The effect of social capital on Instagram
influencers audiences
Nicola Roque
Curtin University
Abstract
This paper will discuss the strong ties that are formed in the involved communities of social media influencers, using the social media platform Instagram as an example. One Instagram influencer who has a large Instagram following is Tammy Hembrow; she involves and engages with different social groups in her audience. This range of demographics involved in Tammy’s audience has created social capital held by Tammy over many different kinds of people. With the use of this influencer as an example, this paper discusses the ties formed between the influencer and the audience, the ties formed between the audience members and other audience members and the balance between financial gain and creating strong ties within the community.
Keywords: Weak ties, Strong ties, Instagram Influencers, Social Capital.
The effect of social capital on Instagram
influencers audiences
The social capital held by social media influencer’s significantly impacts on the ties formed in involved communities. Many people use social media to connect with communities, create networks and create social ties with people with similar interests. Networks within this social media context refer to these connections that are made between people with similar interests. Strong and weak ties can be created with members of these networks, and often these ties can be influenced by people who hold social capital. One platform that has many social media influencers who hold social capital is the social media site Instagram. “The top 50 Instagram influencers total 3.1 billion followers.” (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2018). These large amounts of followers often are interested in the niche markets that are presented by the Instagram influencers such as fitness, health and beauty, gaming, lifestyle, motherhood or sports and many other topics. The connection of interests held between the followers of each influencer community can create social ties. In this paper, I will argue that the social capital held by social media influencer’s significantly impacts on the ties formed in involved communities. I will be backing up this argument by looking into three main points that show the impact of this social capital on involved people. Firstly I will be discussing the relationships formed between the influencer and the audience, being strong ties with regard to the influence that these influencers have over their audience. Secondly I will discuss the relationship formed between the audience and other audience members as being strong ties due to the connection of similar interests between audience members. Thirdly I will be discussing the balance between product promotion/ financial gain and creating strong ties in the involved community. I will be discussing these points with reference to the Instagram influencer Tammy Hembrow; an Australian based fitness, health and beauty influencer and Mother.
Social capital
Social Capital refers to “The ability of actors to secure benefits by virtue of membership in social networks.” (Portes, 1998; Mu, J., Peng, G., & Love, e. 2008). Ties formed in communities refer to the weak and strong relationships formed in communities online and offline. These ties can be between social media influencers and their audience and/or between the audience members themselves. Social ties in this context can refer to a strong friendship- like relationship or to the ability of a social media influencer to influence an audience member due to the respect held by an audience member for that influencer, even though these two parties may have never engaged in conversation before. Macpherson et al (2006) argues that “Using communication technology may weaken social ties, increasing the prevalence of social isolation throughout society.” (McPherson et al, 2006; Boase, J. 2008). This communication technology referring to any technology being used to communicate with others, such as smartphones. In the context of this argument communication technology could be further defined as social media tools that are used by people to communicate.
The argument of McPherson et al. on the weakening of social ties is relevant to this argument as social ties may have been weakened within influencers and their audience’s due to the lack of actual conversation between the influencer and each audience member. However strong ties may also be created due to the use of social media communication technologies, between influencers and their audiences and between the audience members. The majority of studies however suggest that people utilise different kinds of social media communication technologies in order to fit their lifestyles and social needs. (Boase, J. 2008). The majority of people use social media to connect with others and grow their communities, in turn decreasing the amount of social isolation within society. (McPherson et al, 2006; Boase, J. 2008).
Relationships between the influencer and audience
Tammy Hembrow is an Instagram influencer who has created a community involving different social groups and members; mothers, fashion and beauty lovers and fitness lovers. Tammy Hembrow’s different range of interests and talents allows for a large audience of different demographics. Tammy has over 8 million Instagram followers, with an average of 5 thousand followers per day. (Social Blade, 2018). Instagram influencers such as Tammy Hembrow that reach a large audience, often feel a range of benefits from their jobs such as receiving money, free products and potentially being able to make influencing their main occupation. “Networking is the ostensible purpose of these sites – using one’s chain of connections to make new friends, dates, business partners, etc.” (Donath, J., & Boyd, D. 2004). Networking for an influencer like Tammy, means making money and is absolutely imperative to making her brand flourish. Growing these communities is essential to influencers, using the chain of connections to find new followers with similar interests. Tammy creates and keeps these connections strong with her audience members by replying to comments made by audience members and by speaking on her Instagram story, answering questions for her audience. She also has other active social media accounts such as Twitter, Snapchat and Youtube. Using these different platforms allows her audience members who have found her images on Instagram and want to find more information on the topics that she covers (i.e: motherhood, fashion, fitness etc) to follow links to each of her social media accounts and find what they are looking for. By using this chain of social media communication technology platforms Tammy has created a larger audience for herself, reaching different types of audience members on each platform. This has created multiple social ties between herself and each of her audience members.
