Everything You Need To Know About Getting a Micro-influencer For Your Business

Today, more than ever before, businesses are using social media to grow their brand and reach a larger audience. In fact, according to Social Media Today, there were nearly 2 billion users on Facebook in 2014, and Twitter had over 310 million active monthly users. With this many people online, it’s no wonder that 66% of marketers have seen increased traffic from social media channels. Because of this, different social media strategies are arising, and various roles within these strategies are growing bigger and bigger. One of these is marketing through a micro-influencer.

What is an Influencer?

An influencer is a person who is considered an expert within a particular industry. This person has enough and steady followers on social media that they can tap into for your company’s benefit. For many people, they are the most credible spokesperson. An Influencer can create awareness for brands by putting them into discussions that would not have been previously considered.

There are many types of influencers based on their number of followers. In this article, we will focus on micro-influencers and what they can do to help your social media presence and your ROI.

Micro vs. Macro influencers 

The terms micro and macro differ in meaning based on the number of followers. According to MidiaKix, micro-influencers have 10,000 to 50,000 followers while macro-influencers have 500,000 to 1 million followers.

What is a micro-influencer?

Micro-influencers are known for their particular area of interest and have very high engagement rates from audiences. According to the study, this gets better as you go down with the following – meaning that a person or brand should focus less on one big account and smaller ones instead. Micro influencer specializes in particular niches like fashion, food blogs, etc. They share content related only to those topics, which can help brands extend their reach significantly if they work together.

Benefits of using a micro-influencer

Most people will think that the larger the followers, the better it is for them to influence others into purchasing a product, but this is not always the case. Listed below are the benefits of having a micro-influencer.

1. Cost

We all understand that macro-influencers are well-known personalities and with colossal popularity comes more extensive pricing. However, unless you are a huge brand, it will not be sustainable for a business to spend enormous amounts for only one post. 

A micro-influencer tends to be cheaper and reasonable. The pricing could range depending on the number of followers, but it can be around $1000 for 100,000 followers.

Some brands also do not pay cash to micro-influencers. Instead, they give products or discount vouchers for their services which a micro-influencer is willing to receive.  

2. Availability

As a business owner wanting to gain more attention and eventually sales, you must get an “endorser” who has more time to discuss with you and more time to promote your brand.

More brands are seeking macro-influencers because of their large audience, limiting their availability and time. In addition, celebrities have other projects aside from endorsing brands, making their schedules tighter.

On the other hand, micro-influencers are most likely to be readily available to promote your brands. They are more active in the process of advertising, which is a win-win case for your business.

3. Higher engagement

Engagement is one way to measure if the market well absorbs the content. For example, more engagement in one post gives a high chance for more people to find it.

A common misconception with macro-influencers is that they have a vast engagement rate. Unfortunately, this is not true because most people who follow celebrities don’t really engage with their posts but only hang out with their social media to hear about the adventures of the rich.

On the other hand, micro-influencers interact more often with their audiences through likes and comments. They also interact with their audiences and share sympathies based on their niche. In addition, they respond to questions faster due to their availability. 

A recent study shows that Instagram influencers with 1,000 followers or less get an impressive engagement at 9.7% on average instead of 1.7% engagement with those who have 100,000 followers.

4. Authenticity

Authenticity is an essential trait of an influencer because it gives them credibility and earns the trust of their audience. In a recent survey by Morning Consult, 88% of people say that it is crucial for the influencers to genuinely care about their interests and be authentic about their thoughts and opinions and not just do it for money or fame.

If you want to use a service or purchase something, you would like to hear it from a simple person who personally used or experienced the service and gave an honest opinion about it. It is more likely that you will use the service because of the feedback given by this simple person and not from a celebrity who is unlikely to utilize that kind of service. Micro-influencers work just like word of mouth, and it is often easier to believe them even if their photos are a little staged.

