Instagram has provided a platform for social influencers to create a false sense of wants and needs among young adult women

Abstract 

This conference paper examines the social media app, Instagram and how it has provided the ideal platform for social influencers to create a false sense of wants and needs among young adult women today. It delves into the reasons why Instagram provides a place in which it makes this possible. The factors that contribute to a user becoming an influencer, and the profound effect the images uploaded on this platform have on women and their desires. The paper will disclose some of the biggest social influencers active on Instagram today and the impact they are having on young women and the decisions they make as a result of being exposed to these glimpses of influencers’ lives. The paper will consider the numerous effects influencers have on young adult women, from the clothes they purchase, to the holidays they go book, the fitness trends they partake in and more. The paper will also consider how the images portrayed on Instagram do not always portray the reality of the influencer; they are created to reflect a certain image they want followers to perceive.

Keywords:

Social Media, Instagram, Identity, Influencer, Image

Thesis statement:

Instagram has provided a platform for social influencers to create a false sense of wants and needs among young adult women.

Social media platform, Instagram, has provided a platform for social influencers to create a false sense of wants and needs among young adult women by providing influencers (including celebrities) with a platform to portray a lifestyle filled with everything someone could or should possibly desire. This includes everything from holidays, fashion, cars, beauty and health products and procedures that the impressionable and easily-influenced young adult women yearn for — to be more like the influencers everyone admires so much. Firstly I will discuss what a social influencer is and give examples of a few of the most popular ones today. Secondly I will discuss how influencers use the social media platform Instagram to achieve this status. Thirdly the effect these influencers have on young women’s wants and needs. Finally I will discuss how young women shape their identity and self-worth is shaped by influencers.

It is not a new concept that young adult women, who might arguably be easily influenced, look up to others who seemingly “have it all.” The Kardashian-Jenner family craze is a good example of this. The family who originally rose to fame with a reality show based on their everyday lives now has a cult following of young adult women across all their social media platforms, including Instagram. In turn, the members of this family all make a profitable living from their social media platforms by promoting products on their accounts.

“…the Kardashian-Jenner family members can bring in a sizable income with very minimal effort just by using their social media accounts,” (Kirst, S, 2015).

The Kardashian-Jenner family is just one example. There are numerous young attractive people on Instagram that aren’t classified as a celebrity, but have just as much influence by simply portraying a life that makes others envious. Back before Web 2.0, young adults used to seek information about these people in magazines and television interviews. However, the introduction of social media, in particular the Instagram platform, has allowed young adult women to gain a more in-depth insight into these people aka influencers and their world by building a connection with them that was not available to them previously.

Another good example of a well-known social influencer on Instagram today is Australian fitness guru Kayla Itsines, who has impacted women’s fitness with her Bikini Body Guides. She has a huge following of 9.5 million resulting from the BBG fitness movement which has seen women around the world upload their weight loss progress photos depicting the results they’ve had by using Kayla’s guides. A whole online community has evolved from this and Kayla has a high interaction rate with followers by reposting their progress photos on her account.

Whether young adult women interact with these influencers or simply double tap the photo to like it, they are connected in a way they never were before. Young adults are now privy to their world, to what they get up to on a daily basis, where they go for their morning coffee, which F45 they exercise at, what they eat for breakfast, where they go on holiday and what brand of clothing they wear to that destination. “Instagram provides information about a vast amount of other people, what they are doing, and how they are feeling.” (Vries, Moller, Wieringa, Eigenraam and Hamelink, 2017, p.3).

If followers admire an influencer’s perfect skin, they can purchase the skincare range they use, if they admire their physique, then, they can look at their Instagram profile and see what exercise program they do, according to what appears on their feed that is. For example, if someone wanted lips like Kylie Jenner, they can purchase her Kylie Cosmetics Lip Kit. If someone desired to have the same physique as Kayla Itsines, they can download her Bikini Body Guide.

