“Influencer” is a catch-all term for anyone who’s built an online following and is using it to, well, influence people. Be it food, lifestyle, or even political choices, you’re bound to find someone who has a platform and isn’t afraid to use it to voice an opinion.
If your brand wants to leverage influencer marketing, it needs to be aware of the different types of influencers, market segments, and trends. Understanding your target audience and gathering information about their social media habits can help you launch a successful influencer marketing campaign that delivers results and boosts conversions.
Let’s break down the hierarchy, niches, and types of influencer collaboration so you can pinpoint the right person to collaborate with for your next marketing effort!
Table of Contents
Hierarchy of Influencers: According to Follower Count
Perhaps the most straightforward way of categorizing influencers is according to the number of their followers. Most people who take their online career seriously aim to amass a large follower count because the higher the number, the more valuable their brand becomes.
Influencers are currently grouped into the following categories:
Nano Influencers
A nano influencer is someone who’s still starting in their creator journey, usually having between 1,000 and 5,000 followers. Their content could be aimed at any kind of audience, but their engagements are mostly from people they know or have interacted with personally.
Nano influencers might seem too small to matter, but you shouldn’t cross them out completely. The rate of their followers’ engagement can be pretty high!
Micro-Influencers
Next up, with just under 10,000 followers, are micro-influencers. Micro and nano influencers are similar in the sense that they have a tight-knit community of followers who consistently engage with their content. However, you have a wider base to reach with a micro-influencer.
Mid-Tier Influencers
Next up is the mid-tier influencer, someone boasting a following between 10,000 and 100,000. Even though their popularity varies, followers of mid-tier influencers have similar expectations from them.
They’re usually knowledgeable about their niche, authentic in their presentation, and more engaged than influencers with a higher follower count. Perfect if you’re launching a grassroots campaign!
Macro Influencers
Macro influencers have between 100,000 and 1,000,000 followers. Now, this is a pretty wide range, but in the realm of social media, they’re all considered big deals.
Keep in mind that some of these influencers happen upon their immense following after a bout of virality. In these cases, you should wait out your collaboration with them until they prove their staying power unless your brand has something to do with what made them viral.
Celebrities/Mega Influencers
Unlike in the past, when traditional celebrities were the only true mega influencers, many social media influencers nowadays easily cross the 1,000,000-follower threshold.
These examples are aspirational to most people who’d like a career in content creation and cultivating a social media presence. However, they’re still pretty rare to come by and their collaborations are usually with high-end brands, or at least those willing to pay their steep fees.
Influencer Niches: According to Interests
The internet is an excellent place for like-minded people to gather and create organic communities centered around the same interest. This, of course, leads aspiring content creators to focus their efforts on a single niche they become “experts” in or a couple of closely related interests that don’t divert their audience’s attention too much.
Here are some of the many niches different types of influencers occupy:
Fashion Influencers
Since social media platforms are highly visual by nature, fashion quickly became a hot topic among users of all age ranges. From selfies using the hashtag #OOTD (outfit of the day) to entire magazine editorials or haute couture runway looks posted on Instagram, any fashion enthusiast can get their fix from the influencers they follow.
Fashion influencers also help clothing and accessory trends pick up traction, making the “fashion cycle” shorter than ever nowadays.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Clothing brands
- Travel agencies
- Fragrance brands
- Jewelry brands
Beauty Influencers
Similarly to fashion, beauty has a prominent following among people who want to stay on trend with makeup and skincare.
Recently, a move toward “natural-looking” beauty led influencers to shift their focus from makeup toward permanent and semi-permanent procedures, like plastic surgery and injectables.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Makeup brands
- Skincare brands
- Dermatology clinics
- Plastic surgeons
Lifestyle Influencers
You’ve probably heard the phrase “famous for being famous” thrown around in a derogatory manner, but the truth is that lifestyle influencers are more prominent than ever. People crave the escapism of living vicariously through the rich and famous, and jet-setting, beautiful influencers are no exception.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Travel agencies
- Luxury brands
- Clothing brands
Health & Wellness Influencers
There was a surge of interest directed toward holistic health solutions and away from institutional medical authority right after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic was over. Most influencers touting these methods recommend preventive measures and a natural approach to wellness.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Natural supplement manufacturers
- Body care brands
- Eco-friendly clothing brands
Fitness Influencers
Fitness culture had its heyday in the early 2010s when you couldn’t escape gym selfies of extremely toned bodies flexed and posed in a statuesque way. Nowadays, die-hard fitness fans still have a strong community following their favorite bulked-up influencers.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Athletic wear brands
- Workout gear brands
- Supplement manufacturers
Sports Influencers
Not to be confused with celebrity athletes, sports influencers could be amateurs who love a specific sport and practice it regularly. They could also just be sports fans who always watch sporting events, lending their opinions and making a following in the process.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Sports gear brands
- Energy food and drink brands
- Betting websites (if legal in the country/state)
Gaming Influencers
Streaming platforms like Twitch and Kick have created a new type of immensely popular mega influencer: the gaming influencer. These influencers stream for hours on end and usually have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of followers watching their gaming sessions.
