First it was celebrity endorsements, now it’s influencer marketing. This concept has been around since at least the 1930s, when Babe Ruth promoted Red Rock Cola. So what caused the shift from traditional celebrity endorsements to influencer marketing? Social media.

Social media has provided platforms for non-celebrity to develop voices of influence.

Influencer defined: According to Tribe, “an influencer is someone who promotes brands to their social media followers on channels such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. It even translates to other platforms like Twitter and as of late, LinkedIn.” This is a pretty broad definition, and there are more defined categories that further define influencers.

Categories based on Follower Size:

Celebrity Influencers have followings of 1 million + and in turn can request tens of thousands of dollars for a single post.

Macro Influencers have between 100k and 1 million followers and still have considerable reach.

Micro Influencers have between 3k and 100k followers and are considered the most authentic influencer type.

Selecting which influencer type to use depends on your goals and desired outcomes. How much reach and engagement do you want? What tone do you want your message to send – celebrity-backed or authentic? What is your budget? Once you have answers to all of these questions, then you can determine which partner is best.