Nanoinfluencers: As advertising gets smaller and closer
Dmitry Kurkin
If you find instagram shortly posts familiar with the signs "advertising" and "promo" - or have already found them - do not be surprised. As soon as the world managed to get used to microinfluencers (if at all, the word is not included in either the Oxford dictionary or the Merriam-Webster dictionary), marketers (and the New York Times followed them) started talking about “nanoinfluensers” - bloggers who have not millions or hundreds of thousands, but thousands of subscribers. Despite modest figures, companies are ready to order advertising posts for them in exchange for product samples and purely symbolic fees. Some see the future of the market in nanoinfluencers, proving in numbers that it is more profitable to work with myriads of small bloggers than with million-plus bloggers, others are more skeptical. One way or another, it is clear that native advertising has gone down to the very foundation of the social network pyramid and it makes no sense to crush the audience even more small.
Influencing marketing has already proven itself: every dollar invested in a popular blogger bounces off 7.65 dollars of the so-called word of mouth (earned media value), and ultimately brings real profit.
Nanoinfluencers, strictly speaking, do not fundamentally differ from microinfluencers. The reader subconsciously does not filter out native advertising in their blogs, because it looks more like unobtrusive friendly advice (“I tried it myself and recommend it to you”) than to annoying, screaming promo. The difference is only in the reach of the audience and, accordingly, fees. But these factors are just key. Small bloggers are better suited to the needs of niche markets: against the background of mega- (Kardashian-Jenner sisters) and macroinfluencers (social network stars, which they actually earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year), they look like groceries, flower shops and coffee shops on background of multi-storey malls. However, this is their advantage.
A survey conducted by Digiday in 2016 showed that nanoinfluencers attract 8.7% of their subscribers to the product, while only 1.7% respond to advertising posts of million-plus bloggers. The fivefold difference is due to several circumstances. Small bloggers usually get down to business withaboutthey are not so busy to “forget” about their obligations. Their audience is smaller, but much more loyal, their posts written in a lively and non-cliched language reach almost every subscriber.
Finally - and this is perhaps the main reason why they have become such a dainty virgin for advertisers - they are unpretentious and compliant. Even at the micro level (tens of thousands of subscribers), where fees are estimated at a couple hundred dollars for a promotional post, the bloggers' appetites are growing rapidly - let alone capricious ambassadors working for a million people. Nanoinfluencers do not consider native advertising as a source of serious income, and are often ready to work on barter.
Of course, not everyone believes that it is an effective scheme to distribute a thousand probes to a thousand small bloggers. If it is difficult to calculate the real return from the influenzaers (primarily due to the fact that the number of subscribers in the account header does not always turn out to be reliable - from 1 to 99 percent of the followers may turn out to be bots), then it is still more difficult to predict it in the case of nanoinfluensers - advertiser check one thousand accounts. Nevertheless, while the idea of nanoinfluencers is still fresh and did not have time to pall, as, for example, the idea of small retail distributors of cosmetics, both manufacturers and intermediaries like marketing agencies will try to make money on it. Then the bubble will burst - and marketers will have to invent something else.
In truth, the prediction of the invasion of nanoinfluencers sounds threatening. And because there are so many advertisements in social networks that we don’t really want to see it with our friends. And because it painfully recalls the Sauspark parable about advertising bots that have learned to disguise as living people. Nanoinfluencers recognize that advertisers expect promotional posts to be arranged according to certain rules, with keywords triggers and pre-approved hashtags.
On the other hand, if the advertisers' money falls into the pocket of your friends, and not the Kardashian-Jenner sisters, this is hardly so bad. In addition, the new obsession with nanoinfluencers suggests that marketers understand a simple and important thing: advertising can and should look more humane and focused on everyday needs, and not just grow the brand as a spherical horse in a vacuum.