The landscape around influencer marketing has grown substantially over the past few years. Now more than ever, companies are leveraging influencers of all kinds to promote their brand and further engage with their target audience. This year marketing expenditures hit over $4 billion dollars and we’d be surprised if it doesn’t surpass that this year. 

Being able to understand this landscape and the social trends that come with it will be key to developing successful campaigns and marketing strategies to have the best 2023 possible. 

Influencer Categories

Depending on your consumer, product, and key demographics, you’ll want to determine what kind of influencer makes the most sense for your brand and also fits best with your budget. There are 4 key influencer categories:

1. Mega Influencer: 1 Mill+ followers – this consists of celebrities, actors, etc. who have a wide reach. Their audience has a dedicated follower base but this makes them much more expensive. You must determine if the risk is worth the reward to have access to their massive audience.
2. Macro Influencer: 500K+ followers – this consists of minor celebrities (athletes, tv series actors) that have an audience that is usually responsive to their posts, endeavors, and their day-to-day. They can still be on the expensive side to partner with them. 
3. Micro Influencer: 10-50K+ followers – mostly become popular through online activities, or industry specific content. They know their audience very well and release content to cater to their interests. They’re known for having great engagement but obviously will have less reach.
4. Nano Influencer: 1k+ followers – This group usually has a community-based following, but are highly influential to their audience. They tend to be very reliable, “real” and authentic making their followers susceptible to new products or companies they recommend. 

Shift to Micro and Nano Influencers

As we’ve indicated from the different categories above, the mega and macro influencers have an extensive reach that can target a massive audience but due to the difficulty of budgeting for these influencers and even the ease of working with them, they may not be the most beneficial choice for your business. 

You may be surprised but there are more and more brands targeting and having better success with the micro and nano influencer space. Smaller influencers typically have a greater ability to connect with their community, and greater buying power as a result. Followers in general are likely to trust them for their recommendations, product reviews, and expertise. Many become such dedicated followers they invest time into their personal lives and get to know who they are. All of us can think right now of at least one influencer we follow who we feel we’re friends with. From their GRWM’s (get ready with me’s), coffee runs, favorite meals, pet’s name, etc. we’ve become familiar with their interests which most likely align with our own. It makes it that much easier when they introduce their audience to a new brand or product for their followers to also want to try it out for themselves.  

We really believe this kind of influencer marketing will continue throughout 2023!

Video Is Here To Stay

TikTok has taken over and become the main social media platform for Gen Z (shocking statement, I know). They’ve adapted to this perception of being raw and capturing realness in this generation. TikTok has been hugely successful in helping them have a means to communicate their message and passion for this. Because their reach has been successful so far, other social platforms such as Instagram, are trying to compete with the uptick and popularity of video with features such as reels. 

Because of this, social media platforms are prioritizing and launching new features like live streaming, to further embrace the video culture. Video could become one of the most dominant content types in 2023. We’ll see influencers start to leverage reels and video content much more as it caters to their audience. This content should be fun, engaging, and deliver information in an entertaining way so that it grabs the attention of their followers. 

How To Measure Success

So much is changing as technology evolves and new features are taking precedence. What does this mean for our algorithms and how we track what we deem to be “successful”? We believe that metrics such as number of followers or online impressions will become less relevant and metrics such as engagement, click-through rate, and conversions will gain MORE traction in 2023. 

We know now that social media trends are very much focused on the people and consumers themselves. Marketers have focused on the number of fans and followers as key selection criteria for influencers over the last few years, but we’re starting to see that these factors don’t necessarily determine business results. Humans empathize with humans and to profit off this, we must connect with them. Engaging and interacting with consumers is going to prove to be more important than simply having a “following”. 

Your influencers will be key to helping you get there. Reposting their content, having them speak directly to your brand and the benefits it’s had on them, will further emphasis the human approach. Engagement, engagement, engagement!