There’s an influencer marketing land grab underway. Influencer posts on Instagram alone nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017. That spike was even before January’s Facebook news feed announcement.
And influencer marketing is getting far more granular. Brands are increasingly focused on marketing with pools of “micro-influencers” who claim fewer than 10,000 followers and “nano-influencers” who claim fewer than 1,000 followers. Individually, they lack the heft of better-known names, but collectively, they can theoretically achieve a similar reach with a lower price tag.
New platforms are emerging to make it more efficient to organize pools of these “influencers” without having to negotiate separately with each one.
One of the selling points for brands to work with “micro-influencers” or “nano-influencers” is “authenticity.” And yet, when literally anyone can be an influencer, I wonder just how “authentic” this type of influence will continue to seem?
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
“Social Media Stars”, December 2014
“Influencer Marketing”, July 2015
