Social Networks – Page 2 – Debating Communities and Networks IX

Facebook has created an online engagement approach that allows businesses intrusive access to consumers through data collection and user segmentation

Abstract
This paper examines social networking service, Facebook, and the way in which it provides businesses with intrusive access to potential consumers through paid advertising. It examines how Facebook collects data from a platform user and allows businesses to conduct paid marketing campaigns that use this information to target specific audiences. It looks at how effective this approach is in comparison to more traditional forms of consumer engagement and also discusses the issues associated with the collection of user data, of most relevance the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Keywords: Social media networks, Facebook, online communities, consumer engagement, online marketing, user segmentation, Cambridge Analytica

Introduction
Online social networking platforms have created new ways for people to communicate with each other, ways which are now exceedingly popular (Arnaboldi, Conti, Passarella & Dunbar, 2017). Facebook is the most visited of these online networking platforms with more than 600 million users worldwide (Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013).

Its use is habitual, with the majority of users logging on multiples times per day to post photos, videos and text updates for followers, receive similar updates from friends, and view entertainment sources and Facebook pages they follow. Social media platforms have become a ritualised part of users daily lives, often visited before getting out of bed in the morning and before falling asleep again at night time (Alhabash & Mengyan, 2017; boyd & Ellison, 2007). Building on this ingrained use of the platform within its user community, Facebook has created an online engagement approach that allows businesses intrusive access to consumers through data collection and user segmentation.

I begin this paper by discussing the way businesses are included on the social networking platform. Then I examine the consumer engagement opportunities Facebook offers business and how these compare to offline alternatives. Finally, I look at the risk associated with the collection of user-data to provide those consumer engagement opportunities, namely the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.

For the purpose of this paper, online engagement is defined as the encouragement of consumers to interact with a business or organisation over the internet. Engagement with a business on Facebook is positively linked to business reputation and public perception (Djikmans, Kerkhof & Beukeboom, 2015).

Literature Review
While social media and online platforms are relatively new concepts, scholars have quickly begun to analyse the effects of these communication tools on users as well as the implications for business. Ramsaran-Fowdar and Fowdar (2013) see Facebook as marketing tool far superior to those based offline and this sentiment is echoed by Threatt (2009). As mentioned in my introduction, both Alhabash and Mengyan (2017) and boyd and Ellison (2207) have discussed in their work the daily use of Facebook by its community and this is a major component in the success of consumer engagement through the platform. It is widely accepted among authors that social media platforms, particularly Facebook, are exceptional tools for business and credit this new era of transformative communication with the creation of niche markets that are able to be so effectively targeted (Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013; Wellman & Guilia, 1997).

This area becomes all the more interesting with the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal and the effects this will have across social media platforms moving forward. This has been an investigation picked up by media outlets world-wide such as The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, New York Times and Washington Post, and examines the privacy of the information users share on Facebook and the security of this data when collected by the platform and third-party applications.

Through the work of these authors and the support of many others I argue my thesis; that Facebook has created an online engagement approach that allows businesses intrusive access to consumers through data collection and user segmentation.

Discussion
Conceived in February 2004, Facebook originally focused on creating personal relationship (Thompson, 2008). It wasn’t until November 2007 that the platform made a move into the provision of paid engagement opportunities for organisations (Threatt, 2009 & Bellis, 2018). As more of the worlds population join in the online social networking craze, communication using these platforms is now widely accepted and often one of the first places consumers will try and seek out information, on both people and businesses (Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013). This has significantly altered the way businesses treat the online environment with niche roles created within many organisations to take advantage of the unprecedented access to platform users that Facebook provides. The following discussion outlines how Facebook allows a business to become part of a user’s online network through advertising that segments and targets specific audiences based on user data. I begin by looking at how businesses are included on the social networking platform.

Inclusion of businesses on Facebook
Facebook is hinged upon friendship and trust (Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013) and the platform utilises this in the marketing options it provides businesses. The most basic form of business inclusion on Facebook is a Facebook Page that serves as a business’s main hub on the platform (refer Appendix B). The page allows consumers to find out more about a business without leaving the application, providing standard detail such as opening hours, website information and general business information quickly and easily. Much like the personal counterpart, a business page has a timeline and posts appear in followers Newsfeeds where they receive updates from the business and see upcoming events.

Posts from a business page are effective in a large part due to the way Facebook presents them on a user’s Newsfeed, almost identically to which it presents posts of a friend (refer Appendix A), the layouts match each other and the font, media display and sizing are all the same allowing a business to seamlessly integrate into a user’s networking experience. By presenting business posts in this way, Facebook allows organisations to become part of a user’s online community, placing them alongside posts that organically make it onto a personal Newsfeed.

A further element available to businesses on Facebook is the option to set up a Facebook group that can be linked back to the business page. This smaller network really plays into the community aspect of the online environment and can be focused on a particular topic and named accordingly. These groups are often used to create a network specific to an organisation that can provide support for consumers and build a trusting relationship with each member which can then be utilised to sell a product or service the business has available in the future (Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013).

Facebook’s online environment also allows superior customer support opportunities for businesses and this can have a positive impact on how a consumer feels about an organisation and influence purchasing decisions. To further this, businesses now often engage well-known social media influencers associated with a target audience to post about an organisation to their own Facebook communities as a way to further build corporate reputation and positive brand associations through word-of-mouth (Dijkmans, Kerkhof & Beukeboom, 2015).

In addition to the above examples, Facebook allows pages to advertise directly to personal accounts. This is so effective because of the self-presentative nature of social media (Papacharissi, 2009) and the sense of belonging and social support that encourage this human need to fit in (Wellman & Guilia, 1997). Users are often on the platform multiple times each day further developing their online image and businesses are provided with access to these users through advertising that intrudes on the Facebook experience. These advertisements do not only feature on a user Newsfeed but can also appear in the complementary Facebook Messenger application (refer Appendix C), placed within the list of message conversations. Facebook pages can also instigate a Messenger bot that automatically opens with pre-programmed questions when a potential consumer visits their business page and a page can include applications that allow consumers to take actions i.e. book a table or purchase a product, directly through the platform without ever needing to leave (refer Appendix D), the Book Now button at the top of a restaurant business page allows users to make a lunch or dinner reservation in seconds. Further information on the data collection that enables these paid engagement techniques continues in the next section of this discussion.

Data collection and the paid consumer engagement opportunities Facebook provides
“Facebook data can be compared to a crystal ball to understand customers,” Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013.

Facebook is a free online networking service and as with most free services it employs paid advertising as a source of revenue. To provide this service Facebook collects data from users of the online platform by monitoring the Facebook pages a user follows, the links a user clicks and interests of a user’s friends also active on the platform. This, in addition to the demographic information a user provides when signing up to Facebook, allows businesses an intrusive engagement opportunity with potential consumers, enabling them to directly engage with segmented and targeted audiences most relevant to organisational goals businesses (Acar & Polonsky, 2007; Papacharissi, 2009).

Facebook allows businesses to conduct paid advertising campaigns to personal users of the platform using this collected data, with options for audience segmentation based on their location, age, gender, the languages they speak, right down to their specific interests and other pages they ‘Like’. In just a few simple clicks for a business, Facebook compiles estimated reach numbers and suggested campaign budgets and timelines to meet selected segmentation criteria. This kind of targeting and the ease of which it is available is extremely high value to a business, able to serve an advertisement direct to consumer, who based on demographics and interests, is a most likely candidate to engage with the organisation. Because Facebook is an online platform, a consumer can respond to an advertisement immediately and a business can see conversion results just as quickly in the analytics reporting that Facebook provides.

More traditional, offline media does not provide this kind of segmentation as easily and cost-effectively as Facebook. An advertisement post on the platform can be created and delivered to a specific audience in a matter of minutes, with no booking deadline requirements or premium costs associated with newspaper articles or radio campaigns. Through these more sophisticated Facebook engagement tools businesses are able to connect with many more potential consumers with far more frequency than traditional marketing techniques such as phone calls, emails or face-to-face meetings (Donath & boyd, 2004).

