One often comes across the word “Influencer” whenever one opens any social media account or website. But who are influencers, and why are influencers a thing? There are also various types of influencers that can be categorized in different sections according to the number of followers.
Why are influencers a thing?
Influencers can also be categorized according to the platform and their profession. But before we get into that, one should know what influencers are and why are influencers a thing.
Who are influencers?
Influencers are basically people who have authority over a niche on the internet. These people usually can influence people in numbers and make them accept ideas. These types of influencers are usually used by many companies to promote their good and services. The influencers charge loads of money for helping companies in marketing their products. Therefore, if one is starting a business or running one, knowing why are influencers a thing is crucial as it can help the marketing depart from the company.
Who are social media influencers?
People who have heard the word social media influencer. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a social media influencer. But what exactly is social media influencing, and who are social media influencers? As one already knows who influencers are, social media influencers are just people who influence audiences over social media platforms. These are usually bound to a particular niche and only influence people who are interested in that niche.
Social media influencers are usually recognized by the number of followers they have. But there is more than that. A person can be really good in a particular niche yet he doesn’t get much recognition. Therefore, the audience is constantly looking for new people. Here are a few types of influencers one will come across.
Different types of influencers
- Mega influencers:
Mega influencers are the biggest starts over at least one social media platform. There are no fixed numbers, but a mega influencer at least has one million followers on one social media platform. If one owns a company, it is not the influencer one should be looking for unless one has a huge budget. These influencers are usually people who got famous offline, such as movie stars, sportsmen, and other celebrities.
- Macro influencers:
Macro influencers are just one ladder down than mega influencers. Again, the numbers aren’t fixed but the follower count of macro-influencers can range from 40k to one million. These types of people are usually town-B actors and celebrities or really great online experts. These online experts have usually started with 0 followers and made it big in prime time. These types of influencers are usually great for online marketing for companies. Most companies sought such types of people to market their products and services.
- Micro-influencers:
Micro-influencers can’t be called full-time influencers as they aren’t too big to move people in huge numbers. The followers may differ from 5k to 40k. Although these people have gained all those followers by pure skill and their knowledge about that particular niche. Companies approach such kinds of creators and make then prove their worth first. These types of influencers usually are highly interactive with people and their comments. Therefore, if one’s business requires a high amount of communication, these types are the best to approach.
- Nano influencers:
Nano influencers are the first step to the above ladder. These people have followers ranging from 0 to 4k. These people are also quite knowledgeable in their niche and are growing at a fast rate. Rarely does anyone approach them and ask them to post. But usually, these types of influencers later get famous and write their names in macro-influencers.
Different types of influencers by profession
- bloggers:
Bloggers are the type of influencers who blog about something or a particular niche that posts over a website. They own these websites and often post about their particular niche. For instance, a traveler will always post about the place he went and write things about, the same for a food blogger. These influencers have a hold on their niche and build a community of their own.
- YouTube content creators:
YouTube content creators are recently upcoming and getting famous day by day. These people usually create videos on YouTube, and as videos are more engaging, one can find drastic changes in the YouTube community. YouTubers usually are fixed to a niche like bloggers and create videos on it. Many YouTubers create comedy videos while others create cooking videos. It depends on the person.
- Podcasters:
Podcasters are another type of content creator emerging. These people usually call successful people who have a certain level of expertise in a domain and have a deep level conversation with them. The podcasters are usually people who spread awareness about something or give out recent trends, or even spread knowledge among the world.
- Social media posters:
The last type of influencer is social media posters. These people don’t do extraordinary things and keep on posting over a particular social media platform. Although, they are really creative about the post and attract loads of people through different strategies and tactics.