Influencer marketing is one of the latest marketing strategy companies are using to get their products and services to new and existing clients. Unlike other forms of marketing, this strategy targets individuals who have some influence on their potential customers. Social media influencers have built a reputation for their expertise and knowledge on a particular topic, and they have a large following to boot.
The social media and blog influencer industry have continued to grow exponentially, with Instagram being the preferred platform in Singapore. There are influencers in virtually all industries, and they come in handy in boosting brand recognition and interaction. The rise of ad blockers means that people do not see as many ads as they did before and this has made it crucial for brands to use influencers to get the intended message across.
There are many influencers in Singapore, and in this article, we review the top influencers on three of the most popular social media platforms.
Top 6 Instagram Influencers in Singapore
Statistics show that in 2017, 63% of the Singapore consumers used Instagram, and 35% of them were between the ages of 25 and 34. Here are the top Instagram influencers in the country.
Christabele (@bellywellyjelly)
This is one of the leading bloggers that have amassed a massive following on Instagram. Her posts cut across many industries right from beauty, fashion, health, travel, fun, and many more. Her website, bellywellyjelly.com is also one of the most visited sites in Singapore. She has over 220,000 followers.
Mongchin Yeoh (@mongabong)
Mongchin is one of the leading fashions and beauty influencers in Singapore. She also has posts related to travel and tourism. She exudes charm and confidence and this makes her very likeable. She recently made posts about her upcoming wedding to 177,000 followers and garnered thousands of likes and comments.
Mae Tan (@marxmae)
The 22-year-old is an influencer marketing genius. In 2017, she orchestrated some of the biggest luxury-meets-streetwear launches in Singapore. She put together a collaborative collection between Surrender Group and Los Angeles based artists, DRx Romanelli and Cal Thornhill DeWitt. The event, which was held at Orchard Road, was the second one after helping Virgil Abloh’s Off-White store turn around their retail woes. She has 77, 500 active followers.
Victoria Loke (@velle_)
She is one of the fastest rising actors in Singapore, and she is part of the Crazy Rich Asians; one of Hollywood’s latest movies with an all-Asian cast. When she is not on a stage or in front of a camera shooting scenes, she devotes her time to AsianGirl. It is a collaborative feminist art series that seeks to explore issues surrounding issues of the Asian feminist in modern times.
She is also part of the Singapore Committee for UN Women to explore and research on contemporary strategies that will enhance the economic empowerment of women in the south-eastern Asia. More projects have endeared her to the online Singapore community, and this has earned her 11, 400 followers.
Nicolas Travis (@nicolastravis_)
He is the founder of Allies of Skin, a homegrown beauty brand that continues to receive stellar reviews for its range of smart multitasking formulations. Allies of Skin has raised over $1 million in revenue since its launch in 2016. He has gained a massive following on Instagram, and he is one of the influencers to watch in 2018 and beyond.
Carrie Wong (@carriewst)
She is an actor who has filled her Instagram with cute, elegant, and graceful content. Her posts revolve around fashion, friends, daily musings, and fitness. She has over 220,000 followers and the list keep expanding.
How to Engage an Instagram Influencer in Singapore
Connecting on Instagram is easy since you can see what the influencer likes to share. However, you do not want to come off as a creep, and with the following tips, you will engage them with better chances of getting a deal.
Use the Search Option
Hashtags are the lifeline of Instagram, and they will help you increase followers. Use the search option and input your industry-specific keywords. You will get thousands of results, and it is just a matter of selecting the one with the highest number of followers and likes on their posts. You could also follow a hashtag to monitor what Singaporeans want to see.
Follow Their Account
Do not rush in to engage an influencer as soon as you identify them. Follow their account and watch how they post and the frequency of their posts. However, some influencers have been known to buy followers and likes as well as using bots. Compare the number of followers to the average number of likes on their posts and comments to ascertain how influential they are in your niche.
Slide into Their DM
Spend at least one week monitoring the influencer’s Instagram account and activities. If they meet your expectations, you can contact them by sending a direct message. You will need to have all the information about the deal you want to strike at hand just in case the influencer agrees to your terms and is ready to sign them. Most of the influencers are warm towards brands looking to do business with them.
Top 6 Twitter Influencers in Singapore
While Instagram commands a larger following, Twitter is the best platform to keep up with market trends and statistics. These Twitter influencers will help you track the handles to target when you launch new slides or ads on the platform. These are the top Twitter influencers to watch out for
Ming Jong Tey (@MingJong)
He is one of the top digital marketing influencers in Singapore, who also doubles as an internet-marketing consultant, author, and trainer. He specialises in SEO, branding, social media marketing, video marketing, blogging, traffic generation techniques, and press release marketing. He has two published books available for sale on Amazon, and with over 17,000 followers on Twitter; he could help in your influencer marketing strategy.