While this is a big win for businesses, Facebook users themselves have very little control over what advertisements they see and the number of times an advertisement is presented to them and here in lies the intrusive nature of Facebook as an engagement tool. As mentioned earlier in this paper, Facebook use is habitual and the repeated displaying of advertisements on particular days and times targeting specific audience segments lets businesses into user’s daily lives as many times as they wish to pay for. The presentation of these advertisements, in the same format as a post from a friend or page post that has not been paid for (minus a small sponsored tag) enables businesses to insert themselves seamlessly onto a user’s account and this has proven to be an exceptionally effective marketing technique.

Facebook and data collection however have called into question the privacy measures and security systems the platform has in place, most recently through the Cambridge Analytica scandal – a privacy breach impacting an estimated 87 million Facebook users.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal
Facebook and its practice to collect data and allow third party online applications to collect this data also has come under heavy fire in recent weeks after it was revealed one such application, Kogan, allegedly breached its agreement with the online platform and released data it collected from Facebook users about themselves and their friends to Cambridge Analytica, a company known for its work in political campaigning. It is alleged this data was used to influence potential voters in the recent US election, a claim which has been denied by the company (Bloomberg, 2018). Extremely serious in nature, this breach has seen Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg face a US Senate Hearing regarding the platforms data collection practices and security. At this hearing, Mr, Zuckerberg did hint that a paid subscription to a Facebook service that did not allow paid advertising may be implemented in the future (Brandom, 2018). This paid service would allow users an online space that only delivered the content a user wanted to engage with, removing the business advertising campaigns that intrude on a user’s current Facebook experience. As an initial result of the scandal, Facebook shares dropped almost 18% in the ten days after the story broke and the platform has removed a search capability allowing users to find others based on a phone number of email address (Bloomberg, 2018). Facebook has also promised to make it easier for users to adjust their privacy settings on the platform.

Limitations of These Studies
In my own experiences working as a Communications Officer deciding on where best to spend limited marketing funds I have often received comment from more traditional marketing sales teams around the legitimacy of the advertising reach and engagement results Facebook provides to businesses. Their concern being that Facebook provides its own data rather than sourcing evaluations from a third party. I would suggest more study could be done in this area around the advertising matrix of Facebook to quell these kinds of concerns. Being that Facebook controls this data and the privacy issues surrounding the releases of this, even more so in light of the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, conducting such research is likely to be difficult.

Conclusion
Facebook has created an online engagement approach that allows businesses intrusive access to consumers through data collection and user segmentation, leaving its offline, tired counterparts in the dust as the social media phenomenon continues to spread. In today’s saturated online market, a business with no social media presence, particularly Facebook, can often be deemed as not credible and difficult to find information on. Facebook provides businesses both simple and more complex ways to engage with consumers and the combination of these tools far outweighs the value of more traditional, offline avenues of marketing like phone calls, print advertising and even face-to-face engagement techniques, saving a business time and money. It may be an effective way to build business reputation and increase sales but users are becoming increasingly aware of the intrusive role these advertisements are playing in their day-to-day use of the platform. Unable to choose how often they are exposed to advertisements and have little say in how often a particular advertisement is presented to them it is of little surprise that there has been support for Mr. Zuckerberg’s elusion to an ad-free version of the social media platform. It is now more important than ever that businesses are thoughtful in the way they utilise the engagement opportunities afforded by Facebook to businesses and have a social media strategy in place that takes into account potential user concern is imperative in order to ensure this online engagement technique, which is heavily utilised these days, remains successful. Further study on the effects these paid engagement opportunities have on users should be undertaken as they become more prevalent on this platform, with the principle of the results likely able to be transferred to other social media platforms as well.

References

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Papacharissi, Z. (2009). The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld. New Media & Society, 11(1&2), 199-220. doi: 10.1177/1461444808099577

Ramsaram-Fowdar, R. & Fowdar, S. (2013). The Implications of Facebook Marketing for Organisations. Contemporary Management Research, 9(1), 73-84. doi:10.7903/cmr.9710

Thompson, C. (2008). Brave New World of Digital Intimacy. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html?_r=1.

Threatt, R. S. (2009). Facebook and the Ideal Social Market Place: A Study of The Marketing Benefits of Social Media Practices. Masters Thesis, University of Southern California, U.S.A. Retrieved from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll127/id/171962

Appendices

Appendix A – Display of friend post and business page post in Newsfeed

Friend: Business page:

Images sourced from personal Facebook Newsfeed on April 1, 2018.

Appendix B – Facebook business page example

Image sourced from www.facebook.com/ McDonaldsAU/?brand_redir=50245567013 on April 1, 2018.

Appendix C – Business advert in Facebook Messenger Application

Image sourced from personal Facebook account on April 1, 2018.

Appendix D – Book now button on business page

Image sourced from www.facebook.com/fioritadeli/ on April 1, 2018.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

New habits with the utilization of social media networks

New habits with the utilization of social media networks

Abstract: The cultural voyeurism has been normalized by the proliferation of Social Media Networks especially in the younger generation. This behavior has increased with the creation of “Story” and “Live” on several social media platforms. Besides voyeurism, terms like exhibitionism and narcissism has been also generalized. In their everyday life, people post photos, videos and share content. It becomes a real need for Internet users to show their life on social media. The aim of this conference paper is to understand why it is now important for people to share their life online, to know about other people’s life and why the new features like “story” and “live” are so successful.

Since ever, humans appreciate to share their life’s experiences with their close relations like family and friends. Whenever they wanted to spread their stories or views on a subject, the word of mouth, newspapers, radios and TV’s were the main streams. Since twenty years new medias like social networks have appeared and the way people communicate and share content have changed. A certain form of voyeurism has taken place in the lifestyle behavior of people. Already with the TV, this culture of voyeurism has grown with the apparition of TV reality shows. These kinds of programs satisfied the voyeurism’s “needs” of people who look at TV (Baruh, 2007). In reality shows, you can see people with their natural behavior and true personality. All their doings and activities are filmed 24h/24h on a certain period of time. Viewers appreciate this because they can identify themselves with candidates in the show (Andrejevic, 2003; Jones, 2003; Mathijs, 2004 quoted in Baruh, 2007). This type of program is based on a sort of realism. It emphasizes on the “see and feel” that a viewer can experience (Deacon et al. cited in Gee, 2015). It raises the curiosity of people to know more about the participants. This voyeurism culture has been popularized with TV reality shows and it has redefined the legal aspect concerning the right to intimacy (Gee, 2015). This culture has been entertained with particular features on social medias. For instance, Snapchat was the first social media platform to propose the “story” feature. It means that the user can post some photos or videos about his activities and his everyday life on his profil. People can film their life like a TV reality show. The contents will be available during 24h and viewers cannot like or comment the post. The advantage on Snapchat for students is that they can post anything they wish and it doesn’t need to be beautiful or interesting because it will disappear after 24H.