Unlike magazines and television, which young adult women solely relied on in the past to keep up-to-date with influencers, social media platforms like Instagram allow participants to be visible through their self-created profile and links to another network of connections. These connections are simply made by hitting the follow button. It is why Instagram is quite different to other forms of social media (particularly Facebook and LinkedIn) as it does not require someone to have a large friendship or acquaintance group to begin with, in order to grow a significant following. People simply have to have an interest in a certain account’s content. The use of hashtags on Instagram has made it easy for people to find images and accounts with specific themes or content that pertains to their interests. Because all Instagram influencers’ profiles are set to public, they are visible to everyone which has allowed people to easily connect with them on a more intimate level for the first time ever.

However, these influencers are quite insignificant without interaction from their extensive following

The text Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites (boyd 2006) states that the role of followers assist greatly in the building of a person’s online profile and the more connections we have, the greater opportunity there is to interact with others; and this rings true for Influencers, who all have a significant following and therefore have more credibility and clout over someone who just has a handful of followers.

Further to this, Donath and boyd (2004) talks about the importance of growing a network.

“Being the bridge between two otherwise disconnected people or groups is a strategically important role (Burt 2000) particularly if there is valuable information or opportunities to be shared between them. The Bridge, being connected to these disparate groups, has access to a broad range of information.” (p.71).

In this case, Instagram is the “bridge” that allows people to exchange information through images and a sentence or two that captions the image. This was simply not possible before. Instagram has allowed people with similar interests to come together from all over the world. It allows them to share ideas, advice and influence others with the images they capture and share. There is a lot of competition when it comes to Instagram as there are so many accounts to choose from to follow. The content shared by the Influencer needs to remain relevant and interesting in order to retain and increase their following.

The connection between followers and influencers was deemed so important that Instagram debut the all-important blue tick of verification of an account belonging to a celebrity or social influencer. Introduced in August 2017, this tick ensured that users were following and interacting with the “real” influencer. An article produced by UK’s Metro at this time explained the tick as being important for the Instagram platform:

“Verified means that the profile that has been confirmed by the social media platform that it is the official profile for that person, or brand that it represents. This is particularly useful for famous people, so you know you are following the person you intended to and not some phoney.” (Moloney, 2017)

This blue tick was a way of giving influencers authenticity, however it does not necessarily mean their posts will be as well. A lot of influencers are in fact paid to feature products, services, etc. to post on their Instagram.

Kirst discusses how at first glance, Kylie Jenner’s Instagram looks like homogenous photos of the influencer, but there’s much more to it.

“…when you look a little closer – and read the captions on her photos – you realize the pictures can actually be broken into two categories: Gratuitous or endorsed. From waist trainers to false eyelashes, from fashion lines to mattresses, Kylie does not discriminate.”

So, although these influencers might not actually use these products, they portray them in a way that they do. However it would be unfair to say that all social influencers use their position to promote everything and anything for money.

Either way, these posts from influencers have a powerful effect on young adult women, giving them a false sense of want and need to buy the product or use the service regardless.

As of March 1, 2017 social media influencers were made to be more transparent about what products were advertising, and what products they were promoting because they genuinely used and liked.

“…under new advertising standards, social media “influencers” have to clearly label their sponsored content. It means that, for the first time in Australia, you will have a pretty good idea whether the post in your Instagram feed has been paid for by a brand. The new code by the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) covers all social media platforms, and any kind of social media user.” (Putill, 2017)

However, these products are still being featured by an influencer in a way that make followers desire them, thus creating a false sense of wants and needs.

For example, you can practice yoga in an old t-shirt and unflattering bike pants and get the same benefit from the workout as someone wearing the latest Lululemon attire.

Lululemon even have brand ambassadors that are active in the yoga scene. So the majority of yoga posts you find on Instagram are associated with the brand which further reinforces this image and a false sense of needing the clothing to partake in the activity.

A picture can convey much more than words which is why the Instagram platform is so effective. It is different to other social media platforms available today as it is predominately image-based, with text being secondary. As a result, people put more time and effort, not to mention filters, into getting the perfect photo to portray the moment in time, which will have a bigger impact on followers and make them want to buy that dress, drink that coffee from the café or visit a certain day spa for a particular facial, so that they too, can live like the person they look up to – that is, the influencer.

Even though it is focussed on images, people are able to leave comments and direct message people, and just recently post live updates, which allows for a lot more interactions between users than when the platform was first released.

