We’ve all been there. We’ve just got sign-off for an exciting new campaign, we’re getting stuck into working on timelines and assets, but there’s one big shadow looming over us giving us sleepless nights. We need someone perfectly on-message and on -rand to front our campaign… on a shoestring budget. Cue days of fruitless calls to every Z-list celebrity agent around and we’re just about ready to give up.

Luckily, social media has created a new breed of personalities absolutely perfect for the needs of discerning PR people everywhere - micro influencers, or in other words, up-and-coming social media stars. The influencer marketing industry is becoming increasingly powerful and most award-winning PR campaigns feature bloggers, YouTubers and Instagram personalities.

Micro-influencers, unlike their bigger cousins, have around 10,000 followers or subscribers, and unlike celebrities and macro-influencers with their huge following of around 1 million or more, are considered to be more trustworthy and authentic by their followers. This results in a fan base that is both loyal and engaged. And we all know that engagement rates are the new hot topic, because looking at reach alone is not enough anymore. Growth rates and high engagement have become increasingly important and are what makes micro-influencers so desirable.

There are numerous reasons why PROs and micro-influencers are a match made in heaven. Here are just a few:

1. They are trustworthy: statistics show that micro-influencers are seen as more credible and knowledgeable about products, making consumers 82% more likely to follow their recommendations in comparison to macro-influencers or celebrities. To put it in a different way, micro-influencers might have a smaller reach, but have been detected to have two-to-five times more organic engagement per Instagram post.
2. They are (a lot) cheaper: now, that is music to every PRO’s ears who is expected to produce a palace gilded in gold out of a heap of mud. Using a micro-influencer is a more cost-effective alternative to celebrities and YouTubers with millions of fans. Spending around £20,000 to run a campaign with several micro-influencers will create a reach of approximately 5 million consumer followers. A bargain!
3. They are great to work with: no divas here! Everyone that has ever had a headache from dealing with weird-and-wonderful demands from celebrities won’t believe what a pleasurable experience it is to work with micro-nfluencers. They are eager to do the best work they can, they show up on time and do the work they have committed to. They are easy to approach and usually full of good ideas on how best to appeal to their audience. The perfect partner, really.

For the first few years of social media’s young life, adding a “social” element to a campaign always resulted in a lot of worry in terms of getting any useful traction and results. Micro-influencers have successfully stepped into that gap in the market. The big thing to be aware of is this, though: it is not always best to use the most popular and best-known influencer. They often work with too many brands at the same time, which will lessen the impact of your campaign. Be sure to do your research and find the influencer whose audience is the best match with your product or service. Follow these rules and you will be well on the way to an award-winning influencer campaign.