SA bloggers prove they’re the best

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Published May 8, 2014

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Cape Town - South African bloggers are the best on the continent, scooping the majority of the accolades at the African Blogger Awards.

Winners were announced on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.

Johannesburg-based photographer and film-maker Gareth Pon was named best Instagrammer in Africa for his work on the photo-sharing cellphone app.

Pon tweeted “Yay” on Wednesday afternoon after receiving the news he had won.

“Honoured to be selected by @African_Blogger awards for being the top Instagrammer http://www.africanbloggerawards.com/winners/ thanks guys,” he later added.

The other main winner was Kenya’s Niaje which won for best blog in Africa.

South African blogs which were recognised included:

l Advice: The Techie Guy

l Arts and Culture: 10and5

l Brand Blog: Brandslut

l Digital Marketing: Gotta Quirk

l Entertainment: Just Curious

l Finance: FNB Blog

l Hobbies: Fortress of Solitude

l Lifestyle: We Are Awesome

l Parenting: Rattle and Mum

l Photography: The Pretty Blog

l Sports: The Bounce

l Technology and Gadgets: Lazy Gamer

l Travel: Getaway

l Youth Culture: The Travel Manuel

The competition attracted 520 entries from 27 African countries.

Misha Coetzee, the Capetonian editor of Brandslut, tweeted: “Oh. Wait. That’s me. Holy crap! I had no idea. Thanks a mill... :) Eee!”

Cape Town-based photographer Christine Meintjes of The Pretty Blog tweeted: “Totally overwhelmed with JOY!!! We won!”

Murray Legg, co-founder of the awards, said: “The diversity of nationalities being a clear indication that social media influencers across Africa have welcomed the opportunity to be measured quantitatively against their peers.”

The winners were determined based on metrics, rather than nominations and voting.

Entrants had to register on Webfluential, a platform created to allow brands and the marketing industry an independent measure of the most influential web users to use in their campaigns.

“The calibre of entries into the awards reveals how social media marketing is growing in influence across the continent,” said co-founder Mike Sharman.

“The entrants’ combined audiences total over 5.6 million blog visitors, 10.2 million Twitter followers, 2.5 million Instagram followers, with YouTube channels offering a combined 75 million views.”

The most popular entry categories were entertainment, lifestyle, and technology and gadgets. Winners would receive a trophy and web banner.

The next awards were expected to be held in February. - Cape Times

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