What is a Micro-Influencer & How do you Find One?

Influencer culture has continued to grow astronomically on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and TikTok. Becoming an influencer has become the goal of many young and old people, with a recent study showing that 54% of young Americans say that they would become an influencer if given the opportunity.

And why not? Fame, advertising money, and social clout seem like very attractive benefits of being an influencer. While becoming an influencer may seem very attractive for an individual, making use of influencer marketing in social media marketing campaigns looks just as attractive for businesses and brands.

While well-known brands are still primarily using influencer marketing in the form of celebrity endorsements, influencers that have become popular through social media platforms or youtube (or often a combination of both) provide an excellent opportunity for smaller brands and small businesses to market their products. 

Of course, for those who are trying to capitalize on influencer marketing, the landscape can be quite confusing, and it is still unclear for many how to best utilize these opportunities. 

In this article, we will dispel some of the confusion by clarifying questions that businesses and brands have often asked, such as “what is a micro-influencer?” “Where do you find micro-influencers?” and “What are the benefits of joining teams with micro-influencers for your marketing campaigns?” We answer all of these questions and more below.

Different Types of Influencers 

1. Mega-Influencers

Mega-influencers are the highest ranking category of social media influencers, they typically have more than a million followers. They are often more famous than influential. They often have a very diverse audience with different topics of interest. Their relationships with the individual members of their followership tend to be more distant.

They aren’t necessarily subject matter experts but they definitely able to reach wide swaths of people from a variety of demographics.

2. Macro-Influencers 

Macro-influencers are a notch down from mega-influencers. One way to identify a macro-influencer is by their follower count, which should fall somewhere between 100,000 and one million followers. Unlike most mega-influencers, macro-influencers usually gained fame through the internet itself, whether that was through vlogging, or by producing funny or inspiring content. 

3. Micro-Influencers 

A micro-influencer is someone who has between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. Micro-influencers focus on a specific niche or area and are generally regarded as an industry expert or topic specialist. Micro-influencers usually have stronger relationships with their followers than a typical influencer.

This is often driven by their perception as a thought leader of a subject matter. A micro-influencer, as opposed to a celebrity or regular influencer, often has a very uniform audience.

4. Nano-Influencers 

Nano-influencers are a relatively new breed of influencer. They tend to have a smaller number of followers in comparison to micro-influencers, less than 1,000 followers. A nano-influencer is someone who has influence within their community. This would be someone who has influence in the local neighborhood or community.

Some examples might be a local pastor, local community leader or local government leader. The idea behind nano-influencers is to get “regular everyday people” to market a brand’s product or service to their friends and family. Most of the time this can be achieved through user-generated content.

What Makes Micro-Influencers Unique?

The best way to show what makes micro-influencers special is to contrast micro-influencers with macro-influencers. Here’s what makes micro-influencers stand out versus macro-influencers:

• Authenticity comes first: Since micro-influencers typically don’t have the budget, resources, and connections that macro-influencers have, they have to develop genuine connections with their followers to stay relevant.
• They tend to focus on community and connection: Part of being a micro-influencer is taking time every day to answer direct messages, reply to comments, and like your commenters’ content. A micro-influencer’s success is built on community and connection instead of pure fame.
• The desire for growth: Micro-influencers want to build their following. Because of that, they tend to put a lot more effort into their campaigns, which means better content (and results) for your brand.
• Potential for higher ROI: Micro-influencers cost a lot less because they have smaller followings. Because of that, you’re more likely to see a better return on your money. Micro-influencers typically get significantly higher engagement rates on their posts compared to macro-influencers, putting your brand in front of your target audience.

The Benefits of Working with Micro-Influencers 

Influencers of every size have unique advantages and disadvantages. But the most significant benefit of micro-influencers is that you can target particular audiences, such as niche audiences, those located in a specific region, or communities with shared, strongly held values.

In more traditional influencer marketing campaigns, your brand can achieve maximum reach with macro and celebrity influencers since these people enjoy massive followings. Larger influencers are suitable for national and international brands, popular product categories, or any company with a large, diverse customer base.

That said, macro influencers tend to be more costly than micro-influencers. And though much smaller, micro-influencer audiences are usually more engaged and easy to convert into customers. With micro-influencers, brands with high conversion goals and lower budgets often achieve better results.

More prominent brands also use micro-influencers, but they may diversify their funding to include macro and celebrity influencers, too.