Although the tagging feature is available to let followers know the place they are at and the brand of clothes etc. that feature in the image, it is the comments and direct message capability of Instagram that allows them to further communicate with the influencer to ask more about the clothing they might be wearing in the image. For example, what shop, what size they are wearing, if it’s good quality etc. all the typical questions someone would have before making a purchase. It works with everything the influencer would post about, whether it is a facial they had a particular day spa, the skincare they use on a regular basis or the gym class they just posted about attending. Due to an influencer’s extensive following and the trust they build via the two-way interactive relationship allows consumers to feel as if they are making a more informed decision when making a purchase. Influencers are deemed a credible source for information. (Glucksman, 2017).

This is why people take their advice or simply what they have to say on-board and immediately feel confident in purchasing or trying whatever the influencer has posted about.

Regardless of whether these followers actively participate by commenting, liking or direct messaging their connections, they still make up part of this community and can still be influenced by what is posted by the influencers they follow.

Pearson describes this interaction well in All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks with the statement:

“Performance in mediated spaces, such as those found in Web 2.0 and SNS, is an interlocution (Burnett, 2000). As such, it requires willing and engaged participation in mediated exchanges. Whilst it is true that users can lurk, even watching a performance constitutes a form of engagement.” (Pearson, 2009)

So, although followers might not interact with an influencer, it is possible to see an impressive, carefully filtered image that captures attention. In this instance, it could be a photo of an influencer at a new bar, you can then ‘follow’ the Instagram account for that bar and then later go to the bar with a sense of urgency just because it appeared on an influencers account, not necessarily because you really need to.

Overall influencers portray a life of almost perfection, in which “everyday” young adult women aspire to. By letting followers into their worlds, influencers are giving them desires that they might not have even thought of before or realised that they needed. A lot of what is seen is a highlights reel of the influencer’s life, mundane tasks, or actions are photographed in a way that makes it looks far more exciting than it is portrayed through filters.

More often than not, the typical young adult women feel the need to live up to these unrealistic expectations after following the influencers’ accounts.

“Individuals compare themselves and their lives to others based on the information they receive about these others. Given the vast amounts of social information that social media offer, it is not surprising that university students said in interviews that they compared themselves to others on social media.” (Doyle et al., 2017)

However they will be persuaded to use the same beauty product, or perhaps undertake the influencer’s fitness campaign in order to be more like them in some shape, way or form or perhaps be inspired to pursue the same career or have the same ambitions as someone they follow.

In the paper entitled Public displays on connection (Donath and boyd, 2004) it reaffirms this and touches on how these platforms and displays facilitate these connections. It states:

“Social networks – our connections with other people – have many important functions. They are sources of emotional and financial support, and of information about jobs, other people, and the world at large. The types of social networks that develop in different communities have a profound effect on the way people work, the opportunities they have, and the structure of their daily life.” (Donath and boyd, 2004, p.1).

Instagram definitely provides the ideal platform for connections and with people that we normally would not be able to connect with before its existence. As a result, like Donath and Boyd said, it has a “profound effect on daily life,” (Donath and boyd, 2004).

Social media platforms in general have produced a generation of people who document their everyday living on their Instagram accounts. It is a common occurrence to see people publicly taking selfies with their cocktails, at the beach, or out shopping, similar to those influencers they so eagerly follow. As a result, a lot of young adults today base their worth upon the number of likes and followers they have on their Instagram accounts.

To draw on Pearson’s reading again entitled, All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks it refers to this display of people’s lives on social media as the glass bedroom. The text states that:

“The metaphor can take a number of forms, but at its core it describes a bedroom with walls made of glass. Inside the bedroom, private conversations and intimate exchanges occur, each with varying awareness of distant friends and strangers moving past transparent walls that separate groups from more deliberate and constructed ‘outside’ displays. The glass bedroom itself is not an entirely private space, nor a true backstage space as Goffman articulated, though it takes on elements of both over the course of its use.” (Pearson, 2009.)

This reading gives a rather accurate description of Instagram and the way people, in particular Influencers utilise the social media platform in a way that sees them only sharing images that depict them in a light they want to be viewed, allowing them to control what is presented to the audience.

