To figure out that first one has to understand the basic difference between a micro creator/influencer and a celebrity and how both are relevant in the field of Social Media Marketing?
Celebrities usually gain fame through traditional media by growing their reputation in various sectors of the entertainment industry. By acing in their particular domain, celebrities generate a very diverse audience for themselves. On the other hand, micro creators or influencers are commoners with the ability to influence a certain group of people or community. They earn their stardom by creating creative and relatable content for their unique audiences.
Celebrities often fail to engage with their audiences due to their diversity and the possession of extraordinary lifestyles, making them unrelatable for the common masses. Whereas, creators or influencers have the liberty to engage their audiences in common prominence and draw content from their followers. But most commonly influencers possess limited reach/impressions.
Now with the understanding of basic differences between celebrities and micro creators, to determine their credibility in the current world of Social Media Marketing, one has to understand the rapid evolution in this fast-growing generation.
In the early days of Social Media Marketing, marketers used to prefer big mainstream celebrities with a huge number of followers to endorse their brand or product. A secured and trusted bond was formed among celebrities and brands or marketers for the long run. Celebrities often don’t possess great expertise regarding the marketing of a brand or a product. Just their persona becomes the whole USP to the marketers. Only big brands with a huge chunk of money can afford celebrities, other small or medium sized brands never had any scope in this market.
But with the growth of social media and marketing trends over the years, influencer marketing has become one of the most crucial domains of social media marketing. Marketers leverage influencer marketing with firm planning to boost their investment in this domain. Categorizing among the number of followers, marketers mostly focus on small creators/nano influencers with 10,000 to 25,000 followers approx and micro creators/influencers with 25,000 to 1,00,000 followers.
In today’s scenario, consumers search for reliability and authenticity. Being fully aware of the fact that celebrities are way beyond authenticity, brands and marketers are now approaching small creators to grab the trust of commoners.
When it comes to product review systems, consumers prefer authentic product or brand reviews from their trusted creators whom they can rely on, rather than any big celebrity who has no certain expertise in that area. Hence, niche experience and collaboration is a must!
So on which grounds are Social Media Marketers shifting their focus from big celebrities to micro creators so drastically?
Companies, brands, and markets nowadays are focusing on short-term creative content to create their brand or product awareness, attract new audiences and consumers, and build a long-term trusted bond that doesn’t require the allure of follower count. A micro-influencer with a certain group of audience can create a large number relatable and high quality content pieces. With a bigger celebrity, the relatability and creativity of the content will be compromised. That’s why brands and marketers don’t focus on high-budget content with a lot of aestheticism.
The tight knight bond that one micro-influencer shares with their audience, creates a unique bond that a celeb will never be able to develop. Also, it is drastically less expensive for a marketer to work with a small creator than a celebrity. In the generation of social media among Millennials and GenZs, influencer marketing is at its prime as they most certainly prefer to follow and purchase from their favorite and trusted creator/influencer. For brands – it creates a long-term trusted and secured partnership.
So, to conclude, it is impossible to predict what will happen next and what will be that trend in the coming future. The type of engagement/eyeballs the celebrities possess is irreplaceable but product placement in social media marketing through influencers is a set trend in 2024. Each brand or marketer follows their own strategy to sustain.
