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The definition of a social media influencer has evolved, and the role they play in the digital sphere has grown beyond simple reach and engagement metrics. Today’s social media influencers are a cultural and social force that is taking the world by storm. Social media influencers nowadays aren't only determined by the number of followers they have.
Whether they're, nano-influencers, micro-influencers, macro-influencers, or celebrities, the ultimate list of Instagram influencers in the UAE highlights the diversity of the Middle East influencer marketing industry. It’s also got pretty much all the industries out there - entertainment, food, travel, lifestyle, and fashion.
Bonus tip: If you're looking for UAE TikTok influencers, we've also created a list of top 100 UAE and KSA TikTok influencers.
Influencers in the United Arab Emirates
In 2021, the term ‘influencer’ has been used over 21.7K times in the UAE across online and social media based on Talkwalker Quickc Search data. The term has engaged over 81.1K users with an estimated potential reach of 61B. Interestingly, 13.3% of that conversation is about influencer marketing.
According to a recent study by YouGov, 3 in 4 UAE residents follow some kind of social media influencer, out of which 29% follow health/fitness influencers. These numbers are reflect the interest of global brands to spend a significant part of their advertising budgets with influencer partnerships, especially in industries like beauty, fashion, food, lifestyle, tech, and entertainment.
With these numbers - who wouldn't want to jump on the opportunity?
Among the top influencer categories are entertainment (94%), food (92%), travel (91%), tech (90%), lifestyle (89%), arts and culture (88%), fashion and beauty (85%).
Let’s take a look at some UAE Instagram influencers from these categories to help you make the most of all that potential.
Download a free list of 500+ Middle East influencers!
Why Instagram?
Despite the meteoric rise of TikTok in recent years, Instagram remains a solid platform for brands. Instagram has over 200 million business profiles so far, and it is interesting to see that 90% of people on Instagram follow a business.
And Instagram influencer marketing can be just the right tool to brave that storm. Don't forget, you'll need Instagram analytics tools to measure your success.
Have you got the right Instagram influencers down for your marketing strategy?
Instagram Marketing Strategy Checklist
Table of contents
- Entertainment influencers
- Food influencers
- Travel influencers
- Lifestyle influencers
- Fashion influencers
- 3 key guidelines for working with influencers
Entertainment Influencers
Download the list of UAE influencers for free!
Haifa Beseisso
Haifa (flywithhaifa) is passionate about many things including travel, humanitarian causes, and cross cultural interactions. She is a TV presenter on MBC 1's Yalla Banat Show.
While her following is largest on Instagram, she also has an engaging YouTube channel, where she posted a viral and entertaining video combating stereotypes about the Middle East as part of YouTube’s #CreatorsForChange initiative.
Noor Stars
Noor (noorstars) is the Middle East's top subscribed YouTube content creator. Her YouTube channel is a platform that allows her to be herself and interact with her audience in a fun, engaging way. Whether they tackle beauty or lifestyle, her videos are always entertaining.
But her humor and success don't just stop at Youtube. Her Instagram profile is a world of engaging fun too!
Download the full list of Instagram influencers!
Abdulaziz
Abdulaziz (bin__baz) is a comedian, model, entertainer, and actor! He has one clear mission - to make you smile.
Hayla Al Ghazal
Hayla (HaylaTV) is a 21-year old content creator who lives in Dubai. Her entertaining and satirical videos shed light on traditions in our society today.
Hayla is also the founder of a bridal and evening gown shop in Wafi Mall - Hayla Couture.
DubaiNameShame
DubaiNameShame is the product of one bored - and creative - employee. Back in May 2011, he created this outlet to share his thoughts, opinions, and humour with a core belief that sarcasm engages and provokes. Raw and uncut, the thoughts he shares on Twitter and his blog are the real deal. The Instagram feed comes with bonus food-related posts (more of that right below)!
Download the list of Instagram influencers!
Food Influencers
Samantha Wood
Samantha (foodiva) is an award-winning food critic who prides herself on impartial and intelligent resturant reviews through her website/app. She is a member of the Guild of Food Writers and provides more than just reviews on her website - you'll also find food features, interviews with chefs, drink stories, competitions, events, and more.
Some of her most well-known features include the mystery #DineAroundDubai, the annual FooDiva's top Dubai restaurants list and the #ThreeChefsDinner which brings three chefs together for one night in one high-end licensesed restaurant, each cooking a different course under one theme.
Sana Chikhalia
Sana (sana) is an award-winning food and travel blogger driven by her love for food and trying new cuisines.
Folow her journey as she takes you around the globe to experience wonderful destinations and the food that comes with them!
Taim Al Falasi
Taim (taimalfalasi) is an Emirati food, travel, and lifestyle influencer. She is a restauranteur, with several restaurants in the UAE now under her belt including X Burger, Crave, Peach of Cake, and Chic Bae.
She rose to fame through hosting the online radio program, the TaimShow, which established her as a vlogger and filmmaker and helped her build a large following across her social media channels.
She is also the founder of TAN, a food and beverage digital markeing network.
Download the list of Instagram influencers!