The social capital held by influencers like Tammy creates strong ties with their audience members due to the ability that they have to influence audience members. This includes the ability to influence audience members to purchase promoted products, to try activities promoted by the influencers and to follow other brands or influencers that are connected to the influencer. Social network influencers are seen as “A trusted tastemaker in one or several niches.” (Veirman, D, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. 2017). These influencers are seen as trusted due to the high number of followers that they obtain, making audience members feel that if other people of similar demographic to themselves, trust, respect and follow the information that these influencers put forward, that it is suitable for them to do so too. This social capital held by these influencers therefore impacts on the social ties created by the influencer and their audience members by allowing Instagram influencers to have some power and influencer over their audience, which shows a strong tie between these audience members and the influencer.
Relationship between audience and other audience members
“Underlying all the networking sites are a core set of assumptions: that there is a need for people to make more connections, that using a network of existing connections is the best way to do so, and that making this easy to do is a great benefit.” (Donath, J., & Boyd, D. 2004). Finding new connections is easier when a preconceived group of individuals with similar interests has already been created. Audience members know where to go to find people to make connections with. Social media sites allow users to meet strangers, but they also “Enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made. (Boyd, D., & Ellison, N. 2007). Often social media influencers allow for connections to be made within audience members that usually would not connect, potentially due to differing geographic location or differing demographics. Using Tammy Hembrow’s following as an example, many traditional followers of beauty and fashion bloggers on Instagram are young women around the ages 13-25, however the fact that Tammy is a young mother brings in a new set of audience members; mothers. This range of followers allows for audience members who may not have connected before to connect online.
Counter argument
Danah M. Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison argue that although social network sites do allow strangers to meet online, the main reason for people using social media sites is in order to articulate their pre-existing social networking connections, this could be relationships that have been formed on other social networking sites previously or offline. Boyd & Ellison argue that these meetings between people over social media are often due to “latent ties”, that are existent between people that have met offline before. (Boyd, M. D., & Ellison, B. N. 2007). This counter argument is relevant in that often people on some social media sites have met offline, however in the context of the social media site Instagram, people post images that capture their brand image or something that they want to present about themselves, creating an identity for themselves online. This encapsulate the idea behind the platform, putting forward an identity you want to be received by others, through the use of images and videos. Due to this being the main purpose of Instagram, it makes sense that people who do not know each other offline would meet online and follow each other, perhaps for inspiration or because they share similar interests. This creates strong ties between audience members of influencers as they have never met before but still come together due to similar interests.
Balance between product promotion/ financial gain and creating strong ties in the community
Many Instagram influencers are paid by companies to promote products due to their large range of audience members. “Instagram influencers receive payments ranging from free products to $1 million per post.” (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2018). They are paid by these company’s due to the influence that they have over their audience. This means “These endorsements are likely to be interpreted as highly credible electronic word of mouth (eWOM) rather than paid advertising as they are often seamlessly woven into the daily narratives influencers post on their Instagram accounts”. (Abidin. 2016; Veirman, D, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. 2017). Influencers audiences feel as though they relate to the influencers they follow, to them the influencer is almost a friend or guide to finding the best clothes, makeup, fitness techniques etc. It is easy for an influencer to incorporate a paid advertisement into their feed without it seeming like they are just trying to manipulate their audience into purchasing products because they are trusted as being an expert in a niche market. “People will ignore ads, but they won’t ignore posts, mentions and blogs by influencers who they have willingly followed and routinely engage with. (Ghidotti, N. 2017).
The impact of a social media influencer not finding the balance between keeping and creating meaningful connections with people in their involved communities and product promotion/ financial gain can lead to a loss of trust between influencers and their audiences. “Celebrity endorsements, however, tend to be expensive and are sometimes viewed as untrustworthy because the stars are motivated by money and not by sharing honest opinions and experiences”. (Morgan, N. 2017). When audience members lose trust in their Instagram influencer it leads to the job of the influencer; to influence their audience into buying products that they enjoy themselves, being very hard to do. Audience members lose trust and don’t believe that the influencer is promoting a product or brand because they truly enjoy it and are only promoting it for financial gain. This can occur due to the size of the influencers audience; the larger their audience the more famous the influencer is, which can make the audience feel as though the influencer is less relatable. This can also occur because the influencer is promoting something seemingly very different to what they usually promote or doesn’t seem to align with the influencers beliefs, likes or interests in the audience’s mind.
