Nano-influencers and small businesses

Social commerce has risen exponentially during the last year, as more and more companies and brands moved online following the UK’s various lockdowns.

Social commerce involves selling directly to an audience via social media. Platforms’ various ‘shop now’ functionalities are incredibly effective—after all, why risk a customer changing their mind to click through to your website if you can capture their sale there and then?

Social commerce often involves live-streaming and short, sharp sale sessions. This increases demand and suggests an air of exclusivity when they occur, both of which are proven methods to boost sales.

Part of the social commerce scene involves endorsements and brand presentations from trusted influencers with significant followings. If a business pitches to the right influencer and they go on to promote their products to their audience, this could give a huge boost to that brand’s sales.

If this sounds like the actions of a large business with a huge marketing budget, it most probably is; however, this doesn’t mean that a small business can’t implement the same process. Nano-influencers, i.e. those with a smaller following, are no less valuable and could have a considerable impact on the bottom line of any small or medium-sized business.

According to a post by 8traordinary on marketing-interactive.com, ‘69% of marketing professionals have admitted that nano-influencers have increased their brand’s consumer engagement.’

A nano-influencer’s following is likely to be even more loyal than those who shadow well-known names—and they will likely have direct interaction with most of them, too. The people they have influence over will be friends and family and people within their locality, and the level of trust between influencer and follower will be much higher. To demonstrate this, when comparing nano-influencers’ engagement with their audience to the engagement achieved by more well-known social media stars, nano-influencers come out on top, with a strength of persuasion up to five times greater over their followers.

These smaller-scale influencers will also be more affordable and within the budget constraints of smaller businesses. Nano-influencer will likely have fewer demands when it comes to the promotion of your product/service and will ultimately be more flexible; they may even work with you on a long-term basis.

The content posted by nano-influencers can be quite niche by nature. The benefit to this is that they will appear more relevant to your ideal/target customers. Nano-influencers cover topics, products and services that mega-influencers probably wouldn’t touch—therefore, PPC keywords and any SEO that their small business clients employ to help promote their content will be more affordable/in less demand.

Nano-influencers typically represent a higher level of sincerity and transparency; their influence is likely to have the same comparative impact on the sales of small businesses than much larger companies hiring well-known social media stars.

A nano-influencer’s backing of your brand could certainly boost your business’s visibility and credibility and ultimately push you past their rivals.