It is a fact that influencers nowadays are the backbone of influencer marketing. Any business that wants to be successful in the market needs to know the different types of influencers and how they can help it to reach out to more audience.
It must be said that different types of social media influencers have their characteristics and must be dealt with uniquely. Different influencer marketing platforms have been built to address this situation and connect influencers with brands in an easier way.
In this article, we’ll go through the various types of influencers and teach you how to identify the best influencer for your brand. We’ll also present Ainfluencer, a top free platform for interacting with influencers of all kinds. Let’s get started!
What Is an Influencer?
Influencers, as we know them, are individuals who create content on different social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
Influencers can be active in different areas, such as fitness or beauty, and interact with their followers with different tools. It is important to know that different types of online influencers help close the gap between brands and regular customers.
Social media influencers can just be normal people who have gone viral because of their cool and unique content. Influencers and their audience are not separate, and the important factor is their relationship.
What Are 4 Types of Influencers Based on Followers?
Usually, the first question that comes to mind is “How many types of influencers are there?”. To answer this question, we must know that the types of influencers can be different based on their follower count and niche. In this part, we go through the 4 main influencer tiers based on their followers:
1. Nano Influencers – 1,000 to 10,000 Followers
This type of influencer is the one with the lowest number of followers. But their audience is active with a higher engagement rate. Nano influencers have trust and contact with their followers, which helps their overall success in influencer marketing statistics. In fact, they frequently have the greatest engagement rates of any influencer follower tiers.
These nano influencers are great for smaller brands and those that rely on word of mouth for their marketing.
2. Micro Influencers – 10,000 to 100,000 Followers
Micro influencers are individuals with more followers than the previous group and something between nano and macro influencers. Many brands want to collaborate with this group over other types of influencers because of their average follower size.
Their balance is suitable for a large portion of brands in the industry. They are also much cheaper than macro and mega influencers, which makes them great candid for smaller businesses.
3. Macro Influencers – 100,000 to 1 Million Followers
Some of the most famous individuals in their industry are among macro-influencers who have sizable followers. They could be small celebrities who established a social media presence or content creators who have “gone mainstream.” A macro influencer can give a campaign a wide audience and a lot of impressions if it is directed in the right direction with the right tools.
One point that must be mentioned about this type of influencers is that their engagement rates are usually lower than the previous group. This is because of the larger number of followers and not being able to shape a close relationship with them.
4. Mega Influencers – 1 Million + Followers
We have reached the top of our list of types of influencers based on followers. The highest layer, known as mega-influencers, is just like usual celebrities. These include celebrated public officials, A-list celebrities, and internet personalities with sizable fan bases. They provide enormous reach; one post might potentially reach millions of people with your brand message.
Mega influencers have low engagement numbers because of the vast number of followers. Another thing that you may wonder about is influencers’ pricing, and in this case, Mega influencers’ price. This group can be more costly to collaborate with and might not be as relatable or “authentic” as smaller creators.
Until now, we answered half of the question, “What are different types of influencers?”. These 4 types of influencers are the main groups based on their followers.
However, the thresholds for Instagram influencer tiers versus TikTok influencer tiers may be the same (nano, micro, etc.), but due to platform dynamics, there are typically more TikTok mega influencers. This is because of the algorithm and how easily TikTok videos go viral versus their Instagram or YouTube counterparts.
What Are Different Types of Influencers Based on Niches?
Types of influencers can also be viewed according to the industry or area in which they work and create content. There are influencers in almost every field of interest; if there is a community interested in a topic, influencers are catering to that audience.
Here, we’ll look at some of the most famous types of niches for influencers:
1. Fashion Influencers
Fashion is one of the biggest influencer niches and brings many individuals to this industry. These influencers focus on apparel, styling, and accessories. They could promote clothing businesses, share haul videos of their most recent purchases, style advice, or outfit of the day pictures.
High-end style experts and edgy streetwear bloggers are examples of fashion influencers. In general, fashion influencers usually collaborate with clothing, accessories, and cosmetics brands to show off their items in real-world settings.
2. Beauty Influencers
Beauty influencers are usually individuals who focus on skincare, haircare, and cosmetics. This group usually shares their experience with new beauty items and how to use them with different skin tones and other detailed information.
3. Fitness Influencers
We know the sports guys when we see them. This group usually makes content about sports, nutrition, healthy living, and exercise. They share content about their diet, training routine, and other gym-related stuff that is popular among many people.
4. Travel Influencers
Travel influencers are our ears and eyes when it comes to other countries. Thanks to them, we can easily figure out if a country is suitable for us or which hotel we should avoid at all costs.
Many different kinds of travel influencers can help different categories of audiences.