This balance between product promotion/ financial gain, which is necessary to find due to the social capital held by the influencer, impacts on the ties formed between the influencer and the audience by potentially weakening social ties if balance is not found.
Conclusion
From the research supplied it can be said that for the most part the social capital held by social media influencers, impacts significantly on the social ties held by involved communities by creating strong ties between; the influencer and their audience and the audience members and other audience members. If a balance is found between product promotion/ financial gain and retaining a trustworthy, respectful relationship with audience members then social ties are strengthened between the influencer and the audience. By using a famous Instagram influencer such as Tammy Hembrow for reference it is evident that this argument is relevant.
References
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Hey Nicola!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your paper on the impact that Social Media Influencers have on audiences. I’m really into the whole realm of social media and how different users interact with the platform as well as individuals trying to establish an identity with their brand. In regards to finding a balance between promotion and financial gain, have you ever been in a position where you’ve seen an influencer cater towards a ‘monetary gain’ approach with a ‘not so credible’ promotion of a product? Personally I’ve come across this a lot especially on Instagram. Overall you had a strong argument with the examples referring to Tammy Hembrow. I think that you could make a couple of edits to help with the flow of your paper which will further strengthen your argument (I noticed that you doubled up on the same words within a sentence).
I’d love to hear your thoughts and personal experiences on the matter. Great stuff!
Kind regards,
Marco 😀
Thanks for your comment Marco!
To answer your question I have definitely noticed some Instagram influencers posting images that are obviously heavily influenced by the sponsorship that they have received from a certain company. A while ago I saw a fashion blogger post an image of her lying in her bed with her underwear on, and a bowl of cereal in the middle of the bed which she was promoting. I felt as though she was using her sexuality to promote a product that she might not even enjoy just to get money.
Hi Nicola,
What a great read! I found it to be very relatable with your examples relating to Tammy Hembrow, who is popular amongst the millennial generation and women in particular, which is a group I fall into.
It’s very interesting to hear how internet communications and networking platforms allow for social capital and for influencers to project their brand online to their following. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on if the connection between influencer and follower is ‘unbalanced’ with the follower knowing a lot more about the influencer than vice-versa and the dynamics of social capital.
Paid advertisement by influencers is something I see CONSTANTLY on social media platforms I engage with daily so it was very interesting to have a read on that topic and learn more about something I witness every day. It is interesting to think about if these influencers have a somewhat ‘subconscious’ effect on me when I am constantly exposed to paid advertisements and social media marketing. What are your thoughts? Do you ever buy products due to influencers?
– Charis
Hi Charis!
Thank you for your comment! With regards to your first question I believe that it could potentially become quite insulting to a follower if they know a lot about the influencer, feel as though they know them personally almost and comment on their posts quite frequently but never receive a response from the influencer. It could lead to some followers becoming frustrated and not understanding why they aren’t receiving a reply. This lack of individualised engagement from the influencer could eventually make some followers really notice the influencers social capital and feel as though the influencer is less relatable to them.
Also I have definitely bought products online due to the product promotion of an Instagram influencer. It’s interesting that we trust this persons judgement more than we would trust the more obvious marketing ploys of a company selling a product. I once purchased a teeth whitening kit online because I noticed that one of my favourite influencers had! Have you bought anything online due to the promotion of a product from a social media influencer?
Hello again Nicola,
I definitely agree with you, relating to your comments on ‘unbalanced dynamics’ of a influencer and follower relationship. It would be quite disheartening to feel so engaged and connected to someone, who doesn’t even know who you are! I’ve certainly experienced these kind of feelings when looking at the influencers I follow on my Instagram. With promoters like Em Davies and Rahnee Bransby who are hugely influencing the millennial generation In Australia right now, It’s easy to feel as if they are not connected to me in the same sense I am to them.
Nonetheless, I still believe these influencers to have a profound affect on me when evaluating products online. Especially now that Instagram has ‘Instagram Shopping’ where you can easily view the products and clothes featured on these influencers, it makes it very easy for the follower to continue to follow. What are your thoughts on this?
Charis
Hi Charis,
I also follow and engage with the content created by Instagram influencers like Em Davies and Rahnee Bransby. I have even been introduced to one of these influencers before, which was a very strange sensation as I remembered that although I felt like I knew her she had no idea who I was!
