Defining An Influencer

Nov 14, 2016

Influencer marketing is on the rise and is changing the way companies market their brand and products to consumers. So what exactly is it that defines the influencer in influencer marketing? There are a ton of factors that go into considering who is an influencer as well as who is the best influencer for your brand. For starters, an influencer is someone who has a significant following on social and who has potential to promote a brand or product to a target audience. Influencers are important because they are trusted by their followers and their followers share similar interests. Advertising is often overlooked, especially in younger generations, and can easily be blocked by downloading programs such as AdBlocker. But through influencer marketing the influencers are able to integrate the advertising into their everyday content to get the message to their followers.

So what are the different types of influencers? There are four different levels of influencers:

Celebrities (over 1 million followers or subscribers)
Macro-influencers (around 1 million followers or subscribers)
Middle-influencers (around 100,000 followers or subscribers)
Micro-influencers (around 10,000 followers or subscribers)

It is important to take into consideration which category an influencer fits into and how that will affect the promotion of your brand. While it may seem like a good idea to have someone with the biggest following promote your brand, it may not always be the most effective. Reaching a small niche audience may be more beneficial in the long run because they are more likely to pay attention to the content because they may have a closer relationship to the influencer, as opposed to a celebrity.

To find an influencer who is best to promote your brand, you need to consider the following:

Reach – the influencers ability to reach your desired audience.

Resonance – content that engages the audience and directly relates to the value of your brand.

Relevance – content that creates relevant conversation around your brand or an important topic dealing directly with your brand.

These qualities are necessary for an influencer to possess in order to get the most out of marketing your brand. If there is no conversation around the topic then there is essentially no point in having an influencer. If someone just retweets or reposts content, they are not engaging their maximum audience. To sum it all up, an influencer is composed of many different entities and there are many factors that go into considering which influencer would be best for your campaign. If you take the time to consider all the factors, you can find an influencer who will be able to take your brand to the next level of marketing.