People use Instagram mainly to post their best photos, this creates a pressure on themselves as they are not sure that their posts will be appreciated (Seetharaman, 2016). The new devise on Snapchat and now also on Instagram (story) remove a certain pressure on them about what others can think on their posts (Seetharaman, 2017). Instagram has also allowed its 500 million users to post stories. The objective is to seduce users and encourage them to post more and more often. It permits users to post contents that are less striking compared if they were posting the same on their Instagram’s profile (Seetharaman, 2016). Mr. Systrom stated in the article of Deepa Seetharaman in 2016 that if a user posts one content per week on Instagram, the aim on story is to encourage them to post between 5 and 10 contents a day. Facebook has noted that by improving the rapidity of the avaibility of the camera like on Snapchat, it will boost the frequency and quantity of posts. In July 2017 Facebook has created the live streaming. Mark Zukerberg affirms that the principal way of sharing will be by camera (Seetharaman, 2017). All theses improvement are conducted by the new needs of users, in particular the younger generation. A report from Pew Research Center shows that 90% of the 18-29 years old use social medias (Perrin, 2015 cited in Yuchen, 2016). Social medias’ statistics reports that 95% of college students use Facebook and 73% use Instagram (Yuchen, 2016).Young people are more and more impatient. They were born in a period where the technology is well established and all is rapidly available. If someone is looking for information, they will surf on Google; if they want to order a pizza, they will go on Ubereat or if they want to do a bank transfer they will use the application of their bank. These services allow people to gain time and social medias also need to adapt themselves so that their products meet the users’ the practical demands. Social medias users do not always want to interact online with their friends. Viewing the update of the social media of their friends allow them to be abreast of their activities. Nowadays a new behavior is born. It is very frequent that the first thing people do when they wake up is to check their social media and it is often also the last thing which they do before going to sleep (Moreno & Tabita, 2015).

Smartphones have become a utility tool. One always has his smartphone at reach during the day. Carlos, 31 years old said that he often posts something during his free time and shares any interesting post he come across. The objective is to share “live” any interesting picture or video (Moreno & Tabita, 2015). Social Media users publish content because they want to share their personal experience. They can share photos from where they are and reveal their personal feelings (Moreno & Tabita, 2015). Features on social medias platforms are a way to exhibit the users splendid life (Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016). It can develop a narcissism behavior from the publisher (Mehdizadeh, 2010; Panek et al., 2013; Ryan & Xenos, 2011 cited in Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016). For the user it is a way to be accepted and recognized on the social network (Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016). For instance when people travel they need to take photos, share them and communicate with their friends and family. The social media devices have modified the backpacking activity. The phenomenon is so important that a new term is born, it is calls “flashpacking”. It means that travellers take all their time by taking pictures and videos in the objective to post them on their profile (Molz, 2013). This can be interpreted as if it is more important to post something instead of enjoying the moment. With features like stories on Snapchat and Instagram they can post it on the spot. This is possible due to improvements of Internet connections around the world and the easiness of access to connectivity (Molz, 2013). These innovations allow people to be updated with their family/friends’ life without entertaining conversations between them. It can be associated with the term of voyeurism (Mäntymäki & Islam, 2014 cited in Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016). Moreover the term of social surveillance can be used too (Lampe, Ellison, & Steinfield, 2006; Marwick, 2012; Tokunaga, 2011 cited in Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016). Besides this, some authors have pointed out that voyeurism and exhibitionism are linked (Calvert, 2009 cited in Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016). Exhibitionisms enjoy that their followers are looking at them, on their online platforms. Social media users accept that they can be considered like voyeurism people because they look at people without having a conversation. Narcissism derives from exhibitionism (Ames et al., 2006; Brunell, Staats, Barden, & Hupp, 2011; Carpenter, 2012 cited in Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016). The aim of these people is to exhibit themselves by constructing their perfect self-image. Their objective is to proclaim their excellence and to look for adoration from others in order to boost their self-esteem (Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001 cited in Maentymaeki & AKMNajmul, 2016).

Following friends, bloggers and famous people on social media platforms are now very anchored in our habits (Molz, 2013). This normalization to watch peoples’ lives has promote a kind of voyeurism habits. The success of Facebook and TV reality show demonstrate that people are attentive to others lives (Longo, 2015). Despite this, social media users are more and more keen in posting contents on their profiles. It can be explained by the fact that when a user posts something, which his followers will like or comment, it will boost his dopamine level. It is called the “awarding effects”. This phenomenon can boost an important level of satisfaction and it creates a sort of addiction to social media (Yuchen, 2016). This satisfaction influences the self-esteem of the user. He can assume himself like notable, efficient and successful (Ertuerk, 2016). The “need” to post content on social media can traduce a need to be approved and identified by others. It has been noted that when a student didn’t have enough likes on his Instagram post, he will delete the content (Seetharaman, 2016). Promoting themselves on social networks sites interests people and it can also generate a tendency to narcissism. This kind of people utilizes social medias’ platforms to show them in a better way than in reality (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008; Mehdizadeh, 2010 cited in Yuchen, 2016). Some researches show that allocated time on social networks like Facebook influences people to focus more on themselves and at the same time raises their level of narcissism (Twenge, 2013). Some studies have shown that depending of how many likes and comments people have under their posts, it can affect on how they distinguish their own self. A person who amplifies his potential and value can be characterized as a narcissistic person. However their self-esteem is poor. They wait for likes and favorable comments on themself and obviously they don’t accept critics. They are very attentive about their own profile by renewing it very often and share a lot of their activities especially selfies (Ertuerk, 2016). “Selfie” come from “self” and Oxford University defines this action by people who shares his/her own photographs with the world on social media networks. Researchers point out that 35% people take selfies to remind a joyful moment, 34% to remember a cool activity, 14% when the hair of the person is good looking and 13% when the person feel self-assured (DifficuLty, 2014 cited in Ertuerk, 2016).

To conclude, it becomes a habit to post our life on social networks especially for the younger generation. The creation of “stories” and “live” has fostered this practice in their everyday life. When users travel, see an interesting thing and go to parties for instance they will post some photos and video on their “stories” and “live” to show what they are doing. This kind of post is relaxed for users because viewers cannot like the content. It has increased the voyeurism effect among users. Besides this the habits to post content on their profile is still very successful and this tends to increase the narcissisms trait of users. On social media people want to show them in their best level to boost their self-esteem. Taking selfies has become a kind of international sport. To find a place in society, people think that they need to show them in a certain way. On social networks they deal with reality by editing photos and take it in a certain angle to beautify the reality. When users publish content on their profile they will pay attention to details because they want to have a lot of likes and positive comments to boost their self-esteem.

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Millennials raising their voices on important global issues through social network sites (SNS).

Abstract

Social networking sites (SNS) within the past decade has revolutionised the world we live in. This conference paper highlights the most recent findings on the positive aspects of Social Networking Sites and how social networking has generated a positive impact on equal opportunities and social justice within Western culture. Online movements have encouraged users to raise their voice regarding various forms of injustice and inequality by using SNS as a tool to project and discuss issues, debates and current affairs. Online communities have rallied on social networking sites, often influenced by the interests of those in their online social media networks. SNS have played a large role in the promotion, acknowledgement and awareness on serious global issues in our society such as #MeToo (sexual harassment awareness), #DoItForDolly (bullying and youth suicide awareness), #HeForShe (gender equality) and #BlackLivesMatter (racial inequality).

KEYWORDS: Social networks, social networking sites, SNS, Web 2.0, social media, political participation, activism, social movements, participatory culture, engagement.

Introduction

Old media is considered a one-way stream. A message is announced to the public with very minimal participation and feedback, meaning that having a conversation or debate on social, environmental or political issues is near impossible. New media, Web 2.0 and social networking allow two-way communication through the facilitation of comments, likes, shares and replies with the overall aim to engage an audience on a personal level. This results in giving users a voice and provides a sense of agency, or to simplify, a sense of control (Haggard, 2012, p.3). Social networking sites break down cultural, social and hierarchical boundaries by offering a platform to communicate to other users in real time, spanning across the globe (Kuiper, 2017). As a result, online social networks have sparked debate, not only from within the media and technology industry, but also in academia (Ngai, Tao, & Moon, 2015, p. 33). There appears to be a substantial split when approaching the pros and cons of social networking sites. Half the studies argue the negative consequences and effects of SNS, whist the other half emphasize the positive impact that SNS has on users. Skeptics argue that social networking is the predominant reason why users become alienated from society. However, in this paper, I will argue that by correctly utilising social networks sites, users have to opportunity to communicate their personal perceptions, opinions and ideas in a variety of subject areas to a number of people, resulting in the ability and opportunity to raise their own voice and opinions to a wider audience. Firstly, I will discuss how social networking has encouraged users to speak up on social injustice and voice their opinions on issues of their concern. Secondly, I will provide examples of successful online movements that support my argument of reducing social injustice. Thirdly, I will be exploring how social networking sites have been used as a tool to promote racial and gender equality, with examples that support my argument such as the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the #HeForShe movement.