Jacky Tan ZQ (@zqtan)
He is a professional marketing writer, speaker, and brand strategist. He is widely acclaimed for his expertise in digital marketing, and he has a record of transforming small businesses into major brands in under three years. Jacky Tan is on the list of top 12 influencers under 40 professionals in Singapore by the Singapore Business Review. He is of the view that, with well thought out strategies, any company, big or small can be a successful brand. He has over 40,000 followers on Twitter.
Jamshed Wadia (@jamshedwadia)
Jamshed has more than 19 years’ experience in sales and marketing with specific expertise in retails marketing and sales management, e-commerce, digital marketing, product marketing, and social media. He is the head of the Digital Marketing and Media team at Intel Asia, where they manage all the strategies and execution of digital content on digital platforms, and paid media. He is also the sitting APAC chair of the WFA Digital Forum, which is a platform that brings together the top digital leaders in Asia. He has over 23,000 followers on Twitter.
Brad (@ladyironchef)
The Ladyironchef website is one of the leading websites in Singapore. It started in 2007 as food and travel blog. The man behind the site, Brad, writes honest food reviews, his personal experiences, the places he visits, and generic lifestyle products. By sharing information and pictures of the products they endorse, Brad is always pushing the envelope to influence his more than 19,000 followers to make a purchase. His followers can always use the link on the profile to get more information about the products he markets from his website.
Victoria Cheng (@victoriacheng)
Victoria grew up in New York but began her food and beverage career in Hong Kong. She is part of the success story of various award-winning restaurants throughout Asia. Victoria is a digital nomad citing New York and Singapore as her main bases. In 2010, she had to choose between contributing for a New York publication or settle down in Singapore to pursue the opportunities there. At this time, she launched gastronomy.com to document her life as a digital nomad. She has accrued over 61,000 followers on Twitter and counting.
Crystal Phuong (@ncrystalicious)
Phuong is a professional digital marketing consultant by day, while at night and on the weekends, she is a lifestyle and fashion blogger. She is a former Professional Latin Dance champion that has gone to great lengths to get what she wants. Her blog, crystalphuong.net has won multiple awards. She also founded 511styles.com a website that is all about fashion and lifestyle. Both platforms have received various nominations and over 11,000 followers on Twitter.
How to Engage a Twitter Influencer in Singapore
Twitter was the first platform to introduce hashtags, and it has helped millions of people get the latest news, market trends, and so much more information. For this reason, influencers are very keen on the hashtags they use and so should you. Here are actionable tips to help you in engaging Twitter influencers professionally.
Use Keyword Search Tools
Many tools can help you identify the people with the largest following on Twitter. For example, Topsy allows you to determine the top Twitter influencers within your niche that are using similar keywords. You can also use the search bar at the top right corner of your Twitter page.
Add Them to Your Lists
Lists on Twitter help users to keep track of the information they care for, and they get a notification every time a user on the list makes a new post. Lists also helps you declutter your timeline. To make meaningful engagement start retweeting and replying to their tweets as often as you can.
Tag Them in Your Tweets
If you have valuable information you want to share with your followers, always tag your desired influencer in your tweets. This way, you will entice them to follow you, and you can exchange private messages to seal a deal.
Top 6 Facebook Influencers in Singapore
Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world, and there are more than 3.16 million Facebook users in Singapore. When a user exceeds 5000 friends, they get a personal page. Due to recent newsfeed changes, users now see fewer ads and more posts from individuals. This makes it crucial to use Facebook influencers to reach more people. Here are the top Facebook influencers in Singapore.
Joseph Prince
He is the senior pastor at New Creation Church in Singapore, and he was one of the founders of the church back in 1983. His page has over 3.9 million followers both from Singapore and abroad. According to statistics from Social Bakers, his page grows at an average of 2845 followers per month. While he will not agree all types of content to be shared on his page, you can always customise your content to engage with his followers.
JJ Lin
Wayne Lim Jun Jie fondly known by his stage name JJ Lin is one of the most adored celebrities in Singapore. He is a singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. Since his debut in the Singaporean entertainment industry in 2003, he has garnered over 3.1 million likes on his Facebook page with followers from Singapore and abroad. His page has an estimated growth of over 57 new fans per day, and his down to earth character makes him ideal for your next social media marketing campaign.