Naomi D'Souza
Naomi (naomi_dsouza) is an engineer by background and a digital strategist by day. She's also one of the UAE's most influential bloggers, particularly in the food space.
With over 1 million views, her blog covers everything from travel and lifestyle to Naomi's favorite recipes, tips and insights into her personal journey.
She spoke at 3 TEDx platforms and has been recognized as one of the #Hot100 most influential Asians in the UAE. Quite the resume!
Zahra Abdalla
Zahra (cookingwithzahra) is a Dubai-based Sudanese-Iranian author, TV chef, and NMC-licensed influencer. She is the founder of Zahra's Kitchen and Wild Spatula creative culinary productions.
Her blog takes readers through a culinary journey of traditional and modern Middle Eastern cuisine with delicious, healthy and easy recipes. Zahra aims to inspire you to enter the kitchen and not be intimidated by it and to highlight not only the nutritional value of eating and cooking, but also the social and therapeutic value they can hold.
Download the list of 500+ Instagram influencers!
Namrata & Nancy
Namrata & Nancy (shesaidshesaid_dxb) are a couple of Dubai-based friends who love food and travel. They keep an online journal that documents their shared passions in this blog. Favorite things to eat, fabulous treats, and hidden gems in and around Dubai are some of the things you can expect to discover through their blog and social media channels.
Noreen Wasti
Noreen (noreenwasti) simply likes to eat, cook, and make things pretty - as she puts it. Her blog hosts a lot of recipes as well as her food styling posts.
Kim & Den
Kim & Den (wheremyfoodat) are a foodie couple! Their blog celebrates their love of all things delicious and is full of food and resturant reviews not just for UAE spots but also for wherever their travels take them.
They recently launched #WhereMyGetawayAt to shed light on some of the best hotels that the UAE has to offer - helping locals with their staycations and tourists with their trips to the UAE.
Their honest reviews and the variety of cuisines they cover has paved the way for a wide range of social media awards including the 2018 Cosmopolitan Food Influencer Award.
Travel Influencers
Bonus tip: hop on over to this blog post that's all about travel influencers to deep dive into the different types of travel influencers the Middle East has to offer.
Na'el Abu Alteen
Na'el (nael_abu_alteen) left the world of engineering to travel the world. Can you blame him?
He's been all over - from Indonesia, Greece and Uzbeakistan to Georgia, Turkey and the Maldives. He's got an Instagram feed that will give you major travel envy.
Wael Abualteen
There might be a theme here...but I couldn't miss out on Wael's (waelalteen) travel feed either. More travel envy and #InstaJealousy!
Download the list of Instagram influencers!
Max of Arabia
Max (maxofarabia) is a half American, half British third culture kid who moved to the UAE in 2007 to study marketing at the American Unviersity in Sharjah and fell in love with the Middle East. So much so, you couldn't tell him apart from an Arab when you hear him speak Arabic!
He's on a mission to share the beauty of the world around him and take his followers on adventures to disover different cultures - particularly the real Middle East.
Max also supports a lot of local humanitarian activities.
Dubai Travel Blog
A Dubai Expat sharing adventures, hotels, food, culture, and experiences in the UAE. DubaiTravelBlog is NMC-licensed. Beyond Instagram, is packed full of detailed reviews that guarantee a great time in Dubai!
Download the list of Instagram influencers!
Lifestyle Influencers
Fazza
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (faz3) is the Crown Prince of Dubai. He is fondly known as Fazza, which is the name he uses to publish his poetry. Fazza is very active on social media and records many moments of his life on Instagram - his feed regularly features posts about travel, adventure, horses, and falcons.
Mohamed Beiraghdary
Mohamed (movlogs) is a young UAE-based vlogger well-known for his videos about Dubai's luxurious lifestyle, especially when it comes to cars! He is a member of the SuperCar Club Arabia and a regular attendee of regional car events.
He updates his channel with new vlogs daily at 9PM Dubai timing.
He also used to run this gaming channel!
Rashed Belhasa
Rashed (rsbelhasa) is an Emirati social media star. He is the son of a Dubai-based billionaire, Saif Ahmed Belhasa, and he's got the Instagram feed to prove it.
He is well-known for his family farm that is home to many tigers and his Ferrari F12 Berlinetta with a 6.3 litre V12 engine, wrapped in a Louis Vuitton/Supreme collaboration print. He also has an exclusive and rare shoe collection that is claimed to be worth over $1 million.
Rashed co-owns a men's streetwear line, KA-1 and recently made his foray into the music world with his first single, We Living Life.
He's friends with many a celebrity including Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Lionel Messi.
Download the list of Instagram influencers!
Mthayel Al Ali
Mthayel (mthayel) is the founder of Takhayyal, a platform that aims to bring together and showcase great content creation resources. It is also a social media marketing consultancy that helps personal and business profiles achieve unique and genuine exposure.
Mthayel is an avid Twitter user and her profile has attracted quite the following!
Milli Midwood
Milli (millimidwood) is the digital editor at Harper's Bazaar Arabia. She is also an NMC-licensed lifestyle blogger.
