Natural Hair Influencers

Social media influencers have been prominent since the 2000s. Platforms such as YouTube and Instagram have become popular and where influencers connect with people by presenting their authentic selves. Influencers from different backgrounds began creating videos according to their expertise.

In 2010, the natural hair movement became popular with the lead of YouTubers like Kimmaytube and CharyJay. Many social media hair influencers share tips, product recommendations, daily routes, and personal hair growth journeys with their audience. In recent years, brands such as SheaMoisture, Suave, Pantene, and others have built a relationship with hair influencers to promote hair care products and services. These business relationships often take the form of partnerships, sponsorships, and endorsements.  This marketing strategy allows brands to be more profitable as a result of hair influencers building trust with consumers in using the product. “Businesses earn $5.78 for each dollar spent on influencers, with some seeing as much as $18 which is a significant return on investment in anyone’s book” (Digital Marketing Institute, 2024).

Natural hair influencers provide valuable tips to maintain healthy hair. Hair Influencers connect with consumers more personally by doing hairstyling tutorials, recommending hair products, and sharing tips for hair care. In addition to the technical components, hair influencers create a community that values authenticity in beauty. By creating hashtags such as #curlyhair, natural hair influencers inspire their followers to be a part of the natural hair journey.  Some of the most influential natural hair influencers include Whitney White (@naptural85 who has 698.2K followers on Instagram as of early May 2024),  Harris Janae(@_harrisjanae, 184K), and Bianca Renee ( @mzbiancarenee, 155K).

Jewellianna Palencia is an influential natural hair, beauty, and lifestyle influencer with 499K subscribers on YouTube, 313K followers on Instagram, and 31.6K followers on TikTok as of early May 2024. She is a prominent figure in the natural hair-influencing community. Jewellianna started her natural hair journey on Instagram by posting pictures of herself, leading followers to ask her hair-related questions. Jewellianna's quality content features product recommendations, hair care advice, and a variety of hairstyles, and helped her to grow many followers.

As a result, Jewellianna received offers from brands that provided her with many opportunities to grow as a hair influencer.  In addition to making hair-related videos, Jewellianna showcases beauty tips and lifestyle vlogs as she continues to collaborate with brands by creating interactive content for her followers. Currently, she works as a full-time natural hair influencer focusing on making hair-related content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Jewellianna continues to partner with brands in endorsing a product by inspiring people in their natural hair journey.

We asked Jewellianna about the opportunities she has earned as a result of being a popular hair influencer.

Jewellianna explained to us the key tasks that influencers undertake for brands.

We asked Jewellianna about the biggest challenges she faces as an influencer. 

Influencer Agents

Influencer marketing agencies represent influencers as their agents.  They often serve an important role in helping make influencer-brand partnerships and business deals run smoothly. Influencer agencies assist brands with creating a content strategy, managing influencers, facilitating the communication process, and giving a reasonable campaign timeline. (Zero Gravity Marketing, 2024).  Once the brand approves the influencer, the agency can work on the contract negotiation. Influencer agencies’ expertise in identifying target audiences and potential influencers, and monitoring brand expectations distinguish them from traditional marketing agencies. Some of the tasks influencers undertake include creating content briefs from a campaign, monitoring performance regularly, providing updates, and reporting results to brands. Influencer managers control the success of the campaign that best aligns with the brand's business goal. (Find Your Influencer, 2021)  One of the benefits of having an influencer agency is that they build a connection with influencers that helps to know if the influencers have what the brands are looking for. Overall Influencer agencies play an important role in the success of the influencers industry.

Throughout her career as a talent manager, Johanna Voss has negotiated and facilitated more than $4 million in brand deals, partnerships, and speaking engagements for her clients, strengthening her reputation as an expert negotiator and advocate. She has worked with influencers that have partnerships with brands such as Kroger, Walmart, AARP, Little Northern Bakehouse, H&R Block, and Aldi. In addition to advancing her career, Johanna's persistent devotion to her client's success and her support of diverse female viewpoints have positively impacted the field of influencer representation. As an influencer talent manager, one of Johanna’s main roles is to serve as a business partner to influencers and a bridge between the brands and agencies. For more information:  https://www.johannavoss.com/

We asked Johanna about the main responsibilities of an influencer talent manager.

We asked Johanna some of her concerns when working with influencers.

Finally, Johanna described her dream scenario when working with brand/ Influencers.

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