Wallace Ang
Ang is a bilingual host, actor, singer, DJ, and songwriter whose talent was spotted when he was still an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, where he graduated with a degree in Theatre Studies and English Literature. In the Singapore Model Awards, he emerged as the runners-up, and he went on to appear in several print adverts, TV commercials, and he also modelled for top fashion and lifestyle companies such as Hugo Boss and Adidas. He also became a full-time presenter at MediaCorp’s Love 97.2 FM, the leading all Chinese language radio station in Singapore.
He has traversed many media platforms, and he continues to be a darling to many Singaporeans. His Facebook page has over 8,000 likes with an average of 233 new followers per week. This makes him a perfect addition to your influencer marketing team.
MMXJ
In 2009, the entire country was left in shock after MJ Kouk pulled out of Singapore Idol despite having reached the top 13. His studies motivated him to make this painful decision to leave the event. In 2015, he came back to the industry and launched his debut album, Into the Wild. He is also a DJ and record producer, and all these roles have helped him amass over 46,000 fans on Facebook. The likes on his profile increase at an average of 303 fans per week; they have made him one of the most sort after celebrities in Singapore.
After graduating from California’s Stanford University, he worked at a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, an advertising firm, and he even worked in the family business as a real estate agent in Hong Kong. During his time in a 9-5 job, he realised that he needed to do something about his unquenched love of music and that is when he came back to Singapore to pursue a career in music. He is darling to many Singaporeans, and all it takes is to set up a meeting and discuss the terms of your influencer marketing deal with him.
Vivienne’s Verdict
This is a hard rock band that started as a cover band under the name Take It Apart. They were fairly successful, and they decided to major in writing and performing their own original songs. This decision boosted their popularity and they now have over 10,000 followers on Facebook alone. In 2016, their debut EP, Depiction’ earned them global recognition. In the same year, they won the prestigious ‘Best Rock Song Award’ from VIMA-SKOWT for their song, ‘Depiction.’
Their style is classic-rock with a modern twist, and they are set to headline numerous shows in Singapore and across south-east Asia. Vivienne’s Verdict is a perfect Facebook influencer that can help you reach more people within and beyond Singapore.
Claire Jedrek
Claire is the only female race car driver in Singapore, and she also doubles up as an emcee and writer. She specialises in emceeing automotive and motorsport events, which means she has a large live audience and a huge Facebook following. Claire’s Facebook page has over 20,000 likes and the news that she was expecting her first child in 2018, spread like wild fire.
The temperature inside a race car can rise up to 50 degrees Celsius, and Claire Jedrek has a strict skin regimen to remove bacteria and dirt to ensure that her skin looks great always. You will find several posts about beauty and lifestyle products on her page. This makes her the perfect influencer for skin products.
How to Engage a Facebook Influencer in Singapore
Engaging a Facebook influencer is easy and straightforward. Here are the tips on how to do it.
Identify the Influencers in Your Niche
For starters, not every influencer will affect your brand the way you want. It requires that you follow their Facebook pages for at least two weeks to understand how they use the platform. On the search bar at the top left corner of your Facebook profile, search for the keywords you use, and you will get a list of people, pages, groups and many more.
Approaching an Influencer
After identify an influencer who is suitable to your brand, you can go ahead and like their page. Send them a private message and either the influencer or their social media team will respond to it. Be sure to go straight to the point.
Have Your Itinerary Ready
As soon as you realise you need an influencer marketer, get a legal professional to draft an agreement document. This way, when they respond to your message, you can set up a business meeting and forward the agreement documents right away.
How We Created This List of Top Influencers in Singapore
There are thousands of influencers in Singapore alone, and it is a hard task to list them all. However, we followed a gruelling process to bring you the ultimate list of the top influencers in Singapore. Here is the criterion we used:
Number of Likes/Followers
The more likes and followers an influencer has, the more valuable they could be to your brand. You can tell the genuine influencer from the fake by the number of likes, comments, retweets, and shares they have on their posts. If you note a huge difference, chances are that most of the followers are not real.
Business Orientation
Since it is a business deal at the end of the day, you should look into how business oriented they are before you engage them. We looked at the items and services they have endorsed and scrutinised their interaction with followers. While they will use informal language, there is one thing you must look into; the call to action. Without this, they are just fans of the brand with no ties to the business.
Level of Engagement with Their Followers
It is common to feel like a celebrity when you reach thousands of likes and follows on social media, but it takes more than that to become one. The sole reason most people use social media platforms is to connect. Fans will always want to engage influencers on their posts and in their private messages. We looked at how they deal with followers in the comment section of their posts. We also considered their personality in real life.
Do you agree with our list of the top influencers in Singapore? Drop us a comment in the section below.
