Emelia Hollingsworth
Marketing Assistant
Rise of the Student Micro-Influencer: Brand Loyalty in the Instagram Age🤳🏻
24 February 2022
It’s no secret that students love spending. In fact, the average weekly spend of a university student in 2020-21 was £229. Despite this, students have very little brand loyalty when they arrive in first-year – 81% are open to using new brands. And with 99% of students being on social media, influencing can be fundamental to students’ spending habits in the current age.
However, in 2022, the typical ‘celebrity’ influencer may have waning power. The UCAS Student Lifestyle Report found that first-year students lean more towards non-celebrity micro-influencers if they are looking to buy products. They were twice as likely to buy a product promoted by a micro-influencer than a celebrity. So is it more effective for brands to promote to smaller audiences?
Micro-influencers could well be the future of influencing. They have smaller, dedicated followings with far higher engagement rates than multi-million follower influencers. So could this type of influencer become the go-to for brands? There’s certainly enough evidence to suggest it, particularly in the student market.
With little brand loyalty and such a high presence on social media, it just makes sense for brands to seek student micro-influencers to promote their products. After all, friends buy from friends! Micro-influencers tend to be more genuine about the products they promote, and in turn, their trusting followers are far more likely to purchase. It’s a win-win: students create brand loyalty with new companies, and brands open themselves up to a new customer base!