What Can Micro-Influencers Teach Us?
Influencer. The soon-to-be replaced buzzword du jour. Considering this term today, we now find ourselves in a position where we can break it down further. The new word on everyone’s lips: micro-influencer. What we all want to know is; how is this relatively new type of influencer going to further sway the future of our PR and marketing? And what differentiates micro-influencers from the conventional influencer?
Vibrant in every sense of the word
For a start, their reach is humble. You won’t find them with hundreds of thousands of followers. What they do have though is a seriously engaged audience that actively want to follow them. From just a quick browse of their beautifully curated feeds, you get confirmation of just how engaged their followers are simply verified from the sheer volume of likes and comments. In comparison to their influencer peers, you could argue they are grossly unacknowledged given the superiority of content they are producing.
Weaving mouthwatering photography with beautiful words; what you enjoy as a follower, is a complete visual experience. What’s more, is that they’re actually sincere. No micro-influencer will have a feed that hasn’t been built genuinely. Instagram is polluted by so many frustrating ‘free followers’ and buying platforms. They steer well away from these though – and it shows.
Go exploring
How do you stumble upon one of these Instagram gems? Go exploring. Be transported to faraway places with Instagrams explore page. It’s a never-ending, visual metropolis of glittering content, made up largely as a result of micro-influencers and their creative niches.
We are all victim to the engine of Instagram. It now has 700 million monthly users so that comes as no surprise. What also comes as no surprise is that more realistic feeds, with real people and real content behind them, are the ones setting trends and leading the way. Engagement isn’t diluted and that’s the difference.
In your feed we trust
I remember the day. The day my favourite blogger who I had followed for years, posted the most unrecognisable piece of writing that was so far removed from her usual work it was extraordinary she had even posted it. I didn’t believe it and that’s when I knew; influencers (without pigeonholing all of them) had started selling out for cash over authenticity. From that day I began to question all her recommendations and have felt a detachment ever since.
So this brings me to my final thoughts: what do we really want from our feeds? Well for one, opinion. Yes, we still love a dreamy photo that gives us nothing but delight, but we also crave the real thoughts and people behind it. We need and want to engage with people. It’s a basic human instinct.
Want your brand to stand out and be innovative? To achieve results, stay true to your core values and build your strategy from there. Ignore what everyone else is doing and be unique. We have become unbelievably savvy now when it comes to social, so no need to try and pull the wool over our well-trained Instagram eyes.
Image featured of micro-influencer James Benn @jwtbenn
