Content creator vs influencer — what’s the difference?

What is an influencer? 

An influencer, as the name suggests, is an internet personality whose main purpose is to influence others. Influencers don’t necessarily need to have a specific knowledge in a given topic or niche aside from their skill to impeccably market a lifestyle. 

The confusion of content creation vs influencer marketing comes from the fact that both result in content used for marketing. An influencer will have the perfectly curated image featuring a sponsored product or highlight it in a social media post, and therefore technically is still a creator of content. However, an influencer’s focus is primarily on building a following that can be leveraged to promote their lifestyle or a brand.

What do influencers do? 

An influencer’s primary goal is to appeal to their chosen audience so they can successfully grow their following. While having a specialist subject isn’t a necessity, there are influencers that occupy particular niches such as fitness or beauty, sharing tips and tricks for their chosen interests.

To become an established influencer the skills required include photography, image editing, audience management and promotion. Influencers are masters of self-promotion and the promotion of collaborating brands, as well as translating what could be a blatant ad into something more authentic and desirable.  

Size matters 

Influencers come in different shapes and sizes, but all of them hold value. Even the smallest of influencers are proving to be a very valuable marketing opportunity, with smaller, close-knit communities that usually have higher levels of activity and direct engagement. Naturally, mega-influencers will have the most eyes on any given post, though their marketing fees may mean they are out of reach for your small business. 

Mega-influencers  

Mega-influencers have more than one million followers. Arguably, at this level, these influencers begin to qualify as minor celebrities (there are also the A-list celebrities that have their own followings and could be considered for similar influencer marketing opportunities if you have the budget). With so many eyes on them, these influencers most likely count running their online presence as a full-time job and that can mean they reach a wide variety of people but not necessarily in any specific way. This is ideal if you want to promote something of value to all those people — for example, reaching out to a Kardashian with a fashion item — but if you’re trying to push something specific such as zero-plastic, vegan beauty, you might want to pick a smaller influencer who is genuinely passionate about your cause.

Keep in mind that your brand needs to align to the values of your chosen influencer and vice versa, so if a mega-influencer thinks collaborating with your brand might alienate a sector of their extensive audience, the answer to any marketing request will likely be no. There is also the consideration that mega-influencers may not have the conversion power of smaller influencers. As big as they are, their audience will be more varied and they may not necessarily be following said influencer for whatever product your brand provides — for example, a lifestyle influencer who someone follows for their food posts isn’t going to convert on a link to clothing.  

Macro-influencers 

With between 500,000 and one million followers, macro-influencers are very popular online personalities that haven’t quite hit the seven-figure follower count. Like mega-influencers, macro-influencers are more likely to appeal to the masses than speak to a niche, but their wide reach makes them a powerful voice to collaborate with. Although they won’t demand the same eye-watering fees mega-influencers often demand, business shouldn’t expect the services of a macro-influencer to be cheap.  

Mid-tier influencers

Most influencers with an established presence fall into mid-tier territory. With anything between 10,000 and 500,000 followers, mid-tier influencers are people who have made their names purely as influencers rather than as celebrities. Because of that, you may find their audiences are more loyal and closer knit, including those who have followed them ‘from the beginning’ and cheered them on. This size of influencer can be great for a range of collaborations that align with their niche like beauty, food or fitness, as they have a less general reach compared to mega-influencers. 

Collaborating with a mid-tier influencer can be seen as more of a two-way agreement. Mega-influencers, after all, are unlikely to need your brand’s help to boost their follower count, but not so with mid-tier influencers. In addition to helping you reach their audience, you are also lending them a greater sense of professionalism as they are seen as trusted spokespeople of reliable and reputable brands. Another thing to note about mid-tier influencers is they may not yet call influencing their full-time jobs; that means collaborating includes talking directly to them and working in a meaningful way that you can both get the most out of the partnership rather than working through a middle man like an agency.  

Micro-influencers 

Micro-influencers have something between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. While larger influencers can also specialize in certain areas, it’s likely they have also moved into other niches to keep growing and appeal to more people. For example, a fitness influencer who, at micro stage, spoke purely about fitness and training, may move into nutrition and food or even travel to keep content flowing. Micro-influencers are still in the early stages of their careers, which means they are likely still highly specialized and, more importantly, highly passionate about what they are posting about. This is reflected in their followers, who are often just as involved in in their chosen subject area and more engaged, as micro-influencers are still able to directly respond to them, growing loyalty. Micro-influencers may not get you the huge audiences, but they will get you an engaged audience for a much smaller fee than big names. 

Nano-influencers  

The smallest type of influencer, a nano-influencer, has a follower count that can be anything from 100-1000 people. They aren’t professional influencers and they certainly don’t consider it their full time jobs. In many cases, a nano-influencer hasn’t yet separated their personal online presence from the identity that will become their influencer persona. This means, for brand collaboration, they are as authentic as it gets when it comes to real users offering real insight into promoted products and services.

Because nano-influencers are still building their following and online persona, they are a budget-savvy choice for brands looking to offer a commission via affiliate marketing. And while small, their following is engaged and therefore more likely to convert when , a nano-influencer provides their genuine and authentic opinion in return for commission on sales they generate. If it’s important to you to have an influencer meaningfully engage with your business and extend that engagement to a small but genuine audience, nano-influencers can be a great choice. 

What is a content creator? 

A content creator is someone who contributes to digital media platforms by providing entertaining, educational, promotional or critical material that represents either themselves or the brands they work with. This material can include:

• Video 
• Blogs 
• Art 
• Graphics 
• Tutorials

Creators often focus on a certain skillset and leverage these skills by making engaging materials. As a result, creators are typically judged on the strength of the content they produce rather than the relationship they have established with their audience. As a notable difference, it's perfectly possible to be a successful content creator without ever showing your face depending on your niche. 

What does a content creator do? 

A content creator will often have specific knowledge in a given area and there are some skills they may have amassed through their experience of sharing valuable content with their audiences. This can include things like writing skills and a broad knowledge of their chosen area, but it can also mean they have many hard skills that strengthen marketing efforts such as SEO knowledge, keyword research and audience research. This is not to say that influencers don’t have these skills, but that content creation focuses on them. As they are not necessarily promoting a lifestyle or presenting themselves as potential product ambassadors, their personal brand can take more of a backseat to the content they are providing. 

Influencer and content creator: key differences 

Working with an influencer will allow you to get your brand introduced to an engaged, passionate community by someone they know and trust. People don’t necessarily approach influencers with a specific expectation (beyond a well-curated showcase of their lifestyle and chosen interest). This can be useful for collaboration as it means influencers are open to a wide range of brands.  

Content creators often offer something specific and try to speak to the market as a whole rather than leverage their own following. Even TikTokers who share fun videos tend to aim for an audience segment like comedy or education. This can be ideal if you’re looking for a collaboration with someone who has very defined goals and audience engagement. Arguably, content creators are given more of an opportunity to showcase their personalities and interests than an influencer who mainly works to present a specific lifestyle, so it can be easier to find a content creator whose character blends well with your brand identity.  

Get started with collaborations 

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