The rise of social networks within the last decade has made a significant impact on social relations. According to Gerbaudo (2012) “Facebook is used to form groups, covert and overt—in order to establish those strong but flexible connections”. To further simplify, the common goal of social network sites is to let users to find, meet, and contact each other more easily. Over the years it has become much more then this and the way in which users are organized into social networks differs. LinkedIn and Facebook utilise existing communities for example business connections, students and alumni in order to create a foundation surrounding their site. Nevertheless, there are other sites that are directly associated around activism. Examples include Change.org and Net Neutrality, which empower users to generate communities around concerns such as global warming, water pollution and starvation in third world countries, just to name a few examples. The overall aim of these networks is to connect users to organisations, making overall social networks more useful (Aguayo, 2011). Facebook is considered the most popular social networking site, with 15,000,000 active members in Australia, per month (Cowling, 2018). However, it is important to understand that there is nothing exceptionally activist about popular SNS’s, but more how they are utilised as a tool to promote and spread awareness on issues and topics of concern. Activists have been passionate about adopting social networking sites as a tool in order to discuss and share global activism.

Social Networking has created a whole new way for users to communicate. SNS’s such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have served the generation of the Millennials well. These social networking platforms have allowed users to voice their opinions on any issue, big or small. Following on from this comes shares, comments and likes, creating an online platform for community, participation and engagement. Due to Twitter having the ‘retweet’ button and Facebook having the ‘share’ button, users posts can easily reach other users globally within a matter of seconds. Having social networking platforms to share your knowledge and viewpoints with others around you is so valuable. In today’s society, there is a growing number of users discussing political and social issues, which allows them to critically analyse the world around them, ask questions, share ideas and learn more about the world in which they live.

Movement Campaigns – Fighting against Injustice through SNS

Dr. Vaast is a professor at McGill University’s Faculty of Management (Information Systems) and has extensive experience social media. Dr. Vaast has previously worked along side a research team to further understand social media use on the Twitter platform following BP’s oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. The purpose of the research was to develop a well-defined understanding of, firstly who was discussing the oil spill and secondly how those online users caused a stir up, resulting in a larger social movement. Dr. Vaast (2018) acknowledged that “This was intriguing to [her] because, at the time, Twitter seemed mostly used as a way to react to more mundane, sports or celebrity-related matters”. By conducting this study, researchers established that SNS’s have the ability to create an emotional response that inspires users to work together toward tackling global issues (Hansen, 2018). Nearly 8 years on from the oil spill, SNS’s have revolutionised social change — from bringing awareness, thoughts and prayers to terrorism, the instant rise of the #MeToo movement and, more recently, the #DoItForDolly anti bullying awareness movement. Below are online movements that have provided users with an opportunity to raise their voice regarding various forms of injustice by using SNS’s as a platform to project issues, debates and current affairs.

Anti terrorism movements: #PrayForParis / #JeSuisCharlie and #WeAreNotAfraid

Almost 3 years ago in 2015, Paris was involved in two major terrorist attacks. The first hashtag #JeSuisCharlie was spread across SNS of Twitter and was named one of the most popular hashtags in Twitter history with over 5 million uses referencing the hashtag (Goldman, 2015). The second incident was a coordinated attack by suicide bombers and gunmen in November 2015. Again, social networking users showed their support, with the hashtag #PrayForParis. The hashtag was used over 7 million times and on Facebook, profile pictures featured the French flag and Eiffel Tower peace symbol (Top 5 social activism campaigns, 2015). These online movements regarding terrorism also work as a deterrent for future attacks. The most recent global movement hashtag was #WeAreNotAfraid which followed after online users expressed defiance after the terrorist attack in Westminster killing 5 people inclusive of the attacker, sharing messages of solidarity on social media (Hunt, 2017). This demonstrate the influence and power of Twitter in particular, showing that with the tool of SNS’s, communities and users across the world can come together in order to drive awareness and promote the devastation of terrorism and crisis.

2: Sexual Assault and Harassment #MeToo

This recent movement began on social media after one of Harvey Weinstein’s most vocal critics wrote, “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem” (Sayej, 2017). This movement began because of the exposure of countless allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood producer for sexual assault. Not long after, millions of women (and some men) from different industries (not just the film industry) began to share their personal stories all over the world via social media with the hashtag #MeToo. This included public figures and celebrities such as Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney and musician Bjork, empowering women to speak out against sexual harassment (Khomarni, 2017). Bollywood’s leading actor, Deepika Padukone says that it is important for celebrities and public figures to use their reach, power and influence to encourage change within a society. “I think it is extremely important for those who are in positions of influence or power to bring about social change. It is extremely important for them to speak up about whatever issue it might be” (Padukone, 2018). Sexual harassment has always been a blatant and disturbing reality however, this movement had such a dramatic impact that it was transferable globally. France used #balancetonporc and “rat on your dirty old man” which was used over 500,000 in this same period, whilst India used #abusefreeindia discuss and bring awareness to sexual abuse. This online movement has provided victims with an opportunity to raise their voice regarding sexual assault and the hashtag #metoo has established a convincing message: to stop sexual assault, spread awareness and empower women. The entire point of the #MeToo movement was firstly to acknowledge the scale of sexual assault and harassment – which it did, and in ways that possibly no one expected. Secondly, the encourage victims to speak up about their allegations against abusers. Thirdly, to break the stigma of sexual assault – now discussions are more open than ever before, which can teach people about the problem in unprecedented ways.

3: Anti Bullying and Youth Suicide Movement #DoItForDolly #StopBullyingNow

This anti-bullying and awareness movement was presented by The Project TV and aired on the 15^th of March 2018, the day before the National day against Bullying and Violence. The segment is available to view on Ten Play: https://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/the-project/top-stories-march-2018/speak-even-if-your-voice-shakes.

Convergence is understood as the “flow of media across multiple platforms” (Jenkins, 2009). Through convergence technology, SNS’s such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram shared this movement. In January of this year, Northern Territory 14-year-old girl, Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett ended her own life due to relentless online bullying. This movement aims to raise awareness through an online movement incorporating the hash tags #StopBullyingNow and #DoItForDolly. The movement included some of the most well known social media influences, musicians and actors. Wally Aleed states in the video “I am not the right person to talk to young Australian’s, they do not want another out of touch guy on the TV telling them what’s up, it is for that reason that I have decided to give up my chair to the people that should be in it, the most influential people in the world” (The Project, 2018). The days leading up to Dolly’s death, she left a breathtakingly heartbreaking and powerful message behind “Speak, even if your voice shakes”.

Research has found that the minority of students that report bullying to teachers or councillors when they are bullied, but when they do speak up, 30% of the time the bullying stops and a further 40% of the time, the bullying is reduced (The Project, 2018). The answer to ending bullying is that simple. Speaking about it saves lives. So, speak, even if your voice shakes.

As mentioned previously, through convergence technology, the video was shared across multiple social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, resulting in a viral video to raise awareness that reached million’s in real time. As a result, this online movement was utilised with the tool of SNS’s in order to bring awareness to the severity of bullying that could potentially save lives. This movement has demonstrated a clear and positive message – that there should be zero tolerance towards bullying, and by changing behaviours, could result in a life saved now or in the future.

Equal Opportunities – Fighting against Inequality through SNS

Over the decades, progress has been made in terms of equal opportunities both online and in reality. Within the past decade, Social Networking Sites have had an impact on the promotion and awareness of global issues involving inequality. Between the month of January 2014 and the month of January 2015, discussions of issues surrounding women’s equality increased by a whooping 60% on the Twitter platform. SNS’s such as Twitter is a place for everyone to be able to come together and discuss issues on equality, for example the wage gap (Howard, 2015).

