This article is in continuation of my previous article “A Complete Guide to Social Media Influencers”. Here, we have covered different types of influencers based on your niche. You can identify influencers based on their content or forte and how they connect with your audience. Examples of different types of influencers are also covered to bring clarity.
Introduction
Influencer marketing is nowadays one of the most popular forms of digital marketing. Influencer marketing can yield up to $5.78 for every $1 invested by brands. Because of this, 91% of marketers consider influencer marketing to be a successful strategy (
This article will cover different types of influencers you can choose based on your forte. You will learn how to identify the influencers depending on your niche market and how they can be beneficial for improving your brand’s presence and ROI.
Types of influencers based on their content or Forte
Lifestyle influencers
Lifestyle influencers are social media personalities who have built a large following by sharing their personal style, life experiences, and interests with their followers. Many of these influencers have become recognized names and faces in the fashion and beauty industries, and they have used their platform to launch successful businesses and careers.
While some lifestyle influencers are signed to major networks and management companies, many are independent and self-managed. This allows them to have full control over their content and maintain a close relationship with their followers.
Lifestyle influencers use their platform to promote products and brands that they believe in. They often collaborate with businesses on product launches, marketing campaigns, and sponsored posts. Their large following gives them a lot of influence, and they use this influence to shape the trends and products that their followers buy.
Examples of Lifestyle influencers
Zoe Sugg
One of the most popular Instagram lifestyle influencers is Zoella, also known as Zoella Sugg. In addition to being an Instagram influencer, Zo is a YouTuber and a published author. By the way, the highest first-week sales were achieved by her debut book, Girl Online, which was published in November 2014.
On Instagram, Zo is followed by millions of users. This woman writes about things that are important to her life, including fashion, beauty, food, and other themes. No one can remain indifferent when presented with sincere tales, bright images, and a charming Zo smile.
In addition to YouTube and Instagram, Zo has a written blog with the goal of empowering both men and women to take on the world.
Sunaina Rekhi
Sunaina Rekhi is a Yogini and a lifestyle influencer who is a Fitat40 Mother of a Teen, an International Yoga Teacher, and a Feel Good Advocate. With her travels, yoga, and storytelling, she produces upbeat, feel-good digital content that brings much-needed cheer and a grin to the world.
She is the first Indian woman to have led the celebrations for International Yoga Day at The United Nations in New York. She forced 5000 global spiritual leaders to leave their seats and participate in her practice in order to unblock their minds and let go of restrained emotions.
She has collaborated with some of the top lifestyle companies in the world, including Apple, Starbucks, Google, Puma, Aditya Birla, and Porshe, and she hasmore than 2,50,000 followers across digital channels. You may watch her very own shows on a number of OTT & DTH services, including Hotstar, Tata Sky, D2H, and Dish TV.
Sports, Health, or Fitness Influencers
Sports, Health, or fitness influencers are people who connect brands with their audience. These influencers can be a Yoga instructor, Swimmer, Weight Lifter, Boxer, or any person who is connected with sports, health, and fitness. They inform people that this is the product they need to buy in order to reach a specific fitness goal rather than just promoting the product. As 2019- 2020 were the years when the world was fighting the COVID pandemic, a lot of fitness influencers gained popularity. It was the year dedicated to fitness and health. The sports and fitness influencers set trends with their posts on diets and fitness.
Nowadays, many firms use influencer marketing in the sports and fitness industry. Through athletes, sports figures, and trainers, brands attempt to market their goods and services.
The nature of the sports marketing industry makes sports influencer marketing challenging to master. Due to intense competition, brands must continually update their social media strategies. These strategies aim to spread brand awareness to increase sales.
Examples of Sports, Health, or Fitness Influencers
Kayla Itsines
With more than 15 million followers, Kayla Itsines is well-known today for her workout program, which changed how people work online. The fitness personality created a zero-equipment program—a 16-week schedule made for people of all fitness levels requiring little space—after realizing that women stopped exercising because of a lack of equipment, time, and space. She keeps on designing new fitness programs on her own application named SWEAT.
