12 Types of Influencers vital to your Influence Marketing.

7 min readSep 9, 2020

‘INFLUENCERS,’ a strong acronym in the digital platform, especially crucial to brand and marketers. Social Media influencers are personalities who have many followers across one or more social media platforms such as Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, and personal blogs. The existence of a plethora of influencers on digital platforms makes influencer marketing a critical component for both B2C and B2B companies. Popular categories influencers publish their content that includes fashion, travel, lifestyle, food, baking, healthy living, gaming, etc. relevant to their profession or their key area of expertise.

Companies should choose a marketing strategy based on selecting the right type of influencer to promote their brand. Following are the steps to be considered:

Step 1: Choose the objectives and the audience of the campaign

Step 2: Review the campaign budget as well the required influencer type

Step 3: Choose the influencer

Step 4: Measure the results and reward your influencer.

Influence marketing is the process of identifying and implementing customers who can help the brand reach its target audience as a promotional channel. Finding the right influencer determines the success of influence marketing campaigns. The main KPIs related to influencer marketing is follower count, reach, engagement, clicks, conversion rate, and ROI. The three attributes that brands need to consider on selecting the right influencer are known as the 3R’s of influence:

a. Relevance

b. Reach

c. Resonance

12 types of influencers in the digital platform

Bloggers and Vloggers

We can categorize this type of influencer in the category of macro or mega-influencer. They regularly create high-quality text and video content in their niches. They are great influencers of partnerships. Bloggers usually publish content on a regular bases. They have followers who are highly engaged in their content and are a loyal audience. The followers consider them to be industry experts and trust the bloggers’ source of information. They can help B2B and B2C companies with SEO by providing high-quality backlinks to the company’s website. Companies can expect decent referral traffic on their website through their sponsored blog post. On the other hand, vloggers share content in videos and use Youtube and Vimeo platforms to publish their content. Their content includes travel videos, educative videos, and information content videos, bringing awareness to their audience. Also, vloggers can help create a better engaging audience where they create content to see the product or service that grabs attention visually.

Some of the famous blogger and vloggers in the world are Meet Gary Vaynerchuk @GaryVaynerchuk.com and PewDiePie.

2. Social Media Sensations

This type of influencer provides glimpses of their regular lives. They have a strong rapport with their followers. They cannot be categorized as niche experts, but they do have the power to influence their audience’s purchasing decisions. They develop a personal connection with their followers by continually interacting with them through stories, DMS, etc. They are perceived as real-life consumers rather than high-profile celebrities by their followers that make them a vital persona altogether. Also, followers have faith in their recommendations, which creates a stronger and more personal bond.

For example: Radhi Devlukia is a famous influencer who provides plant-based recipes, and she gives insights about her daily life. She also shares reviews on vegan products and recommends various products through her posts.

3. Reality TV Stars

This type of influencers is best personified as overnight sensations that appear on reality television shows and become a known star to a broad audience. They usually share a strong screen presence in reality shows that eventually related to social media users. They often collaborate with fashion and beauty brands. Their fame depends on how they continuously engage and connect with their audience during or after the show.

Kylie Jenner rose to fame in the reality television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Currently, she is one of the richest youngsters and has garnered over 195m followers

4. Micro-Influencers

This type of influencer has a smaller number of followers, but they have incredibly engaged fan communities. Their content pertains to a highly specified niche where there is a high engagement level. They will be able to motivate their followers to take the required or desired actions through their opinions. They do not give the feeling of over-promotion to their audience group. They charge a comparatively smaller fee. They can be best used when brands need shoutouts and giveaways.

Dhruv Rathee started his YouTube channel talking about political issues of India. As his popularity increased, he started as a youtube educator, where he gives shoutouts to brands such as insurance, mutual funds etc. He has recently started his vlog as an environmentalist

5. Nano Influencer

This type of influencer also has a small number of followers, just like micro-influencers. However, they have devoted fans for a particular brand and a product that they continuously keep promoting. They are incredibly vocal about this kind of promotion on their social media handles. They provide an authentic testimony rather than a brand endorsement. Companies should monitor their brand mentions and tags if such nano influencers are promoting them. Companies can also turn their employees into nano-influencer to provide detailed reviews. The benefits of using nano-influencers are they are a cost-effective way of boosting a brand. They have the potentiality of content before putting their content; nano-influencers creatively promote brands. They are considered approachable and relatable.

Allthatsfiredup is one of a classic example of a nano-influencer, who promotes specific brand that the influencer truly believes in.

6. Activists

This type of influencer is committed to a social or political cause. The activists vision provides its followers with a different outlook, which is positive. They have radical views on current issues where they use social media as a medium to voice their opinions and provide a different perspective that supports the cause. They promote a specific reason that shapes the opinion of their followers that they’re supporting. Brands should be careful when using activists to promote their products or service. The activist’s radical views can affect the brand too. Usually involves Environmental sustainability activists, animal or vegan health, awareness to mental health influencers.

Adwoa Aboah is a British model and activist. She founded Gurls Talk, an online community for young women that specifically focuses on mental health issues.

7. Journalists

This type of influencers are the most powerful personalities on social media and they influence the way their audience group look at the brand. Their reviews are taken seriously where they have a significant impact on their target audience, which eventually helps in the brand’s growth. Both B2B and B2C brands usually partner with journalists to promote their products and services to have a better growth of their brands.

Sebmodak, promotes best restaurants, hotels, places to visit to the countries he travels

8. Photographers

This type of influence are considered as the best content creators who provide high-qulaity content on social media. They let the picture talk for itself. Usually, they are partnered with brands from a variety of industries. Especially, camera brands and marketers engage with this type of influence.

These influencers promote a brand through their photos.

9. Thought Leaders

This type of influencer is the proponents of cutting-edge innovations. They are usually entrepreneurs and top decision-making biggies of companies. They hold a powerful presence, both in the online and offline worlds. They garner attention from their audience to learn the latest developments and trends in their industries. They have a wide follower of the audience who are fiercely loyal and swear by their recommendations and promotions.

These leaders have an exceptionally loyal followers

10. Mainstream Celebrities

These types of influencers are the most famous and trending ones. Based on their profession, it mostly includes actors/actresses and models. They are the most influential macro and mega influencers around the world. They usually have millions of followers and are brand ambassadors of certain brands. They have strong media attention, thereby have a broad reach to the target audience and high engagement rates. Companies should align their brands with the celebrity’s values. B2C brands consider collaborating, where each post promoting their brand would be charged with a higher fee, which is the celebrity’s market value.

These celebs promote different brands almost everyday! They have a wide audience reach.

11. Gaming Influencers — Live streamers

This type of influencer is a popular niche of influencers who Livestream their games on social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. They expect to increase brand awareness while playing the game and promoting a few other products while live streaming. Brands can promote through such influencers to generate sales.

DrLupo plays Ninja game and while livestreaming, he promotes Hershey’s milk chocolate by eating it every now and then. This promotes the brand well, since his audience would relate playing ninja with eating Hershey’s.

12. CGI Influencers

These types of influencers are completely virtual characters that are developed by programmers and designers. They are the latest trends in social media. They are ‘computer-generated imagery,’ usually, promote B2C brands from their niches. Through their social media posts, the brand can increase engagement and brand awareness. The top four leading CGI influencers are Miquela Sousa, Bermuda, Shudu, and Sophia the Robot.