Micro influencers, our own virtually connected celebrities: Aaradhya Khanna

Micro Influencers are individuals with the power to not just influence the thoughts or minds of the people but they also own the expertise of a particular genre and are dedicated professionals with a huge and loyal fan following. And when we say a huge fan following, we sometimes mean millions of followers who passionately follow them and gain inspiration from their lives. People with 1K or more followers are also called micro influencers, owing to their knowledge and expertise of a subject. They usually have a niche segment like Food Blogger, Fashion Blogger, Jewellery Blogger, Auto Blogger, etc. They can be Bloggers, Youtubers, Instagrammers or even people who podcast.

What makes them popular?

Micro-influencers present their content on the social media in such a way that they are always virtually connected to their followers at a personal level. Unlike celebrities, they are more approachable and relatable and share their day to day lives with the audience like their daily routine or updates about their favorite place, day to day activity etc. They usually manage their Instagram account, Youtube Channel, Blog,etc themselves and so there is always a personal touch in their work.

How are Micro influencers Beneficial to Business?

It may seem that an influencer’s total number of followers matters the most but it is the engagement that is the primary factor that leads to an influencer’s success when it comes to commercial practicality. Brands focus on the connect between an influencer and his/her audience which is measured by likes, dislikes, comments and the kind of response his/her posts receive. Micro-influencers often have very high engagement with their fan-bases and are often overlooked by brands in social media.

When it comes to branding, one needs to understand that micro-influencers are people who have been able to build trust with their audience through their stories and developed a personal connect. So, anything that they promote on their platform is perceived as a reliable product/service. Influencers are amazing storytellers and when they share a brand’s story; their followers listen and to a great extent believe on what he/she has to say. When you observe the statistics and it is found that almost 40% of Twitter users make purchases as an impact of a tweet from an influencer, it shows why the brands are so eager to invest in this form of marketing.

Also, micro influencers are very economical as compared to celebrities. While celebrities never respond to the comments on their posts, influencers would generally respond to their followers and engage with them through several online games or quizzes. Another most important aspect is that influencers generally do not indulge in controversies which add to their genuineness and integrity. Due to these reasons the chances of people being convinced to buy a product after seeing a post by a micro influencer is more than a celebrity endorsing the same product. For a brand to attain the best achievable ROI, it’s best to hire a group of two or three micro-influencers. Hiring a combination of micro-influencers raises the ROI of a campaign and hence the overall marketing spend is lowered. Recall Value can be created for the brand if the Brand gets multiple posts on his/her platform by the same micro-influencer.

More audience can be targeted in a limited budget. For instance on Instagram, in the same amount that a celebrity with 5M followers will charge to endorse a product for 1 post, a brand can collaborate with 100 Micro influencers with about 100K followers each and hence the audience reach will be 10M!

As we discussed influencers work on a niche area and have followers that are actively interested in that particular niche, therefore it is easy to have a targeted branding for a particular product with the help of their posts and engagement. Also, when the influencers make a statement on a subject, it has more value than a celebrity making the same statement. For example, if a Food Blogger says that Chicken Tikka is best in XYZ restaurant and also a celebrity says the same. The statement of the Food Blogger has a larger impact than that of the celebrity.

With this evolution of social media as a platform for branding through micro influencers, even new brands today are able to connect with millions of people, and marketing is no more concentrated to the brands with a huge marketing budget. This has led to more authentic products being available to the audience at affordable prices.