What Are the Pros and Cons of a Micro-influencer?

With the intense growth of social media over the last decade, influencer marketing has increased dramatically. You might not even realize as you go through the trending page how many different sorts of marketing various influencers are engaging in.

While in the past, brands may have thought that finding a celebrity or influencer with the largest following is their best bet at the success of a campaign, we know as a micro-influencer agency that when it comes to engagement, bigger is not always better. Today we’re talking about the pros and cons of micro-influencers.

Measuring Influence

To understand where micro-influencers fall on the scale of things, let’s take a look at the broad definitions of influencers and how they stand based on their following. While there is some slight dispute as to the exact range, in general, the rankings are as follows:

Nano: 1,000–10,000 followers
Micro: 10,000–50,000 followers
Macro: 500,000–1,000,000 followers
Mega: 1,000,000+ followers

While at first, it might seem obvious that a brand would want a mega or macro influencer, such as a celebrity or top % content creator, due to their reach, micro and nano influencers come with their own benefits: Engagement.

Smaller Following, More Engagement

Nano-influencers may compensate for their lack of reach by being real, approachable, and connecting with their audiences.

In comparison to the original “mega influencers,” whose numbers can approach the millions, nano-influencers have less than 10,000 followers and often as few as 1,000. Because their followers are smaller, these influencers are better able to communicate meaningfully with their followers through meaningful dialogues through direct messages, intelligent answers to comments, and genuine rapport-building.

What numbers are we talking about? The average engagement rate for nano-influencers on Instagram is 8%, which is ten times greater than the average for all celebrities on the site (1.42%).

When it comes to micro-influencers tend to have more individualism in their styles than larger influencers. This is not to argue that larger influencers are all the same; rather, there are many distinctions when it comes to micro-influencers and dealing with them. Some may have a really deep relationship with their following and connect with them via the power of their personality.

Pros of working with Micro-influencers

Cost
Micro-influencers often charge far less than other social media influencers and renowned blogs.
The amount you charge as a content producer or influencer is determined by a number of factors. A sponsored post with just words or an image, for example, will cost less than a request for a 30-second video.

However, one of the most important elements is the number of followers. Working with micro-influencers at Peersway allows you to keep your influencer marketing spending under control while yet having a big impact on your target demographic.

Access to specific Communities
Micro-influencers typically lead micro-communities or smaller audiences with a strong interest in a particular topic or business. The channels where these specialized customers assemble, whether online or offline, are sometimes more difficult to identify and join. However, with the help of a micro-influencer, you may gain access to specialized groups, try outreach strategies, and achieve success.

More accepting of suggestions
Micro-influencers could be newer players in the market, and they use each encounter to grow their knowledge and build their own brands. They could thus be more receptive to project suggestions, helpful criticism, and alternative payment schemes (direct payments, free products, covered travel costs, etc.) to promote your products to their followers.

In contrast to “A-list influencers,” the micro-influencers you deal with are probably capable of managing themselves. (Consider well-paid influencers like Kim Kardashian, the Gee family, Eleonora Pons, etc.) It may be simpler for marketers to maintain control over campaigns and solidify connections as a result.

Better Engagement: As previously mentioned, the audiences of micro-influencers are typically far more engaged than those of large influencers with large followings since they have deeper interactions with them. Because of this, a company can choose to work with a micro-influencer rather than a huge influencer.

With this combination of pros, a brand agency working with multiple micro-influencers may achieve the same reach as working with a singular macro one but for nearly the same cost and with a much higher engagement rate.

Cons of working with Micro-influencers

Less experience: While giant influencers with more than 1 million followers are often always collaborating with marketers, micro-influencers may not always be. This can mean that micro-influencers could not have the ideal campaign experience, which some businesses might not like. Additionally, as micro-influencers are often less strict and polished in the content they post, they may be more prone to posting unfiltered content your brand does not wish to be associated with (such as controversial opinions, political takes, etc.). Vetting your influencers early on may help a brand avoid working with potential risks.

Less Reach: Compared to mega-influencers, micro-influencers typically have a smaller reach. Of course, this is expected and anticipated when selecting a micro-influencer to work with. Weighing the options of potential engagement versus reach involves a great deal of complexity, so when businesses engage with micro-influencers to work with, they must be hyperaware of them.

Harder to seek out: It’s easy to find a mega or macro influencer. Chances are they’re trending on your home pages right now! Fitting micro and especially nano influencers are far harder to seek out, and thus, more research must be conducted in order to discover the right individual with whom to collaborate: One who has a fan base with whom the brand wants to interact.