Influencers Over 50 are Breaking Barriers on Social Media

February truly is the month of love, and spending time with your girlfriends who share a passion for blogging and Instagram is so important to me as I have gotten older. Doing what I do as a blogger and influencer may seem strange, but I make a living doing it. I love writing blog posts and sharing posts on Instagram.  Most of what you read is sponsored, which means I am paid to write a review or wear the clothes for a company.  I am very blessed with a large community of women who use social media to earn an income.  We support each other because we want everyone to be successful. These midlife women have reinvented themselves as influencers over 50, who believe that age is just a number.

What is an Influencer?

An influencer is someone who has:

• the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience.

• a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche.

It is important to note that these individuals are not merely marketing tools but social relationship assets with which brands can collaborate to achieve their marketing objectives. Source

Influencers Over 50 are breaking barriers on Social Media

Recently a dear girlfriend sent me an article from the New York Times, which caused me to write this post. She gets a kick out of reading articles about influencers and continuously sends them my way. I get a kick about all the buzz surrounding influencers over 50, like me.

There have been many articles written about the rise of over 50-year-old influencers. Why would anyone be surprised about that? I certainly saw it coming.

When I started on Instagram six years ago as a fashion influencer (keeping it separate from my interior design Instagram), I didn’t use Instagram for personal reasons but as a source of income.

For far too long, growing older has often been considered irrelevant and invisible in society, and fashion is one of the guilty culprits. Six years ago, companies whose target audience is the over 50 women were using younger women to model their clothes or promote products we use as women over 50. Read more.

But we’re seeing it slowly change now. Many companies like Hair Biology, find women over 50 on Instagram as a vital marketing tool for their haircare products.

As influencers, we share fashion, beauty, travel, wellness, lifestyle, and food aimed at the over 50 age group. Our peers appreciate seeing us and not someone younger than 50.

If you follow me on Instagram, you will see that I have over 82,700 followers, mostly women between 35-70+. Brands now respect our influence as women over 50 and are happy to pay for the value we bring as influencers.

Women Supporting Women

Social media has opened up the opportunity to make connections with women from all over the world. I am so blessed to have made friends with women over 50 who share my passion for blogging and putting themselves out there on social media every week. We support each other behind the scenes through messages and phone calls, but it becomes a special treat to spend time with them in person. We all have dear friends and family who still support our work. Still, when you can sit down and discuss with women how to be successful as an influencer or blogger, a professional relationship develops into a deeper friendship.

I decided it was time to have lunch with my dear friend Rhoda, who I’ve known for 8 years, and introduce her to my new friend Renee, who I’ve been mentoring on how to be successful on Instagram.

Influencers over 50 Friends

I am fortunate to have a woman like my dear friend Rhoda of @southernrhoda help me with my blog. There’s so much to learn about writing a blog, SEO, and email marketing that I appreciate her help. Rhoda is a rockstar as a DIY blogger making six figures. I met Rhoda back in 2014 when she was previewing a designer Showhouse that I was a  participating designer. We kept in touch at design conferences, but we connected back in 2019 when I planned my second Influencers of Midlife Conference. So I asked Rhoda to speak at my 2020 Influencers of Midlife Conference. But sadly, the conference was canceled due to the pandemic.

I also love meeting women new to Instagram. For example, Renee of @Savvisilver and I are now friends because of Instagram. After being encouraged by her children, she started on Instagram and reached out to me last fall to help her. Supporting women is my greatest joy. When you are reinventing yourself after midlife, it takes courage and an excellent support team. That’s why it’s so important to develop relationships with women who have been doing this for a long time.

Hair Biology Supports the Over 50 Influencers

I have been honored to be a brand ambassador for Hair Biology for over a year now. Their products are designed for over 50 woman’s changing hair. Not one person who works with Hair Biology is under 50!

When I told  Hair Biology that I was meeting my friends for lunch, they were so happy to send Rhoda and Renee products from the Silver & Glowing Collection and the Full & Vibrant Collection. Hair Biology believes that we should celebrate our age and has created many different collections for our aging hair! Hair Biology has something for every midlife woman, from thinning hair to dry and color-treated hair!

Renee received Silver & Glowing products as a gift from Hair Biology.

Rhoda received products from the Full & Vibrant Collection.

We can have a great hair day every day if we use the right products to help combat the challenges of aging hair. Hair Biology has a line for every one of us!

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Thank you Hair Biology for sending hair products to my friends!