5. Tech Influencers
This group of influencers possesses an extensive understanding of technology and electronics; examples are bloggers that cover software, apps, and devices, or YouTubers who review the newest smartphones. In addition to reviewing general electronics, they might focus on specialties like coding lessons, gaming hardware, or photographic equipment.
6. Gaming Influencers
Gaming is gaining popularity day by day and is becoming a big industry. These influencers are those who use new streaming platforms such as Twitch to share their playthroughs or other gaming material. They can be professional esports players or do speed runs in different games.
7. Food Influencers
These influencers focus their content on food, whether it is through restaurant reviews, cooking and recipe videos, or just eating videos. They may discuss their experiences as chefs, bakers, dietitians, or simply foodies. Healthy cooking, vegan influencers, dessert-focused influencers, street food vloggers, etc., are some of the examples of sub-niches for food influencers.
8. Lifestyle Influencers
This niche can be one of the most varied niches on our list. Influencers in the lifestyle niche can make content about anything that happens in their daily life; it can be beauty tips, gaming, outdoor activities, and other things. It is not bound to a specific subject and covers many categories.
9. Pet Influencers
We all love our cats and dogs, and we enjoy watching them on different social media platforms. The pet niche has seen skyrocketing growth in recent years, and it’s a good thing for all of us to have more positive energy coming from pets in our lives.
10. B2B and Professional Influencers
There is a rising class of B2B influencers or professional experts. These are influential people in industries such as technology, marketing, finance, and others who mostly share their knowledge on more professional matters. These influencers may be consultants, CEOs, or experts who have gathered a following by sharing professional advice, how-tos, and business trends.
Now we know, “How many types of influencers are there?” and which niches they are most active in. Businesses must identify their niche and try to collaborate with the right influencers with the right number of followers.
What Types of Influencers Are There Based on Content Type?
The content format that social media influencers primarily produce can be used as a way to categorize them. This is in addition to other approaches such as follower size and niche. Here are some of these categories you may encounter:
1. Bloggers
Bloggers were the kings of the internet in the old days. Influencers who have their own website or use other platforms to write down their experiences or even just their daily lives are considered bloggers.
This format of content has seen a downgrade over the years, but still, some prefer a detailed review or other text content. Just like us writing this article for you.
2. Vloggers (YouTubers)
Vloggers are those influencers who produce videos, usually for YouTube. They may perform funny skits, tutorials, themed films, or vlogs about their everyday lives.
Tech reviewers, beauty experts, family vloggers, and vacation vloggers, for instance, all flourish on this type of content. Since successful channels can amass millions of subscribers over time, vloggers frequently progress to become macro or mega influencers.
3. Podcasters
Some influencers prefer voice-over-face and create content that is focused on that. You can find different podcasts with various topics, such as tech or health, with lots of followers. The fact that these groups don’t need to show their faces makes it easier for them to go through more sensitive topics with less worry.
4. Social Media Personalities
Social media influencers are the ones who focus their content on these platforms. They are active on many platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, with lots of followers on each one. They don’t have other website activities or blogging and make content based on what is trending on each respective platform.
5. Live Streamers
Live streamers are the type of influencers who broadcast their material in real-time with the help of new live-stream websites such as Steam. This is most common in the gaming community (Twitch streamers playing games live as viewers watch and discuss), but it may also be found in other contexts, such as experts hosting live Q&A sessions or live shopping influencers showcasing products on Facebook and Instagram.
You must know that many of these influencers make content on other platforms as well and are active in more than one place.
However, they usually have their preference for content which must be considered when contacting them. As a brand, you can choose the most effective influencers by knowing the type of content that suits your purposes the most.
How to Find the Right Influencer?
The next challenge is determining which particular influencer is the greatest partner for your brand after you have a solid understanding of the various types of influencers on social media, broken down by tier, niche, and content. Let’s go through this topic and see how we can manage it in the best way:
1. Define Your Goals
Start by being clear about your goals. Is it direct sales, internet traffic, content creation, or brand awareness? The kind of influencer you require may depend on your objective. For instance, working with multiple micro-influencers with higher engagement rates rather than just one macro-influencer may be more beneficial if your goal is to increase sales on a limited budget.
2. Choose the Right Influencer Tier
We learned the answer to “What are influencer tiers?” in previous sections. If your company is small, you might want to concentrate on finding cheaper nano or micro-influencers who are open to collaborating with up-and-coming companies.
For larger campaigns, larger businesses with larger funds may use a combination of micro, macro, and even mega influencers. Keep in mind that different kinds of influencers have varied advantages, so bigger isn’t always better.
3. Pick the Best Niche
This is a fact that influencer marketing is most effective when your niche and influencer content are aligned the most. Gather a list of brand-related keywords or niches. You should look for influencers who have demonstrated a sincere interest in subjects associated with your product in their previous content.
