Influencer Marketing Platform Afrostylicity’s Meteoric Rise to Fame

A healthcare administration professional turned influencer marketer; Joy Nyargem founded the digital platform Afrostylicity to share her opinions on popular fashion and lifestyle brands. From being a mere blog, Afrostylicity elevated itself and is playing the role of an influencer forum, helping consumers make informed purchase decisions.

The concept of influencer marketing is not new in the history of brands and products. It’s just that with changing time, the type of ‘influencers’ has changed. From royalty and religious figures who promoted the use of certain brands and the products that came under them, with time, celebrities took center stage pushing products and representing brands around the world. With the advent of digital media, new content creators emerged amid a tectonic shift from push marketing to pull. The shift was fueled by a desire for consumers to be a part of the dialogue and not just to remain on the receiving end.

A popular digital platform on fashion, travel, and lifestyle

Joy Nyargem was part of a similar shift and became the ‘mother’ of Afrostylicity. Afrostylicity is one of those inclusive digital communities on fashion, travel, and lifestyle where Nyargem and her partner Hugh Zei create two-way conversations with their fans about their favorite products, brands, services, and more. The connectivity and relatability offered by them, as digital tastemakers, is what makes them so successful.

Key driving factors 

For Nyargem, the top two motivations to launch a digital influencer marketing platform that could collaborate with brands were monetary compensation and valuable content for her community. Being a fashion lover since her childhood days, when her mother’s sense of style captivated her, Nyargem ensures that the content she creates resonates with her equally fashion-forward audience. Therefore, she carefully considers the brands before she agrees to collaborate with them. Once she is convinced of the actual value of a brand’s product line-up, she engages in reviewing the product/s and remains true to her word as well. This forms a win-win partnership. The brands reach an engaged audience, and influencers like Nyargem remain faithful to her tone of voice, providing authentic reviews to guide her followers.

To be a subject matter expert

Nyargem shares that the secret to grabbing your audience’s attention is establishing yourself as an authority on the internet real estate. The best way to achieve that status is to generate rich and compelling content that people would love to use to gain fresher perspectives. Thus, overcoming her initial days of struggle with rich content, Nyargem went a step ahead with Afrostylicity by onboarding her fiancé, Hugh Zei, as a business partner. Doing this brought a fresh flavor to the digital platform that also showcases men’s brands, unlike its early days when it only contained reviews of popular women’s brands.

Preview before purchase

With more than 100,000 followers on Instagram alone, Afrostylicity is an online forum that generates greater brand awareness and offers a window to a world of otherwise rarely-heard-of products that her followers can explore. For Nyargem, her platform is not just about fashion, travel, and lifestyle alone; it is about reaching out to her audience through authentic and relevant stories.