A micro-influencer is a social media influencer with about 5,000-30,000 real, engaged followers. Social media has become such an integral part of business and these micro-influencers are a much more affordable, and often more effective, alternative to celebrity marketing or traditional advertising. The question is, how do you determine the validity of a micro-influencer and establish a partnership?

 

 

Measure Engagement

The influencer should be actively engaging with their followers. Look through their comments – are they responding back to users? The most effective micro-influencers are regularly engaging with their followers in a way that builds trust and shows their genuine personality. A loyal online community of 10,000 followers will have a much stronger conversion rate than an unengaged following of 1 million.

Be wary of accounts with “big” followings – followers and likes are easily faked on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Browsing the comments section is the easiest way to determine the authenticity of a micro-influencer, and it also allows you to get an idea of their personality.

 

Request a Media Kit

There are thousands of fitness, foodie, wellness and other influencers out there and finding the right one for your brand or product depends on who their niche audience is. Established, trustworthy micro-influencers will have a media kit available that details their audience’s demographics, such as gender, age, location and perhaps even income – study these to ensure you’re investing in an audience that aligns with your goals.

 

 

Establish Clear Goals with A Contract

Is your goal to sell a product? Drive website views? Increase the brand’s social media following? Make sure your goal is clearly communicated to the micro-influencer so it can be translated in the appropriate call to action in their content.

Creating a contract with specific expectations for posts and platforms will make the partnership much more transparent. Are they only active on Instagram or do they run a blog as well? Be sure to understand how the different aspects of each platform can work in your favor. Consider these questions while drafting a contract:

  • Do you want to prioritize video or still shots?
  • Photo Composition: Percentage of micro-influencer vs. percentage of destination/product shown?
  • How many total posts are expected on the feed?
  • How many Instagram stories are expected?
  • Are Instagram stories to be saved to a highlight reel?
  • How long do you want the post to be guaranteed to stay on their feed?
  • Do you require blog posts?
  • Do you require content to be equally spread over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any other platforms?
  • For micro-influencers with over 10,000 followers: will you be using the ‘Swipe Up’ feature on Instagram stories?

 

 

Payment

Many micro-influencers expect payment on top of hosted visits or free products. But, if you choose the right influencer for your brand and set clear expectations, there will be a long-term return on your investment.

Consider providing the micro-influencer with an affiliate link for their audience to use at checkout. This could be an alternative to payment and may convert more views into sales as their following wants: (1) a discount and (2) to support their favorite influencer.

Social media is not going away. Micro-influencers can be a good alternative to otherwise costly or ineffective avenues of advertising and should be regularly considered when developing marketing campaigns.