As a result, social media and Instagram in particular is often referred to as someone’s “highlights reel” – people are viewing all the good things happening in someone’s life and this is not always accurate.

Many young adult women of today have a desire to be an influencer themselves. Instagram has seen the emergence of people making a living from sponsored posts. Influencers get paid by companies to feature products on their in order to market them to their extensive following. This creates a false sense of needs and wants among the young adults following them. While achieving celebrity status might not be within reach for most people, it is more likely they can be like their favourite influencer and have “it all” – just like them.

Lifestyle envy is the psychological term that explains the feeling that someone gets when they see a picture on Instagram that they want. It is this comparison young adult women feel when scrolling through Instagram that gives them a false sense of needs and wants.

Young adult women do not need things, or products to be happy, but Instagram is shaped in a way that influences them to believe they do.

As a result, Instagram has indeed provided a platform for social influencers to create a false sense of wants and needs among young adult women. It is almost forced upon us, sometimes subliminally to want what they have and more.

 

References:

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Carbone, A. Wolf Millionaire, The psychology behind your Instagram post. Retrieved from http://blog.wolfmillionaire.com/psychology-behind-instagram-post/

Donath, J., & boyd, d. (2004). Public Displays of Connection. BT Technology Journal, 22(4), 71-82. Retrieved from

http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/socialnetdisplay.draft.pdf

Glucksman, M (2017). The rise of social media influencer marketing on lifestyle branding: A case study of Lucie Fink. https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/153/2017/12/08_Lifestyle_Branding_Glucksman.pdf

Moloney, A. (2017, August 17). What does the blue tick on Instagram mean. Metro. Retrieved from

http://metro.co.uk/2017/08/11/what-does-the-blue-tick-on-instagram-mean-6843460/

Pearson, E. (2009). All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks. First Monday. 14(3). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2162/2127

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Vries, Moller, Wieringa, Eigenraam and Hamelink (2017). Social comparison as the thief of joy: Emotional consequences of viewing strangers’ Instagram posts. Media Psychology. Volume 21 (issue 2). Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2016.1267647?src=recsys

Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. (1999). Net surfers don’t ride alone: Virtual community as community. In P. Kollock & M. Smith (Eds.), Communities and Cyberspace. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/netlab/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Net-Surfers-Dont-Ride-Alone-Virtual-Community-as-Community.pdf

 

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The Social Capital of SMIs in the Consumerist Realm

Abstract:
            Social Media Influencers (SMIs) play a growing and important role within the consumerist realm. The wealth of SMIs social capital lies in the number of followers they have who are loyal patrons to the SMIs brand. Companies have realised they need to take advantage of the power of SMIs’ social capital to successfully advertise their goods and services in the modern market. Specifically, paid partnerships and brand collaborations are the main avenue that SMIs and brands are optimizing their reach. SMI and micro-celebrity Sarah Stevenson, popularly known as Sarah’s Day on social network sites, is used as an example to portray the way these marketing techniques are launched on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. It is evident from the examples provided, complimented by scholarly theory that it is mutually beneficial, financially and social capitally, for SMIs and enterprises to work together.
Introduction:

The virtual revolution through the rise of social networking opened an entire new perspective on online commerce. Now, more than ten years on from the birth of social media networking, the fine-tuned tools of technology are beginning to create a market shift in world of advertising. The market is now saturated with advertising plastered across every orifice, which is desensitizing customers. It is becoming clearer that traditional forms of media promotion, such as television, newspaper, radio and magazine advertising are quickly becoming outdated. This has left establishments scrambling to find the next wave of marketing techniques to sell their latest products and services while re-finding the attention of their consumers, leading to partnerships with Social Media Influencers (SMIs) to access their community of followers. SMIs are the new form of “micro-celebrity,” exposing their personal brand online to their thousands of faithful followers (Khamis et al., 2016; Hearn & Schoenoff, 2016). The term “micro-celebrity” is now becoming synonymous with SMIs and is defined as “mind-set and a set of practices that courts attention through insights into its practitioners’ private lives, and a sense of realness that renders their narratives, their branding, both accessible and intimate” (Khamis et al., 2016, p.202). Companies now realise the social capital that SMIs create through their followers can highly valuable in branding and marketing. This paper will discuss the importance of optimizing SMIs community of social capital to create effective and successful sales for brands on social networks such as Instagram and YouTube.

