Social media has become a powerful tool for brands to connect with their audiences, and influencers are at the forefront of this movement. From product recommendations to lifestyle inspiration, influencers can sway opinions and drive purchasing decisions.
Businesses can partner with different types of influencers, who have established trust and credibility within specific niches, to boost their visibility and engagement.
A recent marketing report by IZEA shows that 77% of consumers favor influencer recommendations over professionally scripted ads. So there’s no denying how powerful influencers are for marketing.
But what are social media influencers, and what are the different types of influencers that you can choose from?
Let’s find out.
Social media influencers are individuals who have developed a reputation for their knowledge and skills in a certain field and are popular on social media.
Influencers are loved by their audience because they regularly share high-quality content on topics of interest to their audience.
Brands love to work with these particular types of influencers because they can convince their audiences to try out a brand’s products. After all, good influencers have loyal followers who trust their recommendations.
However, not all types of influencers drive the best ROI. Hence, marketers need to be careful while picking the right influencer for their marketing strategy.
To help you get started, we’ve listed the most common types of influencers in terms of follower count and profession/skills.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
The different types of influencers can be categorized based on their follower counts and profession/skills. This segmentation helps businesses identify the right type of influencer for their needs.
Let’s discuss the types of influencers for each category, one by one.
In general, people think that all types of influencers have hundreds of thousands of followers. Well, that’s not right.
Social media influencers can have as low as 1,000 followers.
Brands prefer to work with various types of influencers who fit well with their brand values and are trustworthy, rather than just going for vanity metrics like follower count.
A 2023 survey showed that Instagram influencer engagement rates for accounts with less than 10,000 followers were 1.25% higher than mega accounts with over a million followers.
Image via Statista
However, even a lower engagement rate can be a lot from an influencer with over a million followers. So, choose the types of influencers based on your marketing goals and budget.
Now, let’s go through the various types of influencers, categorized by follower count.
Image via Instagram
Since nano influencers have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers, they are able to connect with their audiences on a personal level and achieve high engagement rates.
Nano influencers tend to be very vocal about the items and brands they like, and their fans appreciate their genuine suggestions.
If you have a restricted marketing budget and want to get started with influencer marketing, nano influencers are the most cost-effective types of influencers.
Nano influencers are also a great option for small-mid-sized businesses who want to test their products and services with a new market.
Image via Instagram
Brands prefer micro-influencers among all other types of influencers because they provide the best of both worlds.
Micro-influencers are specialized in their niche, have a decent follower base of 10K-100, and a good engagement rate, making them a sweet mix of scale and effectiveness.
Micro-influencers are the most effective types of influencers because they have a similarly close relationship with their followers as nano-influencers and the reach of a popular influencer.
If you want to reach a large number of people while not compromising on engagement, hiring a micro-influencer is the way to go.
Image via Instagram
These types of influencers are usually internet-made celebrities (not mainstream celebrities), consisting of bloggers, podcasters, and social media personalities.
Although they have a respectable level of trust among their followers, these types of influencers have a lower level of engagement and, as a result, fewer opportunities for social media lead generation compared to nano and micro-influencers.
However, thanks to their wider audience and established trust among their followers, macro-influencers have strong personal brand identities.
Partnering with macro influencers can help brands boost their reputation and reach a larger audience.
Image via Instagram
A mega influencer is a person who has more than one million followers on social media. These types of influencers are mostly celebrities and popular personalities from different industries.
The trust level among mega influencers' audiences is relatively low, as is the engagement rate and lead generation.
Such types of influencers are a great choice for large businesses that want to run large-scale influencer campaigns and reach the masses.
Mega influencers can get exposure to your products or services on a larger scale, which is excellent if your company appeals to a wide range of audiences.
However, they come with a high price tag. So, keep that in mind when planning your influencer marketing strategy.
Here are the popular types of influencers based on their profession or skills that you can use for your influencer marketing campaign.
Image via Instagram
Sports personalities and athletes often tend to amass a large following on social media. These types of influencers are great for representing sports brands, wellness-related food brands, etc.
According to a report by Influencer Marketing Hub, Instagram is the most used social media platform for influencer marketing at 57.1%. TikTok follows closely at 51.6%, while YouTube comes in at 36.7%. Facebook and LinkedIn trail behind, with 28.4% and 11.6%, respectively.
In terms of engagement in the sports and fitness niche, the study also found that micro-influencers have the best engagement rate of 11.7%. Other influencer types (by followers count) have an engagement rate of 3% or lower.
Image via Instagram
A social media activist is usually motivated by a political or social cause. In their view, they can positively impact society by influencing others.
Generally, they avoid partnering with for-profit corporations and other such businesses. But if you fall in the not-for-profit niche or actively support social causes, activists are the best types of influencers for you.
It is to be noted that their opinion on contemporary matters is often radical, and they make use of social media to express it. Hence, brands should be extremely cautious when working with such social media influencers.
Image via Instagram
Macro and mega-influencers like movie and TV stars are among the most popular types of influencers. These influencers have over a million followers and often partner with brands as brand ambassadors.
