First African Blogger Awards now open for entries

Entries to the 2014 African Blogger Awards, the continent’s very first awards programme that measures online and social influencers’ reach and influence through data analysis, are open to bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters and YouTubers across Africa.

The Awards have been divided into 36 categories, providing the opportunity for influencers on these platforms to be measured objectively against their peers, and duly recognised for their achievements.

Categories are diverse, and include sectors such as Advice, Fashion and Beauty, Events and Nightlife, Education, Sports, Political, Technology and Gadgets, and Youth Culture among others.

“The African Blogger Awards are the first completely impartial, objective awards for online and social influencers on the African continent because winners will be determined by data analytics provided by Webfluential, and not through peer nominations,” says Mike Sharman, co-founder of the African Blogger Awards.

The Awards will also give brands and the marketing industry, including advertisers, public relations agencies and media buyers in each country, an impartial measurement of the most relevant online and social influencers to include in their campaigns, making sure that they achieve the greatest possible impact for their marketing spend.

There is no cost to enter, but entrants are required to register their blog, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube profile (or a combination thereof) on Webfluential, a platform designed to quantify the reach, resonance and relevance of bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters and YouTubers with over 1000 active, legitimate followers. Evaluation of the entrants will be managed primarily through Webfluential

• Reach measures the size of an influencer’s audience (following) per social media network.
• Resonance is a measure of how widely the content that an influencer shares reaches outside of their own community.
• Relevance is a measure of the response from the influencer’s community in the form of likes, comments, retweets.

Bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters and YouTubers who are permanent residents of any African country are eligible to enter the African Blogger Awards.

Entries for the awards close on 9 March 2014 at midnight GMT+2, and results will be announced on 16 April 2014 via the competition’s Twitter profile, @African_Blogger, from 11h00 GMT+2. Overall awards for Africa’s Top Blogger, Top Instagrammer, Top Tweeter and Top YouTuber will be announced on 18 April 2014 at a celebration hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Winners in each category will receive a web banner announcing their achievement that can be personally-leveraged through their social network and a commemorative trophy.

“As the competition grows, we plan to host the awards ceremony in other cities on the African continent each year, in recognition of the enormous influence that the online community has on news, lifestyle, media and marketing across the continent,” says Murray Legg, co-founder of the African Blogger Awards.