You have identified your company’s employees and customers as potential stakeholders. Now let’s look at two other possibilities for your influence strategy: the opinion leaders (key opinion leaders) and influencers.
What is the difference between an influencer and a key opinion leader (KOL)?
Unlike influencers, the KOL is not necessarily very active online. Companies contact them for their expertise and not their audience.
For example, in one episode, Dr. Sydnee McElroy discusses the history of health advertising, including the examples of cereal companies promoting lower cholesterol and heart disease prevention.
On the other hand, the influencer has a larger audience than KOLs on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, or even LinkedIn). They are not officially recognized as experts, but instead connoisseurs and enthusiasts on their topics.
To help you choose your influencer, Ben Pearson shares his expertise:
So, how do you choose your influencer?
The first criterion for choosing an influencer is the size of their community.
Other criteria come into play, such as engagement, audience segmentation, price, ease of access to the influencer, etc.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of the various categories of influencers:
5 types of influencer | Community size | Benefits | Disadvantages |
Mega-influencers | 1M+ subscribers |
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Macro- influencers | 500K to 1M |
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Mid-tier influencers | 100K to 500K |
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Micro-influencers | 10 to 100K |
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Nano-influencers | 1 to 10K |
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The Deditex Case Study
Have you thought about it? Compare your idea to Michael’s .
Let’s Recap!
KOLs and influencers are two categories of personalities the company could use to develop its awareness and clientele.
KOLs and influencers benefit your brand with their expertise and audience quality.
Your objectives and targets of influence are defined. How about launching your first influencer campaign? Go to the next chapter!