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Privacy, Draggings & Fame: What It's Like Having Over 10,000 Followers

My name is Annique Simpson, and I’m a Twitter addict. Seriously. Despite a busy ‘real’ life, I regularly find myself spending hours on the social media platform, checking my timeline for the latest gossip and memes, chatting with friends and posting random stuff.

Not that many people see what I post. I’ve a modest following – less than 1,000 – and have never had the pleasure of ‘going viral’. While I’ve learnt to live with this, the steady rise of the social media influencer has made the pull of being Twitter or Insta-famous too strong to resist for some users.

And with celebrity influencers able to command hundreds of thousands of dollars for sponsored social media posts – or $1.2 million (£987,000) for a single Instagram post if you’re Kylie Jenner – it’s easy to see why.

But it’s not only mega celebs who are securing their influencer bag. Social media users with over 1,000 followers can earn £40 per post, according to research by Takumi, an influencer marketing app provider. Reach 10,000 or more followers, you could see your earnings hit the five figures.

But what is it like to have 10,000 followers hanging on to your every word or photo? I spoke to five black women who have reached these heady heights to find out.