Dive Brief:

• The Keller Fay Group and Experticity teamed up to find out the scope of micro-influencers driving consumer behavior and found that 82% of survey respondents said they were highly likely to follow a micro-influencers’ recommendation.
• In the influencer marketing landscape, micro-influencers are neither celebrities, nor social media stars, but are people within different categories who are knowledgeable, passionate and authentic, and because of this are seen as trusted sources for purchase recommendations.
• Micro-influencers have 22.2 times more conversations weekly about recommendations on what to buy when compared to an average consumer, the research found, pointing out their potential reach.

Dive Insight:

“Many marketers today try to use celebrities as their influencer marketing solution, but they are missing out on a much bigger opportunity,” Brad Fay, co-founder, COO and lead researcher of the Keller Fay Group, said in a statement. 

The study was conducted by Dr. Jonah Berger, who is the author of “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” and a marketing professor at the Wharton School. He said the research helped show marketers what type of influencer has “the greatest impact and why,” which should be part of influencer marketing strategies.

The study also had three additional key findings:

1. Not only do these influencers have more buying conversations, they are more direct in their recommendations. A majority (74%) encourage someone to “buy it or try it,” compared to 66% of the general population who encouraged those actions in their recommendations.
2. More than three-fourths (87%) of the buying recommendations they make are happening face to face.
3. According to people receiving advice, influencers were seen as more impactful compared to an average person based on the following characteristics: more credible and believable (94% vs. 83%), more knowledgeable (94% vs. 84%), and better at explaining how the product works or could be used (92% vs. 83%).

"Our research shows that real life influencers who are passionate about what they are recommending have significantly more buying conversations, and consumers are more likely to act on their recommendations," Fay said.