This genuine connection is essential because viewers can spot when an influencer is promoting something unrelated to their typical material, and it could come across as fake.
4. Check Audience Demographics
One of the wise moves before collaborating is to request the influencer’s media kit or audience data if at all possible. Data on the age, gender, geography, and engagement rates of their followers can be very useful in decision-making.
Ensure this data matches your goal. For instance, influencers’ demographics. Imagine an influencer with 80% of followers in Brazil. It isn’t a good fit if you only ship within the United States. Be wary of fake followers as well.
5. Start With a Test Campaign
Make sure to start with a small trial partnership if you’re not convinced about an influencer. Before committing to a longer-term or more significant agreement, you may, for example, provide them a complimentary product or perform a one-time sponsored post. Such trial efforts involving several influencers at once can be done easily with the aid of influencer marketing platforms like Ainfluencer, which will come in the next part.
6. Plan Your Outreach
You must have a plan on how to approach each influencer based on their content and tier. You, as a brand, must know that there are different ways to contact influencers. It is important to have a previous plan based on the characteristics of the individual to have a better chance of success.
7. Use the Right Platform
It would take a lifetime to manually search for influencers while keeping all the said details in mind. Fortunately, you can use tools and platforms with features built specifically for this purpose. Ainfluencer, a free marketplace, is one such tool that lets you search a sizable database of active influencers in different social media platforms via a variety of filters.
Now let’s have a deeper look at one of the best influencer marketing platforms for finding and collaborating with influencers.
Ainfluencer: The Best Platform to Find Suitable Influencers
We know that in many cases, it can be a difficult task to locate the ideal influencer. However, platforms like Ainfluencer are designed to make this process much easier. Ainfluencer is a well-known influencer marketplace that links marketers with a large network of influencers.
Key Features of Ainfluencer
It is a great option for several reasons. Here is a detailed examination of Ainfluencer’s features and the reasons it is our number one choice for finding influencers of all kinds in marketing:
- 100% Free: Yes, Ainfluencer is a completely free platform with no hidden or extra charges along the way. You can use all the features for free and see if the tool is good for your needs or not.
- Large Database: Over 5 million influencers are listed in Ainfluencer’s database. Since Ainfluencer now focuses on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, these influencers are mostly found on those platforms. You can locate influencers in almost any niche and following tier thanks to this sizable pool.
- Advanced Filters: Ainfluencer offers an AI-powered search tool with great filtering tools to help you explore that big database. Filter influencers based on niche, region, language, follower count, audience age range, engagement rate, and even the hashtags they commonly use.
- Direct Messaging: It is important to be in touch with influencers in a professional manner. Ainfluencer grants businesses and influencers the means to contact each other through the platform without any hassle.
- Campaign Management: Making multiple campaigns with different influencers and goals can boost the performance of a brand a lot. Hence, this is exactly the goal of Ainfluencer’s campaign management, which allows you to launch as many campaigns as you need simultaneously.
- Secure Payment: Making sure influencers are paid for their content and brands receive the promised deliverables is a key challenge in influencer marketing. Ainfluencer uses an escrow payment system to deal with this.
In conclusion, Ainfluencer offers clever answers to the main problems associated with influencer marketing. Now, try Ainfluencer if you’re prepared to start using influencer marketing or if you want to increase the scope of your ongoing initiatives.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is a proven tactic with big results if and only if brands work with the right influencers. In addition, we now know that there are many different types of influencers, ranging from mega influencers with a global following to micro-influencers with extremely active groups and all others in between.
We also learned about other types of influencers based on their niche and content. This information can be useful only if brands use the tools that are at their disposal. AlgoRift and Ainfluencer are among these tools.
AlgoRift is an Amazon affiliate program that concentrates on Amazon affiliates and connects brands with the right affiliates. By using this tool, brands can use features such as link management, Amazon payment, and other features which will help boost the process. So don’t waste time and try it now.
FAQs
Let us go through some of the most repeated questions about types of influencers on the Internet:
1. What Are Influencer Tiers?
We can categorize influencers in different tiers based on their followers. These categories start with nano influencers and go from micro influencers, macro influencers, and at the top, we have mega influencers with the most followers.
2. Micro vs. Macro Influencers – Which Is Better?
Depending on your goals, neither is always “better.” Micro-influencers have fewer followers, but this audience tends to trust them more closely and engage with them more frequently. On the other hand, macro influencers are useful for brands that need more reach in less time and are not worried about engagement rates that much.
3. How Do I Know Which Type of Influencer Is Right For My Brand?
If you want to know which influencer is right for you, you need to use the tools at your disposal. For example, Ainfluencer is an influencer marketing tool that helps you find, contact, and collaborate with influencers that are best for your business’s thriving.