1: #BlackLivesMatter

There is no doubt that the impact of SNS’s has effectively and efficiently raised awareness on social justice, social issues and political issues. The Black Lives Matter civil rights movement was created by three tech-savvy activists who successfully brought awareness and headlines to the violence against African-Americans. The movement was centralised around the trial of George Zimmerman who shot dead a 17-year-old African-American boy, by the name of Trayvon Martin (Day, 2015). The movement followed on since, and noticeably higher use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was used following on various social networks following on from violent events that happened to African-American’s. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has proven to be one of the most successful activist movements reaching a substantial number of users and subsequently created awareness and action against injustice within the African-American community.

2: #HeForShe

HeForShe is an online movement for gender equality. The movement encourages “action right now to create a gender equal world” (HeForShe, 2018). As previously discussed, Deepika Padukone (2018) says “I think it is extremely important for those who are in positions of influence or power to bring about social change. It is extremely important for them to speak up about whatever issue it might be” which rationalises why world-recognised actor and activist Emma Watson was chosen as ambassador for this movement. The movement began with Emma Watson’s speech from United Nations (September 22, 2014) which can be viewed on the SNS of YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjW9PZBRfk. In Watson’s speech, she encourages men to be the “He for She” meaning men who encourage equal rights for both women and men. Watson also clearly noted the common misconception that feminism is equal to misandry. The movement was widely spread converging from SNS YouTube to SNS Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. This demonstrates that SNS played a large role in the promotion, acknowledgement and awareness of gender inequality and the gender gap.

Conclusion

It has been made evident that social networking sites have revolutionised the world we live in, specifically for Millennials. This conference paper has highlighted the most recent findings on the positive aspects of social networking sites and how this has increased awareness and change regarding equal opportunities and social justice. As discussed, online movements through SNS’s have provided users with an opportunity to speak up regarding social injustice on issues that users feel passionate about. Online communities have rallied on SNSs, often influenced by the interests of those in their online social media networks. What has been made noticeably clear was that SNS’s have the ability to create an emotional response that inspires users to work together towards tackling global issues (Hansen, 2018). Online movements such as #BlackLivesMatter #HeForShe #MeToo and #DoItForDolly have proven to be some of the most successful activist movements reaching a substantial number of users creating awareness and action against injustice and inequality. Last but not least, I would like to thank you for taking the time to participate, engage and read my conference paper. I encourage you to comment any feedback and constructive criticism you have. I look forward to reading your comments and speaking with you in the near future.

Word Count: 2491

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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:

boyd, d. (2006). Friends, Friendsters and Top 8: Writing Community into Being on Social Network Sites. First Monday, 12(4). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1418/1336

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

Purtill, J. (2017, 3, 2) Instafamous must reveal #ads under new transparency rules. ABC’s Triple J Hack. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/social-influencers-must-reveal-ad-under-new-transparency-rules/8315962

The biggest, most popular Instagram influencers for 2018. (2018). Retrieved from http://mediakix.com/2016/08/top-instagram-influencers-for-2016/#gs.O8NddII

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

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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.

References:

Celebrities’ endorsement earnings on social media. (2016). Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/10/daily-chart-9

Chen, H. (2017). College-Aged Young Consumers Perceptions of Social Media Marketing: The Story of Instagram, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 39(1), 22-36. doi:10.1080/10641734.2017.1372321

Crogan, P., & Kinsley, S. (2012). Paying attention: Toward a critique of the attention economy. Culture Machine, 13, 1–29. Available: http://www.culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/issue/view/24

Dijkmans, C. Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C. (2015). A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation. Tourism Management 47. 58 – 67.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman2014.09.005

Freberg, K., Graham, K., Mcgaughey, K., & Freberg, L. A. (2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 90-92. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2010.11.001

Frier, S. (2017, June 14). Instagram to Make It Clearer When Influencer Posts Are Paid Ads. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-14/instagram-to-make-it-clearer-when-influencer-posts-are-paid-ads

Gao, W., Tian, Y., Huang, T., & Yang, Q. (2010). Vlogging. ACM Computing Surveys, 42(4), 1-57. doi:10.1145/1749603.1749606

Goldhaber, M.H. (1997). The Attention Economy and the Net. First Monday. 2 (4-7), April. Available: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/519/440

Hearn, A. and Schoenhoff, S., 2016. From celebrity to influencer: tracing the diffusion of celebrity value across the data stream. In: P. David Marshall and S. Redmond, eds. A companion to celebrity. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 194–212.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Kaske, F., Kugler, M., & Smolnik, S. (2012). Return on Investment in Social Media–Does the Hype Pay Off? Towards an Assessment of the Profitability of Social Media in Organizations. 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. doi:10.1109/hicss.2012.504

Katz, J. E., Rice, R. E., Acord, S., Dasgupta, K., & David, K. (2004). Personal Mediated Communication and the Concept of Community in Theory and Practice. In P. Kalbfleisch (Ed.), Communication and Community: Communication Yearbook 28 (pp. 315-371). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Keeley, B. (2007). OECD insights human capital: how what you know shapes your life. Paris: OECD

Khamis, S., Ang, L., & Welling, R. (2016). Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of Social Media Influencers.Celebrity Studies, 8(2), 191-208. doi:10.1080/19392397.2016.1218292

Koput, K. W. (2010). Social capital : an introduction to managing networks. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Langlois, G., (2016) Social Networking and the Production of the Self. Meaning in the Age of Social Media, 26(4), 131-145. doi:10.1057/9781137356611.0008

Marwick, A. E. (2015). Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy. Public Culture, 27(1 75), 137–160. http://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2798379 [Available via Reading List]

Marwick, A.E., (2016). You may know me from YouTube: (micro-) celebrity in social media. In: P.D. Marshall and S. Redmond, eds. A companion to celebrity. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 333–350.

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Stevenson, S. [Sarah’s Day]. (2016, October). Healthy Snacks | Healthy Food That Taste Naughty [VEGAN]. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyRWbEbyZIw&t=318s

Stevenson, S. [@sarahs_day]. (2017, October 5). [Photograph of @loving_earth products]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ3Fa5yHmik/?taken-by=sarahs_day

Stevenson, S. [@sarahs_day]. (2018a, February 22). [Photograph of Sarah’s day holding Tropeka Products]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BffAYrdHicD/?taken-by=sarahs_day

Stevenson, S. [@sarahs_day]. (2018b, February 27). [Photograph of Sarah’s Day and White Fox Boutique Collaboration]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BfrQMM3n-M2/?taken-by=sarahs_day

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Did you hear? Word-of-mouth advertising is more effective than traditional advertising

Shannon Wells

Curtin University

Abstract

This conference paper explores the relationship between social media influencers and their followers, and how they become a community. It explores how followers are more prone to trust a social media influencers opinion on products or places because of their weak tie. This results in companies using this to their advantage by sending their products to social media influencers for them to post a review to their followers. This is called word-of-mouth advertising and companies do this because it is a cheaper way of getting their products across, and it has a more instant effect. Word-of-mouth advertising is becoming more popular than traditional advertising. Though there are still reasons as to why traditional advertising is still needed and this is due to the companies target audience, and people not having complete access to the internet. This paper uses Emily Davies, a social media influencer from Perth, as an example as to how communities can be online and offline, and how she communicates to her followers. It also uses Davies as an example on how companies use social media influencers to advertise their brands.

key words: Community, Social media influencer, Word-of-mouth advertising, weak ties.

