It turns out that more followers does not necessarily equal more engagement. This has subsequently changed the game in social media marketing from contracting to celebrity endorsements to collaborating with “micro-influencers.” Micro-influencers are people on social media who have about 100,000 or less followers with high engagement (likes and comments) rates. Studies have shown that higher followership correlates with lower engagement and lower followership with higher engagement.
People with less than 1,000 followers have a like rate of 8% as opposed to those with 10,000 to 100,000 who have half that rate. The next interval, 100,000 to 1 million have about a 2.3% like rate. Consider those numbers; working with 20 to 40 micro-influencers will take more effort but it will be lead to more conversions than throwing money at a couple of celebrities to get a few hundred conversions. You can use the same budget you would use otherwise and test out different strategies.
Through micro-influencers you sift out thousands of people who will not think once about your product. A more engaged and targeted audience on the other hand will consider a product that is endorsed with a personal touch. “More than 55 percent of our agency partners have incorporated ‘micro-influencers’ as a part of their [current] strategy,” said Chico Tirado, chief revenue officer of Gnack. “We’ve seen some ‘micro-influencers’ on certain campaigns get up to 25 percent engagement.” The CEO of Gnack, Chris Gonzalez, has stated that micro-influencer campaigns are receiving more organic engagement than influencers with more than 100k followers.
Ismael El-Qudsi, CEO of SocialPubli.com, says:
“A large social media following is not an accurate indication of real influence. The true value of influencers lies in the level of trust they have earned from their audience and their ability to drive that audience to take action. And micro-influencers possess those two qualities. It’s human-to-human marketing at its best.”
When you see a famous athlete endorse a fast-food chain you probably doubt that they actually eat there. You know that there are millions of dollars waiting for them upon their endorsement. That is exactly the logic behind the micro-influencer campaign.
In order to find these micro-influencers, it is necessary to do a lot of research. Look at your own social media followers first. You want to narrow it down to people have more followers than you, but most importantly who have more activity (likes, comments, etc.). Look at their profiles and see if they are passionate about something related to your industry. Look at who they may already be advertising for and how effective they are. Use relevant hashtags and keywords to find more potential influencers. Look at their engagement rates to make sure they are actually influential. Do a Google search of bloggers who cover your industry and scope out their social media. Before you start making deals, establish a relationship by interacting with their posts. Followerwonk and Keyhole are useful tools for searching for influencers. There are thousands of results that can appear when you search hashtags or keywords so they these tools can be very helpful.
You have heard the term, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Well don’t throw all your money at one influencer. You can reach a variety of audiences and truly interested customers by working with several micro-influencers and allowing them to use their unique ideas and pitches to bring you business. Our social-media marketing team at Ket-Go is always aware of the latest trends. Contact us with your questions.