The Rise of Micro-Influencers and Why You Should Be Jumping On it Now

No matter how you feel about them, online influencers are here to stay. You can find them everywhere, and you also buy products because of them. But with the rise of these influencers, there comes a time when oversaturation eventually creeps in. Just take a look at your Instagram feed and notice the amount of sponsored posts that alternate between organic posts from your friends. It’s annoying, isn’t it?

That comes as one cost of being an influencer. There are so many people out there who do the same shit as you; so what sets you apart?

If you look at it, the phrase “the more the merrier” sounds about right. But in the case of having a working (and effective) influencer marketing strategy, that doesn’t seem to be the case now. Studies show that micro-influencers are on the rise—these are influencers with smaller, more targeted audiences.

Before you raise your eyebrow, here’s the influencer data to back it up.

You’re not misreading that. Influencers with relatively small followers counts are delivering better conversions and results that the large-scale ones. A study conducted by Mobile Marketer suggests that influencer engagement is nearing an all-time low. For influencers with more than 10,000 to 100,000 followers, engagement isn’t looking as bright as it was before. There’s a significant 2.4% drop in engagements for sponsored posts in the first quarter of 2019, while the organic posts dropped 1.9%. This involves the highly-coveted influencer niches—travel, food, lifestyle, and sports & fitness.

Despite these considerable drops, though, there’s always a silver lining to look at. Compared to influencers with big audiences, those who have less than 10,000 followers have seen more amount of engagement than the big ones.

“The engagement rate for Instagram influencers with at least 10,000 followers is steady at about 3.6% worldwide,” the report states. “Influencers with 5,000 to 10,000 followers have an engagement rate of 6.3% and those with a following of 1,000 to 5,000 have the highest rate at 8.8%.”

This levels the playing field. With that being said, here are a few reasons why you should jump in the micro-influencer train if you want to make the most out of giving value to their audience.

There’s a vast repertoire of micro-influencers in all social media platforms.

In a sea of oversaturated content and influencers, there’s a specialized pool of available resources that you can dive into where micro-influencers are found. Mention reports that there are about 15.7% of Instagram users that have between 1,000 to 10,000 followers. That’s 157 million users if you convert it to the platform’s one billion user count. And with this rich amount of micro-influencers, each of them has their own niche, making it easy for you to break ground and generate more results.

They bring “raw” and more favorable results.

True, influencers with many followers are impressive, but a survey study by Hit Search found that it only looks good on the surface. The research found that 98% of content creators spotted something off with their followers—a lot of them are fake.

Hit Search states that “2% of those surveyed admitted to having bought followers or faked their levels of engagement, whilst 9.9% admitted to having considered it, in a bid to progress their career and secure a larger quantity of brand partnerships and paid collaborations.”

Well, that’s a disappointment.

Enter the micro-influencers: where followers are real and fakery is frowned upon. The reason why micro-influencers have higher engagement is because of the authenticity of their audience. Their less-than-10,000 followers all account for real users, and each of these has meaningful and real interactions with them.

Micro-influencers are “more relatable.”

A traditional influencer is basically like a celebrity. It’s akin to how traditional media uses Hollywood stars to promote their product. That being said, it’s normal for us to feel “disconnected” from them. They’re way up there, so interacting with them is a long shot. Micro-influencers, on the other hand, have more control over their followers, not to mention the freedom to interact with them fully. What you get from them is more than recommendations, but you can get real, upfront conversations about what they’re promoting.

Trust Barometer support this fact and translates it into numbers. Studies show that 61% of people are more likely to trust an influencer who is “a person like me.” In other words, the more people relate to you, the higher the likelihood for them to trust in what you say. “When consumers can see a bit of themselves and their circumstances in an influencer, [they are] far more likely to follow and trust that influencer,” the study says.

Simply put, influencer marketing is basically about a brand like you looking for people who are willing to share how much they love your product. What better way to have this translate into amazing results than working with micro-influencers?