When it comes to what’s hot in the world of beauty, fashion and lifestyle—women influencers are the leaders.
-PJ Gach
Photos from Instagram
Social Media Influencers may be a new field, but women are the leaders. Top Insta stars, hot YouTubers and the like are breaking the glass ceiling and pulling down major money for sponsored photos and the like. It’s these influencers, not magazines, designers or websites that are creating the hottest trends in beauty, fashion, travel, food, drink, even home décor and pets.
According to Indahash, 68% of social media influencers are female—yes, they even influence what men buy. 88% of them believe that they impact taste and buying habits of their offline as well as their online friends. In this virtual world, 56% of women view other female influencers as business partners, friends and fellow amazons. 62% of the influencers feel that other influencers and social media users help them create their own opinions. What a difference from other fields. Here women are really helping other women.
And how do they do that? Influencers post info consistently. 47% upload content between 1 to 3 times a day and 89% of them work on social media more hours than they like to admit. Selfies take up 56% of time, 40% of time is devoted to fashion, and then 34% is broken into travel/landscapes. Men? Well, only 36% of male influencers profiled in this study post that much.
with 88% believing they influence friends in real life, not just their online followings. And in a show of sisterly solidarity, over half (56%) view other influencers as business partners or friends rather than competition. 62% say other social media users help them form their own opinions versus less than half (48%) of male influencers questioned.
The new breed of publisher posts regularly, almost half (47%) upload content 1-3 times a day versus 36% of men and 89% admitting to spending a “few hours a day” on social media with selfies (56%), fashion (40%) and travel/landscapes (34%) the most popular topics.
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Could it be that social media and the new entrepreneur that conquers it will be female? “As a woman in business, technology and media I’m delighted that feminine influence is at the forefront of our offering and they are driving trends and acting as an authentic communications channel between brands and their followers. We know that influencers work best when recommending products and services they genuinely believe in and as a result their audience trusts what they say. Our female publishers and broadcasters take their role seriously and as a result pose a real threat to traditional media and offer a real alternative for global advertisers,” Barbara Soltysinska, CEO and founder of indaHash.com in a press release.
The study is fascinating. It shows how women learned about a new tech, adapted to its needs quickly and became superstars. As much we may not like Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner, their zillions of selfies and posing with products opened the doors for thousands of women to be their own brand and make a healthy salary doing it.
To review one of the biggest international studies of mid-tier (1,000 to 100,000 following) digital influencers and find out what makes them tick please click here to download the full indaHash Labs report.