For the past couple of years we’ve been searching for those with the biggest reaches, trying to convince our clients they are more influential than a nib in a national and have been desperately trying to reach the newest star before our competitors. But now we are faced with another challenge – are they becoming too popular?
Ad week published an article earlier this month that sparked a lot of conversation in our influencer mad office. They quoted Kyla Brennan, the founder and CEO of HelloSociety in saying:
“When it comes to celebrity accounts, who have maybe millions of followers nobody actually believes that a celebrity is a real fan of a product they’re trying to sell.”
Funny you should say that, we’ve been having similar discussions in the office recently. Do go on…
The article pulled out some really interesting stats:
HelloSociety, which was acquired last year by the New York Times, has found that “micro”-influencers, or accounts with 30,000 or fewer followers, are more beneficial for marketers to work with. They claim this is because they are personally invested in their crafts they are more trusted sources of recommendations for followers.
According to the agency, 60 percent higher campaign engagement rates are driven by micro-influencers; those campaigns are 6.7 times more efficient per engagement than influencers with larger followings, which makes them more cost effective; and micro-influencers drive 22.2 times more weekly conversations than the average consumer.
“Engagement goes down once you reach a certain threshold of followers,” said Brennan,” which is almost counterintuitive. ” “You might get eyeballs, but they won’t be eyeballs that care,” she said.
We have to say, we couldn’t agree more. We’ve done our fair share of influencer campaigns and could (but won’t) name a good few where the bigger ‘stars’ have driven lower or less meaningful engagement and follow up results.
So, it looks like it comes back once again to the age-old saying: Quality over Quantity people!
You can read the full ad week article here: http://www.adweek.com/digital/micro-influencers-are-more-effective-with-marketing-campaigns-than-highly-popular-accounts/