 

Social Networks and Social Media Influencers:

With social networking becoming ubiquitous within our lives its capabilities have a powerful influence over how we construct our existence. Whether that is entertainment, socialization, play or information sharing, social networking sites have become the platform where an increasing amount of our activity plays out (Langlois, 2016). These days, a potential “worldwide audience” is at the fingertips of anyone that has to access to a smartphone (Dijkmands et al., 2015, p.58). SMIs have capitalized on this possibility by exposing themselves to the online world and in return for their “micro-celebrity” status they have received an overwhelming response of support in the form of followers. More and Lingam (2017) define SMIs as

“any person who reviews product, posts a blog about a new product, any industry expert or any person who has a potential to influence people” (p.1).

Therefore a SMI can be anyone with social media platforms that have a few thousand followers to a few hundred thousand followers. Influencers are formed over time, not born instantly, through designing themselves on their social networks through their own original and reliable personal brand (Hearn & Schoenhoff, 2016, p.194). Although it may be thought that the basis SMIs influence lacks credibility and depth, Freberg et al. (2011) found in a survey that SMIs were believed to have similar qualities to CEOs. SMIs were “perceived as smart, ambitious, productive, poised, power-oriented, candid, and dependable” (Freberg et al., 2011, p.91). Clearly, through their qualities and intense community of following, SMIs are held to a high regard from their audiences. Most importantly to companies promoting their products and services SMIs “help potential customers make a buying decision by influencing [their] opinion, through social networking” (More & Lingam, 2017, p.1). This makes it vital for brands to work with influencers to promote their goods and services with the goal of having a positive impact on marketing and sales.

 

Business on Social Media:

Many companies, and their customers, see it as essential to have a presence on Social Networking Sites (SNS). In Kaske et al.’s (2012) studies, it was even found that companies that have a social media presence tend to have “higher customer retention, better customer communication, potential avoidance of outrage, sales increases, and greater reach” (p. 3904). Although not all businesses are based economically online, having a presence to engage with customers is shown to improve “customer retention, customer communication, and outrage avoidance” which becomes an asset termed ‘customer equity” (Kaske et. Al., 2012, p. 3901; p. 3903). Media saturation in today’s social networking systems, sites and platforms has lead to collaboration with SMIs to optimize their community of followers’ trust, commercializing the attention economy. SMIs now hold the loyal attention of a large number of people on social media so it is simple to understand the reasoning behind the drive to work with them. Thayne (2012) continues that

“in contemporary societies we are confronted with more information than can possibly be fully processed; therefore, attention economics emphasizes the significance of designing and developing methods to swiftly and effectively direct attention in order to deliver the right advertisements to the desired target market” (p.2).

This rethought process has been accessed by optimizing on the social capital of SMIs to market their products through avenues such as paid partnerships and collaborations. Within this essay this will be displayed using a local Australian SMI called Sarah’s Day who has recently been optimizing on her strong social capital.

Defining Social Capital:

Keely (2007) simply explains that social capital can be thought of as a common set of understandings and values within a community or society, allowing groups to develop levels of trust and provide an environment where they can work together if they are so inclined. Katz et al., (2004) states that “[strong] community ties are linked to intimacy, voluntary involvement, frequency of communication, feelings of companionship, knowing each other in multiple contexts, enduring ties, mutual ties, having one’s needs met, and shared social characteristics. Virtual communities and online environments deliver all of these” (p.337). Until the rise of the Internet and particularly SNS, societies were not able to form these intimate ties with such a large scale of individuals negating the boundaries or distant, race, time-zone’s and even language. This is because in because pre-Internet social capital had a stronger tie to spatial proximity (Katz et al., 2004). The mechanics to allow communication and the relationship formation outside of spatial proximity were tied to telephone and mail communication, which deterred the formation of strong ties, widespread asynchronous communication and community construction. SNS have allowed astronomical growth of social capital because connections are “based more on common ideas, interests, and occupations” rather than purely location (Katz, 2004, p.345). Koput (2010) believes that the expansion of social capital is rooted in repeated contact, which “must be ongoing, meaning that it is subject to occurring again at some time, although such a time can be indefinite” (p.3). SNS allows fluid and repeated access to promote communication with ease.

