Before social media, it was hard to imagine that simply sharing one’s daily routines would be enough to become famous and influential.
Instagram, however, proved it possible. The sixth most popular social media platform globally, it has grown to have more than 1 billion active monthly users since its foundation 10 years ago.
Today many of those users spend hours daily following other people’s lives and contributing to their popularity and power. In what might be the most prominent Instagram influencer case, the platform played a key role in building a multimillion-dollar makeup business of Kylie Jenner, the U.S. television personality and entrepreneur.
Ukraine is no exception to the growing power of Instagram, with over 13.5 million users, or roughly a third of the country’s population. Only over the last year, the Ukrainian Instagram audience has grown by almost 3 million and there’s no sign of it slowing down any time soon.
Ukraine’s most popular user on Instagram is President Volodymyr Zelensky with 9.5 million followers. The next on the list are pop stars Nastia Kamenskykh and Nadya Dorofeeva, who both have over 5 million followers.
The ranking continues with a number of public figures, entertainers and lifestyle bloggers, who post about a wide range of topics such as beauty, fashion, nutrition, sports, art, business and raising children.
The Kyiv Post has talked to some of the most popular Ukrainian Instagram stars about their road to fame and public life.
One of the most successful Instagram bloggers in Ukraine Tanya Prentkovych talks to the Kyiv Post on Oct. 1, 2020. Prentkovych shares her life as a “business mom” on social media, running several businesses and raising her son. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Tanya Prentkovych
“Business mom,” reads the bio section of Tanya Prentkovych’s Instagram account.
She is indeed a mom and a businesswoman who combines both roles and inspires her audience for not giving up one over the other.
Prentkovych, 28, has more than 1 million followers, the audience she built over eight years.
The influencer’s Instagram journey began when she started using the platform as her personal diary: She published food recipes and shared about all kinds of experiences throughout her pregnancy. Later on, Prentkovych took her blogging to a new level of frankness when she talked about the challenges of going through divorce with ex-husband Orest Muriy, who is also an Instagram blogger and an entrepreneur.
By the time she reached 20,000 followers, Prentkovych felt a strong connection to her audience.
“My support, advisers and simply people who are able to listen,” the blogger wrote on Instagram.
Prentkovych now owns and runs the Tiger chain of Asian restaurants, PRentkovych creative agency and an online sex shop inSide.
As one of the most successful bloggers in Ukraine, who charges about Hr 50,000 ($1,800) for one advertising post, Prentkovych also teaches how to convert content into profit through her NewBiz school.
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Aside from her business life, a big chunk of Prentkovych’s content is dedicated to her five-year-old son Ivan, who she calls “the main man in her life.” She often posts about her views on children’s upbringing and shares touching or important moments of their mother-son relationship like the first night her son slept alone in his room, without her.
The blogger’s account mirrors her life. Apart from work and family, Prentkovych also posts recommendations on nutrition and beauty products, shares her internal struggles and achievements. As a confident woman in harmony with herself, Prentkovych dedicates a lot of her content to female empowerment and cultivating self-love in general.
Through the years, the blogger’s life changed drastically thanks to social media. Not only she made it a source of profit and traveled the world by collaborating with a number of brands, but she also made friends and brought together a supportive community of followers.
“I love Instagram,” Prentkovych said.
One of the most recognizable bloggers in Ukraine with 3.4 million followers on Instagram, Yan Gordienko, known as Yan Go, shows his Instagram profile, as he talks to the Kyiv Post on Sept. 30, 2020. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Yan Go
Yan Gordienko, known under his nickname Yan Go, is one of the most recognizable bloggers in Ukraine with 3.4 million followers on Instagram and 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Being just 21, he is also one of the youngest social media personalities.
Gordienko was born and raised in Kramatorsk, a city of 157,000 residents in Donetsk Oblast. However, after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, the blogger’s family was forced to move west. Because his family was in a tough financial situation, Gordienko wanted to help earn money at least for his own needs.
A fan of shooting videos, 16-year-old Gordienko at the time decided to give a shot to blogging. He started making funny sketches and let’s play videos (documenting the playthrough of a video game) for YouTube and Vine.
Gordienko’s parents didn’t take his aspiration seriously. But he soon proved himself by gaining 50,000 YouTube subscribers in a bit more than half a year.
The blogger turned out to be a natural: He enjoyed creating content as much as he loved the newly-achieved fame. Meanwhile, his channel kept gaining momentum — some of his videos now have over 400 million views.
“I’m never tired of popularity,” Gordienko told the Kyiv Post. “I love it. I can’t imagine how it could be any other way.”
Gordienko’s audience from YouTube followed him on Instagram. Now he has more than 3.4 million of them.
