Consumers rule online, but they move in waves, following each other’s lead and that of influencers who have earned their respect. Your brand needs to use social media monitoring to identify relevant influencers for this reason alone, as influencers are essential to generating brand awareness. But they also serve other purposes, which we’ll detail below, along with 25 influential UK women on Twitter who you may want to make note of as you kick off your search!
Why Influencers Are Important
Social listening reveals that people distrust most of what they read online – and yes, they often don’t trust paid influencers much either, but this only applies when influencers are not authentic. Those who have demonstrated their commitment in a given category and organically grown a following based on this expertise are trusted. And those are the influencers that brands need to partner with.
And we’ve selected 25 influential UK women on Twitter to give you sense of the potential you’re missing out on.
Our UK Women Influencer Search
How did we decide on this list of twenty-five and why isn’t your favorite influencer, or someone with many more followers, on it? We used our powerful social listening and influencer identification capabilities and captured at a cross-section of eight different professions, including entrepreneurship, blogging, creative arts, banking and finance, education, health and medicine, science and research and technology:
And then we explored each category for varying levels of influence to offer a variety of options to demonstrate there’s an influencer for every brand out there.
Each person has (at a minimum) 1k followers, self-identifies as female and is located in the UK. We’ll share five standout influencers and a handful of category summaries of the rest for you to explore/consider as you move forward with your marketing and social media monitoring efforts.
Students & Academia UK Influencers
Dr. Janina Ramirez stands out for her influence and interactions with her audience. She’s authentic and connects with followers in a way that brands should seek to emulate, and that many employ social media listening to find! Her tweets offer a mix of relevant industry information, keen observation and daily life – all of which resonates with her followers:
Other category standouts include a group of Twitter verified personalities:
- Denise Welch, a best-selling author
- Anne Applebaum, author and staff writer at The Atlantic
- Polly Toynbee, author and Guardian columnist
- Isabel Hardmen, author and assistant editor at the Spectator
The women are all extremely engaged with their audiences and authorities in their given areas. Brands seeking to disseminate timely, topical insight to the masses would do well to partner with them.
The Finer Things – Food, Travel & Cellist UK Influencers
Samara Ginsberg offers a unique and eclectic persona that mixes nicely with this category of food and travel, which we combined it’s a huge category that offers endless options for brands.
For her part, Samara offers followers a witty and irreverent view of the world, and an interesting adjacency to any sports-minded brands seeking a musical influencer. Would these brands find her without social listening? Doubtful.
She’s joined in this “finer things” category by a bevy of equally interesting ladies, including:
- Loretta Milan, founder of online writing magazine, LightBoxorg
- Amelia Dimoldenberg, author and young activist, committed to keeping travel free for under 18s
- Laura Travel, photojournalist offering stunning imagery
- Dr. Zoe Harcombe, PhD, author and researcher focused on getting people to eat real food
And no online list is complete without the artists among us, as they attract quite a following.
Artists & Designers UK Influencers
Leading the pack of our influencer shortlist, we see the multitalented, MimiTheNerd. She’s a writer, cosplayer and all around creative with a Twitter feed that’s full of extraordinary costumes. Fashion and makeup brands are likely lining up, and if not, they should be . . .
Other artists and designers of note found with social listening include:
- Scarlet Monahan, self-described controversial artist, poet and celebrity
- Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, mom and founder of self-named makeup line
- Sara Beeny, mom, TV presenter and voiceover artist
- Anne Hegerty, television quiz personality who doesn’t like losing (and often doesn’t)
A somewhat overlapping set of influencers inhabits the fashion world, specifically fashion and entertainment.
Fashion & Entertainment UK Influencers
These ladies span a plethora of options, with Hayley Hall making waves as not only as a blogger, but also as a plus-size model:
And she shares tips for ladies who may shy away from shopping certain stores otherwise. This makes her a great partner for brands seeking to branch out and capture a new segment they hadn’t previously considered. Social listening offers lots of exceptional insight like this once brands dig in to the details:
Filling out this category, we have an interesting mix of powerful women, including:
- Susanna Reid, journalist on Good Morning Britain
- Clare Balding, author and broadcaster
- Paloma Faith, opinionated musician
- Kay Burley, Sky News found member and mountain climber
And finally, no list of anything could be complete today without gaming. With the esports and gaming craze taking over our locked down world these ladies are wildly popular, and social monitoring is key to staying on top of this ever-expanding category. And then comedy is always popular online, as everyone is witty. Till they’re not.
Gaming & Comedy UK Influencers
Elle Osili-Wood is a popular arts and video game presenter.
And she hosts a BBC podcast about whether or not video games are good for you, where she explores the science behind the hype:
Social listening reveals these top gaming and comedy influencers to join her (and we’ll skip over MimiTheNerd as she lead our Anime section):
- Janey Godley, award winning comic
- Jenny Éclair, comedian and voice actress
- Kate Davies-Speak, actress, personal trainer and gamer
- Leah!, gaming host and streamer
And that will round out of list of female folks to explore in the UK!
In NetBase Quid, brands can see engagement levels beyond the likes to help them make the best choices. Be sure to reach out for a demo today, to see how you can combine social listening and social media monitoring to create your own ‘top 25’ list of influencers for your brand!