Many of them move on to create other types of content, especially since long hours of gameplay make for a great opportunity to chat with one’s followers about other subjects, too.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Energy food and drink brands
- Game developers
- Electronics manufacturers
- Gaming gear brands
Cooking & Food Influencers
Food is one of the most unifying types of content on the internet because, well, everyone has to eat. This encourages people to create special corners where they share recipes, how-tos, and eating content with their followers.
Cooking and food content isn’t without its detractors, though. We’ve seen a recent rise of bizarre recipes on TikTok that look more like stunts than actual meals, as well as the ever-controversial “mukbang” content that sometimes encourages overconsumption and obesity.
Content related to food is so wide-reaching that it can be categorized into sub-niches, too. But for the most part, it remains a pretty solid opportunity for any aspiring content creator.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Food brands
- Beverage brands
- Restaurants
- Kitchen appliance manufacturers
Home Renovation Influencers
Unlike in the past, you don’t have to be glued to HGTV to view the most satisfying home renovation content out there. Many home flippers-turned-influencers document their flips and create a following in the process.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Hardware brands
- Furniture manufacturers
- Lawn care companies
Pet Influencers
Do you know all the accounts posting cute videos of super cute, super smart pets responding to their owners or doing general animal shenanigans? Well, as much as we’d like to believe they’re run by the pets’ owners (or the pets themselves!), most of them are not.
They could very well be run by an influencer marketing agency that handles all the dealings with brand collaborations and schedules postings, but that’s not entirely a bad thing. This arrangement usually leaves the owners to enjoy their pets becoming internet stars without having to be their managers, too.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Pet food
- Pet toys and supplies
- Veterinary clinics
Specialist Influencers
Professionals of all kinds have started posting more about their work, garnering the attention of fellow professionals and regular people alike.
If you were ever curious about what a day at work for a physicist, dentist, lawn-care specialist, or even fast-food employee is like, you can find it all on social media. In professions that require extensive study or fieldwork, you can expect the higher-tier influencers to be considered KOLs (key opinion leaders) within the field.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Any brand or manufacturer relevant to their field
Social & Political Commentary Influencers
The whole world is experiencing a shift in political and cultural leanings, and many people are looking for voices that mirror their beliefs and values amidst the indecision. Politicians, celebrities, and even lay people can have a huge impact on the culture by participating in ongoing social and political commentary, with specific voices gaining large followers.
The issue with this type of content is how polarizing it is. It leads to heated debates in comment sections that can cause unrest if they are applied to real life.
Potential Brand Collaborations
- Open (with ethical reservations)
How Can Your Brand Collaborate with Different Types of Influencers?
There are several types of relationships your business can have with influencers, including:
Sponsorships
When you sponsor a specific piece of content created by an influencer, you usually collaborate on the social media campaign, and your brand name appears next to theirs. This is a simple transactional relationship that usually lasts for a limited time.
Affiliate Programs
An affiliate program involves giving the influencer a share of the earnings you make from purchases and sign-ups your brand receives through them. Setting up an affiliate marketing program is a great idea if you get a lot of traffic this way.
Brand Ambassadorships
When an influencer is your brand ambassador, they usually already love your brand and promote it regularly without monetary compensation. You can keep up the goodwill by sending them goodies and upgrading their experience so they have more positive things to say about your business.
Advocacy
If you work for a not-for-profit organization, especially one concerned with environmental and social issues, you might want to reach out to concerned influencers and celebrities. They always have a passionate following of people looking to make a difference, and they might be interested in advocating for your cause.
Want to Build an Influencer Marketing Campaign? We Can Help!
With a proven track record of successful marketing campaigns, Vivian Agency can help your business draw up a plan that WORKS.
Schedule a meeting with one of our expert team members, or contact us for more information here.