I feel as though, even when we feel disconnected from these influencers we still see them as having an ‘ideal’ life, body or style and we subconsciously believe that maybe if we follow them on social media and trust their opinion then maybe we can become a bit like them. That new ‘Instagram shopping’ tool is terrible for me, it makes it so much easier for me to see the prices of products and be linked to the website and purchase it with ease! Has this caught you out before too?
Thank you for your reply,
Nicola.
Hi Nicola,
That’s very interesting to hear that you have actually had the experience of meeting one of these famous influencers! Did you feel like the feelings you felt for her in the digital world overflowed into the physical realm when you met her? Or do you think social media platforms and networking sites allow for influencers to build such a large platform that makes it so much easier for us to feel influenced and intimidated by their prestige and maybe without the social realm we wouldn’t feel so inclined to recognise their authority. Just some thoughts!
The ‘Instagram Shopping’ tool has been advertised as such a tool that is meant to serve the function of convenience and accessibility… but I’m not sure my bank account would agree! It’s had quite a strain on my shopping decisions if I think about it. It’s been very easy for me to go onto one of these influencer’s profiles and automatically find an article of clothing that they are wearing and purchasing it too. Even if I don’t end up buying the exact same piece of clothing, I am led to the website and will purchase!
Charis
Hey Nicola,
Great paper! I find your topic very interesting, especially since I follow many similar Instagram influencers and have noticed how often they incorporate a sponsored product into their posts. In my paper I discuss the effect that people like this who seem to have an ‘ideal’ life can have on their audiences. In more detail, I discuss the ‘thin-ideal’ body that we often see on celebrities and influencers, including Tammy Hembrow.
Especially after having two children, Tammy seems to have an almost perfect body in her pictures, and I would say about half of her photos are accentuating her figure. You mentioned Tammy’s main following consisting of females between 13 and 25. Do you think that since she has such a huge following of young girls and posts so many photos of her ‘ideal’ body and ‘perfect’ life, she may be causing her followers to feel worse about their own bodies and lives? I would be interested to hear what you think about how she may be impacting her impressionable young followers.
Cheers,
Isabel.
Hi Isabel!
Thank you for your comment! Your paper sounds very interesting and I will be sure to give it a read. In answer to your question I agree with what you are saying that Tammy Hembrow’s ‘perfect’ body could be damaging to her audience members, especially mothers who follow her. Tammy portrays herself as the ‘perfect’ young mother, she has an ‘ideal’ body shape and always has time to workout whilst also managing looking after her children, spending time with her partner and working on her career as a fitness and beauty influencer. This perfect presentation could definitely be damaging to young mothers who see this lifestyle as almost impossible in comparison to their own. The one thing I do appreciate is that Tammy shows her fitness regime on her blog and writes about why she loves fitness and how other people can fit this healthy lifestyle into their own.
This is an interesting read, Nicola. Motherhood seems to create really strong social ties within communities, it’s a great example to use. I guess it’s because of the shared experiences. You talk about the loss of trust in your paper, but what do you reckon builds this trust in the first place? It’s kinda crazy when you think about the way we invite strangers to engage with the intimate details of our lives!
Hi Kim!
Thank you for your comment! I agree that the topic of motherhood really brings different people together; perhaps to compare different techniques, situations and stories between different mothers. I believe that for followers of a beauty blogger or fashion blogger in particular, the trust could be built due to a follower loving the bloggers sense of style. Therefore the follower may trust that other clothes or beauty products that the influencer promotes must be a type of product that they themselves would enjoy.
If the influencer also seems relatable, humorous or posts images that seem to show their ‘real’ self or show relatable real life situations this may make a follower see the influencer almost as a friend, building trust between the influencer and the audience member.
Hi Nicola,
This is a really well written paper and a very interesting one to read! This is such a great topic to discuss especially considering everywhere you look on social media these days is filled with influencers. It is crazy to think we have never met these influencers but we follow them, trust their opinions, buy products they promote to us and take on board any advice or information they offer up to us, but just like Kim noted above how on earth to we build this trust in the first place? It is scary to think we trust the advice of an absolute stranger based on the fact that they have millions of followers and a seemingly glamorous and easy lifestyle online. Do you think we compare ourselves to influencers and in fact let ourselves be influenced by them because we want to be more like them?
