As the number of internet users increases and the content on every social media platform is increasingly prevalent, the term influencer is increasingly heard. What exactly is an influencer or who is it? Simply put, an influencer is someone who can influence others.
The closest person an influencer can say is your own family member. They can and usually provide information to the whole household about a product or service. Family members will provide information because they have received information from others or have experienced the benefits of the product in question. An influencer marketing is increasingly sought after by companies to increase engagement.
The all-digital age makes many people have to be good at adapting, including you and the business you are running. Regarding marketing or marketing activities, you as a business owner are required to be able to do marketing in cyberspace, aka online marketing.
This activity is commonly referred to as digital marketing. The way it works is to use the internet as an opening up for greater opportunities for your business. This strategy is packaged in a modern and timely manner by utilizing online platforms.
If your business currently has a target consumer from social media, you can try using influencer marketing services to expand your reach and be able to open up opportunities for collaboration with other fields.
As the name implies, influence is an important power of an influencer. They are one of the reasons many business owners invite them to work together to promote a product or service because of its influence.
An influencer is a person or figure in social media who has a large or significant number of followers. What they convey can influence the behavior of their followers. Simply put, influencers have influence for their followers to do something. That’s why, in strengthening marketing and promotion using digital media, using the services of an influencer is one of the strategies.
Quoting from Marketing Hub, an influencer is someone who has the power to influence other people’s decisions because he or she has authority, knowledge, position, or because of his relationship with the public or audience. Usually, an influencer is someone who works as a blogger, YouTuber, celebrity, or a public figure who has tens of thousands to millions of followers on social media and is considered important in a certain community environment.
Influencer marketing is one of the marketing strategies of a company by inviting an influencer to work together in order to increase brand awareness as well as sales tailored to a specific target market.
As a person who actively uses social media, you must have often seen celebrities or famous people in a community get endorsements for a product that repeatedly appears on the timeline. Influencer marketing is a category of native ads or paid content that displays the form, quality, and function as attractive as organic content created by other promotional media.
The results of the collaboration can vary, depending on the expertise of each influencer. They are also known as key opinion leaders, although they have different backgrounds, so nothing is really similar when conveyed to internet users.
Types of Influencers Based on the Number of Followers
As communication and information technology develops in the digital world, especially on social media, there are now types of definitions and make it easier for netizens to find out. Oddie Randa, a Chief Operations Officer of Gushcloud Marketing Group, said that influencers are divided into three categories based on the number of followers on social media.
Nano: The number of followers is under 10,000 accounts.
Micro: The number of followers is 10,000 to 100,000 accounts.
Macro: The number of followers is more than 100,000 accounts.
Oddie further said, “If it is above one or two million followers, it is counted as a celebrity or we call it a premium influencer. The name of celebrities here is not necessarily those who have entered television, but are famous”.
A brief explanation is below.
1. Nano Influencer
Nano is the smallest particle with a size of 50,000 smaller than the size of a human hair. Well, the type of influencer with the smallest reach is nano influencers with a total of 1,000 to 10,000 followers. Despite its small number of followers, nano influencers are a popular choice because they are cheap and offer quite a few other advantages. Not a few companies choose to work with new influencers with no more than 2,000 followers.
The reason is that the smaller the reach of influencers, the more the target reach of a company. Working with nano influencers can make your brand get other benefits from the community that is its followers. Because the number of followers is small, this is what makes influencers and their followers able to interact with each other and get to know each other better through social media platforms, so that the engagement that occurs is even higher.
Because the community that is a follower of nano influencers is relatively small and close and close, the campaign they carry out also has a more intimate and personal touch. The followers of nano influencers feel as if they are getting recommendations from people they trust like friends. They also tend to take action based on ads or reviews of products of this type.
Although sometimes, nano influencers rarely identify themselves as influencers because for them social media is just a channel to pour out ideas or hobbies. It could be that the way they work is not or not very professional. Keep in mind that strong engagement will increase the trust of your followers even higher at a very low and affordable cost.
2. Micro Influencer
At a level above nano, micro has a follower count of 10,000 to 100,000. In general, the public and netizens have higher trust in this type because there are certain fields that they master.
They usually get followers because they have a YouTube channel with special topics such as beauty, gadget reviews, traveling, culinary, or others. Or those who have built an Instagram account and are slowly increasing the number of followers because they are actively uploading quality and specific content on a regular basis with certain topics.
Usually a micro is a health expert, beauty expert, or other expertise on these two social media. The more niche the social media content theme, the easier it will be for engagement to be formed organically. Because of this expertise, micro can gain loyal followers and trust every content they upload on social media. Usually, the segment that is sought after in using micro services is 18 to 24 years old
The costs that a businessman must incur in order to work with micro are still relatively cheap and affordable.
3. Macro Influencer
The more your social media followers increase, you can be called a macro. This type can be embedded if it already has around 100,000 to one million followers. The engagement between influencers and their followers remains, but it looks less strong. With that many followers, surely the need for the reach of the message to be conveyed will be wider and the impact on the costs incurred will be greater.
Macros tend to have diverse followers or audiences with varied interests. On average, they are very concerned about the brand awareness that clients need. They are also more accessible and contactable than mega.
