How to choose a micro-influencer for your brand?

If you've been looking to influencer marketing for effective levers to market your products, you may have noticed the growing popularity of micro-influencers. In this article, we'll look at how to choose a micro-influencer for your brand.

But what is a micro-influencer?

Micro-influencers are individuals who control a highly engaged niche and have between 10,000 and 100,000 subscribers. Here are two good reasons to work with micro-influencers. After reading this, you'll agree with us that it's better to work with several micro-influencers, than with just one high-profile influencer. 

Committed audience

The research we conducted on Instagram, but which also proved true on other social networks, revealed that accounts with millions of followers had a lower engagement rate than those with a medium-sized audience.

Most micro-influencers are experts in their niche and therefore share specialized content that really interests their subscribers, and on which these micro-influencers really stand out. In addition, micro-influencers interact with subscribers on a personal level, making them easier to relate to. Subscribers feel more like they're following the adventures of their friends, rather than show business stars. 

Inexpensive influencer

Secondly, let's face it, celebrity influencers demand a lot on top of the high cost of promoting a product on their account. They tend to think of themselves as stars (rightly or wrongly) and negotiating with them is often complex. Conversely, 97% of micro-influencers on Instagram charge less than 500 euros per publication. 

Some are also open to barter deals in the form of gift vouchers or free products, if they're really interested in your brand. In this respect, we recommend that you work on your brand image, as influencers will be less greedy if they have a real crush on your products.

How do you find the right micro-influencer for your brand?

The influencer market is unregulated and undefined. This means that anyone with a relatively large number of subscribers can claim tobe a micro-influencer. 18h08 accompanies you into the influencer market thanks to solid existing partnerships, and a deep knowledge of influencer marketing.

If you'd like to know more about what to check before engaging with an influencer, here are 5 things to consider below. 

1. Real followers or bots?

Social networks, especially Instagram, have tried to tackle bots with little success. However, it's sad to know that some micro-influencers use bots to create the impression of a large audience. So check out the organic growth of the micro-influencers you're interested in. 

There are specialized tools that allow you to measure the activity of subscribers to an Instagram account in question.

In your search, see if there's been a spike in subscribers lately, which could be a sign of bot activity.

2. Check relevance

A relevance test requires you to look for clues as to whether the micro-influencer audience applies to your target audience. There's no point in looking for a micro-influencer in the food and beverage sector if you run a fashion brand.

Also determine whether the audience will engage with your brand by validating the quality of the influencer's posts. Does each post trigger rich, lengthy conversations? Other factors to consider are:

• Target demographics: are their subscribers women, men, baby boomers or Generation Z?
• Geographical data: where does your audience live? For example, a micro-influencer popular in one city may not be useful if your target audience is in another city.

Test engagement on Instagram 

Social network engagements such as likes, shares and comments are important metrics in any social network marketing effort. 

In practical terms, measure the relationship between subscriber activity and subscriber size - for example, a micro-influencer with 50,000 subscribers and 2,000 likes per post doesn't offer high engagement compared to another influencer with 25,000 subscribers and 7,000 likes, shares or comments per post. 

The depth of subscriber involvement in publications determines how engaged the audience is when commenting or sharing suggestions. Pay attention if most comments are simple and uninteresting. This could be a sign that the audience isn't that engaged.

Perform a keyword search on Google and YouTube

As well as scouring social networks for yourideal influencer, it's a good idea to also carry out a keyword search on Google and YouTube. The search engines are excellent for finding bloggers and vloggers with whom you can partner to help increase your brand's reach.

In the Google or YouTube search bar, enter your niche or search term. You can do something like "yoga tutorial for beginners" and search the results for the ideal vlogger or micro-influencer for your audience.