Micro-Influencers have some pretty amazing hidden superpowers if you know how to use them correctly. So many brands are caught up in follower counts and shoutouts but there is a much better way to run an influencer marketing campaign and that's with Micro-Influencers. By the end of this article, you will see what sets them apart and how you can utilize them in so many ways beyond reaching their followers. This article contains some pretty unique growth hacking strategies that I have personally used over the last 12 years growing internet startups.
In order to utilize the Superpowers described in this article, you will need to run a Micro-Influencer campaign using “Gamification”. When I launch a new company or brand, this is the first thing I do to start getting the word out about it, build social media followers, engagement and generate word-of-mouth marketing at an unprecedented scale.
My campaigns utilize 10k+ Micro-Influencers who are all passionate about my products or services because I target influencers using Facebook and Instagram ads that target Influencers with those interests. Ads get Micro-Influencers signed up to participate in a “Spokesperson Contest”. I usually offer a reward as an incentive for them to take actions that provide value for my brand.
Influencers earn points for taking actions like following my social media accounts, liking, commenting, and sharing my social media posts. Influencers also create content for my brand that they share on their own social media channels. Utilizing a points-based incentive gets Influencers taking numerous actions over a three-month campaign period that all help you grow your brand. The 8 Superpowers described in this article are all achievable using Gamification.
So, without further ado, here are the 7 Superpowers of Micro-Influencers.
SUPERPOWER #1
GENERATE PRODUCT SALES & VIDEO REVIEWS
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get 2,000 people to purchase your product and then create a video review about it? What if they also posted it to YouTube and then shared it over and over again on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter? Leveraging Micro-Influencers can give you just that. In addition, when the videos are uploaded to YouTube, they are optimized to rank on keywords your customers type in to find your products or services. This creates a never-ending stream of quality traffic to the link you include in the video’s description. Video reviews also increase purchase intent, generate backlinks and educate consumers about your product.
SUPERPOWER #2
BUILD A YOUTUBE CHANNEL WITH THOUSANDS OF SUBSCRIBERS
You can use Micro-Influencers to create content around a specific niche. For instance, you could get Yoga enthusiasts to create a video demonstrating different Yoga positions and mention your product somewhere in the video. Instead of having the Influencer upload the video themselves to YouTube, you have them submit it to you and you optimize the video for YouTube search results. You upload the video to your own company's YouTube channel and start building a subscriber base around yoga-related content.
With enough Micro-Influencers creating content, you can easily generate hundreds of high-quality videos for your channel all driving traffic and educating consumers about your products or services. Your channel will generate new subscribers that you can monetize long into the future. When you launch a new product, create a video about it and post it to your YouTube channel, it will generate thousands of views almost instantly when your subscribers are notified.
In addition to the benefits of promoting your own videos, you can also monetize your channel when you reach over 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of videos watched on your channel. YouTube videos can earn some serious money.
SUPERPOWER #3
INFLUENCER CREATED CONTENT
Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are used by consumers for product discovery. If your posts aren’t trending at the top of your Hashtags, you’re missing out on some serious branding opportunities. For instance, the Hashtag #YogaPants receives over 250K impressions every hour on Instagram. If you have thousands of Influencers creating content for your brand, these posts will start appearing all over social search engines. This will generate sales, product awareness, branding opportunities, and additional earned media.
If you utilize Instagram's new feature “Shopping from Creators” you can have Micro-Influencers (With over 500 followers) tag your shoppable products in their posts. This can generate serious revenue for your company. When your Influencers' shoppable posts are ranked at the top of the Hashtag search results, your sales will skyrocket.
