Girli at Dingwalls

Over the past several years, we have seen a shift in what started as people taking pretty pictures of their food for Instagram to people being fascinated in literally everything these people do online. No, these aren’t celebrities- they are social media influencers.lifeism Who needs a lifestyle magazine when we have lifestyle bloggers? These people’s lives appear to be so lavish that we feel compelled to follow their every recommendation and purchase the products that they use. Think Lebron James and Sprite, except that people can actually relate to influencers on a personal level. (Yes, I have been guilty of buying clothes and beauty products fashion bloggers have suggested to me.) And as savvy marketers tend to do, we saw the enormous opportunity to utilize these people’s influence to sell products. The best part? People actually trust who they are buying from rather than a random spokesperson on TV. Influencers have now become another tier of social marketing to get a company’s products in front of their target audience. However, while influencers with followings of 100K or more seem like a great marketing avenue, many small businesses find that they either can’t afford to pay the influencer’s rate per post or that it’s difficult to compete with other companies that are shelling out their products to these sought-after people. So how can you get in front of your target audience? Well, consider the fact that someone doesn’t necessarily need to have thousands of followers to have an influence. Introducing, the micro-influencer.