What is an influencer?
The concept of an influencer is something we have become well acquainted with in today's digital society, but what does it really mean to be an "influencer"? Can anyone be an influencer? When is someone considered an influencer? And why are we so interested in listening to influencers? These are the questions we will address in this blog post.
There are no clear guidelines for where the line is drawn for when one can call themselves an influencer, but as the word implies, the term refers to someone who has influence, that is, an "influence" on other people. Today, the term is mainly used for those who influence through digital platforms, whether it's Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, or something else. Influencers are often seen as "experts" in a field, or they are people who have strong relationships with their followers, making them trust the recommendations, tips, and opinions the influencer has to offer.
Previously, we would receive tips and recommendations from friends and family about which clothes were nice, which shoes were the best, or which airline was the most reliable. Now, we often turn to social media to see what those we follow, trust, and perhaps look up to recommend. What camera does your favorite photographer on Instagram use? Which airline does your favorite travel blogger prefer? What running shoes does your favorite athlete use? These recommendations often allow us to skip the search for countless offers online and visiting a dozen stores before deciding which camera, which running shoes, or which airline to choose. It often saves us time and can allow us to discover new brands that we might not have otherwise known about.
Being an influencer can also be a full-time job. Those who have particularly good influence can be well compensated for sharing products, services, or messages with their followers. There are many ways to get paid for this, but usually it’s through a fixed price per post/video/story or by using an affiliate link or discount code that gives the influencer a certain sum of money for each sale made using that code/link. At Famme, we operate with affiliate links/codes as a payment method. You can read more about this in our influencer terms here.
There are several categories of influencers:
Nano Influencer: under 1000 followers
Micro Influencer: 1000-100,000 followers
Macro Influencer: 100,000 - 1,000,000 followers
Mega Influencer: 1,000,000+ followers
All these categories have their advantages and disadvantages. There is a good chance that you reading this belong to either the nano or micro influencer segment. A micro/nano influencer has fewer followers than the other two categories, but these followers are often more loyal and dedicated, which is a very important component if one wishes to have influence in social media.
Influencers are generally a very valuable resource for the companies they work with, as they create image, text, and video content for promotional materials and post this promotional material on a unique platform they have built themselves. This has made influencer marketing a very popular form of marketing among both large and small businesses, and so far this trend is only growing.
Read also: How to take better pictures for Instagram