Consider macro-influencers: Activate’s DiSanto said that influencers with larger followings are sometimes chosen over micro-influencers for livestreams. “You have to do a lot of prep work to make sure that the influencer understands the brand safety guidelines and to invest that one-on-one time for a single piece of content,” he said.

Influencer marketing is growing around the world, and a significant amount of activity is migrating to Instagram Stories. However, fraud is also growing, and that threatens the authenticity of influencer marketing.

This may convince more brands to embrace micro-influencers, who often generate a better ROI than do macro-influencers, whose audiences are more diffused.

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A significant number of retailers in North America are now working with influencers as part of their marketing strategy. According to polling by Retail TouchPoints for referral marketing platform Extole, 31% of retailers said they have worked with brand advocates to become influencers, 30% used microinfluencers and 28% used paid celebrity influencers.

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Nearly two-thirds (64.7%) of the microinfluencers surveyed by SocialPubli used reach to measure the success of their work with a brand, but one-quarter (25.1%) said they preferred conversion rate.

In a February 2019 survey by influencer marketplace Activate, for example, 64.2% of US influencer marketers said they worked very often with microinfluencers (defined as having 5,000 to 100,000 followers) and 25.7% said the same for nano-influencers (less than 5,000 followers).

Most of the influencers were micro-influencers with an average of roughly 35,000 Instagram followers. Nearly six in 10 participants were US-based women. Direct Messaging. In late September, Facebook announced that it was integrating Instagram’s direct messaging service with Messenger for users who opt in to the new feature.

That’s because we’ll see a shift in attention away from influencers with millions of followers toward nano-influencers with just thousands. The idea of working with people who have smaller followings isn’t new (there’s already the concept of microinfluencers, people with followings in the tens of thousands).

“We're starting as marketers to learn that influencers are content,” said Brooke Robinson, managing partner at Peersway Nano Influencer Marketing. “We know now when they post something organically less than 10% are seeing the content organically, the rest are the result of paid media support.

“Instagram has seen huge growth, but Pinterest will be the next big platform,” said Brooke Robinson, managing partner at Peersway Nano Influencer Marketing. “Pinterest Canada launched their head office in Toronto, and they're going to start working with agencies and brands.

Influencers also see strong potential for brand collaborations on Instagram Stories; it was the top choice for the microinfluencers in North America, South America and Europe who were surveyed by SocialPubli in September 2019. Few marketers want to use influencers for branded Facebook Stories, Schotland said.

Many marketers have shown significant interest in Instagram Stories and are focusing on working with microinfluencers, who have smaller but dedicated followings. According to an August 2018 Econsultancy survey, 56% of US and UK marketers work with microinfluencers because they are more cost-effective than working with top-tier talent.