Experticity, the world’s largest community of influential category experts have released a new study that sheds new light on the importance of micro-influencers on the average consumer. The study was conducted with online interviews of more than 6,000 individuals from the United States drawn from Experticity’s micro-influencer network and the general population. In addition, more than 800 peers of these individuals were surveyed to evaluate the impact of the recommendations they had received.
Below are the key findings –
How frequently are influencers sought out for their opinions?
- Micro-influencers have up to 22.2 times more “buying conversations” that include product recommendations each week than an average consumer.
- 87% of influencer recommendations happen face-to-face compared to 78% of general population recommendations.
- Influencers are more direct in their recommendations with 74% encouraging someone to “buy it or try it” compared to 66% of the general population who encouraged those actions in their recommendations.
The value of an influencer recommendation
- 82% of consumers are “highly likely” to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer, compared to 73% who are highly likely to act on a recommendation from an average person.
- 53% of influencers’ recommendations happen at work, compared to 19% of general population recommendations.
- 26% of the general population became aware of brands through friends & family while only 15% of influencers find brand information that way.
What drives influence?
- Individuals that received recommendations were also asked to help shed light on what made an influencer more impactful.
- 94% find an influencer’s recommendation more credible and believable.
- 94% also believe that influencers are very knowledgeable when it comes to their selected niche and the products they recommend.
- 92% of respondents feel that influencers are also better at explaining how products work.
The results show that micro-influencers are more valuable compared to the general population. While being passionate about or working in a particular category leads to an even higher impact than the average expert, the mere fact of being an expert leads to higher influence overall.
