The Olympics, UEFA European Championships, and Copa America have all showcased some of the best sports teams and athletes on the planet, and interest in sports is high.
Whenever I logged into my social media feeds, I was immediately drawn into these events, with micro-influencers playing a significant role in the engagement. More than ever before, it felt like I had an inside angle of the action, with micro-influencers and content creators pulling me into the event and helping introduce me to sports and athletes I had no idea about two months ago.
What I found even more interesting was that a lot of the content I was seeing came from the events themselves. Micro-influencers and content creators who were passionate about these sports were attending major events and sharing their experiences with their communities.
These events, especially the Olympics, have a remarkable ability to illuminate lesser-known sports and their communities. I often found myself drawn into sports I would never otherwise watch, with events like bouldering, taekwondo, and kiting catching my eye this year.
The sheer display of passion and talent is astonishing, and from a marketing perspective, this can be incredibly powerful. Many people find themselves motivated to pursue new interests after these events, presenting potential benefits for small businesses.
Of course, the question for small businesses, especially those operating in niche areas, is: How can I harness this surge in interest to my advantage?
The answer is simple: micro-influencers. Micro-influencers have been prevalent throughout all major sports competitions this summer, whether at the events or online. For many fans, especially younger fans, micro-influencers and content creators have become trusted sources of news and analysis during these events.
This is particularly true for smaller sports, where the on-screen pundits are often sports journalists with a broad knowledge of everything, as opposed to a specialist knowledge of one sport. Micro-influencers can offer detailed and unique insight into niche sports that are often overlooked.
This can offer small businesses a distinct opportunity to boost engagement and attract new audiences. Engagement is particularly high right now, and micro-influencers offer a budget- friendly, high-ROI avenue for businesses to attract customers.
For example, let’s imagine you own a small sports business that specialises in running equipment. All of a sudden, people want to get into running but do not know where to begin, or they are former runners looking to return to something they once had an interest in. One of the first things many people will do now is look for online communities and micro-influencers on social media to help them get started.
These communities and micro-influencers have two things standard advertising can not buy: respect and authority. Sticking with the running community, newcomers may turn to micro- influencers and community pages to find out what equipment to buy, the best trainers in their area, the best gyms to use, and so on.
By partnering with micro-influencers, businesses can attract newcomers and tap into growing audiences at the perfect time. These endorsements carry a lot of weight. On top of that, you also get the added return on your investment through happy customers sharing their experiences. These communities are often extremely tight-knit and can be tough to crack from a marketing perspective, making times like this the best time to invest.
Micro-influencers understand these sports better than most, and they understand what people who follow them and engage with them want to see. They know how to take a product and make it compelling to their communities and how to craft it into the ongoing narratives that these major events can showcase.
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