If you get a chance please have a read of my paper and leave a comment https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2018Bentley/2018/05/06/social-networking-site-facebooks-negative-impact-on-relationships-through-encouraging-interpersonal-electronic-surveillance/
Lauren
Hey Lauren,
If you find the promotion and marketing of products on Influencer’s profiles I think you would find my paper quite interesting =) I go into it in a lot of detail. Would love if you could check it out!
https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2018Bentley/2018/05/06/the-social-capital-of-smis-in-the-consumerist-realm/
Hi Lauren,
I agree that it’s so crazy to think that we trust these strangers for advice on clothing, fitness or even motherhood, even though they may be completely different to us and therefore their opinions, style or advice may not even be fitting with our lifestyles. However, we trust them regardless of these factors and I think that just goes to show how easily some of us (including myself) let ourselves be influenced or even manipulated by these people. I think that the fact that they have the ability to only show themselves at their best really makes us see them living an ideal life; one that we would like to follow as much as possible so that maybe we can feel and look as good as they seemingly do.
I will have a look at your paper too! Thankyou for the comment.
Hi Nicola,
Such a relevant topic at this time in the world! It is fascinating to see the rise of Influencers and Influencer marketing evolving in the past couple years. I think Academia will catch up soon to provide all of us with more scholarly research on this topic.
Nevertheless, I think you brought up some valid points about community formation between influencer to audience and audience to audience, however I’m not sure if I see the community connection with the promotional section. I definitely agree that the sponsorship and promotional area of influencers is a fascination area of discussion (I actually wrote my paper on that if you want to check it out: https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2018Bentley/2018/05/06/the-social-capital-of-smis-in-the-consumerist-realm/) but I don’t think that helps form community. I would say that more comes as a subsection under the influencer to audience section.
I would be open to you challenge that opinion though =)
Danielle Kettlewell
Hi Danielle!
Thank you for your comment. I totally agree that looking into social media influencers and their impacts on involved communities is very interesting, and I too hope that academia will soon catch up as it would be very helpful and insightful to see more on the real negative and positive effects of these influencers online.
I think I wrote the section on promotion and financial gain to highlight additional effects that these influencers can have on their audiences. It was less about forming communities and more about how it is necessary for influencers to find this balance between product promotion / financial gain and creating strong community ties, otherwise they will not be able to keep and therefore grow their established audience if they begin seeming untrustworthy. I totally understand where you are coming from and I feel that part pf the confusion is probably because in the heading for that section of my paper I used the words “creating strong community ties” in stead of “keeping strong community ties”.
I will be sure to check out your paper too! Thanks.
– Nicola
Hi Nicola,
Thank you for sharing your paper! I thought it was great for you to highlight Tammy’s two way communication behavior as this clearly demonstrates how she builds the weak ties. I think there are some influencers out there that don’t reciprocate the communication and you could argue that this potentially means there is no tie.
By the end of your paper I was still a little unclear as to what impact influencers have on community? What results do they actually drive? Is it just awareness for products and brands or are they actually driving purchasing behavior?
Cheers
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta.
Thank you for your comment! I totally agree that there are some/ many influencers who do not reciprocate the communication with their fellow audience members and may even become annoyed by their audience members constantly messaging them. However, that would be quite bad for their image as they would want to be seen as being friendly and as though they don’t see themselves as being ‘better’ than any of their audience members.
On the other hand I’m sure that audience members must have some idea that their message or comment may not be replied to as it would be near impossible, especially for influencers with a lot of followers, to reply to everyone. However I believe there would still be a weak tie present as these audience members still continue to follow these influencers and trust their opinions.
I think I found it hard to find solid evidence of the actual impact on audience members that these influencers hold as this is still a fairly new topic and so research has not caught up completely. However I believe that we can see from influencers such as Tammy Hembrow that some influencers really are driving and influencing purchase behaviour in their audience members. This would be especially evident when influencers like Tammy provide special discounts on products to their audience members. These discounts would have been given to these influencers by companies as they know that doing this could help to generate sales. This must show that influencers really do make an impact on their impressionable audience members otherwise companies wouldn’t waste money on these influencers.
– Nicola
Hello Nicola,
I went through your work and I really enjoyed reading this paper, because this is exactly what is happening in the 21st century! I absolutely agree with your thought about how people occupied themselves in following/imitating people who are not even aware of their existence. Its sad to see people trusting the unknown on these social platforms to take instructions on fashion, food and much more. I think that, the reason why people blindly follow those strangers with so called knowledge on certain things, is because of the number of followers they are having on Instagram. Most of the time, even I am influenced by the number of followers a page is having on that platform! Huge amount of follower means “trusted people”.
Regards,
Diksha.