SUPERPOWER #4
PUSH SHOPPABLE POSTS TO THE TOP OF INSTAGRAM SEARCH RESULTS
Similar to number 3 on our list, the ability to push your own social media content to the top of the social search engines is a huge opportunity. If you have created shoppable Instagram posts, getting them ranked at the top of the search results for your major keywords should be your top priority. You can use Micro-Influencers to “Like and comment” on your shoppable posts to push it to the top of the Hashtag search results. Once there, a flood of sales will be generated because millions of niche consumers will see your shoppable posts and be interested enough to make a purchase without having to leave Instagram or your post.
If your goal is to generate product sales using social media, this is the only strategy you should be focused on. Reaching macro Influencers' followers who can’t easily purchase your product or even click a link to get to it is a huge barrier to generating a Return on Investment from traditional Macro-Influencer marketing. An Influencers' followers aren’t actively searching for your products when they see the post from the Influencer promoting your product. This lack of purchase intent or even interest results in low conversions at a very high cost of acquisition.
Micro-Influencers have the ability to get your shoppable posts ranked at the top of the Hashtag search results where consumers actively looking for your products can find them and make a purchase without leaving the post. This results in low-cost sales and new organic followers to your Instagram account.
SUPERPOWER #5
OPTIMIZE AMAZON SEARCH RESULT RANKINGS TO INCREASE ORGANIC SALES
Being more discoverable on Amazon is a sure-fire way to generate more product sales. Amazon uses complex algorithms to display products that are purchased more by customers than other competing products. If you want to boost your Amazon rankings quickly, have Influencers who are open to purchasing your product do so on Amazon. Instruct them to search for your product by keyword and then scroll down the list until they see your product. They should then purchase your product from your Amazon store. This will push your product up to the top of the search result pages for your keywords. Make sure to segment influencers so they use different keywords to find your products on Amazon search results. This will allow you to boost rankings on a wider breadth of keywords.
If you aren’t using a lot of Influencers, however, take your top keywords and have the majority of Influencers search those keywords for your product. Before running the campaign, find out where your products actually rank and give that page number to your Influencers so they can navigate there quicker. As keywords are searched, your product listing clicked on and a purchase made, Amazon's search algorithms will start ranking your products better for your keywords driving an increase in visibility and sales.
SUPERPOWER #6
INCREASE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT AUTHORITY
Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter all use algorithms to determine how authoritative your brand's social media accounts are. Account authority has a direct relationship to how well your social media posts show up in the search algorithms. When running a Micro-Influencer marketing campaign, your social media accounts will naturally get a boost in authority as your Follower to Engagement ratio increases. As your Micro-Influencers engage with your content, social media algorithms determine that your brand is more authoritative and ranks your content better in the search results.
The fact that Micro-Influencers engage with your brand from highly authoritative accounts helps boost your own authority. When you only utilize one or two Macro Influencers, you aren’t getting as big of a boost in your account authority.
Account authority makes all of your content more discoverable. This drives an increase in organic engagement and new organic followers.
SUPERPOWER #7
Get your App ranked in the App Store
Getting your App ranked in the App Store should be your #1 Priority! Getting ranked requires a combination of things. First, you need lots of downloads. Second, you need lots of positive reviews and third, you need downloads from external referral sources. Micro-Influencers will download your App, review it in the App Store, create a video review about the App, and post it to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter and link to your download page. These actions will get your App ranked in the App store almost overnight when done by enough Influencers.
I used this exact strategy to help launch a music app in the Apple TV store in 2014 that became the #1 Music App in just three months. I utilized over 10,000 Micro-Influencers which allowed us to generate over 50M downloads and 3M monthly paid subscribers in just a year. The initial Influencers got the App ranked in the App stores where the organic traffic generated the bulk of the downloads, self-propelling it to these insane numbers. The App is still one of the most popular music streaming apps in all App stores over every device and streaming service like Roku.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, utilizing Micro-Influencers to grow your brand, sell your products and generate buzz is a no-brainer. As your Influencers help you promote your business, they also become passionate brand advocates and build strong brand affinity that lasts long after your campaign is over. Good luck on your journey and may the power of Micro-Influencers always be with you!
