Having influencers endorse your product can be a great benefit when it comes to social media marketing. However, it can be expensive to use a well-known and established influencer. So how can you get the help of an influencer without having to fork over so much of your hard-earned revenue? Micro-influencers may be just the thing you’re looking for. But where can you find these niche-specific experts?
This article will cover what micro-influencers are and how they can benefit your social media marketing strategy. We’ll also cover how you can find these elusive micro-influencers using web scraping techniques. We’ll also briefly mention some of the pitfalls, such as an Instagram IP ban and how to avoid these. Keep reading to discover the untapped potential of micro-influencers.
Table of Contents
What Is Micro-Influencer?
Micro-influencers are content creators that are considered experts within their niche. They can be found on various social platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and others. They usually have a smaller following of between 1 000 and 100 000 people. This may seem smaller when compared to high-profile influencers. However, micro-influencers create high-value content and interact with followers frequently. As such, they have an extremely loyal following.
Authenticity is critical when it comes to an influencer marketing strategy. It’s also this authenticity that you’ll find amongst micro-influencers. They create content based on their passions, and their audiences trust them only to recommend or promote products of brands they believe in.
How Can a Micro-Influencer Help You?
Surveys have shown that people trust the suggestions from people they can identify with and are more likely to make a purchase from these recommendations. When it comes to social media marketing, it’s not always the number of followers but rather the quality of those followers. It doesn’t help to have a million followers if only a handful of them buy your product.
There are a few reasons why more marketers are starting to use micro-influencers. One important benefit to using micro-influencers is that more people are beginning to use ad-blockers. This is having a big impact on brands’ online marketing. However, by using a micro-influencer, you can reach your audience better, and it’ll probably cost about the same.
Another benefit is that these influencers already have the trust and love of their followers, which will make it easier to convert into new clients if the influencers promote your products.
How Can Web Scraping Help Find Micro-Influencers?
Finding micro-influencers when you’re new to influencer marketing can seem daunting. However, it doesn’t have to be. You can use web scraping tools to automate the search for new micro-influencers to use for your brand. There are a range of scraping tools available, paid and free ones, to help make the process easier. And if you’re worried about getting a notification that your IP has been banned, don’t stress. That’s what proxies are for.
To start scraping for micro-influencers, open your chosen web scraping tool and set it to scrape social media platforms. Remember to use a proxy when you use scraping tools to avoid a message that your IP has been banned. Begin by collecting the name, bio, follower count, and account link of every person that interacts with your content and shares information about your company or products as well as your competitors.
Once all of this information is compiled. You can start analyzing the data to create a shortlist of potential candidates. To do this, you’ll need to identify if the person is a match for your brand and products. You’ll also need to evaluate what type of content they post, how often they post, and importantly, how much engagement they have. You have to critically think if this influencer will be able to reach your target market and if they’ll be able to promote your products in a way that you approve of.
Once you have your shortlist of candidates that you feel will fit with your brand and products, you can reach out to them and begin discussing them promoting your product or brand. You may have to send them samples to try out or offer them a great discount to get started and build the relationship. You’ll also have to negotiate how the payment terms for their services will work, i.e. will they get a profit share of every successful referred client, or will they get paid per click?
Final Thoughts
Online marketing is always pushing the boundaries of efficiency. This becomes a reality when using web scraping tools to automate the search for micro-influencers for your brand. Micro-influencers are a beneficial part of a business’s social media marketing strategy. Aside from having a high conversion rate due to the loyalty and trust built with their followers, they are also a more cost-effective option than high profile influencers
