What is Influencer Marketing?

The world has changed, as has the way we receive information. This meant that businesses had to change the way they market their products. Influencer marketing is all about using word-of-mouth advertising, which is one of the strongest ways to advertise a product. The opinions of other online personas?are trusted. We appreciate learning about customers' experiences with brands and businesses. Influencer marketing is growing bigger as more and more companies start to use it.

What is Influencer marketing?

An influencer is a person who has a high following on social media and very good engagement rates. These people are relatable and trusted by their followers. They spend time building relationships with people through social media.

?Companies then use these influencers to help increase their brand awareness and promote their products. Influencer marketing is used on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

Types of social media influencers

• Nano influencers (1K–10K followers)?
• Micro influencers (10K–100K followers)
• Macro influencers (100K–1M followers)
• ?Mega or celebrity influencers (1M+ followers)

Nano- influencers

The above influencers have 10,000 followers or fewer. They are extremely vocal for brands and have very high engagement rates. They offer followers genuine advice that is truthful. They are closer to their viewers because of their small following.

These influencers would be used by small and medium-sized businesses to enter this market. They could also be used by businesses to test a product on social media. They are affordable. They are frequently very eager to collaborate. They may, however, be less professional than other influencers due to this.

Example of Nano influencer

Zara Paolozzi on Instagram. She promotes clothes brands such as Revolve me. She has 4903 followers currently on Instagram.

Micro Influencers

These influencers are still relatable despite having more followers than Nano influencers. As the audience grows, the influencer will specialise in a niche market. A niche is a particular market that is product focused. Additionally, they have a large target audience and strong interaction rates.

Businesses would employ these influencers if they had a particular interest in their niche market. Only others who are interested in the specialized market will follow these influencers. In this way, the business could interact with its target market. They are going to cost more than nano influencers.

Example of Micro influencer

Lauren Whelan is an example of a micro influencer. She has 97, 000 followers on Instagram. Her niche market would be fashion and beauty.?

Macro influencer

Macro influencers appeal to a wider audience than micro influencers do. They are well-known thanks to the internet. Typically, they are bloggers, vloggers, or tiktokers. They have a sizable following that has been developed over the course of many months or years of content. They have low engagement rates.

If businesses want to expand both their social media platforms and their audience, they will use them. They have a huge following, so it's a great method to advertise your business. Since they have a lot of experience and sometimes may have management, they will be more professional.

Example of a Macro influencer

Ellie Kelly would be an example of a macro influencer. She has 293,000 followers on Instagram. She promotes brands such as PrettyLittleThing and Penney's.

Mega or celebrity influencers

?These influencers will be expensive to use. They have a very broad audience. They are very visible and spend a lot of time on their social medias. They are very influential because everyone wants to do what they do. They often focus on long term partnerships.

Example of mega influencers

Molly Mae has 6.5 million followers on Instagram. She works with brands such as beauty works and PrettyLittleThing.

ASAI and influencer marketing

Since many companies have started to communicate with their customers using influencer marketing, the government have decided to introduce guidelines. They are called ‘Recognisability of Marketing Communications’ ?and its aim is to help consumers not be mis leaded by influencer marketing. I listened to a podcast recently by the ASAI (The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland) about the regulations that influencers must obey. Here are some main points from the podcast:

• If bloggers and vloggers are collaborating with a brand to promote a product, they must display to the audience that this is a marketing promotion. They can do this from adding #ad. It must be clear at the beginning of the content.
• If ever any problems relating to the marketing content, the primarily responsibility relies with the brand. However, all parties involved in the campaign has a duty to comply with the brand.
• The guidelines are general for all social media platforms. It includes vloggers giving their views on services, free products and key watch outs.

Here is the podcast If you want to listen!!

References

• Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland Podcast by Unique Media (soundcloud.com)
• What is Influencer Marketing? - The Ultimate Guide for 2023 (influencermarketinghub.com)