Social media is one of industries which women continue to dominate. For example, the influencer bookings in South Africa on Webfluential, a South African online influencer platform, have been dominated by women for the past three months.
There are 30,000 influencers on the platform who have a combined audience of more than one billion people globally according to Mike Sharman, a board member of Webfluential.
According to Webfluential, 68% of their influencer bookings are for women and 32% for men. Nadia Jafta, a fashion and entertainment vlogger is the top influencer on the females list of the platform.
On why he thinks women are leading: “I personally believe female influencers have the ideal blend of creativity and empathy required to pair content (king) with audience (queen), in order to maximize brand influencer marketing Return On Investment (ROI).”
Just out here planning my spring wardrobe – anyone else as excited for spring this year as I am? Spring always brings about renewal for me; so I am excited to see what pops up ??? @tegansmithphotography
Sharman believes social media helps both men and women with their businesses. He says from a personal branding perspective, for example, social media helps you grow your following. “(It has) less financial barriers to entry than ‘traditional media’. (It also is a) better ROI for small businesses.”
Happy Women’s Day.. #meetingyourpower www.meetingyourpower.co.za | Photography: @rizqua_barnes
Female entrepreneurs share
One of the most lucrative areas for women on social media has been as mompreneurs.
Two female entrepreneurs, who went from part-time to full-time bloggers, share how they used social media to grow their businesses. The women have been past winners of the African Bloggers’ Awards for different categories.
Shaney Vijendranath, co-founder and CEO of the award-winning blog You, Baby and I, says after two years of blogging she realised that You, Baby and I was more than just a blog. “It became of tribe of moms who trusted each other’s opinions.”
She recently launched her startup, Momsays, a conversation driven analytics platform that helps first-time moms find the right products they need.
She says social media is a big part of her business. “I use it as a tool to communicate with potential users and to market my brand.”
Vijendranath says they used social media as one of the ways to grow MomSays. “We have grown the platform organically to 5000 users thanks to word of mouth during our BETA testing.”
Her advice: “Don’t rely on social media only. It is important to build your own network on your website.”
Mariza Halliday, a parenting and lifestyle blogger, used social media as one of her marketing tools when she turned her blog Caffeine and Fairydust into a full-time career earlier this year. She used to work as a senior fashion designer at a design centre.
I was not quite ready to completely cut ties with the fashion industry, so I also do image consultations and personal shopping every now and then.
She also offers services like content creation and social media management. “(If it weren’t for social media) my blog would never have grown like it has, and it would never have reached so many people.”
Halliday also won the Best Overall Blog 2017 at the South African Mommy Bloggers’ Awards.
