We are writing in reference to the recent article about Influencer Marketing and Influencers in Miami published recently in the Miami Herald. We wanted to expand a bit on the topic. The Instagram accounts included in the Miami Herald article have not been selected or endorsed by Miami Marketing Co.
In Miami there are a total of 233 accounts with 1M followers, from which 172 are verified (which means they are a celebrity or a public figure and account is authentic and their account has a high possibility of being impersonated.
There are roughly about 6,291 accounts with 10,000 and bit over followers in Miami, from which only 3,842 have organic engagement and only 65 are verified.
A few years ago there were only the top celebrities and just about 20-30 influencers with networks larger than 5M. Right now there are only 2,708 accounts with 1 million users and up. So if we do the math, from 25 people to 2,708 people, thats a pretty large percentile increase of influencers in Miami-Dade alone.
The fact is that people who are engaged in influencer marketing make average of $75K a year just from Instagram posts.
But you have to understand one thing: This statistics is derived from a script that reads engagement by location. For example if you do a lot of postings with location LA, or New York, our system sees that and ranks you as LA influencer and New York influencer as well. But you may be a Miami local. This is why you see many large accounts posting form different locations to increase visibility and range. Our social media marketing experts always evaluate each influencer account prior to adding them to our client’s strategic marketing plans. We run a report to analyze activity, engagement, growth, rate, content, interests, are they true bloggers, YouTubers, Snapchatters, all of these factors are taken in place when we select our influencers.
Selena Gomez for example makes over half a million per post for her $135.5 million followers (which is the highest paid public figure on Instagram). KimK is next highest paid.
Since the beginning of Instagram, October 6, 2010, Instagram had a slow first 3 years, but then in 2013 picked up speed and increased users by a hundred million and only about a year after grew enormously to 400 Million users, then its all history. Instagram now has 1 Billion users worldwide.
Instagram was only favored by the Generation Y and Z, but when the network grew so rapidly brands began to see the potential to communicate their message through influencers and the network expanded the age bracket. (Especially when Facebook purchased Instagram, they synced all accounts and seamlessly synced accounts between Instagram and Facebook)
To answer your other question, we feel it all began with Cameron Dallas, and a bunch of other YouTubers and film-makers, regular guys on youtube, who posts silly videos of just about anything and brands noticed the potential and started paying them to mention and promote items, so it doesn’t look like an ad. The world saw that and now you, yourself can create your own commercial like content and engage with brands, post for your followers and make lots and lots of money (hey isn’t that better than sitting in a cubicle 9-5)!? Also because a lot of devices have some kind of ad blocking software, brands began to advertise the native way through real people and real accounts with real following, this is why print advertising is sinking like Titanic. This type of marketing is now the most effective way to influence the masses.
We feel is great to be an influencer and if you choose to go that route (as a job) you have to dedicate your life to it, live and breath it (unless you are already a celebrity like KimK or Selena Gomez) you need to work hard and engage with every single user you encounter to grow your audience in a true authentic way.
For marketing campaigns including matching influencers with your brand, please email teodora@miamimarketingco.com
