It has been said that in a short time, there will be more influencers on social media than regular users! Can you believe it?
Social media influencers are no longer pretty faces who share their lifestyle routines in their stories. They have brought new ways to digital marketing, and the main reason is supply and demand!
Many brands owe their success to collaborating with social media influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms.
The question is, who is an influencer? How many types of influencers are there? And how should brands choose the right influencer to collaborate with?
The good news is that here, you will find answers to all these questions, and we will dig a little deeper to understand different types of social media influencers and more.
Who Is An Influencer?
A social media influencer is another version of a celebrity on the internet with a notable amount of followers.
Many people see their favorite influencers as inspirations, which is why brands want to collaborate with them more than ever. People usually buy products and use services that influencers introduce to them.
Social media influencers have the power to affect the purchasing decisions of their followers.
For influencers to reach that level of influence, they must know how to connect with their followers, keep them engaged, build trust with them, and more.
What Are Influencer Categories by Niche
One thing about influencers is that they are categorized into different niches to help brands, businesses, and companies collaborate with the most relevant ones.
Let’s see influencer marketing niches in detail and review the top examples of each niche!
Travel influencers
These influencers travel to different countries and cities to create valuable content and introduce the public to unknown places so their followers can visit them.
Most hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, and such businesses want to compete with travel influencers so they can promote their products and services.
Doing so helps business owners attract target audiences and allows influencers to make money while enjoying new places in the world!
Wondering who are top travel influencers on social media? Check out these names on Instagram to see yourself!
Murad Osmann, Alex Strohl (he is a professional nature photographer), and Chris Burkard. Note that these are just a few successful travel influencers; you will find more if you search!
Fashion influencers
If you are into fashion, you should at least know one fashion influencer! If not, you should know that fashion influencers have good taste in fashion and mainly collaborate with clothing brands on social media.
These influencers have a reliable community of people who love fashion and want to stay up-to-date with the latest fashion and style trends.
Some of the most popular fashion influencers are Chaia Ferragni, Avani, Olivia Palermo, and Camila Coelho.
Parenting influencers
You may be shocked to know that there is something widely known as family and parenting influencers, but it’s true!
Nowadays, more and more married couples with children tend to join this category of influencers; it seems they earn good money by sharing their happy lives, funny moments with their partner and children, cooking tips, etc.
You may wonder what brands and companies would collaborate with these influencers. Most home appliance companies, family-set clothing brands, and such businesses request to partner with them.
Samantha Busch, Kolter Bouchard, Ambika Agarwal, and Cedric Thompson Jr are good examples of influencers in this field.
Beauty influencers
Beauty and makeup influencers are well-known in this industry. There are famous male and female influencers in this industry, and they mainly have many followers, which is why most companies and brands want to collaborate with them.
The more creative these influencers are, the more reliable beauty brands will partner with them. Beauty brands usually send them their popular or new products, and those influencers create makeup tutorial videos for them.
James Charles, Nikki de Jager, Kylie Jenner, Huda Beauty, and Jeffree Star are among the top beauty influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Technology influencers
Yes, there are business and technology influencers on social media! Many people like you don’t know that there are influencers out there who share high-quality content relevant to technology and business.
It is crystal clear that tech companies are the main customers of these influencers!
Austin Evans, Mark Rober, and Sara Dietschy are tech influencers who share videos about the latest technology and everything that happens in this field.
Fitness and health influencers
Since Instagram became popular, more and more fitness influencers joined it from YouTube to grow their audiences.
I’m not saying you can’t find fitness and health influencers on YouTube anymore, but I can say most are now on Instagram, and more fitness brands and companies request to collaborate with them.
Looking for some fitness influencers to follow on Instagram and other platforms? Then, look for Michelle Lewin, Stef Williams, Simeon Panda, and Kayla Itsines, who are perfect examples!
Lifestyle influencers
Can you believe there are people around the world who are willing to pay others to see their lifestyle on social media?
I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true, and that’s why we have lifestyle influencers on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms.
These influencers usually share vlogs or Reels of how they spend their lives as lifestyle influencers, including what they eat, where they go, what they wear, who they visit, and more.
The more personal details they share, the more followers they get!
There are numerous lifestyle influencers, especially on Instagram and TikTok; however, these are some of the most popular ones: Julie Sarinana, Chriselle Lim, Dede Raad, Aimee Song, Matilda Djerf, and Zeo Sugg.
Gaming influencers
Gaming influencers are mainly known for their YouTube channel and videos, but it doesn’t keep them from making money on other platforms like Instagram!
They usually share videos of themselves on their YouTube channel playing a game and make money per view from YouTube. Besides, gaming companies also pay them to promote their new games to their subscribers.
Look for these YouTube channels to meet some of the biggest gaming influencers: Total Gaming, Ninja, DanTDM, PewDiePie, Lia Shelesh, Luxie, Jordan Maron, etc.
Animal influencers
Did you ever think one day you would come across a new phenomenon as an animal influencer? It’s the power of social media and how people are interested in new types of content.
There are animals on social media platforms with millions of loyal followers who are more famous than you and me! Funny!
Nala Cat, Jiff Pom, Simon’s Cat, Chipmunks of TikTok, That Little Puff, and Grumpy Cat are some of the most popular animal influencers!
What Are the 4 Types of Influencers?
Good question! There are four main types of influencers based on their follower count. In this section, I will explain each type with real-life examples!
Nano influencers
Influencers with followers between 1k and 10k are called nano influencers. Don’t get me wrong! Having this small number of followers doesn’t mean they have weak or no influence on their community.
They might be short on follower numbers, but they usually have strong relationships with their followers, which is why they are a great choice for brands who just started their business and want to attract their target audiences.
Besides, if you are a new brand with a limited budget for collaborating with influencers, you can reach out to nano influencers because they usually have a reasonable price.
Mark Henick, Amii Miller, Kavah King, Jelanah, and Taylor Phaige are good examples of nano influencers on Instagram.
Micro influencers
The next place belongs to micro influencers with 10k and 100k followers on their social media accounts.
These influencers come a long way to reach this number of followers; they have acceptable engagement rates and good relationships with their followers.
You may think having 100k followers would make such influencers celebrities or famous people; however, that’s not true because they are usually not categorized as celebrities.
It is good to know that most micro influencers are expert content creators in various fields, which means they have a specific community.
Saying so, brands can take advantage of this opportunity and collaborate with micro influencers to attract their target followers and potential customers.
Julie Selman, Kyle Luigs, Vesper Obscura, Arlenis Sosa, and Russ Crandall are perfect examples of micro influencers on Instagram.
Macro influencers
No, it’s not a typo! There are micro influencers, and we have macro influencers with between 100k and one million followers.
Their reach and engagement rates are more than nano and micro influencers, and usually, brands with reasonable marketing budgets request to collaborate with them.
Macro influencers are famous faces on social media and could be bloggers, podcasters, TikTokers, and vloggers.
Mega influencers
What does the term Mega remind you of? It reminds me of the name of the shark in the movie, called the “Meg.”
Saying so, mega influencers have a large number of followers, which is more than one million! Are they celebrities? Yes, most of them!
As a brand owner, you should know that not every brand has the chance to collaborate with mega influencers.
They mainly accept collab requests from well-known and luxury brands!
However, you should note that one main reason they have many followers is that people follow them because they are famous, not because they have a friendly relationship.
Therefore, collaborating with micro or macro influencers may bring more genuine and interested audiences to your brand and products.
Grant Cardone, Gigi Gorgeous Getty, Lele Pons, Lina Noory, and Doutzen Kroes are some of the popular mega influencers on social media.
Tips to Choose the Best Influencer for Your Brand
When choosing influencers to collaborate with, you should consider some factors. Let’s check some of them to select the best influencer to promote your brand.
Consider your target audience
The first thing to do before choosing an influencer is to understand your target audience so that you can select the right promoter who aligns with their interests and needs.
If you want to promote your brand on Instagram, use its insights to understand your target audience’s demographics and geographic characters.
Choose the influencers relevant to your target audience
Now, you should look for influencers relevant to your target audience’s needs and preferences.
If you have a clothing brand, your target audiences are mainly into fashion and style, which means you should collaborate with an influencer who is niche in this category.
In other words, you can’t partner with a cooking influencer and expect to get the desired results!
Create a list of suitable influencers
To speed up the process, it is better to create a list of influencers who are relevant to your brand.
Search on TikTok, Instagram, or other platforms to find these influencers, then check some of their promotion posts to see how their followers interact with their content.
It helps you to analyze their reach and make better decisions about working with them.
Prepare an outline of your collaboration goal
An important step after selecting your preferred influencer is to create an outline of your collaboration goal and requirements.
Doing so helps you understand what to expect from your partner and determine what metrics to create to track the whole progress.
Decide on which platform you want to collaborate
You didn’t see that coming, right? But it’s essential! Each social media platform has its benefits when partnering with an influencer.
Therefore, you should determine whether you want to partner with an influencer on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook.
Besides, the type of advertising, finding and reaching out to an influencer, and advertising fee vary on each platform.
Ensure their content aligns with your brand
Remember to prioritize your brand’s value while reaching out to an influencer, and make sure their content and account align with your brand and target audiences.
Check out advertising prices
This is very important when choosing the right influencer for your brand. To choose wisely, ask influencers who you think are the best fit for your brand about their advertising fees.
Compare various charging fees and select the one that fits your budget.
Reach out to them professionally
It doesn’t matter if you want to collaborate with a nano or a mega influencer; to make sure they will accept your request, you should ask them professionally.
Find out how to contact them (via email, website, Instagram DM, etc.) and send them a proper message, including a brief explanation of your brand, niche, and expectations.
Conclusion
Brands are seeking to collaborate with social media influencers more than ever because they help them attract their target audiences and increase reach and sales faster than traditional methods.
As mentioned, there are four main types of influencers on social media, and each of them is an expert in various niches and categories, which allows brands to ask for a partnership with an influencer who aligns with their brand and products.
As a brand owner, consider the items mentioned in this article to choose the best influencer and achieve the desired results from investing in influencer marketing.
I hope you enjoy reading this article and that it helps you to grow your brand and business by collaborating with the right influencers!
FAQs
Does having 1000 followers make you an influencer?
Yes, you can announce yourself as a nano influencer.
Is a mega influencer a celebrity?
Mega influencers have over a million followers, making them known as celebrities.
Are social media influencers rich?
They are mainly wealthy; however, it is better not to judge a book by its cover!
Can you make money on Instagram with 1000 followers?
You can make money with even 1k followers if you constantly post on Instagram!
Who is the richest influencer on Instagram?
There are various influencers considered as the richest influencers on Instagram, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylie Jenner, Jake Paul, etc.