Rujuta Diwekar- rujuta.diwekar
Rujuta is India's top sports science and nutrition expert and one of the most well-known nutritionists in the world. She is the recipient of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology's "Nutrition Award." She is the top speaker on health and wellness in the nation, as well as a best-selling author. She influences celebrities and the other population to follow regional diets and not follow fad diet concepts. With more than 1.3 million followers, Rujuta does not do brand collaborations but influences millions of her followers through her Instagram, Facebook, and books.
Photographers Influencers
Most of the photographer influencers are in the micro-influencer category and have less than 10,000 to 100,000 followers. They are mostly picked up by the camera companies who want to promote their products. Photographers are undoubtedly one of the best content creators because they know what to show and how to do it.
Examples of Photographer influencers
Kalyan Panja- @travtasy
Kalyan Panja is a photographer, travel writer, and influencer who is bringing joy to a generation that is familiar with the internet. Kaylan's Instagram account is a great example of how a photographer can use media in a unique way to exhibit their work. Kaylan uses vivid images and a captivating narrative. Kalyan has more than 10.4K followers and has worked with brands that other photographic influencers would be envious of like Google, Lonely Planet, and Nat Geo, for example.
Hannah Jacklyn – @hannahjackk_
Hannah is a single mother always up for adventures and creates beautiful feeds with lightning, vibrant colors, compositions, etc. Hannah perfectly conveys what it's like to be a nature-loving mother living in the stunning Pacific Northwest and experiencing life with her adorable daughter Lucci. Through Hannah's eye, every moment appears just as charming as the previous, from the happy lake trips to the snug mornings in bed. She is the perfect example of a photography influencer who can work for mother and baby brands, a different niche.
Jack Harries – @jackharries
Jack Harris is an Environmental activist and dedicated documentary filmmaker. He is a youthful storyteller who has the guts to take on today's environmental problems. Millions are inspired by his messages in which he shares his knowledge on critical issues like climate change. Simply viewing his website will allow you to appreciate the breadth of Jack's love for his work.
On Instagram, he is followed by 1.3 million people.
With more than 3.9 million subscribers now, Jack's YouTube channel served as the foundation for his popularity. His current involvement in significant projects includes the Netflix WWF documentary "Our Planet."
Beauty Influencers
Beauty influencers are people who have a large following on social media and use their platform to promote beauty products and brands. Some of the most popular beauty influencers include James Charles, Huda Kattan, and Jeffree Star. A lot of consumers follow beauty influencers. These influencers quickly raise awareness of your beauty brand and boost sales by sharing beauty advice, product reviews, how-tos, and other content. This sort of influencer includes regular people of any gender who adore makeup as well as trained makeup professionals. Nowadays, a lot of micros and nano influencers are becoming beauty influencers and are also followed by people because of their personal connections, authenticity, and regular content updates.
Examples of beauty influencers
Huda Kattan- hudabeauty
Followed by more than 50 million people, Huda Kattan is a popular makeup artist and an entrepreneur known for her famous premium brand Huda Beauty. On Forbes' 2019 list of the richest self-made female entrepreneurs in the US, Huda was listed at position 40. She posts advice on how to look well, info on her products, and collaborations with other well-known figures in the beauty industry on her Instagram profile.
She also gives other beauty influencers a platform to display their prowess with Huda Beauty goods.
- Shy Styles on YouTube
Saima is a beauty influencer and runs a channel on YouTube where she shares makeup tutorials, reviews, DIYs, and other content. The channel has 1.57 million subscribers on YouTube and 359K followers on Instagram.
Travel influencers
The term "Travel Influencer" refers to a specific category of social media influencers that have received a lot of attention lately. They genuinely make a living by leading the lifestyles of their desires. It is one of the trendiest categories of influencers available and is designed for those who adore traveling and discovering new places.
