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The Blogosphere Awards! Oh my, the Blogosphere Awards! WHAT-A-NIGHT!
Back in June, we hosted our annual awards ceremony – and its reception blew us away. There were 150 guests, more than 1,000 #BlogosphereAwards posts, and the night’s hashtag reached, wait for it, 8 MILLION people!
Those are just the numbers, though. What really blew us away was the night’s atmosphere – the room was filled with bloggers, vloggers, instagrammers, podcasters, creators, influencers of all different niches, sizes and ages, and everyone came together, made new friends and celebrated as one big online family. Atmosphere is one of those intangible things – you can’t buy it. But, let me tell you, if you could sell the buzz of the room when Melanie Murphy won ‘Influencer of the Year’, you’d have a good business going! It was electric.
Fast-forward a month to July, and the Blogosphere team were trying not to wilt with the props (tropical foliage) on Melanie’s cover shoot in Notting Hill. We may have been melting, but the photographs – as you’ll see – were worth it. The series of shots by photographer Claire Luxton is quite simply a work of art!
Melanie’s interview (p32) is honest and open – she talks about her Irish roots, activism and embracing her sexuality – and well worth a read.
Also within this issue are interviews with Megan Ellaby (p7), who discusses Instagram imitation, embracing one’s quirks and being strict about having a sustainable work/life balance, and Danielle Vanier (p77), who opens up about confidence and competition within the plus-size fashion world.
We speak to Ogilvy’s Head of Influencer Marketing Rahul Titus on page 114. Rahul offers frank views on the industry – including those on fake followers and influencers’ fees.
You can find an interview with beauty illustrator Lauren Johnstone, of Top Shelfie Illustrated, on page 92. Lauren talks about having a niche, coping with anxiety and creating the first-ever beauty colouring book. She also illustrated the photographs we took of her!
Features include a look into the gaming industry’s battles with both sexism and racism (p86), everything you need to know about IGTV (p22), and an investigation into society’s struggles with FONO (fear of not owning) on page 180. We also have a fantastic feature ‘Are you being swerved?’ on page 104 all about how to get paid on time as an influencer. We often see tweets from bloggers about late payment – or no payment at all – so we hope this helps!
You’ll notice that this is a bumper issue – 196 pages – so there’s plenty to keep you going until December! I’ll see you back here then X
