For the seventh consecutive year, YNaija brings you its annual ranking of the most powerful young persons under the age of 40 who are getting things done in the social media space. From influential photographers commissioned worldwide to celebrities making moves from sheer clout, these are the 10 that you should be following.

Ademola Adetona

Ademola ‘Expoze’ Adetona started his career back when he was a student at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) with a magazine that revolved around campus culture. His network within the school and outside led to commissions from private companies seeking to find an audience among university students. Years later and Adetona has become a leading figure in the digital media industry, co-convening the first Lagos Digital Summit and overseeing thousands of viral campaigns across Africa. Adetona has helped everyone from Coca Cola to wealthy men of God find new ways to engage and excite their audiences.

Femi Bakre

At this point, Femi Bakre and Kraks, the media platform he co-owns have become synonymous with a certain strain of new media in Nigeria; the user-generated aggregator. Bakre understands what the average Nigerian wants when they connect to the internet. Bakre seeks to replicate this success in other new media platforms through a private diversification programme that sees the company move towards the app ecosystem. In the last year, Kraks TV has grown into a digital marketing agency and established a UK arm in a bid to connect Africa and Europe through comedy.

Yagazie Emezi

A visual artist and documentary photographer, Yagazie Emezi is a recipient of the 2018 inaugural Creative Bursary Award from Getty Images and a selected participant for the New York Portfolio Review this year. Her work has appeared in Vogue, The New York Times and TIME magazine. For proof of her awesomeness and talent, look no further than her Instagram page where her followers number up to 139,000 and on her website yagazieemezi.com.

Emma oh ma God

Born Emmanuel Edunjobi, this multitalented act has been reposted by singer Chris Brown on Instagram where he reigns supreme as king of skits. A singer, actor, instrumentalist and all-round entertainer, some of Emma oh ma God’s viral content include a parody of the Teletubbies in Ibadan and a hilarious reimagining of Ciara’s Level Up video. Companies and brands pay good money to reach his over 500,000 Instagram followers.

Tunde Ednut

Any and everyone who spends some time on Instagram would have come across Tunde Ednut. Tunde’s influence is such that a good number of blogs get stories off his Instagram page. With over 1.1million followers, Tunde says he is not a blogger and describes himself as “The Shade Room of Africa” – an appellation his Instagram feed proves. He gained popularity by making a name in the music industry. Though that didn’t go as planned and he received some jibes for what some argue was a failed music career, he leveraged on this fame to build what is arguably one of Nigeria’s most engaging social media platform.

Maraji

Gloria ‘Maraji’ Oloruntobi is the queen of Instagram comedy skits. No other person comes close. Her asking price for sponsored content is at least 500,000 Naira and shes’s still got a lot of room to evolve. Taking advantage of the opportunities on the Google toolkit box, Maraji creates unique videos that skewer popular culture in fresh and immensely funny ways. These short videos score an average of 300,000 views on Instagram and her followers’ count is almost at the 1 million mark.

Mark Angel Comedy

In a strange twist that only the internet can pull off, a huge contender for some of the most consumed video content on all of Africa isn’t churned out from Lagos or Joburg, but from the South-South town of Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers. Thanks to star attractions, consisting of the trio of Emmanuella, Mark Angel and Denilson Igwe, the Mark Angel Comedy YouTube channel has since hit 3 million subscribers with each video scoring about 1 million views.

Chidi Okereke

Chidi ‘Chydee’ Okereke calls himself a digital communications professional but that is just fancy talk for someone who helps brands and public services connect with their target audiences using social and digital media. He is editor in chief of Lists.ng, a platform for usable, viral content and team lead at Thisruption communications, a digital marketing agency. On Twitter where his opinions are most likely to be aired, Okereke has amassed an impressive 66,000 followers.

Tiwalola Olanubi

The founder of DottsMediaHouse, a social media marketing agency, Tiwalola ‘Tj Dotts’ Olanubi has created and harnessed the power of digital media, influencer marketing and social media management to create vibrant, thriving brands. Since DottsMediaHouse started in 2014, Olanubi has worked with BlackBerry, Access Bank and Amstel Malta. Last year, Olanubi helped telecommunications multinational Etisalat Nigeria execute a smooth transition into a new brand name 9Mobile.

Oluwagbeminiyi Osidipe

Social media strategist Gbeminiyi Osidipe has managed the creative consulting accounts of several high profile businesses including Radisson Blu Lagos, COPA Lagos and Promo-Printing. Part of the new school of advertising executives who understand the consumer has evolved, Osodipe with her Venn creative agency advocates for the gospel of tailored marketing and native advertisements that are specific to proven interests.