Who are the influencers that marketers absolutely need to know and follow in 2023? We will enlighten you and present five Instagram profiles from around the world that you should subscribe to this new year.
When analyzing the most successful accounts on Instagram, we distinguish between mega-influencers who have several million followers and generally receive a lot of media attention, and those profiles that we like to call “new” influencers here, since they have earned their influence on their communities solely through social networks.
Even though we will introduce you to the top influencers on Instagram in this article, it is a remarkable trend that influencers have long since ceased to be present on just one platform (Instagram). Instead, creators have built a diverse audience through multiple formats. Also, food for thought is the fact that the social media world is so fast-paced that influence can come quickly and go even faster. As Influencer Marketing Hub reports, there are only three influencers in the Top 25 Influencers today who were also on the original Influencer-Marketing website list. Consequently, most of the “original Instagram superstars would have been overtaken in popularity by a younger and more cosmopolitan generation of Instagram influencers by now”, Influencer Marketing Hub adds.
This makes it all the more important to be well-informed in 2023. Consequently, first comes an overview of the top five mega-influencers on Instagram, before we highlight the top five emerging influencers and their Instagram profiles.
If you take a quick look at the ranking of the top influencers, measured by the number of followers, you will quickly notice that it is led by celebrities. The celebrities who have made a name for themselves through their sporting achievements, their beauty and their acting or musical talents are of course also represented on Instagram and are very successful.
According to this, the top 5 Instagrammers are:
Of course, these mega-stars also represent a good opportunity for collaboration. Their fan base is large and many brands want to profit from it. Yet, how influential are these mega-influencers? Their audience includes many people, so it’s clear that brands address a very heterogeneous target group with a partnership. This can be an advantage, but also a disadvantage. Experience shows that the engagement rate of mega-influencers is lower, as they cannot respond to all comments or messages.
On the other hand, there are those profiles whose followers trust the expertise of the influencers in their own niche. Read more about the rise and benefits of nano-influencers for brands on the Kolsquare Influencer Marketing Blog.
Nano-influencers or mega-influencers – in the following top five we include only those superstars who achieved their fame offline (e.g. in Hollywood or through sports). Accordingly, we have included those individuals who have earned their influence on a social network. It is worth noting that today KOL are not only present on one social network, but are also famous on several platforms. Learn more about the top 10 KOL on the Chinese app TikTok here.
What is striking about Instagram is that the app has changed in just a few years. While it was a platform for sharing images at its launch, it has long ceased to be so, as Adam Mosseri also points out in a post in Fall 2022. Read more about the statistics and development trends for 2023 on Kolsquare’s influencer marketing blog.
Those listed in the following top five influencers on Instagram have earned their reputation and the trust of their audience through wit, charm, creativity and uniqueness.
Being number one on Instagram and number one on TikTok. The Senegalese-born TikTok superstar Khaby Lame delights 80.1m followers on Instagram with his comedy sketches. In his sketches, he draws attention to people who pointlessly complicate simple tasks.
The American Addison Rae is also among the top five influencers on TikTok. So it’s hardly surprising that Addison Rae is also ahead on Instagram. The dancer has built up her reach primarily through dance videos on TikTok, but now 39.3m people follow her on Instagram. Compared to TikTok, the young woman mainly shares about beauty and less dance videos on Instagram. She has been under a contract with WME since January 2020.
Mexican Kimberly Loaiza is a YouTuber and influencer who primarily focuses on the genres of clothing, outfits and lifestyle. Unlike the first two, Loaiza gained 36.6m followers on Instagram as a vlogger, among other things. With challenges and tutorials, she is now successful on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. For example, her video “Roast Yourself Challenge” has been clicked more than 124m times. Today, the Influencer focuses on music.
Mexican YouTuber, businessman and blogger Luis Arturo Villar Sudek is better known as Luisito Comunica. On his Instagram account, 32.9m accounts follow him as he travels around the world. However, instead of just showing the places he travels to, he introduces people he meets along the way and invites them to fun activities.
Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni has managed to market her name into a luxury brand. She is a digital entrepreneur, mother and founder of her own clothing brand. She became famous with her blog “The Blonde Salad”, but it doesn’t even exist anymore. In September 2017, she has also named the most powerful fashion influencer by Forbes magazine. She has 28.3m followers.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
Since October 2024, Kolsquare has become part of the Team.Blue group, one of the largest private tech companies in Europe, and a leading digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe. Team.Blue brings together over 60 successful brands in web hosting, domains, e-commerce, online compliance, lead generation, application solutions, and social media.
