Entries to the 2014 African Blogger Awards, the continent's first awards programme that measures online and social influencers' reach and influence through data analysis, are now 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 include sectors such as advice, fashion and beauty, events and nightlife, education, sports, political, technology and gadgets, and youth culture - among others.
Co-founder of the awards Mike Sharman says the African Blogger Awards are the first completely impartial, objective awards for online and social influencers on the African continent. "Winners will be determined by data analytics provided by Webfluential, and not through peer nominations."
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 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.
Webfluential, through which entrants will primarily be evaluated, is a platform designed to quantify the reach, resonance and relevance of bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters and YouTubers with over 1 000 active followers.
"Reach" measures the size of an influencer's audience (following) per social media network, while "resonance" is a measure of how widely the content that an influencer shares reaches outside their community. Thirdly, "relevance" is a measure of the response from the influencer's community in the form of likes, comments and 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 at midnight, South African time (GMT+2), and results will be announced on 16 April via the competition's Twitter profile, @African_Blogger, from 11am (GMT+2).
Overall awards for Africa's top blogger, top Instagrammer, top Tweeter and top YouTuber will be announced on 18 April at a celebration hosted in Johannesburg.
Winners in each category will receive a Web banner announcing their achievement - which can be personally-leveraged through their social network - and a commemorative trophy.
Murray Legg, co-founder of the awards, says: "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."
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