For any brands looking to tap into the best global influencers, consider their the social media engagement, not the amount followers they have. That's the advice from Zefr, an American video technology company following the release of their top 20 beauty influencer list.
The study looked at engagement data for the 365 days ending 18 November this year and it was Zoe Sugg, or Zoella as she's known on the internet, who led the pack with 252 million social media engagements in 2016. That was the highest engagement of any beauty influencer according to the new data.
Coming in second place were the Demartino twins, Niki and Gabriella who had 211 million engagements and a cross-platform reach of seven million. Jaclyn Hill was in third place with 114 million engagements and a cross-platform reach of eight million.
Another recurring theme in the study was that a wider breadth of the topics covered could fuel higher engagement. Amber Clark A.K.A Barefoot Blonde, who came in ninth place, extended her content to feature her husband and two children which reportedly fuelled growth for her personal brand. This year she received 36 million engagements and had a platform reach of 1.6 million.
In terms of the most popular platforms, Zefr reports that influencers are transferring their audiences across different platforms too. The people at the top of the list did well generating engagement across social properties, for example, Jaclyn Hill has 3.7 million followers on Instagram and almost 3.8 on YouTube.
Zefr's top 10 list of global beauty influencers is as follows:
1. Zoella
2. Niki and Gabi
3. Jaclyn Hill
4. Shaaanxo
5. Carli Bybel
6. Nicole Guerriero
7. Ingrid Nilsen
8. Jenn Im
9. Amber Clark
10. Maddi Bragg
Image: @zoella