Did you hear? Word-of-mouth advertising is more effective than traditional advertising

Introduction

The rise of technology and the Internet has provided a lot of opportunities for companies to advertise their products to a large amount of people (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009, pp. 90). It has also opened up a lot of avenues for people to communicate with others who have the same interests that they do, and this helps form communities (Rice et al, 2004, pp. 4). People can do this on a variety of different social network platforms, some of these being Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and blogging sites. They are able to access these sites through a range of different technologies, primarily being mobile phones and laptops. Users on these websites can post a range of different things to their friends and followers instantly. Some people choose to use these social media platforms to post their opinions on places they’ve been to, products they’ve tried or brands they’ve bought, and have gained a large number of followers by doing so. This results in these users becoming social media influencers. Companies recognise the influence these users have on their followers and choose to take advantage of this by sending them their products to promote online (Uzunoglu & Misci Kip, 2014, pp. 592.). This is called word-of-mouth advertising and it is becoming more effective than traditional advertising as it reaches people faster, and it has a lower cost (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009, pp. 90). Social network sites help people with similar interest’s form communities online and social media influences help bring these people together, which creates a following. The followers trust the social media influencers opinion and companies take advantage of this by getting them to participate in word-of-mouth advertising, as they know it will reach a large amount of people.

Discussion

Social media influencers are able to form communities through social networks which offer online and offline social ties. Social media influencers are users on social media websites who share their interests to a large number of followers (Freberg et al, 2011, pp. 90). Social media influencers update their social media profiles regularly to inform their followers on what they are doing, what products they’re using, what brands they’re wearing, and what places they like to go to. A community is formed by doing this, the term community branches out from not only solidarity groups of close friends and neighbours, but also social networks of people who don’t live close by (Wellman & Gulia, 1997, pp. 2). Social networks communities are created through social interactions, common interests and experiences, and through a variety of different social networks (Rice et al, 2004, pp. 4). Their followers will see their posts on the places they’ve been to and the products they like, and this usually results in them going out and experiencing or buying the same products. This is where the social media influencer name comes from as followers are being influenced to do buy or do these things. This creates a weak tie between the influencers and the followers. A weak tie is when users choose to follow and trust another person’s opinion even though they might’ve never met or don’t really know each other (Wellman & Gulia, 1997, pp. 8). Though many communities online do connect offline as well, whilst still being able to keep the weak tie in place (Wellman & Gulia, 1997, pp. 13). Communities do this by meeting up with each other to enjoy their specific interests together, for example if the interest was a certain breed of dog, they would all come together in the park to walk their dogs. This keeps the weak tie relationship as they’re only gathering together for one common thing. Users are more likely to trust the opinion of someone they have a weak tie with, then those they have a strong tie with, which is their close circle of friends or family (Wellman & Gulia, 1997, pp. 13). This is because it is exposing them to different opinions and point of views then those that are close to them, who may always have the same ones. This is why users are more attracted to a social media influencers opinion as it is different to the opinions of those in their close circle (Wellman & Gulia, 1997, pp. 13).

An example of a social media influencer who demonstrates a community network is Emily Davies who uses Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube to communicate with her followers. Davies is a fashion blogger who lives in Perth and has 143,000 followers on Instagram (Davies, 2018). Davies offers a weak tie with her followers as she shares with them her opinions on products, places and brands. Davies primarily uses Instagram to post photos of her favourite outfits to show her followers, and to promote the brands she’s wearing (Davies, 2018). Davies uses the Snapchat application on Instagram to inform her followers when she has a new post up, and to also show her viewers all the new clothes she has been sent (Davies, 2018). Davies has also just released her first vlog on YouTube which shows her followers the process she goes through when getting ready for a festival (Davies, 2018). Davies social networks also offers an offline relationship as well as an online one. The social media influencer recently just had her own pop up store at the Little Market Place in Perth where her followers from Perth could come meet her, and buy some of the clothes brands she always promotes. This shows how a weak tie can also be offline, as all her followers came together for one specific interest, and that was her clothes and sense of fashion. Davies also mentions at the end of her vlog that she loves meeting her followers, and that whenever they see her at a festival to come have a chat with her (Davies, 2018). This shows the followers how much she loves and cares for them and will result in her followers always supporting her and maintaining the weak tie.

Companies use social media influencers to promote their brands and they do this through word-of-mouth advertising. Word-of-mouth advertising is when businesses choose specific social media influencers who align with their brand, to promote their products as they know it will reach a large amount of like-minded people (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009, pp. 90). Marketers are turning more towards word-of-mouth advertising as it is proving more effective than traditional advertising (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009, pp. 90). This is because the cost is lower, and the message can be received faster as a post on a social media website can be uploaded instantly (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009, pp. 90). Companies will send their products to social media influencers for free, and the social media influencer will post their views, preferences, or experiences on the product to their followers (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009, pp. 90). Social media influencers do this by uploading photos, videos, or written posts on their chosen social media platform. These posts contain a tag to the company’s page, or a link to the specific product to make it easier for the followers to buy if they choose to. Companies know that followers will be influenced by these particular posts and will be more likely to buy it because they trust the social media influencers opinion (Uzunoglu & Misci Kip, 2014, pp. 592.). Word-of-mouth advertising is also more attractive because it offers a way to advertise their products in a different and not so obvious way, this is effective because followers don’t feel like the posts are direct advertisements from the company. Companies can do this by holding a competition with a social media influencer, or by even sponsoring their outfit for a day out as they know it will get a lot of attention.

Emily Davies uses Instagram and Snapchat to promote specific beauty and fashions brands. Davies does this by always tagging the clothes brand she is wearing in her Instagram posts, and by presenting the photo in an attractive way to show followers her specific style (Davies, 2018). Davies also uses Instagram’s snapchat application to post photos of the clothes she has been sent fresh out of the package, and always tags the brands that send them to her (Davies, 2018). Davies also uses Instagram’s snapchat application to talk to her followers in a series of Snapchat videos about her thoughts on some of the products she uses and her recommendations (Davies, 2018). The brands she promotes then reuse her photos by either posting it or sharing it to their profile, for their followers to see so it reaches a larger amount of people. Davies will also participate in competitions with specific brands, Davies will post a photo which informs her followers on what they will win and will caption it with what they need do to win it. This usually includes having to follow her, follow the brand and tagging a friend in the comments which are all things that will help the post reach more people. Davies is also being sponsored by a clothing brand who is paying for her trip to Coachella where she will wear the brands clothing for the festival, this will prove to followers her support for that specific brand.

Counter-argument

Traditional advertisements are still an effective way to advertise in society today. This is because not everyone has access to the Internet or have social media accounts where social media influencers could have an impact on them (Tater, 2016). Therefore, their source of advertisements would come from print, television or radio (Tater, 2016). Also depending on what the target audience is, depends on which type of advertising the company chooses to use (Tater, 2016). If the company is going for an older demographic, they would use traditional advertising methods as they know that would be more effective (Tater, 2016). Whereas if the company is advertising to a younger demographic they would use word-of-mouth advertising, as it is more likely they would see or be affected by advertisements on their social media websites (Tater, 2016).

Conclusion

Social media influencers have become the new advertisers for companies. Social media influencers have many followers on their social network sites, and these followers have come to care and trust what they say. This forms a weak tie between the influencer and the follower, which can be online and offline in some cases. Industries recognise the power social media influencers have over their followers and have chosen to use this to their advantage. They do this by sending their products to social media influencers who then write a post or upload a photo or video giving their opinion on the product. This forms a community as there is a whole group of people who are being influenced because they all have the same interests, and want to be using the same products or going to the same places. Emily Davies is a good example of how a community can be formed through common interests, as she has over 140,000 followers on Instagram. These followers participate in an online and offline relationship as Davies communicates with them regularly online, but also offers chances for them to meet her offline. Davies is also a good example of how brands use social media influencers to promote their products. Davies does this by wearing their clothing, uploading a stylistic photo and then tagging the brands so her followers can see and be inspired. The rise of technology and the obsession of social network sites has resulted in word-of-mouth advertising being more effective as users create weak ties with social media influencers who promote a wide range of products and places.

