By Maddie Nerden
Brands are shifting their social media strategy away from celebrities and large creators to highlight micro-influencers. These smaller creators have highly engaged followers within a dedicated niche and pose themselves as a more affordable and effective promotion tactic.
Benefits to Being “Rawthentic”
A key advantage of partnering with micro-influencers is their authenticity that creates a community. In an article from Adweek, they coin this effect with the term “rawthentic”: the power of genuine and unfiltered content that resonates with audiences. Users prefer content creators who are “one of us”, showing the mundane, everyday moments and embracing their imperfections. Due to this genuine connection between the creator and their audience, brands see 6 times more engagement using micro-influencers.
An example of this is the “Edutainment” campaign agency Viral Nation did for the study tool Chegg. They partnered with student micro-influencers on TikTok to host a relatable conversation between students, while positioning Chegg as an essential tool for school. It was important for Chegg’s campaign messaging to balance with the “rawthentic” conversation so the content would feel cohesive with the micro-influencer’s content, and less like an advertisement.
New Micro-Trends
Influencer marketing and social media are constantly evolving, which leads to many trends. One of which is dark social, where social media users share posts with friends and family using private communication channels such as direct messaging (DMs), email, and text messaging. Privately sharing content makes it harder for marketers to track campaign effectiveness and the return on investment. However, marketers could leverage dark social with micro-influencers, whose content is more likely to be shared privately.
Another trend is social listening, a tool that gives companies insight into the public’s perception of their brand, products, competitors, and more. Recently artificial intelligence has been integrated into these tools to track private discussions, which could help measure influencers’ effectiveness with dark social.
What Does This Mean For Digital Marketers?
Digital marketers must rework their influencer marketing strategy to account for the shift to niche audiences and privacy prioritization. By following an authentic campaign strategy and customizing the user’s experience, more people will convert and take the desired action.
1. Make your campaign AUTHENTIC: When working with influencers, you should partner with someone who’s personality and social media image align with your brand’s values. When making content, let go of some control to balance your messaging with the influencer’s “rawthenticity”. This way you reach your target audience without the campaign looking like an obvious brand deal and the influencer coming off as fake.
2. CUSTOMIZE the user’s experience: Users and consumers today prefer individualized and niche content more than ever. Brands can cater to this through dark social by hosting small, private, online interactions between micro-influencers and their audience. This could be done using the Instagram groups feature or through a direct message. Hosting these exclusive sponsored conversations will help strengthen connections between the influencer, their audience, and your brand.
3. More people will CONVERT: Using micro-influencers will become a bottom-of-the-funnel marketing activity. It is easier than ever to direct consumers to a product through a post or your social media profile. Especially since social media platforms have become marketplaces themselves (for example, TikTok Shop and Facebook Marketplace).
By following these steps, brands can leverage micro-influencers’ reach to form genuine connections with their target audience. This more affordable campaign tactic will result in an increased customer base and in return on investment.
Sources
Leighton, N. (2025, January 29). The Future Of Influencer Marketing
Interested in joining our AMA Chapter?
The American Marketing Association prepares students for real-world marketing scenarios and skills for the workforce. Applications are open NOW until April 11th! Hurry – spots are running out!
AMA University of New Hampshire 
Leave a comment