4. Mega Influencer
With a number of followers of more than 1 million, it is called a mega influencer. In general, this type of person works as an artist or influential person in the community with a national range of influence and followers.
The number of followers is very large, allowing influencers to disseminate messages in a short time with a wider reach. However, this also affects the funds and costs that must be incurred by business people because the amount is very large.
In addition, mega cannot necessarily be considered an expert in a certain field. Because as is commonly seen on social media, the megas are their status as average celebrities. Like most celebrities, the mega account will focus on daily life rather than a specific topic. This means that the influencer may not know anything about your business and their followers are not interested in your brand.
Types of Influencers Based on Social Media Platforms
If the above is a discussion about the influencer category based on the number of followers, in this section is the category of the platform used by these influencers.
1. Blogger
This type of influencer has long been known among blog writers or blog readers in general. Their writing is searched based on keywords embedded in each post. A blogger is someone who owns and/or manages a blog. Quite a lot of blogs are used or focused on doing reviews/reviews about a product, for example the latest gadgets or skincare.
Reviews written on a blog are arguably more complete and long, so that readers get clearer information than if they get it on other social media. If the blogger has a large enough loyal readership, it is easy for the blogger to recommend a product based on the writing style and direction of the client and attract the reader’s interest to try to buy and use the product.
The number of readers of a blog affects the success of a product’s campaign to the marketing stage.
2. Influencer YouTube
Better known as YouTubers, these influencers who have loyal subscribers always create content in the form of videos about information, including product reviews. Unlike bloggers who write information or product reviews on a blog, YouTubers review something in the form of videos.
Initially, the term pinned to them was vlogger aka video blogger. The role of YouTube influencers or YouTubers looks significant, especially with the development of technology in the digital world like today. The reason is that more than 90% of internet users know a new product through videos uploaded on the YouTube platform. From a video, the viewers can clearly see how the product is being reviewed by the YouTuber.
3. Influencer Instagram
A more familiar or often heard term for an Instagram influencer is an Instagram celebrity or celebrity. It usually refers to a public figure who uses the Instagram platform to record various activities, including reviewing a product.
4. Influencer TikTok
Not much different from YouTubers and celebrities, TikTok influencers or commonly called creators have loyal fans and followers who follow every latest content appearing on the homepage. TikTok’s algorithm is programmed to rate the videos you like and share. Then, the algorithm began to count watch hours, the number of loves, including when the video was shared by its users.
The number of TikTok users is currently over one billion. This allows anyone to access videos uploaded on TikTok and the opportunity to earn money from these uploads is even wider. Creators with a significant number of followers on TikTok can be influencers that you can work with because your opportunity to expand your market share can be wide open.
The Effect of the Number of Followers
One important note to remember is that the cost of influencer services will be more expensive in line with the increasing number of followers they have. However, you don’t need to worry if you want to use their services. The quality of the content that digital influencers display on each of their social media accounts will be better and better because they, especially mega influencers, have a production team that can produce the best content.
This is because influencers who have a large following will pay great attention to the quality of their social media content for the sake of their business. Another important note that you should pay attention to is that in choosing an influencer is not necessarily just because of the number of followers. The company’s brand message and image will have an impact if you choose influencers carelessly.
Make sure you choose your influencers carefully. Check first whether the influencer you choose has relevance to the brand, pay attention to the quality of the social media content, the image of the influencer in the eyes of the public, and of course adjust the price offered by the influencer according to the budget you have.
Tips for Becoming an Influencer
If you are interested in becoming an influencer, see the tips below:
1. Find Things That Interest You
Here are the first tips from Gramedia for you. To become an influencer, look for something that you really like and know about. That’s what you can share with others. If someone else creates content that is different from you and he succeeds, it doesn’t mean you have to be like him. Create your own content. Do as much research as possible before deciding.
2. Make Use of Existing Accounts
You don’t need to create a new account and start from scratch. Because finding and building followers is not easy. Simply clean your social media accounts by deleting content from old posts that don’t fit the concept and draft content you’re preparing.
3. Use a Business Profile and Personal Blog
Go to Settings on Instagram and change your account to a “business profile” for free. With this business account, you can see the engagement data you have as a whole or per post you upload. You can view the data as needed, including the recommended hours to create a recent photo post. Now, additional reels on Instagram can be used to increase engagement.
Don’t forget to create a blog or website with your account name. Because you never know how long a social media lasts and exists in cyberspace. A blog or website is like a house that you own without worrying if other social media (which can be likened to a shopping center) closes.
4. Collaborate with Brands
If you already have more than 1,000 social media followers, start becoming a nano influencer. You can try to find a brand or company that needs your services. Tailor the brand’s needs to the theme of your account. Search for the brand you are aiming for and find out who the marketing department is. Introduce yourself and tell them that you want to create content that showcases their products as a sponsor. Slowly, with more posts you upload, other brands will come by themselves.
Conclusion
The existence of an influencer is needed in a digital era like today. You can search for them and adjust them to the needs of the product or service you have. Influencers have influence for their followers to do something. That’s why, in strengthening marketing and promotion using digital media, using the services of an influencer is one of the strategies.