Reference list

Davies, E. (2018, March 19). EM DAVIES GRWM Festival Edition // FIRST EVER VLOG?! // Hidden. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/z2nKAK55vR8

emdavies__. (2018). Emily Davies (Instagram page). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/emdavies___/

Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K., & Freberg, L. (2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 90-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2010.11.001

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Tater, M. (2016). Why Traditional Marketing is Still Effective. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneurshiplife.com/traditional-marketing-effective/

Trusov, M., Bucklin, R., & Pauwels, K. (2009). Effects of Word-of-Mouth versus Traditional Marketing: Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site. Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 90-102. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20619048

Uzunoğlu, E., & Misci Kip, S. (2014). Brand communication through digital influencers: Leveraging blogger engagement. International Journal Of Information Management, 34(5), 592-602. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.04.007

Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. (1999). Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. In P. Kollock, & M. Smith (Eds.), Communities and Cyberspace. New York: Routledge.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

What impact do Instagram influencers have on the community?

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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https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270810884273

Boase, J. (2008). Personal networks and the personal communication system. Information, Communication & Society, 11.

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https://socialblade.com/instagram/user/tammy%20hembrow

Donath, J., & Boyd, D. (2004). Public Displays of Connection. BT Technology Journal, 22 (4), 71-82.

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

Boyd, D., & Ellison, N. (2007). Social Network Sites: definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13 (1).

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x

Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2017). Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising, The Review of Marketing Communications. 36(5), 798-828.

https://doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1080/02650487.2017.1348035

Ghidotti, N. (2017, March 1). Snapchat, Instagram and Influencers, How to Know What’s Best for Your Brand. Public relations Tactics. Retrieved from: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=76a4db91-6749-4475-86d1-b8926ff2660c%40sessionmgr4006

Morgan, N. (2017). Instagram Influencers: The Effects of Sponsorship on Follower Engagement With Fitness Instagram Celebrities. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2014469958?pq-origsite=primo

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Subconsciously Absorbing Information Via Snapchat

Snapchats Success in Facilitating and Maintaining

Ambient Awareness in Users

Jenelle Miles

Curtin University

Abstract

The social media application Snapchat facilitates ambient awareness and actively maintains it in several aspect of the app. Facebook’s position as the leading social network for ambient awareness information has declined and Snapchat is now the main facilitator and maintainer on any social networking platform. This paper explains how Snapchat engrains features in its application to actively maintain ambient awareness, such as; best friends, streaks, filters, stories and Snap Map. The paper will argue these features are vital in the applications success in creating a forum that relies purely on users being interested in the ambient information they receive from other users.

Keywords: Snapchat, ambient awareness, weak ties, strong ties

Introduction
Many academic articles associate ambient awareness with the social networking site Facebook (Levordashka & Utz, 2016). This paper aims to prove the use of Facebook as a social networking site has changed to one where people are consciously aware of their audience and post less mundane information of their day. Ambient awareness still exists heavily in social media, however the application Snapchat is now the main facilitator and maintainer of this information. Snapchat has introduced many features to promote daily usage of the application and contact between users. The application uses these features to create a sense of community between the users who are connected within the network (Ahmed, 2016) and encourages users to uphold strong ties and heightens the possibility of strengthening weak ties (Kramer, et al. 2014).

Discussion

Ambient Awareness is a term associated with the psychology behind social networking sites. Ana Levordashka and Sonja Utz define it as “the awareness social media users develop of their online network in result of being constantly exposed to social information” (Levordashka & Utz, 2016, p. 147). This awareness of users online posts slowly works to create a strong connection between the user and their online friends. The term online friend is general because friendship is used on social media sites as a way to classify people users are connected to online. Online friendships represent a “binary, static, and symmetric relationship of equal value between all the directly connected users, which provide only a coarse indication of the nature of the relationship” (Ahmed, 2016, p. 496). This relationship or online friendship can grow stronger if each friend chooses to interact with each other online on a regular basis. A 2008 article in The New York Times highlighted the creation of ambient awareness through Facebook posts, in which small uninformative posts by Facebook friends are often “insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane” (Thompson, 2008, pp. 16). But taken together over time the small unimportant information works together to create an informative set of details about a users life (Thompson, 2008, pp. 16). Thomson writes that ambient awareness was not possible before social media and the way “updates are all visible on a single page in a big row” (Thompson, 2008, pp. 16, 23) means updates aren’t necessarily directed at each individual that is friends with said poster on social media, however each online friend will see the update and mentally catalogue it, whether they consciously realise they are doing it. Thompsons’ article introduced ambient awareness, however its argument that Facebook is the main site for the consumption of ambient information has severely changed since 2008. The concept of ambient awareness is kept alive through social media and the online communities it creates. Online communities are the basis of social networking sites and “require a technological infrastructure with tools and applications to enable user interaction and communication” (Wang, et. al, 2012, p. 782). To uphold online communities users maintain a sense of membership and influence with integration and fulfilment of needs and a shared emotional connection with other users of the same online platform (Blanchard & Markus, 2002, p. 2). Creating ambient awareness while using a social media site works to create a sense of community. It encourages people to share information on a particular platform.

Snapchat is a particular social media platform that relies on ambient awareness existing between users, which create a sense of online community between users of the social media application and the use of the platform itself.
Snapchat is a social media network created in 2011 (Vaterlaus, et al. 2016, p. 595) its existence relies on facilitating and maintaining ambient awareness. Unlike Facebook where posts stay on the site unless users actively delete them, Snapchat users “can share snaps (i.e., pictures and short videos that can include text and drawings) with friends that ‘disappear—forever—in a matter of seconds” (Vaterlaus, et al. 2016, p. 595) where “the sender can determine how long the viewer can view the Snap” (Vaterlaus, et al. 2016, p. 595). The application encourages these pictures to be of users everyday activities and mundane tasks and relies on creating ambient awareness between friends. The 187 million users daily (Aslam, 2018)is proof of the platforms popularity. Users can take visuals of what they are currently doing and can add ‘creative tools’ to the image as a way to add supplementary information in which viewers can soak up. These tools include the current weather, location and stickers to convey mood. Each tool appears mundane but can provide adequate information to the photo. Unless a screenshot is taken of a ‘snap’ pictures, messages and videos sent between friends will not be permanently saved and this is a large part of what keeps ambient awareness and therefor Snapchat alive. The applications ability to let users choose who to send data to “has been conceptualized as a more private form of communication and is an escape from the public one-to-many communication that is the default on Facebook” (Vaterlaus, et al. 2016, p. 595). This may encourage users to share mundane images that others may enjoy as they are aware it is not permanent or available for thousands of online friends to view and is likely it will not impact on their personal or professional life. Snapchat encourages one-to-one conversation between friends because there is less pressure to ensure users are representing themselves in the same way they would do so on Facebook or Twitter where posts reach a larger audience of online friends. Protecting ones reputation online is important even for low profile issues, such as a woman who used Facebook “to make fun of ugly scarves sold in the gift shop she worked in” (Mortiz, 2017, pp. 1). Many tweets that do not align with company values can result in a user being fired from their job due to social media use. Snapchat acts as a ‘safer’ social media platform, where users know their photos and opinions will almost only be shared with a select group of friends of their choosing and not on a Facebook feed.

