your way! Excited? Well, this can be a reality as it’s for many out there on social media. 

Micro-influencers don’t get the term by posting photos from the weekend but they provide a lot of value. Do you own a small firm and planning to fetch a micro-influencer for promotions? You might need a lot of convincing in terms of your worth as they might not be aware of your existence. 

This is because micro-influencers don’t want to do any damage to their special relationship with their followers, which they have built with prolonged hard work. Some of them might work for free while some could charge a fee, but known of them tend to work with a brand that they feel is inappropriate for their following.

These influences are the influences of the future. Due to the internet fragmenting media into small niche topics, it’s likely to find that even the most obscure niches with Facebook or Pinterest groups are devoted to them. This is where micro-influencers establish themselves as genuine ones.  

Nano Influencer

This is one of the latest groups to obtain recognition. Though they have very small followings compared to others they appear incredibly niche for highly specialized fields. They are a big fish at a very small point having less than a thousand followers. 

The number is considerably low, but a major proportion of their audience is already interested in what they have to say. As per the perspective of a brand, nano-influencers can provide amazing value though you might need a lot of them to reach a larger audience.

Types of Influencer as per content 

So, now you are aware of the grouping of influencers as per the size of their audience. But what about the types of influencers based on content? Come, let’s find out!

Most of the social media marketing today occurs with micro influences and blogging with YouTube. 

Bloggers

Bloggers have the most authentic and active relationship with their fans. It has been connected to influencer marketing for a while now and there are a lot of highly influential blogs online.

When bloggers positively mention a product, it can lead to their supporters wanting to purchase or at least trying it out. On the other hand, it opens the doors for guest bloggers too meaning there is an opportunity to write about offering on their site to their audience.

YouTubers

This is a similar situation to blogging except for the fact that it’s all video-based and instead of being on a website, it’s all on the YouTube platform. Brands often work with YouTubers sponsoring videos or paying to have them created for them in specific.       

 Podcasts

It sometimes feels like everyone has a podcast these days but there’s no denying the fact that it’s a popular form of entertainment. Brands work with podcasters by sponsoring their shows or individual episode. 

Social posts

All of the above-mentioned influencer types promote their content on social media, as they tend to build sizeable followings. On the other hand, this segment of influencers uses posts for reaching their audience which generally consists of videos where they talk or display products of brands that they work with. 

Hope this post helps! Thinking of starting as an influencer? Wait no more! Begin your journey of gaining massive followers today!