Working with these types of influencers is costly because they have a large reach and influence.
Working with them may help you gain media attention and make your brand a household name. When partnering with celebrities, choose ones whose personal brand aligns well with your brand values.
These types of influencers are great for B2C firms, but not the best option for B2B influencer marketing.
Image via Instagram
Models are quite like actors/actresses but generally on a slightly smaller scale. Models are a great option for beauty and fashion brands and are often seen promoting such products, as can be seen in the image above. This makes them great beauty and fashion influencers.
You can collaborate with them for a single post or influencer marketing campaign. Or you can nurture a long-term relationship to make them your brand ambassadors.
Image via Instagram
Photographers, one of the many types of influencers, are some of the greatest content creators on social media. They share high-quality images and different types of video content and are therefore coveted by B2C brands to share their product images.
These types of influencers possess the skills necessary to partner with brands from a wide range of industries. They can practically promote any brand that sells physical products by taking attention-grabbing product pictures.
They can also promote hotels, vendors for an event (like a wedding), and more!
Image via YouTube
Bloggers and vloggers are the most renowned types of influencers, and they utilize a diverse range of content.
Bloggers create content, including articles, reviews, and guides on websites. They cover different topics like beauty, fitness, travel, and business. Their posts often rank on search engines, bringing in steady traffic.
Vloggers create video content, usually on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, where they share insights about products and their everyday lives. Their video marketing strategy involves having friendly and engaging conversations with the audience.
Both types of influencers build strong connections with their followers. When influencers make a recommendation, their followers trust their opinion, allowing brands to boost sales in an authentic way without seeming overly pushy.
Given that most vloggers prefer YouTube for sharing their videos, they’re perfect for YouTube influencer marketing campaigns.
Image via YouTube
Social media stars don’t depend on blog posts or video content to keep their audiences interested. Instead, they reveal glimpses of their everyday lives and establish a strong connection with their followers.
These social media users have become popular solely because of their social media presence. And because they have closer personal connections with their audiences, they are seen as real-life consumers rather than high-profile celebrities.
As a result, their followers are typically highly engaged and have faith in their recommendations.
Image via Twitter
Journalists can tremendously impact how consumers see your company on social media channels, and all you need to do is find popular ones in your niche.
You may reach out to and collaborate with them to advertise your brand and products. The reviews posted by journalists can significantly impact your target audience, as well as your company's success.
Both B2B and B2C companies can benefit from working with journalists to advertise their products and brands authentically and organically.
Image via YouTube
Gaming is one of the most well-known niches for influencers. Men, in particular, are drawn to it.
Gaming influencers who live stream their games on social media platforms like YouTube and Twitch are quite popular and have a massive following. People watch these live streams closely to learn how to play better or just for fun.
So if gaming influencers promote a brand or product in their streams it can reach millions of people. You can also advertise your offers through these social media influencers and boost your sales.
There are many types of influencers, and knowing which one fits your brand is key. Here are some crucial factors to consider before taking that plunge.
Q1. What are fake influencers and how can I identify them on social media?
A. Fake influencers are people who use unethical methods to boost their number of followers and engagement to win brand partnerships.
However, their followers are mostly fake accounts and bots, so hiring these types of social media influencers is a waste of money for brands.
You can spot fake influencers by looking at the following:
If you don’t want to do it manually, you can use influencer marketing tools to speed up the process.
You can also hire an influencer marketing agency that can find and vet influencers for you.
Q2. What are the different types of influencers based on follower count?
A. Following are the four common types of influencers based on follower count:
Q3. How many followers does someone need to be considered an influencer?
A. There’s no magic number. Someone with 1,000 followers can be an influencer. Someone with a million can be one too. It all depends on the types of influencers and what they bring to the table.
Brands collaborate with influencers of all sizes because it's not just about follower count—it’s about trust, engagement, and reaching the right audience. A nano-influencer with real connections can often have more impact than a macro-influencer with a large following but low engagement. So while numbers do matter, but they aren’t everything
Q4. How much do different types of influencers charge per post on Instagram?
A. The following are the rates charged by different types of Instagram influencers based on their follower count:
Q5. What are the engagement rates of different social media influencers based on their followers count?
A. Several researchers have found that the lower the follower count of an influencer, the better the engagement rate. Following is the average engagement rate of influencers in the influencer marketing industry based on their follower counts:
Q6. How do brands pay influencers?
A. Brands pay influencers in different ways. It depends on the types of influencers and the deals they make. Some of the common payment methods include the following.
As you’ve seen, there are several types of influencers for you to collaborate with. You must choose the right influencers based on your particular niche, values, and influencer marketing strategy.
Assess their engagement rates and audiences to find the best options for your brand. Influencer marketing can be extremely effective if done right. You can use it to build brand awareness campaigns or achieve any other goal in your digital marketing strategy.
And if you need help planning and running successful influencer marketing campaigns, leverage our influencer marketing services to make your job easier.
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