The rising popularity of influencer marketing in Africa has encouraged more young African women to desire the influencer lifestyle. These influencers share the best parts of their lives in beauty, fashion and lifestyle. They are sometimes called dream sellers because of the expensive lifestyles they often portray.  This has got many African women wanting to be like them.

Who wouldn't want to get paid while living their best life? 

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But just like any other job or occupation, being an influencer in Africa has got its good, bad and ugly sides. 

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Of Being A Female Influencer In Africa 🌍

The ability to make money from being famous or having fans is the best part of being an influencer. Brands or enterprises pay influencers to do adverts on their pages and accounts. They may also get free products from brands that they work with or attend events and get paid for their presence.

But in order to get to this level, you have to invest in your own social media branding and get many followers or fans. This requires lots of investment in terms of internet data, knowledge and time. You need to share images, captions or videos of something about yourself or something you know about in order to pull the attention of your audience and get them to follow you. And to build a huge following it takes time.

The other side of being an influencer is the trolls or haters as we commonly call them. Dealing with people who say hurtful things about you or your work can be hard to deal with.

One thing that most African female influencers are often referred to is prostitutes or girls seeking rich men to sleep with.

It is hardly believed that they work hard for some of the things they got. I say some because at times these influencers don't own everything they show. They may rent them or borrow or get them for free.

My favourite female influencers are Muriel Blanche and Nathalie Koah. They are Cameroonian influencers and entrepreneurs. Their humble beginnings compared to where they today inspire me a lot. Another influencer I admire is the Nigerian mom and relationship expert, Blessing Nkiruka commonly known as Blessing CEO. She also inspires me a lot.

These women gained popularity as a result of the things they do or did. It was good for some but it started out bad for others who had scandals to deal with. But the good thing is they turned their lemons into lemonade. They cleaned their images and fought for a better future for themselves. And today they are making a positive impact in the lives of other women.

Those are the good, the bad and the ugly of being an influencer in Africa.

If it is your dream to become one, I hope that you are aware of the opportunities and the risks you expose yourself to with this job.

In my opinion, it is a job worth trying but be ready to be consistent and patient as you show your audience the knowledge that you have.