09 Jun Micro-Influencer Marketing: What’s All The Buzz About?

Micro-Influencer Marketing: What’s All The Buzz About?

If we strip influencer marketing down to its most basic form, we could say it’s to drive a brand’s message to its target audience in a more authentic way. But there is one key factor that can make or break the transition from consumer awareness to consideration of actually taking action: credibility.

The face and voice that you’re using to carry your brand’s message must be trustworthy. As CEO of an influencer marketing platform on which micro-influencers– those influencers with less than 10,000 followers on social media — make up about 80% of our platform, we’re seeing more brands (even well-known brands) turning to micro-influencers for engagement.

This is probably because they are not seen by their followers as out-of-reach stars or celebrities, but as relatable and approachable people. Essentially, they are one of us.

In a world where consumers’ trust in big business and advertising is at an all-time low, and everyone with a phone and internet access can make his or her voice heard, it is normal that people want to be seen. Micro-influencers can provide a personalized touch, which is continuing to propel influencer marketing to its next big evolution: monetized influence at a much smaller scale.

Collectively, micro-influencers are flipping the celebrity-influencer/consumer-fan paradigm on its head to a person-to-person interaction where size does not matter and influence is no longer exclusively relegated to celebrities or influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers.

To get a closer look at this category, my company, SocialPubli, conducted a global micro-influencer study of 1,000 vetted micro-influencers. When asked how they maintain the engagement of their followers, participants said: by being authentic (32%), sharing quality content (27%) and engaging with followers (27%). And a whopping 99% of them say they believe in the products and services they promote.