Influencer marketing is the action of paying people to personally promote a product, usually through social media platforms. The State of Influencer Marketing 2023: Benchmark Report found that over 80% of marketers use influencer marketing in their promotion strategy.¹ As the influencer marketing industry grows, some universities are offering courses in influencer strategies and influencer-related public relations.² Influencers are those who can reach and resonate with a large audience, often through their work as content creators, but the size of that audience can vary:

• Mega-influencers are celebrities famous from acting or other highly public work with more than a million followers;
• Macro-influencers are typically "internet famous," and are generally what people refer to when talking about "influencers" and have between 100,000 and a million followers;
• Micro-influencers are more niche, known in their industry, and can have follower counts between 1,000 and 100,000; and
• Nano-influencers, who have a more immediate relationship with their followers, either because of their content or geographic focus, and usually have less than 1,000 followers.³

This guide provides an overview for individuals interested in researching social media influencers, businesses that use influencer marketing, and current issues in influencer marketing.

Searching

Useful keywords for searching this topic include: Influence marketing, influencer marketing, social media influencer, brand marketing, endorsements, digital marketing, social media marketing, content creators

When searching in the Library of Congress Online Catalog, try combining both keywords and subject headings to narrow your search results.