Nano Influencer or Mega Influencer? Make Money Either Way!

What if you had an opportunity to go to Turks and Caicos and stay at a Beaches Resort for free? Or even better - a Disney Parent with paid for media trips outside of the radio ones? I've been to both, and I can tell you the influencer trips are 100x better than the radio ones! The swag. You thought concert tix were great? Wait till you get $500 products in your swag bag.

You can do all these things and more as a digital influencer. You just need to decide what you want to get out of it. Money? Things? Travel? I've hired talent to even have their house made over with Best Buy appliances and Mohawk flooring. If you want to know where the automobile money went - I worked with Chevy hiring influencers to drive cars and share their experience.

What is the difference in radio? It had nothing to do with audio. It's all about the videos using the car in your lifestyle while sharing to your personal brand following with authentic endorsements. It's not selling a car in a screaming dealership being rated on how many cars are sold by the radio station on the day of a remote. This is 100% about authenticity and engagement online.

The big question with radio talent is "Do I have enough followers to influence?" Yes! You do because every sized social audience has an opportunity.

Which size are you?

• Nano influencers: between 1,000 and 5,000 followers
• Micro-influencers: between 5,000 and 20,000 followers
• Power or mid-tier: between 20,000 and 100,000 followers
• Mega influencers: between 100,000 and 1 million followers
• Celebrities: more than 1 million followers

Even though you might fit the Nano Influencers they have the highest rate of engagement. You can have all the followers in the world, but if you don't have anyone commenting, liking, or sharing, it doesn't matter if you want to make money. I’m going to be real; radio station Facebook Pages are horrific, and they will have to get better if they ever want to sell their influence. But it still won’t be as personal and authentic as your own personal brand.

This was a big issue at my last radio station. The page had over 300,000 followers but it was built on cat memes in 2014/2015. A few years later and a change in the Facebook algorithm, and they were stuck with cat followers who weren't even their audience. The brand pivoted to a single service Facebook Page where all they share is station content.

This is 90% of the problem I see on station pages. There is very little engagement if any. The station will never sell the Page without selling a promise to boost content to reach the client audience. Boosting can cost a lot of money pending the client's deliverables. A few likes and no engagement on 300,000 followers are a major problem. Not only has the station Page stopped sharing local posts but the station refuses to share anything other than contests and information coming from the station. That is bad if you want to monetize a social page.

Take it from me, for your own brand, just be original. Be authentic. Be who you want to be but be willing to share other pages and content you see that would spark YOUR target demographic to engage. Parent? Share fun parenting memes from people you follow with a following. Love to fix cars. Share content you find helpful to your audience.

Here's what you NEVER do. Never buy followers. Like ever. Why? Because agencies like myself have programs that can easily tell your authenticity. Not only will you not get an opportunity, but agencies also share what we find. It will blackball you from any programs. In other words, never buy your followers if you want to get paid.

Did you start your video camera yet? If you don't have one don't fret. There are a million products out there and with Covid, it is easier and more affordable to find. Ring lights are everywhere.

Next time we'll talk about the agencies you should sign up with to get in on these opportunities.

Influencer marketing is big business. Consider this: Data from Statista (Global influencer market size 2021 | Statista) found the entire industry is worth almost $14 billion. That’s a 42% year-on-year increase from $9.7 billion in 2020. Many wonder why radio jumped into digital when Covid first hit? Money! The money is where the people are, remember? Radio has listeners. The internet has everything.