Mega, Micro, Macro and Nano Influencers: The Difference Is in the Numbers

The current trending tactic for marketing strategies is influencer marketing, which has started showing up in practically every strategy. However, there are big differences between influencers, and not just where it concerns the type of audience they have and the brands that they decide to work with. Today’s piece is on the wide spectrum of influencers, which varies depending on their level of popularity. With influencer marketing seeing exponential growth in recent months, many people have started differentiating influencers into four main categories. Each one of them has a different set of standards that an influencer has to achieve before they can move up the ladder.

Additionally, estimates note that the influencer market is going to be worth more than $10 billion this year. As such, knowing the differences between each of the categories of influencers before looking for the right one for the next campaign is essential.

Mega-influencers

This is the highest-ranking category on the influencer scale, and these people usually tend to have over a million followers on social media platforms. These tend to be celebrities that most people can recognize, including film and music stars. What that means is that they have a global audience and their content can reach a lot of people very quickly. Unfortunately, these influencers don’t have a very strong or a real connection to the audience, and usually represent the most expensive of the categories to work with.

Macro-influencers

A step down from the mega influencers, these are the people that have between 100,000 and a million followers on social platforms. Unlike the previous group, these are people who have become popular solely due to the internet – anything from viral content to constant updates. These influencers have a much stronger relationship with the audience, and their audience tends to have very specific interests, which is usually why they are following that person in particular. The downside is that they tend to use an agent when it comes to working with brands.

Micro-influencers

This is by far, the biggest category of influencers out of the four, as these are the people who become popular for being industry or topic experts. They are very passionate about their subject, and by sharing what they know, they managed to gain a loyal audience. They can have anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 followers and usually tend to have somewhat of an experience working with brands.

Their followers are loyal and trust the influencer, so they only work with brands they know are good. Finally, they tend to have lower prices than the previous two categories.

Nano-influencers

Last, but not least, this is the newest category of influencers, with less than 10,000 followers on social media. These are people with the highest levels of engagement, and mostly have influence within a small community and very little experience working with brands.

An excellent choice for startups with small marketing budgets, that want to test out different influencer marketing ideas.