Below we list the most salient advantages of marketing with micro-influencers:

1. Relationships between micro-influencers and their followers are stronger than between macro and celebrity influencers. Micro-influencers can more easily engage and relate to their audience when smaller. Many micro-influencers are also experts in their field and are better at building trust with fellow consumers.
2. Micro influencer followers are more engaged. Studies show that micro-influencers have much more engaged audiences. The strong relationship and relatability translate into more meaningful interactions in post comments and shares. Many followers of celebrity influencers may love the celebrity and seek to live vicariously through them, but they’re less likely to feel connected to that individual on a personal level.
3. Deeper influencer-follower relationships and higher engagement often lead to a higher conversion rate and higher ROIs. Because micro-influencers nurture more profound connections with their followers, they are in a better position to help your brand drive sales, subscriptions, and more. However, micro-influencers will not endorse products from brands they don’t believe in. When recruiting these creators, make sure that they align with your brand.
4. Most micro-influencers are more cost-effective and may even accept product gifts. Many micro-influencers are just starting or creating on the side. For this reason, some of these influencers are willing to post in exchange for product gifts. 
5. They can sometimes start as brand ambassadors. Having brand ambassadors do outreach is a low-cost way to test if micro-influencers can convey your brand and product attributes in a way to authentically speaks to their audience. Additionally, having a brand ambassador program has a low-cost barrier to entry, allowing you to exchange products or a hefty discount code in exchange for a few sponsored posts per month.However, offering your creators fair compensation is critical to building trust and long-term relationships. Consider adding them to your ambassador or affiliate team, giving them free products, and offering them a commission on the sales they drive.
6. Micro-Influencers have high CPM efficiency. Compared to traditional digital ads (Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc.) working with micro-influencers has the most efficient CPM (cost per thousand impressions). For up to a few hundred dollars you can receive a high ROI on your investment and a low CPM.

What to Look For in a Micro-Influencer? 

There are many benefits of micro-influencer marketing. However, not all micro-influencers will align with your brand identity and goals. In other words, not all micro-influencers are created equal, and their worth largely depends on your industry, brand identity, and company mission. When deciding which micro-influencers you would like to work with, consider the following attributes:

• Relevance: The creator’s interests and content must be relevant to your industry—that way, your audience matches the influencer’s.
• Authenticity: Unfortunately, some influencers (including micro-influencers) try to fake their popularity by buying followers/engagements or joining influencer pods. Creators who make good partners come by their online communities honestly and exert the effort to build relationships with their audience members. Authentic micro-influencers create content that is true to who they are and consistently nurtures their online community around shared values and interests.
• Reach: Even though smaller audiences tend to be more engaged, you still need to make an impact with your campaigns and raise brand awareness. Depending on your audience, product, and where you ship, an influencer’s follower count is still something to consider. As you would expect, larger micro influencers reach more people per post. Your campaign goals should dictate how wide a reach you need to hit. That said, you should still keep relevance and authenticity in mind as you examine an influencer’s reach.

Where to Find the Right Influencer?

1. Look among your followers and customers.

If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, you likely have influential customers and followers who love your brand. The easiest way to build your influencer team is to reach out to each of them and ask for a shoutout. Additionally, you may already be getting shoutouts without you asking for them.

Using social listening tools or seeing who has tagged your brand on social media, you can locate these brand fans and convert them into sponsored partnerships.

2. Scroll social media.

Another great way to find micro-influencers is to follow your favorite ones on your top channels. First, make sure that you establish your brand presence on that channel before you start scrolling and following.

3. Ask Google for suggestions.

Search engines can answer any number of questions, including ones about influencers in your industry. Simply type your industry, the word “influencer,” and any other descriptors you wish to add.

4. Use influencer recruitment tools 

With the rise of influencer culture, it is no surprise that some companies have recognized that there needs to be a streamlined way for businesses to find and get in contact with influencers. Searching the web, you will find many influencer recruitment tools and platforms. 

The Typical Process for Finding and Working with Micro-Influencers 

1. Discovery 

First, you’ve got to discover your diamond in the rough. This requires a little digging, but it’ll match you up with effective influencers that your audience will love. A great way to do this is to search hashtags that are relevant to your industry. Also, you can look at the influencers that follow you or are interacting with your competitors.

Often looking at your Instagram followers will generate a few leads. There’s no need to partner with every influencer you find. Instead, do your research and narrow down your list to 10 – 20 potential micro-influencers.

2. Contact

Once you’ve narrowed down who you would like to partner with, reach out to them! If you’re doing the process manually, it’s good practice to reach out to more influencers than you wish to work with. For instance, if you’re looking for 15 micro-influencers, we suggest reaching out to 30 via direct message and/or email.

Doing the reach-out process manually can take from a few days up to a month (sometimes even longer). While macro-influencers usually have an email address for collabs, micro-influencers probably won’t. If you can’t find their email, an Instagram DM is totally fine, too.

3. Negotiation

Now that you have narrowed down your list of micro-influencers, it is time to negotiate. Expect to hear a range of offers and be sure that you discuss the entire scope of work. That should include:

• What content you need.
• Any captions or hashtags.
• The date the content goes live.
• Where the content will live online.
• How long the influencer should keep the content on their account.
• Rights to the content.

If everything sounds good to your influencer-to-be, send them a contract to get everything in writing.

4. Product Shipment

Once you and the influencer have agreed to a deal, get their shipping address and ship the product as fast as possible. Unless you can afford to take a loss for items lost in transit, be sure to get a tracking number for the item. If the item is of high value, you may want to look into shipping insurance.

Get Started with Your Micro-Influencer Campaigns 

Working with micro-influencers can involve a learning curve at first, but it is really a simple business transaction. There are many reasons to work with a micro-influencer, and it’s even likely that your new influencer already follows your brand. If not, it’s time to do some digging, but the potential payoff of a micro-influencer marketing strategy is great.