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On Instagram, the influencer continues to post sketches and goofy videos. He also shares his adventurous life that is full of hobbies through pictures and videos keeping his post descriptions short.
Gordienko often showcases his favorite activities including traveling, surfing, golfing, diving, playing tennis, DJing, and playing the piano.
Thanks to his popularity, the blogger collaborated with such world-famous brands as Twix, McDonald’s, BMW and Calvin Klein.
He says that advertising these brands are just some of the many benefits he enjoys as a blogger.
“Everyone wants to work with you,” he says.
Another opportunity his popularity gave Gordienko was the invitation to host Ukrainian travel show “Orel i Reshka“ (Heads and Tails). For about a year, the blogger travelled the world to explore some of the most beautiful cities, including San Francisco, Miami, New York, Las Vegas, Venice and more.
Gordienko says that the secret of his success lies in his honesty and sincerity. His life on Instagram is no different than the real one. On some of his videos he looks silly or awkward because he says he’s not ashamed to do anything in front of the camera.
Being himself on Instagram “was my dream and I achieved it,” he says.
Instagram star Sarah Gurinova, known under her profile name Sarah B.FP, talks to the Kyiv Post on Oct. 3, 2020. Gurinova’s edgy fashion style and eye-catching pictures won her an audience of more than 652,000 followers. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Sarah B.FP
Sarah Gurinova, known on Instagram as Sarah B.FP, is easily recognizable for her key features: perfectly straight eyeliner, stylish streetwear outfits and bright hair colors.
Many think her appearance resembles U.S. actress and model Zoë Kravitz — a comparison that Gurinova considers complimentary.
Gurinova, 23, has a degree in architecture bur her main focus right now is blogging.
She has reached over 652,000 followers on Instagram mainly thanks to her eye-catching but minimalist photographs, edgy clothing style and a model-like appearance.
However, the blogger says she has never paid to advertise her account — a widespread practice among influencers for boosting numbers — all the followers came to her out of natural interest. She believes that she attracted such a big audience because of her individual style.
“We are a product of what surrounds and inspires us — we need to be able to combine it all, not just follow a pattern,” Gurinova told the Kyiv Post.
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The blogger started her Instagram activity in 2015 in the southwestern Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi, where she was born. She was an introverted child. To compensate for the lack of social contact, Gurinova dove into social networks at the age of 12.
At first, the blogger didn’t publish her photos. Instead, she shared her poems anonymously.
“I felt like Hannah Montana,” she jokes.
Later on, Gurinova did more, especially when she moved to Kyiv in 2018.
The influencer says she doesn’t approach blogging as a job since she loves it for being able to express her creativity.
“I enjoy the whole process of taking a photo, editing it, the selection of outfits, locations — I like it incredibly,” she said.
To share her skills and to profit, Gurinova gives online lessons on photo shooting and editing.
However, soon she plans to make a bigger impact by making YouTube videos about her experience of struggling as an introvert and finding her true self thanks to social media.
The owner of outfit rental service Oh My Look and the co-owner of G.Bar, a popular beauty salon chain, Lera Borodina, is followed by 263,000 people on Instagram. (Courtesy)
Lera Borodina
Entrepreneur Lera Borodina has never chased fame. Yet here she is, with 263,000 followers on Instagram.
“My result at the moment is the natural interest of the audience to me and to my lifestyle,” Borodina told the Kyiv Post.
Borodina, 33, is the owner of outfit rental service Oh My Look and the co-owner of G. Bar, a popular beauty salon chain.
“Over the last seven years, I have been juggling many roles,” she says. “I’m a serial entrepreneur, the mother of two daughters, a girlfriend of my boyfriend, a desperate friend of my, world’s best, girlfriends, a woman who is trying to love herself not only in theory.”
All that experience is reflected through Borodina’s Instagram account. The influencer shares her thoughts on running business, maintaining the work-life balance, on friendship and family relationships, raising kids, traveling, health, style, self-love, society’s pressure and much more.
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For Borodina, social media has always been a part of a person’s identification, so she is blogging without an assistance of any marketing strategists.
“The text, videos, and grammatical errors you make are a part of a person’s identity,” she says. “I do not understand how you can delegate part of the personality.”
Borodina says that although she’s a blogger, she limits her time on social media to about 2 hours a day, as she tries to follow a so-called digital diet. She believes that content found on social networks should be carefully selected, just like food. It is important not to consume junk content that satisfies but does not develop, she says.
“Instagram has an impact on a person,” she says. “It can both inspire and pressure mentally.”
Borodina enjoys the attention she gets and says that being true and sincere to her audience is extremely important for her. However, she says that everyone should always remember that an Instagram profile is only a part of a person’s real life.
