Forbes has released its first ‘Top Influencers’ list, which honours the power players who have brilliantly used Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to become famous and make a fortune. For their inaugural list, Forbes concentrated on the top 10 vloggers, bloggers and Instagrammers in the fitness, beauty and home categories. The magazine is then set to stagger its other “Top Influencers’ lists, announcing top 10 influencers from three different categories each quarter.
To establish the first list, Forbes partnered with influencer analytics company Traackr and social insight platform Captiv8. What’s more, only influencers who had built up their reputation online were included, leaving out established celebrities like the Kardashian-Jenner clan. The diverse group of winners comes from eight different countries and is mostly made up of female millennials. According to the magazine, they have 250 million social media followers between them. Some make up to $300,000 per YouTube video, while others have more Instagram followers than the number of people living in New York City.
The Beauty Category
The top 10 beauty influencers, ranged from professional make-up artists who are savvy in navigating Instagram to amateurs who started off by doing reviews. In all, they have a total reach of 135,000,000.
1. Zoe ‘Zoella’ Sugg
Zoe ‘Zoella’ Sugg, the British beauty vlogger who is known for her YouTube make-up tutorials, crowned the list. The 27-year-old, who started vlogging in 2009, boasts over 11 million subscribers on YouTube as well as over 10 million fans on Instagram. Alongside her masses of mostly teenage followers, she has a bestselling line of beauty products, Zoella Beauty, and a series of hit novels. It was reported in 2016 that Zoella earns about $82,000 per month.
2. Michelle Phan
Entrepreneur Michelle Phan is an American YouTube sensation with over 8 million subscribers and over 1.1 billion views. Considered as the second strongest beauty influencer, she aims is to be “teaching and inspiring everyone to become their own best make-up artist.” Phan is now also the founder of ipsy and the recently re-launched EM Cosmetics.
3. Huda Kattan
Dubai’s very own Huda Kattan, who started working her social media magic in 2010 on the sidelines of her finance career, came in as the world’s third most commanding beauty influencer. The 32-year-old, who has 19 million Instagram followers, has a beauty empire and a Sephora make-up collection as well.
The Fitness Category
The top 10 fitness influencers, known for their effective workout regimes and ability to motivate people to look after their health, have a total reach of 106,000,000.
1. Kayla Itsines
Kayla Itsines, the Internet’s leading fitness queen, came out on top of the list. The 25-year-old Australian’s fan base includes 412,000 Twitter followers. According to analytics firm App Annie, she made $16,650 million in 2016 just for her meal planning and workout app, Sweat With Kayla. Itsines, who wants to “bring incredible confidence and pride to women all around the world,” has been personal training since 2009 and has a series of fitness ebooks titled Bikini Body Guides.
2. Jennifer Selter
Jennifer Selter, who was honoured as second most powerful fitness influencer, initially started by photo-sharing on Instagram, where she now has 11.1 million followers. She was motivated to start inspiring others while she had a desk job at a gym. The American fitness model became famous because of the “belfies” she started posting. Once she garnered 500,000 followers and got some endorsements, she quit to conquer social media.
3. Emily Skye
Over 10 million people have turned to Emily Skye, who was named as third most prominent influencer. They hope to get a fitter body via her social media platforms and multiple fitness products, including the F.I.T. programmes. The Australian role model describes herself as a health and fitness expert and qualified personal trainer, as well as a qualified beautician and make-up artist.
The Home Category
The winners in this section include professional interior designers, as well as some who started off by blogging from the comfort of their homes. They have a total reach of 7, 370,000.
1. Grace Bonney
Design*Sponge’s Grace Bonney reigned over the home list. American Bonney launched her interiors and DIY lifestyle blog in 2004 and it now reaches over 2 million readers per month and has 866,000+ Instagram followers. By 2006, Grace founded the Design*Sponge Biz Ladies series, which sees her travelling to help women running their own design-based businesses with advice. Bonney has also worked as a Contributing Editor at publications such as House & Garden and Domino.
2. Elsie Larson
American Elsie Larson was named the second most influential person on social media when it comes to the home. The Nashville-based A Beautiful Mess blogger covers all things food, home, style and crafting with her renowned bubbly attitude. Larson, who has 295,000 followers on Instagram, also creates photo apps like A Color Story with her sister.
3. Kate Albrecht
Kate Albrecht’s blog, Mr. Kate, which has helped her become the third top home influencer, used to be an extension of her online jewellery store. Now, the Los Angeles-born Albrecht runs the business with her husband. Albrecht’s YouTube channel is extremely popular and she has 189,000 followers on Instagram. The 33-year-old also oversees several product lines within her lifestyle brand. Plus, she wrote A Hot Glue Gun Mess, which was published in 2015.
