With up to 37.8 million active accounts, the influencer industry is quickly becoming one of the most profitable industries in the world. However, the word influencer does not just refer to celebrities and social media stars with millions of followers, but rather to accounts with 1000 followers and up. Nano influencers make up the biggest percentage of the social media influencer population - the question is just how to leverage this.
A Quick Recap on Nano and Micro Influencers
Nano influencers have on average between 1k-10k followers on their social channels. They are what they sound like: real people with so-called regular lives that are hyper specific in their niches, whether it’s cooking, fashion, or healthy living. They are not to be confused with micro influencers who have a follower community of between 10k-50k and are already considered experts in their niche.
Here’s a quick recap of influencer categories and their tier distribution:
Nano influencers make up a whopping 54% of Instagram influencers; and the same goes for all the other social channels. When making choices for your brand, chances are mega, macro, and mid-tier influencers will be quite difficult to “sign a contract with”. Moreover, your pool of choice will be quite limited, considering they only make up a little over 12% of the influencer population.
This is where the nano (and micro) magic starts to happen if leveraged properly. Here’s a quick roundup of leverages nano influencers possess and what they can do for your brand:
Established Credibility & Trust
Unlike the macro and mega crew, it is more likely for nano influencers to not be driven by pure economic interest when running their social accounts. This comes simply from the fact that most people that follow them, are people that actually know them. The nanos will be very careful when promoting a product to their audience, rooting to avoid disappointment at all costs. This is where credibility and trust come in. You will have the guarantee your product is being promoted by someone with established trust among their audience.
They are Authentic
Nano influencers are authentic. What does this mean? They do not have all the equipment and “behind the scenes” prep that accounts with millions of followers have. Even the biggest social media hits confess all the hard work and edits behind the most “spontaneous” Instagram posts.
Followers will more easily connect and feel with the nanos, because they simply consider them real, genuine and authentic people. “Does the dress look good on her? Chances are it will look good on me too.”
Geo Located Actions
It’s almost always the case that nano influencers are tied to specific geo locations. This is great for businesses that have a certain area of influence, as their rising social media stars can very easily spread the word to the local community of followers.
More Engagement
This is probably the most important point that creates a divide between the nanos and the rest of the influencer tier distribution groups: user engagement. It is also the most important decision to make when choosing to work with an influencer.
Calculating the engagement rate is pretty simple: all you have to do is divide the number of likes/shares/comments a post gets by the total amount of people that saw it. In the ‘State of Influencer Marketing 2019’, HyperAuditor discovered that nano influencers hold an engagement rate that is twice as high as that of the other tier groups.
And the research does not stop here. In their 2018 study of over 800,000 Instagram accounts with 1000+ followers, Markerly came to the same conclusion: as followership increases, engagement considerably decreases.
Better Recommendation Power aka Word of Mouth
Higher rates of engagement naturally lead to better recommendation power. In their study, “Chatter Matters: the 2018 Word of Mouth Report” it’s been discovered that over 83% of Americans are more likely to purchase a product or service that a friend or family member recommended. That being said, nano influencers that have more engagement with their followers, spark potential for a greater power when driving actual conversions.
Key Take-aways
The market size of influencer marketing has grown at exponential rates in the past years, and in 2021 it is expected to top the $9.7 billion worth. While the follower and authority monopole seem to be held by the macro/mega accounts, we’ve seen that nano influencers not only make up the biggest percentage of the tier distribution, but they also have more follower engagement and recommendation power.
If you’re just getting started with your brand’s influencer strategy, it might be wise to start with the nanos; and the user generated stories at radd. can be just the right kickoff. As such, it might be time to turn your nano influencer customers into loyal brand ambassadors.