Influencer marketing is one of the most efficient and effective ways to reach out to potential customers on social media.

It allows you to tap into the power of social media influencers to promote your brand.

You can use influencer marketing to reach a larger audience, build brand awareness, and generate leads.

Learn more about influencer marketing and how it can benefit your business. Below, I have given a strong idea of the types of social media influencers and listed the best influencer marketing tools that can help you to find the right influencers for your brand.

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What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a kind of social media marketing that uses the reference for the brand and the products from influencers, who have dedicated followers and experts in the specific niche.

In the current age of digitalization, social media platforms, online services, and celebrity endorsements, the influencer tag has impacted so many lives and influenced so many decisions. If we closely look at our social media feeds, we will be able to find many posts featuring some form of influencer marketing.

Influence can be asserted from any platform. Any individual, group of individuals or brand has the capability of being an influencer. For example, when a celebrity uses a product, the product and the brand is highlighted and the fans of that respective celebrity often follow in the footsteps of the celebrity. They are influenced by buying or at least talking about it.

Contents such as lifestyle, fashion trends, healthcare products, electronics, etc. that come from popular brands or individuals often come in the form of influencer marketing. Many brands use influencers to spread the existence of the product to a wider range of audiences.

Let’s assume a Person ‘X’ is a fashion influencer on social media who has a large group of the audience following him/her. Person X is promoting a certain product of a brand on his/her page or channel. Since Person X is a social media figure, many people trust his/her judgment on certain products or services.

So when he/she will be marketing or promoting something, the chances are that the majority of his/her audience will end up buying the product or subscribing for a service and therefore, getting influenced.

Who are the Influencers?

Influencers are individuals or a group of people who motivate people to take action. They are not necessarily celebrities with fame and money. They are more like specialists in their respective fields. They demonstrate authority and have expert knowledge in their field. For example, there are fashion bloggers or experts who influence people and their decisions on Instagram or other media platforms.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing

Influence marketing benefits both the sides brand and the influencer. It is a win-win situation for both. Paychecks are not necessarily the reason for influencers to promote certain things. Influencer marketing can be done for free as well! In that case, both sides usually share benefits that don’t involve monetary value.

For example, if a TV celebrity decides to use a YouTube channel to promote her series, is anyone getting paid here? Highly unlikely – that’s because here it is a win-win situation for both. The channel is getting subscribed by the fans of the celebrity and the channel is promoting her work and putting up good reviews so that a wider range of audiences experiences her work.

However, in most of the cases, the influencers get healthy paychecks or gifts that equal the paycheck.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Influencer Marketing

Do’s – Put together a strategy, plan, and budget before approaching an influencer. Try to spend time on research like their contents, audience, market demands, etc. Develop a schedule and then contact the influencer. It will become easier to integrate your PR schedule with the influencer.

Don’ts – Don’t generalize your approach to find different influencers. Not all of them are the same. Tailor your approach to suit the influencer. Some prefer a casual approach while others prefer professional.

Don’t just go for an influencer with popularity. Popularity and influence are not exactly the same. Go for those influencers that make a bigger impact on the audience in their respective industry. Then it will be easier to capture the audience into eliciting a specific action from them.

Development & Implementation

To begin the influence marketing plan is to define objectives for the whole campaign. Normally, objectives for influencer marketing are usually less about expanding deals and increasingly about creating buzz and open mindfulness. Before any influencer is reached, an organization must characterize their objectives in definite terms, explaining precisely what they plan to achieve.

After setting up objectives, the organization will at that point need to distinguish the influencers they need to contact by investigating the target audience by looking at the demographics. Basic quests of Google and Facebook can uncover who has influence over purchasers. For instance, a quest for vehicles would return results for vehicle online journals, car audits, and car-related blog sites and websites.

Market researchers offer administrations that help advertisers figure out who their clients are most influenced by. The organization should choose what number of influencers they need to target. Afterward, select those that best meet the objectives of the whole marketing journey.

Organizations will at that point start investigating where their influencers assemble, who their fans are, and what their content is spreading. Doing some research on the preferred influencer’s content and niche will help you to reach out to them.

