what are the different types of influencers?
According to Merriam Webster, an influencer is simply, “a person who inspires or guides the actions of others.” By this definition, influencers were around long before social media entered our lives, but today we almost always associate them with social media, especially Instagram.
what is a social media influencer?
Modern day influencers have a presence on one, but often multiple, social media channels including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn. You can also find influencers on Pinterest, Snapchat and Reddit - although Redditors prefer to poke fun at traditional influencers rather than embrace them.
The fact of the matter is that everyone has influence on someone else, and it all comes down to where that influence is being exuded and consumed.
what are the types of influencers?
You’ll find varying definitions of influencers in different places, but we like to divide them into six different buckets:
MEGA
When the average person hears “influencer” they probably think of the mega influencer. These popular people have 1 million followers or more. They’re often celebrities or someone who embraced sharing on social media early enough to grow their following over time. The great thing about these influencers is that they typically reach people around the world with their content.
MACRO
This influencer tier has between 500,000 and 1 million followers and often has more followers in one country rather than worldwide. Unless they’re c-list celebrities like Aaron Carter, macro influencers are likely being compensated for many of their posts.
MID-TIER
Very similar to macro influencers, mid-tier influencers have 50,000 - 500,000 followers, and are often compensated for some of their posts. But don’t let their slightly lower followers account fool you: these influencers are effective when their content is focused on a subject, like eating healthy or working out.
MICRO
These influencers with 10,000 - 50,000 followers were all the rage a few years back. They had enough followers for brands to want to work, but not enough to make them expensive to work with like macro and mega influencers. Similar to mid-tier, micro influencers’ content is often focused on one subject.
NANO
The term ‘nano influencer’ has gained popularity lately because businesses are realizing how valuable authentic relationships are in marketing. Nano influencers typically have between 1,000 - 10,000 followers and create content because they love it, not because it’s their day job.
Nano and local influencers have one key difference: nano influencers speak on a subject rather than a location. For example, there might be a nano influencer that creates and flies homemade kites. This is a very niche subject, so the influencer has likely interacted with their followers and built a trusting relationship with many of them. However, these followers could be from anywhere in the world.
LOCAL
Local influencers have sway in a specific location like Madison or Indianapolis, and most of their 500-5,000 followers are from that same area. Their followers look forward to seeing where they’re eating, what they’re doing and where they’re shopping so they can decide if they want to do those things, too.
Hummingbirds are local influencers, but we often refer to them as hyper-local content creators or social media enthusiasts because they are not being compensated with money for their content. Instead, they receive in-kind offers from brands such as gift cards, complimentary meals, and more.
Despite being the smallest group, local influencers are often the most effective because their recommendations are being consumed by people who both opted in to view their content and already trust them. In fact, ninety-two percent of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over other forms of advertising, and this is especially true for local influencers. There is no other form of advertising that has that same level of organic permission marketing like following friends and community members on social media.
Which type of influencer should you work with?
Selecting the right influencers for your brand partnerships can be tricky. Should you work with micro or nano influencers? Mid-tier or micro? This 5-question quiz will help you narrow it down and discover the right type of influencer for your brand!
local hummingbirds drive results
If you’re interested in activating real people to help strengthen your marketing strategy, check out our free local influencer marketing guide to help get you started. However, if you want to skip the heavy lifting, book a call with our sales team to learn how Hummingbirds can help you drive growth with people-powered marketing.
