Why these Social Influencers are Winning in 2017

Successful Social Influencers

Social media welcomes the voice of social influencers that set online trends. Most work long hours re-watching YouTube videos for the perfect shot, book meetings with other influencers to network and focus on invoice templates to send clients. The most important part to take away from this blog is social influencers create value in people’s lives.

Whether you are a Vlogger, have a large following on your social media or are an enthusiast looking to entertain readers, these top social media influencers are the ones to follow. All the influencers on the list are in different industries, but their hard work and innovation helped them get noticed on an international scale. It might be a dream, but the truth is there is an abundance of opportunities to help you succeed. Before you decide to get started in social media marketing or change your online strategies, these influencers throughout North America will teach you how it is done.

1. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a successful entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author and the co-founder of KISSmetrics. His upbringing wasn’t always the best because his parents immigrated to another country and he grew up with everyday struggles that most foreigners face. Nonetheless, Barack Obama recognized him as being a top 100 entrepreneurs under 35.

Source: How to Grow Your Personal Brand – Neil Patel

Neil Patel recommends publishing original content that other bloggers or Vloggers have not posted. Become a Guest Blogger by pitching your content to high traffic websites and network with social influencers to share your content.

2. Grant Cardone

If you don’t know who Grant Cardone is, he is a best-selling author of 7 books and is a real estate guru. Before he became a lucrative writer, he watched sales training videos every morning, and his self-improvement books were his bible. In his book Be Obsessed or Be Average he stated, “In the first year I probably spent seven hundred hours just improving myself as a salesperson.”

Source: YouTube

Grant Cardone’s Twitter page is full of success quotes and utterly honest statements about how to get ahead in life. I can see why he has 400,000 followers; he exudes success and does everything he can to inspire his readers.

3. Amy Vernon

If you have no idea who Amy Vernon is, you might want to start following her on social media. She has a reputation around the world for being a top social media strategist, and Mashable rated her as a social guru. Amy Vernon blogs and advises how to improve social media tactics.

In an interview with Fast Company, she stated that if you post relevant content about your industry your following will grow organically.

4. Mari Smith

Mari Smith’s story is inspiring. She is one of the top 10 social media influencers and is a leader in Facebook marketing. After traveling with her ex-husband across the West Coast in an RV, they got divorced, and she wrote a blog in 2009 about her break up. Her followers appreciated her vulnerability and the rest was history. It was her brutal honesty about a situation most women are embarrassed to share that increased her number of followers.

Source: Mari Smith at ConneXion Madrid

Mari Smith boasts her success to help other bloggers by sharing their content and tagging them in posts. What a great way to network and use your influence to help others.

She is not only a social media queen, but she has worked with the Dali Lama and Richard Branson to name a few.

5. Ann Handley

She is on the list of Forbes Most Influential Woman in Social Media and one of the top two female bloggers in the country.

Ann Handley recently told Forbes magazine that social influencers need to start with a goal and include the readers to help grow a following. She recommends using apps like SpeechPad and Trello to maximize your thoughts and time to write compelling content.

6. Jenny Jovanovic

She is a Toronto fashionista that started her blog called Crazy Style Love in 2012. Jenny Jovanovic is one of the many fashion bloggers in the city that created a new definition to female office attire. She has over 49,000 followers on Instagram, sharing unique interior design, cosmetic brands and personal fashion on her page.

Source: Bloglovin’

In addition to being one of the top influencers, she is a digital marketing manager for a company called Benefit Cosmetics.

One of the reasons Jenny Jovanovic remains successful is she welcomes followers into her world while focusing on creative fashion without sharing too much of her personal life.

7. Krystin Lee

Krystin Lee has a fashion sense that can last for decades. She has 190,000 followers on Instagram and has worked with clients that include Louis Vuitton and Lancôme. Most of her success is due to her ability to gain the attention of fashion lovers. It has resulted in her following growing organically. Her blog Suburban Faux Pas shares travel tips during some of her most exotic vacations that include Maui, Palm Beach, and Paris.

Source: Suburban Faux Pas

The best advice that I can share is Krystin Lee started her blog in 2012. That is five years of using the same formula of success without throwing in the white towel when challenges arise.

8. Filipa Jackson

To new Canadians that believe that you can’t make it as a social influencer, Filipa Jackson’s story will inspire you. She was born in the United Kingdom and moved to Toronto. Her blog called Playing with Apparel reflects the true essence of her work as a web designer and freelance stylist.

Filipa Jackson has worked with L’Oréal and Starbucks with an Instagram following of over 46,000. She shares candid moments of herself at the gym, with her boyfriend and traveling abroad. One of the unique parts about Filipa’s success is she is a natural at posing in stylish photos without appearing like a model in a marketing campaign. She reportedly is paid $200 to $1,000 per Instagram post to work with international brands.

Source: Playing With Apparel

9. Joann Pai

Joann Pai works in Vancouver as a food photographer and spends most of her time in Paris. She is a master at taking some of the most organic photos in real life settings of delicious dishes. Joann Pai also has a talent for picturing nature in its purest form as she travels to countries that include Japan, Taiwan, and Mallorca.

One way she uses her photography skills to motivate artists is by promoting her international workshops on her website Slice of Pai. 

10. Adam Moryto

The Canadian-born actor and social influencer Adam Moryto has an Instagram following of over 62,000. Adam posts photos of him and A-list actors such as Ryan Gosling and Ethan Hawke. As an ambitious actor, he posted scripts of movies that he is working on and inspired his followers in one photo with himself wearing a suit with the caption, “3-piece season begins.” In one post, he shares a photo of an abstract art piece his fane made for him and isn’t afraid to show the world how much he cares about his mother.

Source: Wikimedia.org

Final Thoughts

According to an eConsultancy survey, 60% of social influencers that work in fashion and beauty use a marketing strategy to win new customers. On the outside, it might appear that their talent helps them get ahead. However, it is their ability to use business tactics to connect with international audiences. Social influencers are in business to not only earn an income; most look at themselves as a public brand. It requires planning, testing ideas, changing the way you promote yourself and sticking with a strategy that works.

It becomes a significant part of their lifestyle rather than it being a hobby. You will discover this as time passes that a business mindset is essential to winning. Always be true to yourself and work with companies that you are passionate about representing.

It is essential to believe in what you are presenting to the world because your followers can tell if it is genuine or not. Stick with a niche that excites you and your positive energy will reflect in the work that you showcase on your social media accounts.

These social influencers chose a niche that they truly understand and incorporate their personal life with candid moments. You might have to share parts of yourself that you prefer to keep private because it can potentially help a follower solve a problem in their lives. Our list of social media influencers posts regularly and keep up the momentum by showing videos of their upcoming projects that will keep their audience excited to see.

No matter what your reason is for sharing content online remember these helpful tips that will set you apart from the rest. All it takes is a change in what you are currently doing, a positive attitude and the will to be consistent, and your page will turn from basic to extraordinary. If you need inspiration, we welcome you to follow these social influencers. You will be surprised how much you will learn. Good luck!

About the Author

Makeda Waterman is an online journalist and business writer with writing clips from Huffington Post, Glassdoor.com, Elite Daily, Writers Job Board, Bizcatalyst360.com, Startingbusiness.com, among others.