Influencer marketing is one of the mainstream marketing tactics used widely by marketers today.
Businesses collaborate with different types of influencers to get the most exposure for their product or service offerings.
A survey by Matter Communications reveals that customers find influencers more helpful and trustworthy than brands. The survey stated that 61% of US consumers are likely to trust recommendations from a family member, friend, or influencer.
In contrast, only 38% of the consumers trust brand recommendations.
But what are social media influencers and what are the different types of influencers that you can choose from?
Let’s find out.
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What are Social Media Influencers?
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 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.
But 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.
Types of Influencers on Social Media
Influencers can be categorized into several types 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.
Types of Influencers – Based on Followers Count
In general, people think that 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 influencers who fit well with their brand values and are trustworthy, rather than just going for vanity metrics like follower count.
Researchers found that influencers with lower numbers of followers tend to have higher engagement and stronger bonds with their audiences than those with millions of 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 type of influencers based on your marketing goals and budget.
Now, let’s go through the various types of influencers, categorized by follower count.
1. Nano Influencers (1K-10K Followers)
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 option.
Nano influencers are also a great option for small-mid-sized businesses who want to test their products and services with a new market.
2. Micro-Influencers (10K-100K)
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 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.
3. Macro Influencers (100K-1M Followers)
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, they have a lower level of engagement than 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.
4. Mega Influencers (1M+ Followers)
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.
Such 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.
Types of Influencers – Based on Profession and Skills
Here are the popular types of influencers based on their profession or skills that you can use for your influencer marketing campaign.
5. Sports Stars and Athletes
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.
A report by Upfluence found that Instagram and YouTube are the most popular among the various social media platforms for fitness influencers.
Image via Upfluence
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.
6. Activists
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.
7. TV or Movie Stars
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 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.
8. Models
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.
9. Photographers
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 videos 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!
10. Bloggers/Vloggers
Image via YouTube
Bloggers and vloggers are the most renowned types of influencers.
They create high-quality content that keeps their followers engaged and establishes them as authorities in their specific niche.
Given that most vloggers prefer YouTube for sharing their videos, they’re perfect for YouTube influencer marketing campaigns.
11. Social Media Sensations
Image via YouTube
Social media stars don’t depend on blog 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.
12. Journalists
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 in an authentic and organic way.
13. Gamers
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.
FAQs
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:
- Unusually high engagement rates
- Sudden spikes in the number of followers
- Types of comments and whether they’re authentic or not
- Types of followers: do they have weird names like #$I&IOPIO
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:
- Nano influencers (1K-10K followers)
- Micro-influencers (10K-100K followers)
- Macro influencers (100K-1M followers)
- Mega influencers (1M+ followers)
Q3. How many followers does someone need to be considered an influencer?
A. Social media influencers can have as low as 1,000 followers to be recognized as an influencer. However, they must have an influence over their audience.
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:
- Nano influencers: $10-$100 per post
- Micro-influencers: $100-$5,000 per post
- Macro influencers: $5,000-10,000 per post
- Mega influencers: $10,000+ per post
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:
- 1K – 5K followers: 4.6%
- 5k – 20K followers: 2%
- 20K – 100K followers: 1.5%
- 100K – 1M followers: 1.4%
- 1M+ followers: 1.4%
Conclusion
As you’ve seen that 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 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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