29 Jan Give Me That Fyre – How Much Influence Do You Actually Need?

Hundreds of influencers. Millions of dollars spent. Thousands of people left broke, angry, and confused. That might be the easiest (and nicest) way to summarize what happened at the notorious failure known as the Fyre Festival. The epic fail of a music festival is now back in the spotlight all thanks to a pair of documentaries from Netflix and Hulu.

Its easy to rip the mastermind behind the ridiculous plan, but one thing is for sure they definitely tapped into social media influencers’ ability to create a buzz So much so, that more and more marketers are trying to figure out how to do the exact same thing. (In a far less sleazy way, of course.)

How Big Do You Need to Go?

Micro influencers. Macro influencers. Whats the difference? Why the heck should I care? Those are usually the questions people ask when they start to dip their toes into influencer marketing. Just know this, you’re not alone. According to a recent report by InfluencerDB, influencer marketing as a whole is slated to exceed $8 billion by 2020. That’s a lot of people telling you what protein shakes you need to buy this year.

Chances are you don’t have $275k laying around so send over to Kendall Jenner for her to post an orange square. Not to worry, a “micro-influencer” might actually be the best bang for your buck.

Well, almost 1/3 of all Instagram channels are micro-influencers, with fewer than 100K followers. But let’s face it, your friend from high school with 263 followers on Instagram probably isn’t about to start driving results for your business. The real sweet spot is between 15k-100K followers. This category might just get you the best bang for your buck.

No Sure Fyre Bet

Just because someone has a lot of followers, doesn’t mean they’re all sure fire bets. Of all Instagram accounts with over 15,000 followers, 39% are active influencers. The rest are brand channels, aggregators or fan channels. That means you need to do you homework and see just what kind of engagement each channel is getting and from who, before you invest.

The ROI

The biggest question always comes down to measurement and honestly, it’s far from a perfect science.  However, a recent study shows that its a pretty solid investment. According to the influencer database, Neoreach, the average return on investment in 2018 was $5.20 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing.