A new trend in influencer marketing is the micro-influencer. Instead of the traditional sponsored ads with celebrities, brands are now partnering with micro-influencers. Partnering with micro-influencers allows brands to share more authentic posts. Should pharma consider micro-influencers as part of their strategic marketing?
Who is the micro-influencer?
- They are not celebrities or public figures
- They are everyday people that share content that interests them
- Micro-influencers by definition have a smaller number of followers compared to celebrities or public figures
- On the average, their following can range from thousands to tens of thousands followers
- Here are some definitions of micro-influencers:
- Everyday social media users with fewer than 10,000 followers.
- Irban Group refers to 100,000 to 200,000 followers power middle influencers
- Micro influencers are in the range of with a following of 10,000 to 100,000
But what makes micro-influencers unique and important?
- Micro-influencers are hyper-engaged
- From the graph below as an influencers’ following increases, we tend to see a like rate (that is an engagement rate of likes and comments) that decreases
- Social media is all about engagement and micro-influencers have the right balance rate of followers to likes/comments (which is the measurement for engagement)
- Micro-influencers posts are trustworthy and engaging
- Micro-influencers post their own content and respond to the comments themselves (no social media manager) in other words are more authentic
So social celebrity or micro-influencer?
- With social celebrity, you do reach a wider audience, but a large part of that audience may not be interested in your product
- Working with micro-influencers is also more affordable
- Working with micro-influencers you will need to manage more relationships simultaneously
- Working with micro-influencers you may achieve a higher engagement rate
- Working with micro-influencers allows for reaching different demographics
How can pharma incorporate micro-influencers in their social media platforms?
- Incorporate micro-influencers as part of a general current strategy
- Patient groups, patients, healthcare providers, maybe your micro-influencer
Does one platform work better than others?
- Most of the research has been focused on Instagram
- Instagram allows for easy posting of photos and comments, however, this does not exclude other platforms