Companies or brands usually communicate with influencers through informal/casual methods like social media. The objective is to frame a natural relationship that does not completely rely on business and selling. Influencers who are treated with admiration become certified promoters for the organizations and their products.

Marketers who run the campaign should analyze regularly whether the campaign is doing good or bad. If it is not working out or not having an impact, organizations must communicate with new influencers in their own way. The influencers who are successful should be sustained so they keep on supporting the organization on their platforms.

Types of social media influencers

There are various kinds of social media influencers that are considered based on follower count and also the categories. Let’s discuss the types of influencers.

5 types of influencers based on the follower range:

Mega-Influencer ( 1M+ followers): Influencers who have more than 1M+ followers on social media are considered Mega-influencers. They are actually celebrities. They are so active on social media and share almost every detail with their audience to make engagement regularly with their audience. They have a huge fan base on the Internet and this is why a mega-influencer charges a little bit high for the promotions.

So, If you have a healthy amount of budget for influencer marketing, You should go for a Mega-influencer because it will return with a great profit too. 

Macro-Influencers (100k-1M Followers): Influencers with 100k to 1M followers are macro-influencers. They are less popular than the Mega -influencers because they grow their popularity by making content on social media. Basically, they are called internet celebrities too. Because they build up their audience over months or years.

Though they do not have a larger fan base like mega-celebrities, they give more effort and time on social media to engage their audience and increase the range of their audience. If you are thinking that you have a medium-range of budget for hiring an influencer. You can hire a macro influencer. They will help you to grow your brand awareness and new engagement for your business. 

And the facility of hiring a macro influencer is that they make organic engagement with their audience. This is why people trust them and are influenced to buy your product.

So macro influencers can get you organic traffic.

Micro-Influencer (10k-100k Followers):  Influencers who have followers from 10k to 100k are micro-influencers. They are the growing star of the Internet. Most of them are niche focus this is why people from specific niches follow them to see their activities. So you can choose a micro-influencer according to your niche. because micro-influencers have experts in your niche and they will make relevant content for you. People trust them easily, considering them authentic.

Nano Influencers (1k-10K Followers): Nano influencers are an influencer who has a small range of followers on social media like 1K-10K. Nano influencers promote the brand or products they really like and experience. This is why the audience trusts them. They respond to their audience regularly and engage with them.

If you are doing a start-up business and you have a small budget for marketing, You can hire a Nano Influencer who can help you to get an authentic audience.

10 Types of Influencers Based on the Categories:

Before choosing an influencer for your brand. You need to know about the categories of influencers. Because all the influencers are not the same. You just can not invest and pick a random one to promote your brand. You must need to know about her/his niche. I am discussing 10 types of popular categories of influencers usually seen on social media 

1. Celebrity Influencer – Celebrity influencers are mainly from showbiz, They have their popularity beyond social media. The social media fan base did not make him/her popular. 

A celebrity can promote any kind of brand from a different niche because all you need is only his/her face and fame. But you will have to count a big amount of money if you want celebrities to promote your brand. So go for a celebrity influencer when you have a huge budget for marketing.

2. Lifestyle and Fashion – These kinds of celebrities build their popularity with a long time. They build their engagement by giving value to their audience day by day. They share their everyday lifestyle with their audience and share fashion tips. As they have a fanbase who trusts them. This is why brands collaborate with them for promotion. If you are selling something that is relevant to fashion and lifestyle then you can hire an influencer of this category.  For example: If your company is producing skin care products you can hire a female influencer who does share skincare rutin daily with her audience.

3. Fitness –Nowadays people are very conscious about health and exercise. They look for mentors online who will help them with small tips on a regular basis. There are many influencers online who are idols of their audiences. You can hire such influencers only when your company is working on health-related products. For example- If your company sells any fitness-related products like exercise equipment, protein shakes, etc then you can hire them. But this is a sensitive niche. Make sure to hire an expert.

