The War of the Influencers: Micro vs Macro

Recently while scrolling through LinkedIn, I came across a post about influencers and how we don't engage with them as much anymore due to the saturation of sponsored content. This lead me to the topic of micro bloggers vs macro bloggers. Who has the most power? While more popular bloggers have the quantity of numbers and followers on their side, is that of greater value than the quality of micro bloggers content and the followers they have? 

Instagram was the cause of the mass surge of Influencers emerging, but what actually is an 'Influencer'? 

A social media influencer can be defined as someone who uses social media and has established credibility in a specific industry, such as beauty. They may have a large following and can persuade others with the use of their authenticity and reach. 

Large social media influencers worked well at the beginning because the communities who grew and engaged with the first people who began promotion in this way, were actually engaged with the content that was being posted, due to the fact that it was unique. However, now the industry is so saturated with influencers that it is no longer unique. This has lead to a lot of product placement being used within influencers content, which is leading viewers to engage even less with the content and the influencer. 

However, this type of marketing can be very valuable to businesses as it can draw in a lot of attention to a brand and ultimately drive sales, so what can be done to save the influencer market? 

ENTERS THE MICRO INFLUENCER....

'Micro influencer' refers to people with a lot smaller of a following than bigger more popular influencers, but they have a strong power. They are seen as 'normal' everyday people. 

People who follow micro influencers tend to be more interested and engaged in the content that they are posting. 

The audience of micro influencers genuinely feel that they can relate with the influencer and feel that they have similar interests. Micro influencers will often communicate with their following through DM's and comments which makes their audience feel welcomed and understood. 

Micro influencers tend to be more authentic, they work in a similar way to word of mouth, when they post content using a certain product, we are more likely to believe that they actually bought or use the product on a daily basis. This authenticity attracts engagement and brings aware to the brand. It makes the product more rememberable to the viewer.

Micro influencers also charge a percentage of the price per post than macro influencers. This would enable more smaller brands to get involved in influencer marketing as they may not be able to afford a post from a macro influencer in the beginning. 

However, the main downside when using micro influencers is that they do not gain the same reach as a macro influencer would due to have less followers, however it has been shown that micro influencers gain a higher engagement percentage than more popular influencers.

I definitely feel that more brands should be working with micro influencers, rather than having content come from one macro influencer they could have many coming from micro influencers which gain higher levels of engagement. It is also a great way to start off if the business has not used any sort of influencer marketing before. 

This switch to using micro influencers will also help the influencers themselves. They put a lot of time and effort into creating the content they do, often because they just enjoy it, and so it would be rewarding for these influencers to gain something from the content they are working so hard to produce. 

I hope to see more brands in the future working with micro influencers.