Because they have a lower follower count, micro-influencers often reach out to brands that they advocate and want to support, so their feedback is more genuine and sincere. This form of authenticity attracts engagements and results in better sales.

5. Higher conversion rates

As mentioned before, micro-influencers have higher engagement. This is because people within their market tend to trust their opinion more than huge celebrities. For instance, a pet owner or a mother will relate more to a humble mother or pet owner sharing their personal stories and experiences with a particular product on social media. 

In a study done by Social Bakers, micro-influencers have over 20% higher conversion rates. This is due to the increased engagement, authenticity, and niche market.

6. Niche market

An influencer with about 100,000 followers or more is most likely to have a wide range of audiences and a diversified market. Therefore, when you hire these people to promote your brand, it is unlikely that you will reach your target market appropriately.

A micro-influencer has a specific market that they represent. Most of their followers are in line with the same market. This can help the business tap into a particular demand for their brand and get higher responses from their target audience.

Why should you consider micro-influencer marketing?

If you are skeptical about the many great things a micro-influencer can do to your business, here’s a list of things you may want to check out.

• 82 percent of consumers say they are likely to buy from recommendations of a micro-influencer
• 92 percent of consumers say they trust micro-influencers more than traditional ads or celebrity endorsers
• The audience considers micro-influencers as “people like me” and therefore have personal contact with them. 
• The followers of these influencers have 22.2 times more conversations on average than a typical new user. They are passionate about their niche and can choose the most argumentative topics to engage with others in this field or similar ones.

Finding a micro-influencer

Looking for a micro-influencer nowadays is easier compared to before. In this era of social media, you will see a lot of influencers within all social media platforms. There is even a big possibility that one of the people you know is an influencer. 

1. Ask a friend

One way of finding an influencer is by asking your friends. Because of too many influencers around social media today, it is highly possible that one of your friends is already following one, two, or more of them. The good thing about asking someone you know is that they can give a candid opinion. They can even recommend a lot more.

2. Check your followers

You can also look at your followers on social media. If you have a business with steady followers on social media, chances are you already have some influencers eyeing you and would like to partner up with you. So browse through your followers and check out those profiles that post anything related to your business.

You can also try posting a question on your social media page to ask for available micro-influencers. Again, you should be able to receive responses from interested individuals.

3. Do hashtag researches

Hashtag research is one of the general ways to find something on Twitter or Instagram. Do this by choosing a keyword relevant to your business, and you will see all the relevant posts. You can then view the profile of those who posted and see if they have the potential to endorse your brand. 

4. Approach bloggers

Another way to find a micro-influencer is to find youtube or other platform bloggers. Some of them are in the starting phase and are very enthusiastic about partnering with a brand. It is easy to tap into these bloggers to promote your business because it is also a chance of exposure for themselves. 

5. Use your social media account

Utilizing social media groups is a helpful way to find anything you need. Many groups depend on your needs, including social media influencers. You can ask for recommendations from people within these groups 

6. Use third-party tools

There are many tools available online to find influencers. You can take advantage of these to discover influencers based on genre, follower count, location, etc. Most of these tools are for free but give limited results. However, you can opt-in for those paid ones if you want a more specific and varied outcome.

7. Hire a social media consultant

A social media consultant is an all-around individual dedicated to growing your social media presence. They know a lot of ways to increase your followers and tap into the right person to do this. Of course, if all else fails and you think you need an extra hand, you can always hire someone to do the job.

As marketers are grasping how to adapt their marketing strategies to the ever-changing digital landscape, it becomes clear that micro-influencers have become a powerful way for brands and businesses to reach new audiences. While many still think of influencer marketing as an expensive enterprise reserved only for celebrities or large corporations with deep pockets, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Today there is no shortage of free tools available to help you find and work with micro-influencers in your niche market who might not cost more than $500 per post but offer better engagement rates than larger accounts. 

Moku has a program that offers multiple ways to help you grow your audience and reach out to more people for your business. Book a call now so we can start it up.