Lana Rose
Lana (lanarose786) is a YouTube singing sensation who also vlogs about beauty, fashion, art, and music.
Download the free list of Instagram influencers!
Fashion Influencers
Noha Nabil
Noha (nohastyleicon) has been blogging since 2009! She initially rose to fame as a TV presenter. Since then, she's developed her personal profiles across multiple social media channels including Instagram, earning the Forbes Middle East Top 5 Influencers title in 2017/2018.
Nadya Hassan
Nadya (thefierce_nay) is a UAE national who is passionate about fashion and luxury. Her blog, The Fierce Diaries, is amongst one of the most influential in the UAE and features a travel section as well as others such as beauty, style, and jewellery. She has recently collaborated with luxury brands like Aigner and Gucci.
Kat Le Brasse
In her own words, “fashion is a lifestyle choice and travel is a necessity.” Follow Kat for a curated fashion and lifestyle portal detailing her journey as a Dubai-based Aussie who lives like every week is fashion week and the world is her runaway. Don’t forget to check out her blog too.
Download the list of Instagram influencers!
Mariam Yeya
Mariam (mrskeepa) has a passion for design which she used to launch a career in fashion after spending 12 years working as a media professional.
Her journey started with launching her personal style page which quickly gained a lot of traction. She also enrolled at Esmod Dubai to learn the technical side of the trade, after which she launched her atelier and pret-a-porter line, Mrs. Keepa in May 2016.
Teresa Karpinska
Teresa (teresa_karpinska) is a fashion stylist and art director based between Dubai and Stockholm. Her portfolio contains both conceptual fashion editorials for international fashion houses like CHANEL, DIOR, and Cartier as well as commercial advertisement campaigns for globally renowned brands such as Mercedes, Emirates Airlines, and Burj Al Arab hotel.
She won the Middle Eastern Fashion Awards Stylist of The Year award in 2015 and has since then, in the capacity of an influencer, fronted campaigns for Galleries Lafayette and Shiseido. Teresa also freelances for various publications in the Middle East.
Gemma Louise Deeks
Gemma (gemmalouisedeeks) is a freelance fashion editor and stylist who has worked in Dubai for over six year. She is a former fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar Arabia.
Louise Nichol
Louise (louisenichol) is a former editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar Arabia. She has overseen cover shoots with the likes of Queen Rania of Jordan, Rihanna, Janet Jackson and Kim Kardashian-West. Since leaving Harper's Bazaar, she has been pursuing a freelance career as a presenter, host, and consultant in the UAE.
In 2019, she as part of BVLGARI's Middle East campaign featuring women of achievement in support of its partnership with Save the Children. She was featured alongside regional celebrities Aseel, Tara Emad, Dorra Zarrouk, and Nadine Nassib Njeim.
Download the full list of Instagram influencers for free!
3 key guidelines for working with influencers
Now that you’ve found the influencer (or several) who fits with your brand identity and persona, someone you can see yourself and your brand building a human connection with, let’s talk about some basic guidelines for working with them.
1. Define your own KPIs before you define them for your influencer
What are you looking for from this influencer partnership? Is it simply for brand awareness and perception? Are you looking for an influencer who can create content that you can then leverage on your own social channels? Or are you expecting them to have a direct impact on increasing your sales?
If so, do you have a plan in place to track conversions from the influencer’s pages? And are your expectations in line with the average engagement rates of the influencer?
An influencer could have millions of followers without having a lot of influence over them. They could have bought likes and comments - i.e. fake engagement. They could also have a limited but highly targeted and engaged niche follower base that is ideal for your brand.
If you want to deliver on your influencer marketing campaign, you need to start by measuring your own needs and ensuring they align with your influencers and social media platforms of choice.
2. Be crystal clear about all aspects of the partnership...without infringing on your influencer’s creative license
While the connection you want to build is personal and human, don’t forget that this is ultimately a business transaction. For the partnership to achieve its maximum potential, you should ensure that you are on the same page as your Instagram influencer.
A formal agreement or contract is best practice as it allows you to clearly outline deliverables and gives the influencer a clear action plan that allows them to map out their content ideas and activities as best suits them without interfering with their creative autonomy.
Your agreement should cover:
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Duration of the partnership/campaign
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Expected compensation, if any (consider the format of payment - barter deal, fixed amount, or percentage of direct conversions?)
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Exclusivity (of brand affiliations, influencer content usage, etc.)
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Quantity and type of influencer content (photos, stories, carousels, videos, blog posts. etc.)
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Approval rights and process (indicate whether the content needs to pass through the brand manager for certain approvals before posting)
3. Closely monitor the analytics - pre, during, and post campaign
Don’t fall into the trap of using analytics only at the start of your influencer campaign. The role of analytics doesn’t end with vetting the influencer’s social performance and history before partnering up with them.
After both you and your influencer put a lot of hard work into the partnership, you need to be able to assess what worked and what didn’t and report on results.
It’s very important to have a powerful analytics tool that empowers you to analyze and optimize your influencer marketing performance.
Now that you have the main guidelines down, simply download the directory of Instagram influencers and get cracking on your next winning influencer marketing campaign!