 

Discussing SMIs and Social Capital Optimization through Marketing:

It is clear that SMIs, through the power of the affordances of social media in a technological driven world, are able to gain an extreme amount of social capital online. SMIs have created virtual communities by promoting their personal brand and attracting like-minded people to follow them. Whether that community be based around fitness, fashion, beauty, sport, gaming, cooking or even mindfulness, SMI’s are tapping in on the variety of the Internet to extradite their niche group of followers. The success of SMIs and a method to measure their social capital is based “on factors such as number of daily hits on a blog, number of times a post is shared, or number of followers” (Freberg et al., 2011, p.90).

 

Figure 1: Sarahs Day Instagram account (Stevenson, May 2018c)

To expand on the methods utilized by SMIs and provide industry examples I will use a well-known Australian SMI called Sarah’s Day (@sarahs_day) and formally named Sarah Stevenson who is a New South Wales based Instagrammer, YouTuber and self-titled content creator. Originally Sarah started her YouTube channel in 2013 and has grown her “micro-celebrity” status to now having over four hundred thousand followers on Instagram and over six hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube (www.youtube.com/SarahsDay). Sarah engages frequently on accounts posting daily on Instagram, interacting multiple times a day on her Instagram stories and posting videos on YouTube channel every three days. She has been chosen as a case study due to her recent surge of working with other businesses for mutually benefiting profit through paid partnerships and collaborations.

Sarah is a vlogger, therefore someone who creates vlogs which Gao et al. (2010) claims is rooted from the amalgamation of the two separate words video and blog. It is obvious that video’s “can show a lot more than text, [therefore] vlogs provide a much more expressive medium for vloggers than text-blogs in which to communicate with the outer world” (Gao et al., 2010, p.2). Sarah Days’ niche in the building of the personal brand that she attracts is females who are interested in holistic health, fitness and cooking. She has built a community online from her followers around the world which she calls her #sezzysquad. Sarah’s Day clearly has created a strong social capital emphasized by Katz et al.’s (2004) belief that “[the] functions of virtual communities to foster communities of interest, information spread, and equality of status all work to enhance social capital, despite their lack of direct physical orientation” (p.325). It is Katz et. al’s (2004) belief that more recently, because of the common basis of ideas, occupations and interests, that ties and relationships have become more “organic.” Because Sarah’s community are people that follow her for her health and fitness advice alluding to the fact that their following is based in common interests, it is clear that Sarah has built a strong community with hundreds of thousands of followers.

 

 

In more recent months Sarah’s Day has proved Katz et al.’s (2004) thought that an increase of social capital online will transfer to a “rise in offline contact, civic engagement, and a sense of community, and the other traditional forms of social capital” (p. 325).  Although the financial aspect of companies alliance with this SMI haven’t been made public, Sarah’s Day has recently been working with White Fox Boutique, an online clothing store and iHerb.com an online health food store (Stevenson, 2018a; Stevenson, 2017; Stevenson, 2016). I will use Sarah’s Day affiliations with brands through collaborations and paid partnerships to understand the mutual financial benefit of optimizing the social capital of SMIs networks.

Paid Partnerships:

An article in the economist detailing the finances behind paid partnerships proves that companies are exploiting influencers’ social capital. It is now believed that “[hiring] such influencers allows companies to reach a vast network of potential customers” (“Celebrities’ endorsement,” 2016, para. 2). Paid partnerships or sponsored posts are a relatively new realm in the social media world however social networking sites are starting to form rules around this area to ensure that followers understand what is authentic and what is paid. Frier (2017) explains that in the past year “[influencers] are supposed to signal when they are being paid via hashtags on their posts that say #ad or #sponsored” (para. 4). In October 2016, Sarah’s day posted a video that she sneakily said was brought to subscribers by iHerb.com, meaning that she was paid to publish this vlog. Although it may have aligned with her content, she didn’t outwardly and clearly announced that it was a paid partnership because many influencer “simply fail to note the relationship at all out of concern they’ll appear inauthentic” (Frier, 2017, para. 4). As Hearn and Schoenhoff (2016) state, “[the] pursuit of “authentic” promotional connections with fans can include celebrities posting “candid” photos of “everyday life” in brand- name outfits on Instagram, or mentioning a product they have encountered on Twitter” (p.204). This example is shown by Sarah’s Day underwhelming emphasis to mention the paid partnership and over emphasis of stating that these are products she would usually buy however she wanted to make it more accessible to all of her fans by using an online store.

