Social Media Provides Access to Micro-Celebrities that Connect with Audiences Better than Ever
Some of the most influential people on social media (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) are micro-celebrities spanning various industries of fashion, beauty, travel, fitness, food, decorating and more.
They can attract large audiences and be mega-influencers, such as:
- Lunar Beauty founder Manny Mua, who has 4.1 million followers.
- Kayla Itsines, a fitness guru on Instagram with 14.9 million followers.
- And of course, there are super-mega-influencers like Charli D’Amelio who gained popularity early on TikTok with dance videos and has since gained nearly 145 million followers on the platform.
There are also micro-influencers, who have less than 100,000 followers and attract niche audiences, like:
- Karla Cristina, a fashion and lifestyle blogger with nearly 30,000 TikTok followers.
- Kevin Heimbach, who reviews theme parks to 40,000 YouTube subscribers.
These aren’t your traditional celebrities from music, TV or Hollywood, but their reach is just as strong, if not stronger due to the connections they make on social media. For example, a report from October 2021 found that “4 in 10 Millennial subscribers say their favorite influencer understands them better than their friends” while 70% of teens said they trust influencers more than celebrities.
So, it’s understandable that organizations are partnering with social media influencers to create sponsored content as part of their public relations and marketing efforts. Their ability to reach others and the weight of what they say has a significant effect on their followers.
- Support PR Goals: Having a YouTube or TikTok influencer as part of your media efforts can be of great value, but what’s important is to make sure your campaign would benefit from the partnership. Working with a travel influencer like Jack Morris just for the sake of working with him, may not give your campaign the lift it needs in the long run if you can’t take advantage of his brand.
- Relevant Topic: If an influencer will support your efforts, they should overlap with your areas of focus and messaging. Following the influencer’s accounts and learning what they post is essential because you’re not hiring them to make a TV commercial. Their post needs to feel authentic and genuine, and it needs to be relevant to their audience.
- Quality Content: When working with an influencer, they’re given creative liberties to put together the content they want to share with their audiences – even if it’s your product or your message they’re sharing. Reviewing previous posts will help you figure out if their creative style and content (editing, music, consistency, and overall image) fits your brand.
- Target Audience: It will also be helpful to know the influencer’s audience:
- Do they have a strong following – 1,000 followers? 100,000? More than 1,000,000?
- This can help determine if you want to work with a micro-influencer or a mega-influencer.
- Are their followers interested in your messages?
- Are the followers real accounts (there are tools to help determine this)?
- Do they have a strong following – 1,000 followers? 100,000? More than 1,000,000?
- Follower Engagement: While looking at the influencer’s posts, noting the level of engagement their posts get is essential in understanding if the audiences interact with their content/ likes some content over others. Sure, it’s great that an influencer has 5,000 followers, but it’s underwhelming if posts only get a handful of Likes.
When developing a PR campaign, and depending on the focus, it could be worthwhile to incorporate a social media influencer to help reach target audiences and share a key message or two.
There are a few things to consider though when working with an influencer in order to ensure your message is getting out there:
To see if Xenophon’s social media practice and services can assist your PR efforts, please visit us at https://xenophonstrategies.com/services/digital-social.