Nano Influencers Better than Digital Celebrities

In this context, most of these big corporations decide to invest in “influencer marketing”; using the power of influential people to reach target markets. However, even this strategy exhibits several challenges as the big corporations need to decide on whether to use huge digital celebrities, middle influencers, or nano- influencers. Although digital celebrities command relatively huge numbers of potential customers, nano- influencers are still the best choice for big corporations with the desire to connect with their customers. James Grunig’s Excellence Theory The James Grunig’s excellence theory is instrumental in explaining why nano- influencers are more powerful than digital celebrities in the context of public relations. The basic elements of the theory explain what effective public relations is. According to him, practitioners, corporations, and the public should use communication to adjust their behaviors and ideas to those of others rather than try to control how others think and behave (Grunig & Grunig, 2008).

As such, James insists that the key elements that lead to successful communication or engagement are the two-way interaction system and authenticity. This position by James further supports the argument that nano- influencers are the most effective and powerful PR people in social media communication. As such, it is logical for big corporations to go with none- influencers instead of digital celebrities. Given the smaller audience of the nano- influencers, they have the ability to spend more time on explaining their recommendations or ideas with their followers; hence, it makes the communication more engaging and interactive. 7 % of the audience they serve. Higher engagement rates mean that the nano- influencers are more likely to personally interact with their followers in providing clarity or explaining the technical aspects of the messages shared through their social media channels.

As a result of the engagements, the nano- influencers establish conversations with the customers, which creates a sense of friendship. In this way, the nano- influencers converse with their audiences rather than campaigning to them. Customer engagement through the social media by the nano- influencers is in line with the idea of adaptive marketing, which emphasizes on behavior-based marketing as opposed to mass marketing. Such groups of people are easy to interact with and engage. The Echo Chamber algorithm effect is based on the concept that people are surrounded by like- minded opinions or individuals on their social media platforms. As such, the nano- influencers’ followers have a sense of belonging and relevance on whatever the nano- influencers share. For this reason, recommendations from a nano- influencer are more likely to be trusted than recommendations from a distanced digital celebrity (Anderson, 2014).

As such, the nano- influencers have more power to influence the customers’ decisions. They leverage their influence from the trust they have established with their audiences. This illustration further affirms why the big corporations should go with the nano- influencers instead of the digital celebrities. Finally, nano- influencers are more powerful than digital celebrities in PR because they serve niche markets. These niche markets consist of mainly the nano- influencers’ friends; hence, they have time to provide interactive two- way asymmetric communication with the audiences. This element makes the messages shared by nano- influencers to be more effective and powerful. These nano- influencers are not looking for large- scale recognition or fame. Their aim is to please their networks of followers who are so passionate about a particular brand.

As such, all they do is post their authentic experiences about the brand and build a community around it on social media. Furthermore, the nano- influencers have time to converse with their audiences and respond to their queries (Colletive Bias 2016). In this way, the messages they send through the social media platforms have a great impact on the audience. As such, when a nano- influencer promotes a brand through the social media, the audience will be more willing to buy the brand partly with the intention of supporting the nano- influencer (Anderson, 2014). These “super fans” are important to the big corporations because of firms’ need to develop a customer base of loyal individuals. Lastly, the big corporations should go with the nano- influencers instead of the digital celebrities because the nano- influencers are easy to access and more affordable than the digital celebrities are.

Although the nano- influencers have narrower scopes of followers than the digital celebrities, these influencers are more affordable and offer higher rates of engagement and conversation with the customers which results in better ROI for the marketing campaigns. Rather than working with one or two digital celebrities who can possibly drain the corporation’ budget, the firm could use multiple nano- influencers at the same time that cost much cheaper. References Anderson, M. (2014, December 26). 88% Of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations. Retrieved from https://searchengineland. com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803 Betts, K. Colletive Bias (2016, March 29). Influencer Marketing Update: Non-Celebrity Influencers 10 Times More Likely to Drive In-Store Purchases. (2016, March 29). Retrieved from https://www. prnewswire. The rise of peer to peer marketing in sport.