Who are the influencers of the future?
In the UK, 85% of young people unfollowed influential social media stars during the pandemic; but why? This week, we’re discussing influencer marketing across all perspectives. We explore the phases of the purchasing journey and how emotions impact each touchpoint.
Over the last decade, we have seen social media grow rapidly in importance. More than 3.4 billion people actively use social media – that’s 45% of the world’s population.
Inevitably these people look up to influencers in social media to guide them with their decision making.
Influencers in social media are people who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic. They make regular posts about that topic on their preferred social media channels and generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views. Brands love social media influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote.
Types of Influencers
You can separate different types of influencers in multiple ways. Some of the most common methods are by follower numbers, by types of content, and by the level of influence. You can also group influencers by the niche in which they operate. This means that influencers who may appear in a low category by one measure may seem more influential when looked at in another way. For example, many mega-influencers are also celebrities. Yet both these groups often have less real influence on their audience because they lack expertise in a dedicated narrow niche. Some micro and even nano-influencers can have a tremendous impact on followers in their specialist niche. They may be of significant benefit to a firm selling a product targeting that sector.
What is an influencer?
An influencer is an online personality who impacts their followers’ purchasing decisions based on their reputation. They use their online presence, mostly on social media platforms and blogs, to partner with brands they use and create content that advertises products or services of those companies.
How many followers do you need to be an influencer?
People with followers in the range between 40,000 and 1 million followers on a social network are macro-influencers. Most influencers are micro-influencers with between 1,000 and 40,000 followers. In really specialist niches, you have nano-influencers with fewer than 1,000 followers.
Here at Brighter Directions our social media team keep ahead of popular influencers and trends to engage with audiences in our social marketing strategies.
