Once a month we publish our rankings from across the Influencer Marketing sector. This month, we will look at the top diversity Influencers on Instagram, Influencers that used the hashtag #diversity in the last month. We will also be looking at how Brands have fared, since the use of this hashtag has been popularised. These rankings are a list of the top Creators in a specific vertical, built using our cutting edge technology and curated by our content team. Last month, the spotlight was on Beauty Creators. Today, we will be profiling the top Creators and Brands on Instagram around use of the hashtag #diversity. These Influencers, take their inspiration from the world around them, create engaging and inclusive content, and are as inclusive and diverse as the hashtag would suggest.
Methodology
First, we compiled information for the use of #diversity, and sourced a list of Creators and Brands. We then ranked them according to engagement per post (likes plus comments on the published posts during the time period considered) and the average follower growth. New to this particular rankings, we have created two different categories: Creators and Brands. Buzzoole’s Rankings don’t consider celebrities, TV stars, nor media personalities who haven’t built their fame creating content on social media, except in the case of brands who use these types of individuals for sponsorship. This data encompasses the month of June.
Creators
Jari Jones boasts 16.9K followers with an average engagement rate of 1,553. She is an actress, model, activist, and creative who became the first trans woman of colour to produce a film that competed at the Cannes Film Festival. She is a passionate advocate of the trans community and an innovative Creator. She has an average engagement rate of 9.47%, and gained 1,170 followers last month.
4th is @iamnursenelle, who is (as her name implies) an anesthesiologist. She has 14.1K followers on Instagram with 1,689 average engagements per post. She is a very authentic Influencer and Creator who discusses diversity and authenticity. She boasts an 11.12% engagement rate, and gained 630 monthly followers.
3rd is @growingupguptas, who is a blogger for the Huffington Post and an advocate for multiculturalism and story-telling, especially regarding family life. She has 14K followers and averages 2,243 engagements per post with a 10.76% engagement rate.
2nd is @twodadsspain, with 44.4K followers and 3,723 average engagements per post with a 7.85% engagement rate. The account belongs to Marcos and Alberto, a family raising a son in Spain. They are excellent advocates for both the LGBTQ+ community and for LGBTQ+ families, and document their lives raising Gonzalo. They gained 180 followers last month.
1st on the list is @moniquemastrobattista, who is an anti bullying, body positivity, and mental health activist. She has 122K followers on Instagram and 5,447 average engagements per post. She uses social media to talk about a wealth of issues, including diversity on social platforms. At only 16, she is pioneering the way for future Influencers and social media users to change how they view the platforms they use. She averages 4.90% engagement rate.
Brands
First up, 5th on the list, is a well known brand that prides itself on inclusion and diversity, Aerie. The lingerie and swimwear brand, a subsidiary of American Eagle, aims to “empower all women to love their real selves”. They have popularized their hashtag, #AerieREAL and center this conversation around relatable daily happenings in life that are not often portrayed in Brand marketing material. They averaged 14,038 engagements per post, and boast 1.1 million followers on Instagram. Aerie run campaigns with their self-branded Aerie REAL models, often revolving about empowerment and natural beauty.
Taking the 4th place spot is fashion brand ASOS. The brand has 9.4 million followers on Instagram, and had 19,759 average engagement per post. In the past month, ASOS ran a campaign in support of the LGBTQ+ community, with contributions from their converse collection going to LGBTQ+ organisations like the It Gets Better Project.
3rd is Milk Makeup, a cosmetics brand that specialise in cruelty free, vegan, and paraben free makeup. They have 1.6 million Instagram followers, and average 37,186 engagements per post. Milk Makeup are proud supporters of the LGBTQ+ community, and in June, released a makeup set called the #wearyourpride set. 100% of the proceeds from this set went to the NYC LGBT Center to support the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
2nd is Fenty Beauty, the beauty brand is founded by music icon Rhianna. The brand boasts a large variety of colour shades that match a very diverse range of skin tones, and they are proud of this accomplishment. They have 8.0 million Instagram followers and average 59,471 engagements per post on the platform. The brand features a wide variety of individuals partnering with their brand, and are very vocal in promoting them.
Finally, topping the brand list is Adidas, who has 24.1 million Instagram followers and averaged 135,512 engagements per post. The athletics and fashion brand has a very large reach, and uses that reach to promote inclusion and diversity, using the hashtag #LoveUnites. They also support gender equality and campaigns to clean the world’s oceans.
Trends
Both among Brands and Creators, there has been a tangible focus on promoting inclusion and causes centring on diversity. Creators are able to partner with Brands to promote these causes, and Brands are encouraged to fund interesting, creative, and thought provoking campaigns. These partnerships between the Brands and Influencers are increasingly more socially conscious and diverse, such as Aerie’s partnership with the Special Olympics and Dove’s campaign to deliver imagery focused around a more diverse range of women.
In the realm of Influencer Marketing, prioritising inclusivity leading to diversity is a must. It’s possible to be successful solely by talent, but it may be harder to be remembered by this alone. Creativity, passion and a unique voice is the way to move up the hierarchy in this competitive space. Content must be interesting and compelling, but also inclusive and relevant to social attitudes. Otherwise it’s easy to blend into the background. The Creators and Brands in our rankings have definitely gone a long way to accomplishing this, so congratulations to them!
Looking to join a community of diverse Creators? Join Buzzoole and get involved!