In the social media sphere, influencers in the tourism sector have established themselves as a mainstay and a favored marketing partner. To build an organic following and raise exposure for tourist destinations, hotels, tourism boards, and other tourism-related firms have boosted their collaboration with influencers.
Examples of Travel influencers
Lauren Bullen (@gypsea_lust)
Lauren, a dental assistant from Western Australia, has always been passionate about exploring the world. She used to set aside money from her job for months before venturing out. She launched her own Instagram account after becoming inspired by the expansion of her identical sister's. Local businesses began approaching her for trip promotions and brand partnerships as she gained popularity. Currently, she has more than 2 million followers on the social media platform Instagram. UAE, India, Turkey, Thailand, Seoul, and Fiji are just a few of the countries she has traveled to.
Prachi & Harsh - two tickets to freedom
Prachi & Harsh are husband and wife who have developed their passion and interest into their full-time career as influencers. This couple creates travel stories on Instagram and has more than 249K followers on the platform. They create interesting reels and stories that woo travel enthusiasts and encourage them to have more travel stories. They have collaborated with the brands like CRED, Xurustays, Maybelline, fabindia, and many more.
Musicians or Singers
Any content creator that uses music in their work or who promotes, reviews, or talks about the music business is considered a music influencer. People who utilize their voice and talent to sway the public's perception of music are known as music influencers. They could be musicians, producers, DJs, or singers. On social media, several of these influencers have a sizable following. To express their opinions and musical experiences, they make use of a variety of channels, particularly Instagram. Let's talk about some of the famous music influencers around the world.
Examples of Musician or Singer influencers
Siddharth Slathia- @Siddharthslathia
One of the most well-known music influencers on Instagram, YouTube, and other social media sites is Siddharth Slathia. On YouTube, he has gathered nearly 2 million subscribers, and he has more than 400 thousand Instagram followers. He keeps on uploading his original music videos and music covers that are liked by a lot of people.
Zayn Malik
The former member of the band, One Direction, Zayn Malik, is now known for some of the best pop, dance, and electronic music. Songs like Dusk 'till Dawn, Pillow Talk, and A Whole New World have consistently reached the top of the Billboard charts all around the world. It should be mentioned that he has kept urban music as his primary musical influence ever since he began his career. His style of music, lyrics, and singing only served to draw in more listeners. Zayn has 47.2 million followers on Instagramand has a crazy fan following.
TV celebrities or Social Media Stars
We have witnessed the importance of social media rapidly grow over the past ten years. More than 45% of the world's population actively uses social media. These folks inevitably look up to social media influencers to help them make decisions.
Social media influencers are people who have developed a reputation for their subject-matter expertise. They frequently post about that subject on their preferred social media platforms, where they develop sizable fan bases of enthusiastic individuals who are attentive to their opinions. They are adored by most brands because they have the capability to persuade their followers to purchase the things they advocate.
Examples of TV celebrities or Social Media influencers
Kusha Kapila- kusha kapila
With 2.7 million followers, Kusha Kapila is widely known today. This woman has revolutionized content creation in India, appearing in Masaba Masaba S2 and now appearing on Koffee With Karan Season 7's special episode. When she was with iDiva, she began creating content as a hobby and then rose to popularity. She didn't wait long to quit her job and devote herself full-time to content development.
Cameron Dallas- camerondallas
With his humorous Vines, Cameron became well-known in 2012 and one of the most popular social media influencers. He was renowned for playing practical jokes on his close friends and relatives. Since then, he has also been in movies, television shows, and music. In 2015, he released his own single.
Bloggers and Vloggers
Influencers are categorized into two main categories: bloggers and vloggers. They frequently have significant followings on their blogs or YouTube channels, making them micro, macro, and mega influencers. High-quality material is produced by bloggers and vloggers to keep their audiences interested and distinguish them as experts in their fields. In addition to the audience that follows their blog or YouTube channel, they also probably have a sizable following on other social media sites.
