Nano-influencers: The Last Step Before the End of an Era (for femininitymagazine.com)

 According to Sapna Maheshwari of the New York Times, nanoinfluencers are the new instagram group brands are after; they have anywhere from 500 to 5000 followers and their engagement rate on socialblade is skyrocket high (well above the 10% mark that your favourite influencer struggles to hit every month). But, why would their rise resemble the last step before the demise of the influencer as an idea?

 In a discussion amongst MA Fashion Journalism students (aged 21-25), an editor-in-chief of a well-known fashion magazine and a PR agency's CEO, the conversation steered towards influencers and their place in the PR and journalism worlds. It led to one of the girls expressing her opinion, saying that it puts her off when she sees #AD or #sponsored tagged at the end of a post from someone she had developed a liking to. We all agreed that we followed influencers because of how easy it is to relate to a single person rather than a heavily produced magazine like Vogue. However, over the last 3 years influencers have grown from single entities with a close-knit community that they talk to every day as friends, to registered companies with professional photographers, two agents and an assistant. While the understanding of their need to make a living is there, it's hard to relate much more. 

 Nano-influencers represent the authenticity that has been lost on influencers like Lucy Williams (@lucywilliams02), whose asking price is in the tens of thousands despite her engagement rate being a strange and staggering 1.07%. A girl with a cool style, 2000 followers and an average of 900 likes, is arguably a better deal to brands who want to reach new people. An audience that still trusts what they see and what the influencer is trying to sell, even in a smaller scale, is still better than 300 thousand followers and 1000 speed-likes from people who don't pay attention to ads anymore.

 It's also important to mention that after the #SuppliedByDior drama amongst influencers not being clear on what's a gift, what's an ad and what they got paid $10k for, there has been a need for new, more "trustworthy" faces to promote brands; nano-influencers aren't being checked for what they tag as an ad and what they get paid, they also won't be asking for much or any payment, thus making them a much easier and accessible way to advertise, just like influencers once were. 

 So, does this mean that soon influencers will be losing their audiences and subsequently their ad-money? Or is it a done deal for the big sharks like Pandora Sykes and Camille Charriere since they've secured their careers and Instagram ads are a side-hustle?