Micro-influences.
Big things come in small packages.
Anyone who’s anyone knows that Influencers are very much a part of almost any brands marketing strategy in this day and age. Social media starlets with a huge glut of digital followers – these people and their personalities create buying conversion with one post of an Instagram picture and have become integral to the way many brands, especially in fashion, communicate with their audience.
Until now, utilizing an influencer strategy has been a numbers game—who’s the person with the largest following? Yes, they will surely help reap results and reach. Not any more, there has been a shift in the way brands are using them to focus on a qualitative, rather than quantitative strategy of social influence.
Enter…… the micro-influencer.
More commonly, brands are turning to people to help them share their message with far less followers – sometimes as little as 5,000. But why? Well, a brand receives intangible benefits like authenticity, a unique point of view, deeper storytelling and the potential of reaching a more tailored audience.
This compliments the pursuit of changing consumer perspectives, particularly Generation Z who grew up with devices in their hands, are tired of highly edited and airbrushed worlds of social media and The Kardashians! I have seen that audiences are craving a connection to a more authentic experience and are therefore more attracted to these more ‘real’ digital personalities.
My agency Library and myself don’t define micro-influencers as people who generate higher engagement rates on Instagram. Rather, we see influence as being a measure of whether they have the propensity to directly affect the buying behavior of friends, family and colleagues. Finding ways to get a product into their hands and encouraging them to share their experiences with others presents brands with an opportunity to amplify their stories to millions people like them. Word-of-mouth plus social spurs advocacy at scale and ultimately delivers real business impact.
Interested in having a chat?
Rebecca Wheeler, Content Director, Library.