With SEO on their side, bloggers and vloggers may frequently generate high-quality backlinks and receive a respectable quantity of referral traffic from sponsored blog articles and videos. These influencers may promote your brand, increase traffic to your website, and boost your sales.
Examples of Vloggers and Bloggers
Ali Abdaal
Doctor Ali Abdaal practices in Cambridge, England. He began his YouTube career in 2007 after graduating from Cambridge University's medical school, although he currently works as a junior physician for the UK's National Health Service (NHS). Though he currently vlogs about life as a doctor, he started off recording videos about life as a medical student.
Additionally, he creates tech reviews, study videos, and the occasional song-singing video with his buddies. He has a side website with the same name where he blogs and produces a weekly email newsletter. He owns a company called 6med aiding applicants to medical schools.
He has taken a one-year break from medicine after two years as a doctor to pursue other hobbies, although he is still vlogging. He is currently followed by more than 3 million subscribers.
Lily Singh Vlogs
The motto of Lilly Singh is "hustle harder every day."
Lily is a well-known YouTuber, vlogger, author, and actress from Canada. She swiftly gained over 2 billion views on her main channel, IISuperwomanII, and that channel quickly racked up over 13 million subscribers. In order to have a location to document her daily activities, she created her Superwomanvlogs channel in 2011. In August 2014, she started posting daily vlogs, and her channel's popularity increased.
Lily has gotten praise for her YouTube attempts. MTV Fandom Award, four Streamy Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, and a People's Choice Award are among the honors she has so far garnered.
Authors and Editors
The author is the one who created or owns the content, while the editor is the one who may have proofread, edited, or assembled the content. Generally, both have a wide reach, so knowing your author and editors will help you achieve a wider audience and increase your social network. Also, the authors and editors who have a large following on social media are author and editor influencers. All influencers share a similar feature. These individuals have hundreds of thousands (or millions) of fans on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Having your book or other content in front of that many people will result in a large number of sales or downloads.
The targeted nature of their audience is another factor that makes author influencers effective marketing allies. A fantasy-loving audience will almost surely be attracted to an influencer who mostly creates content about books and stories in the fantasy genre. Other genres are the same.
Examples of Authors and Writer influencers
Nadine Brandes
Nadine, a five-book fantasy novelist, utilizes Instagram to support other authors and engage with fans. Her narrative is clean and family-oriented, and she frequently shares anecdotes and advice on how to find time to read while caring for two small children and a baby. The 21k people who watch Nadine love her honest opinions on motherhood and book recommendations.
ShivaShanti
ShivaShanti is a book blogger who handles her account on Instagram with the name
Parenting influencers
Parenting influencers are excellent at imparting the skills necessary to manage the wonderful art of parenting. These influencers are experts on everything—from baby hacks to advice on the best practices for a newborn baby—, and they are more than happy to share it with others.
These parenting bloggers may therefore be the most vocal advocates for your brand name if it is related to healthcare items for parents or babies.
Examples of some famous Parent influencers
Riddhi Deorah
A certified life and parenting counselor with a strong online presence. She developed the Easy Parenting Hub and focused on helping expectant mothers and new parents navigate parenting while also facilitating corporate training. She has 218k Instagram followers and is a well-known mom-fluencer due to her own motherhood.
Dominic Harrison
Dominic Harrison, a dad, blogs about his life with Sarah, his wife, and their daughter Mia. Dominic, the creator of the mother and child skincare line Samion, also publishes fitness and fashion material on his 1 million-follower Instagram account. His engagement rate of 7.7% is much higher than the platform average.
Summing Up
With social media gaining in popularity, it is important to find the right influencers for your business. As you know, influencers are people who have a large social media following and can help promote your company. The above discussed are some of the common niches on the basis of which influencers flourish and promote the brands. There can be other categories, too, based on the nature of businesses. If you want to master the social media marketing and influencer marketing, you can consider taking a digital marketing course that fulfils all your needs and helps gaining the right knowledge for your business.
What other types of influencers have you come across? Let us know in comments