The perks of these partnerships can be astronomically and financially beneficial for the SMI involved. According to the Economist a SMI with between half a million to a million subscribers can be paid up to twenty-five thousand dollars for a sponsored YouTube video (“Celebrities’ endorsement,” 2016), that amount can even soar to three hundred thousand dollars per video on the basis of having over seven million subscribers. Although that amount may seem astronomical as Freberg et al. (2011) claims, SMIs “represent a new type of independent third party endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media” (p.90). The trust built from the social capital of Sarah’s Days’ following has a positive impact on the iHerb.com by providing a positive review of their products and service shifting the desired eyes of the attention economy onto their business.

Figure 2: The Economist detailing differentiation of compensation for SMIs for each platform dependent on the size of their social capital through the number of followers they have (“Celebrities’ endorsement,” 2016)

 

According to the statistics of this particular video review, as of March 27th, 2018 Sarah’s recording had over one hundred and sixty thousand views, which lead to over two hundred shares and provided her with over two hundred and fifty subscriptions (Stevenson, 2016). The number of subscriptions and shares driven from this particular video proves that mutually beneficial relationship for both company and SMI.

Brand Collaborations:

SMIs’ CEO like qualities are helping them realize the benefits of being business savvy where they hold the power in a knowledge economy (Freberg et al., 2011; Crogan & Kingsley, 2012). Therefore, another form of alliance with companies is shown through official collaboration. This is when an SMI works with a brand to collectively create a product from that brand associated with the influencer SNS pseudonym. Recently there have been many examples of this however in the case of Sarah’s Day in recent months she has collaborated with White Fox Boutique, an online clothing shop. Sarah announced on February 27th, 2018 that she had spent half a year “designing and developing a 15 piece active wear collection [from scratch],” with the online clothing boutique (Stevenson, 2018a). The line gained so much attention from her followers that on the launch date the site crashed from overflowing traffic (Stevenson, 2018b).

Figure 3: Sarah’s announcement that her overwhelming loyalty from her social capital led to a website crash from overflowing traffic when her collaboration was released (Stevenson 2018)

 

It is fascinating that “simply by expressing themselves, individuals have become empowered participants in an emerging online reputation economy, where the reputation generated by social media participation functions as a new form of currency and, more generally, value” (Hearn & Schoenhoff, 2016, p.203). This has literally turned in financial currency for both influencers and the brands that they associate with. There is no denying from the information shown for SMIs combined with the traffic and attention gained through SMIs social capital that collaborations are mutually beneficial.

 

Conclusion:

This paper has discussed the economic benefits for SMIs and companies combined in a society that is noticing the rise of the “micro-celebrity” (Marwick, 2016). Influencers are becoming the new powerful ‘authentic’ voices online in a world that is saturated with advertising and commercialism. The desire to hold onto authenticity while self-sustaining through business relationship is the unwavering downfall of these relationships. SMIs are chasing to form a “perception of authenticity [to create] a space that is readily exploitable, insofar as SMIs can parlay the trust they inspire into myriad commercial arrangements” (Khamis et al., 2016, p.203). SMIs are trying to under emphasize the affiliations with brands through paid partnerships and move to more collaborations to hold steadfast strength in their social capital. Nevertheless, the combination of “influence maximization” and “social influence” have created a new wave of marketing online through social media (More & Lingam, 2017). It is undeniable that there is bilateral economic prosperity gained through the union of SMIs and brands with the strength of the community of social capital in SMIs networks.

 

 

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