4. Travel vlogger: A travel influencer who pushes their audience to pursue their traveling goals. A travel influencer travels to different places and makes content for their audience and shares every single detail about his/her travel. If you are running a travel agency or if you have any resorts or hotels. You can invite those influencers to your place and go for a promotional deal. In fact, if you are working with such kinds of products relevant to traveling like – Travel bags, Travel shoes, and tents. Travel influencers can promote your business in that case too.

5. Photography – Photographers also can play a vital role in influencing their audience. They share high-quality visual content with their audience. Many reputed camera and lens companies collaborate with photographers for their promotions.

6. Education Influencer  – The online education system is growing so fast. People do not only search for funny and fashion-relevant content, but they also look forward to educational content. So, the influencers who share educational tips and training are the Education influencers. They trained their audience through online sessions and videos based on their own skills. For example – If your company is offering an online paid course you can collaborate with an education influencer. Or you can hire them for the online promotion of your offline educational institute as well.

7. Food – Among all types of influencers online Food influencers are the most popular and most engaging influencers on the internet. Because food doesn’t belong to any specific niche. This is for all human beings. Food influencers visit several places and explain every single detail about the foods. Restaurants, food delivery services, and catering services are collaborating with food influencers and making a good profit with the help of influencers.

8. Gaming – An influencer who shares their gaming experience regularly is the gaming influencer. They share about every single part of gaming such as gaming devices, software, or equipment like – Gaming chairs or Gaming tables.

9. Pet – There are so many houses of people where pets are treated like an important part of their living. Pet influencers share tips and experience in maintaining Pets. Pet influencers promote pet accessories, Pet food, and all the necessary things a pet owner needs. So if you are working with such a product that is relevant to pets. You can collaborate with this kind of influencer.

10. Tech Expert – Tech influencers take on a lot of challenges to satisfy their audience. In the initial time whenever the latest technology arrives on the market they buy it and use it to let people know if the audience should buy it or not. Nowadays People search for visual review content before buying any gadgets.

How to Find Effective Influencers for Your Brand?

When you are searching for an influencer for your brand. Just because an influencer is popular that doesn’t mean he/she can help you to grow your brand. You have to identify the types and categories wisely. 

You can find effective influencers for your brand through proper research and If you are up-to-date about your niche, You might know who is popular and makes productive content. But then again If you are not satisfied with your research you can get help from some influencer marketing tools. You can get a proper database of the influencers you need.

Here, I have listed some of the popular Influencer Marketing tools you can use to find the perfect influencer for your brand.

1. Awario: Awario is known as a social media and monitoring tool. It allows you to find your competitors and discover social media influencers for your specific niche. It also keeps track of your social media response such as Like, comments and shares. 

2. Buzzsumo: This is a cloud-based platform that provides features like brand monitoring, finding influencers, competitor research, trending now, Facebook analyzer, and many more.

3. Hunter.IO: Hunter.IO does not suggest influencers directly. But if you have researched and heard about any influencer and you would like to contact him/her. You can search by name and hunter.IO will provide you with the personal email address of that influencer.

4.HypeAuditor: This is an analytics and management platform that provides multiple effective tools and features to agencies for collaborating with influencers. The insights that Hyperaudio provides are very useful to make decisions and discover new opportunities for influencer marketing. 

5.GroupHigh: GroupHigh is special for searching blog influencers, moreover they find social media influencers for agencies and manage their relationship with influencers.

6. Influence.co: Influence.co helps you to find the best Instagram influencers for your brand. It creates an end-end solution between the agency and the influencer.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is a constantly growing and rich market with great prospects to work with. It has made a great impact in the field of marketing. The rise of social media and other online platforms has made this approach feasible to work with. Popularity and influence are not exactly the same, the individual with the biggest impact and those who can demonstrate authority are considered to be influential.

In this era, Influencer marketing is on hipe. You can stand out with your social media business if you can work with the right influencer. 

I hope, I can give you a clear idea of the types of social media influencers based on their range of followers and the categories of products. The above list of influencer ideas will help you to choose the right influencer for your social media channel. Besides, the list of popular Influencer Marketing tools will make your work a thousand times easier to find out perfect influence for your brand marketing. 

Don’t rush to choose an influencer for your brand. Choose & act wisely based on their category & work performance.