Women influencers young and old are boasting of amazing brand endorsement deals, lavish lifestyles and moreWhen the internet was made accessible and available to public, it was one of the most important revolutions of the time. The next revolution came with the arrival of social media that has now completely taken over the real world and permanently changed the dynamics of personal and professional relationships.
With the flooding of social media apps on mobile phones and the astronomical number of users, a new vocation has emerged, that of influencers, social media influencers to be more specific, and they are making the rules of the game now.
Of these, women, young and old, are ruling the roost and today, in India, women influencers have simply changed how brands are advertising and marketing. The new and exploding vocation has empowered women in more ways than one. Many such influencers are celebrities in their own right. Kusha Kapila, Vidya Iyer, Prajakta Koli, Shirley Setia, Jannat Zubair, etc., are extremely popular.
By general definition, an influencer is a person, in a niche field or an industry, who can sway the target audience of that industry or sector. So, influencers have specialised knowledge about the field or have authority on a specific subject and their long-standing presence in the field increases their value and makes them useful for brands and enterprises looking for credibility and impetus.
As per a survey, 85 per cent of marketers in 2017 utilised influencer marketing and, of these, 92 per cent got the desired results. So, the concept of utilising the influence of or the value of an individual, his reputation, to advertise is influencer marketing.
Social media influencers
In the last decade, the influencers have drastically changed the way consumers use social media and, more importantly, how brands use social media to their benefit.
Influencers hold a lot of power and influence over their followers and the reach of social media has ensured that the numbers come quickly and easily. In 2022, of the total 485 million internet users in India, 402 million used social media exclusively on mobile devices, 47 million used social media both on mobile and on desktop and 21 million used social media exclusively on desktop.
With thousands and lakhs of followers, young girls and women are boasting of amazing brand endorsement deals, lavish lifestyles and more as social media influencers.
So, fashion influencers like Santoshi Shetty, Komal Pandey, Aashna Shroff, Kritika Khurana, etc. are promoting fashion products, services and apparel lines to their audience.
Their endorsements of these products and services have a lot of impact as their followers look up to them, swear by their choices and use them as guide to make their own decisions.
A host of young women who are primarily creating digital content to entertain their followers have become extremely popular. Srishti Dixit, Saloni Chopra, Prajakta Koli, for example, have a dedicated following and their regular posts on a topic of choice has been engaging people in a big way.
Most brands, big and small, are now heavily relying on social media influencers as they are able to influence and mobilise people in big numbers to buy those products and create trends easily to promote the brand products and services.
Creating popular content
One of the most popular social media influencers, Prajakta Koli came to prominence with her YouTube channel MostlySane which was launched in 2015. She is known by her social media handle @MostlySane. She usually makes comedy videos that focus on relatable daily-life situations from the real world.
She was born and raised in Thane in Maharashtra and studied Bachelor of Mass Media from V. G. Vaze College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mumbai. Her Instagram page is brimming with viral videos and reels that are entertaining and sometimes satirical.
With the popularity of her YouTube channel, there’s no looking back for Prajakta. She performed at the YouTube FanFest in Delhi in 2018 and in Mumbai in 2019. She recorded a national TV commercial for WhatsApp also.
Prajakta was part of the Forbes’ list of 30 under 30 in February 2019 and in Outlook Business Magazine’s list of Women of Worth and Entrepreneur India’s list of 35 under 35. In 2020, she was included in the annual Cool list of Grazia India and also featured on the cover of the magazine BW Businessworld as part of their Most Influential Women’s list.
In January 2022, she was appointed Youth Climate Champion by UNDP India to highlight issues of ‘climate action, social justice and global healthcare’ and was among a group of six YouTubers picked for the event.
Koli launched her YouTube Originals show Pretty Fit in 2020, where she interviews celebrities like Neha Kakkar, RJ Malishka, Sumukhi Suresh, etc. She has collaborated with mainstream Bollywood actors like Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, etc.
Starting early
One of the most popular Instagram influencers, Jannat Rahmani started her influencer life very early. She has also acted in television shows and films. The 21-year-old has more than 45 million followers on Instagram. Anushka Sen has 39 million followers while Avneet Kaur, also very popular, has 32 million Instagram followers. Arishfa Khan has 29 million followers on Instagram. All of them are of 21 years of age or younger.
In January 2020, Jannat was taken on as the brand ambassador of UBON – a well-known brand in the tech industry. In 2022, she featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Media, Marketing and Advertising category.
The young women influencers are creating niche content on fashion, travel, food, health, photography, etc. Still, it’s the comic and goofy content that connects the most with audience.
Anantya Anand is one of the youngest kid influencers on Instagram in India with a huge following of 579k. Popularly known as Fries Muncher, she started her social media journey at age six. Megan Rakesh is a 10-year-old kid Instagram influencer, famously known to be the youngest pop superstar. She regularly uploads her songs and videos on Instagram.
Fashion, food and more
Juhi Godambe is one of India’s most well-known fashion bloggers. She regularly posts about style and easy-to-copy and easy-to-assemble outfits that are a big hit with the millennials. Another fashion influencer, Santoshi Shetty’s sense of style is highly unique and inspiring. She likes to travel to new places carrying with her ultra-modern style and fashion.
Vijayalakshmi Vikram’s Instagram account is filled with vegan recipes with a South Indian touch and that are wholesome and nutritious. Her USP is the unique style of presenting these recipes. Another food blogger Kabita Singh is one of the most loved and famous in India. What started as a passion project, her YouTube channel Kabita’s Kitchen, soon became a big hit and amassed many followers.
The love for travel can make people do many things… becoming a travel blogger for one. It was Kamya Buch’s wanderlust that made her very famous and gave her a whopping 212K follower base on Instagram. She has been a digital nomad since 2015.
Tanya Khanijow has been travelling solo in India and abroad and creating great travel-related content and helpful travel information for her 257k Instagram and 684k YouTube followers.