People follow celebrities for various reason but you’d think the main reason is to keep up with their out-of-this-world lifestyles. However, a report by Odipo Dev reveals an unusual trend with Kenyans online in regards to why they follow influencers.

The report titled “State of Influence 2020” gives insight into the influencer market in Kenya. Various insights can be drawn from the report but we’ve taken the most interesting facts from the report:

• 70% of Kenyans online follower at least one influencer
• 40% of Kenyans online follow influencers for entertainment purposes
• 27% of Kenyans online follow influencers to learn more about products
• 23% of Kenyans online follow certain influencers because they are experts in a certain field
• 20% of Kenyans online follow certain influencers because they talk about things they like
• 5% of Kenyans follow an influencer because of how they look
• 20% of Kenyans follow certain influencers to get life advice

Okay, the last part got us confused. You guys actually follow people online to get life advice? My wildest thought is that some young lad in Roysambu follows Andre Kibe to get advice on how to handle women and my mind can’t fathom that information – but this is just an assumption.

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Away from that, the report also reveals that influencers generally have a larger following on Facebook than any other platform (this is expected since FB is Kenya’s largest social media platform). However, Odipo Dev notes that influencers on Instagram have the best engagement amongst all platforms.

What’s of utmost interest is that the report found that Influencers are the least trusted when it comes to product recommendations. Yup, all those celebs running around endorsing phone brands are basically doing nothing.

Brands and friends were found to be a more reliable source of information in regards to product information. Why? Apparently, these two groups are less likely to lie about a product as they have no incentive to do so as opposed to an influencer who could simply be pushing a product because they were paid to do so.