Snapchats popularity as a highly personalised social media application enhances its ability to maintain a strong level of ambient awareness between users and the photos they share. Users may be more likely to share information about their daily life if they know they are only sharing information with a select group and not appearing on a newsfeed style network like Facebook. Snapchat encourages sharing between certain friends by labelling users who connect with each other on the application as ‘friends’ and ‘best friends’ emojis are placed next to each friends name to rank the strength of their Snapchat ‘friendship’ based on how often two people communicate with each other using the application. Users “can have up to eight Best Friends, and they’re featured front-and-centre on the ‘Send To’ screen” (Snapchat, 2018, pp. 1) this automatically prompts people to continue an online relationship with the same few users, maintaining the connection and promoting ambient awareness. This division of ‘friends’ and ‘best friends’ creates strong and weak ties between users of the application. Snapchat ‘friends’ can be categorised as weak ties as they provide informational support but are often colleagues or acquaintances (Kramer, et al. 2014, pp. 1), whereas the ‘best friends’ category on Snapchat can be a source of strong ties that provide “both emotional and informational support” (Kramer, et al. 2014, pp. 1) between the users. A study on Snapchat behaviours in 2016 found “research indicates that young adults are motivated to use snap chat and stay connected with family and friends” (Vaterlaus, et al. 2016, p. 596) the ‘best friends’ feature of the app promotes this connection, which maintains online connections and ambient awareness. Ambient awareness is only able to exist when a user is viewing updates, posts or photos from another user on a regular basis, Snapchat ensures ambient awareness is coexistent within the application with ‘streaks’. Snapchats website defines streaks as when two users “have Snapped each other within 24 hours for more than three consecutive days”(Snapchat, 2018, pp. 2) as each twenty four hour period passes the number between two people consecutively snapping increases, with the aim to continue the streak. A theme found in the study saw Snapchat is used “to enhance the connection in existing relationships” (Vaterlaus, et al. 2016, p. 598) and streaks are used to do this with the number acting as literal relationship tally. Streaks are a clear promoter of ambient awareness and means at least once a day, everyday for as long as the user is committed to the streak they are receiving a piece of information about a person. This not only promotes ambient awareness but can also encourage online connections even between weak ties. Snapchats ‘stories’ feature allows for ambient awareness to develop between weak ties. “A Story is a collection of Snaps that play in the order they were taken. You and your friends’ Stories cover the last 24 hours, so you can see the day unfold” (Snapchat, 2018, pp.1) this is useful in maintaining ambient awareness between users because even through they may not have sent a direct photo, they can upload a photo to their story for all of their Snapchat friends to see in the twenty four hour period. This story setting acts almost as a newsfeed and means if two people don’t directly Snapchat but view each other’s posts on their story they are still creating ambient awareness between each other. Stories are enablers of online relationships and turning weak ties into strong ties as people can directly reply to a story and if Snapchats are consistent between the two users a streak can begin and daily intake of ambient awareness about each other will occur. When a user uploads a story the option to upload it to our story exists, which enables people from all over the world to see the story they uploaded from their specific region, and if a user is regularly watching ‘our stories’ on a specific part of the world they are gaining information about the culture without consciously realising so.

The applications use of ‘my stories’ encourages ambient awareness on a global scale, particularly when it introduced geofilters such as Snap Map. Snap Map allows users to share their location with one another (Snapchat, 2018, pp. 1). Users have the option of making their location public on Snap Maps, they will appear at the exact street and location they are when active on the app and can choose wether to be seen to all of their Snapchat friends, a select few or none at all. This personal use of Snap Maps actually encourages ambient awareness. Users being able to view where others are during the day is essentially useless information, but over time someone can start to learn daily movements of a friend. As The New York Times article mentioned, ambient awareness was originally coined by how people used Facebook, Facebook is now deemed as too public for users to be constantly posting about their day. Because of this change in sharing, Snapchat is able to facilitate ambient awareness at a private level, as users perceive the app as “reserved for private conversation, rather than a large social network” (Vaterlaus, et al. 2016, p. 600) and they may feel more comfortable sharing their location on a social media application with a slightly smaller online friends base than on a network with a wider audience. Geo filters and submissions to Our Story means users can see what is happening across the world and can create a connection with places they have never physically visited. Users are able to view “sporting events, celebrations, breaking news, and more” (Snapchat, 2018, pp. 1) from their phones, this can be “useful for publishers who often compile reaction lists or for journalists who get a feel for a scene by looking at Snap Maps” (Carman, 2018, pp.4). Snap Maps creates ambient awareness of events and the cultures of different places. It also works to create an ambient awareness connection between users and celebrities via its ‘discover’ section, where users can “keep up to date with breaking news, the big game or your favourite celebs” (Snapchat, 2018, pp1). As prominent figures post content to their stories users can learn more about the figure and a connection is formed because of ambient awareness, even if what he celebrity is doing is mundane, users are still taking in information about them. Author Amanda McClain argues that “social media permits an ostensible link between celebrities and audience members” (McClain, 2013, p. 67) this link creates weak ties between celebrity and user. In one twenty four hour period, the American celebrity Kourtney Kardashian posted a video of her cooking breakfast and two pictures of herself with her children, the weak tie is exists because the user is viewing her posts and ambient awareness is created because they are taking in basic information about her daily life, however the “relationships between celebrities and audience members do not truly exist” (McClain, 2013, p. 67) because the viewing of mundane content, is only a one way relationship. Viewers may forge a connection with the celebrity, however this type of ambient awareness cannot create strong ties as information is only being received one way between the two Snapchat users.

Counter arguments

Arguments to the paper may include the understanding that all types of social media networks allow for the consumption of ambient awareness and there are many other social networking applications that do facilitate and maintain ambient awareness. A 2018 research study estimated “Facebook will lose 2 million users under 25 this year” (Guynn, 2018)and Snapchat will “add 1.9 million users”(Guynn, 2018) in the same age group. This research indicates ambient awareness is maintained in Snapchat because of people in younger age groups, however ambient awareness may still exist heavily on Facebook only with older Internet users facilitating the information.

Conclusion

Snapchats’ introduction of different features into the application such as ‘best friends’ streaks and My Story, encourages users to participate and be daily active users of the application. The point of the network is to create a sense of ambient awareness; weak ties do exist within the application and have the ability to be shaped into strong ties (except in the case of celebrities). Taking in information about others on a regular basis is the definition of ambient awareness and users appear to prefer Snapchat to larger social networking sites such as Facebook because their posts are broadcast on a private level and this actually increases the level of ambient information a user is willing to send and receive. Snapchat appears to be the main contributor to the production and consumption of ambient awareness across all social networking sites

References

Ahmed , J. (2016).A Semantic Model for Friend Segregation in Online Social Networks. Web Engineering, 16, 495-500. Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-38791-8_36

Aslam, S. (2018). Snapchat by the numbers: Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts. Retrieved from https://www.omnicoreagency.com/snapchat-statistics/

Blanchard, A., & Markus L. (2002). Sense of Virtual Community- Maintaining The Experience of Belonging. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Retrieved from https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=994449&tag=1

Carman, A. (2018). You can now watch Snap Maps on the web. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/12/17003486/snapchat-maps-online-snap-maps

Guynn, J. (2018). Snapchat snapping up young users fleeing Facebook. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/docview/2001302697/fulltext/FBD94AC24C354978PQ/1?accountid=10382

Kramer, N., & Rosner, L., & Eimler, S., & Winter, S., & Neubaum, G. (2014). Let the Weakest Link Go! Empirical Explorations on the Relative Importance of Weak and Strong Ties on Social Networking Sites. Socities,4, 785-809. doi:10.3390/soc4040785

Levordaska, A., & Utz, S. (2016). Ambient Awareness: From random noise to digital closeness in online social networks. Computers in Human Behaviour, 60, 147-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.02.037

McClain, A. (2013). Keeping Up the Kardashian Brand: Celebrity, Materialism andSexuality. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/curtin/reader.action?docID=1524038&ppg=66

Moritz, K. (2017). These Social Media Posts Can Get You Fired. Retrieved from https://www.rewire.org/work/social-media-fired/

Snapchat. (2018). About Snap Map. Retrieved from https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/article/snap-map-about

Snapchat. (2018).Best friends. Retrieved from https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/a/best-friends

Snapchat. (2018). Discover. Retrieved from https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/a/discover

Snapchat. (2018). Snapstreaks. Retrieved from https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/a/snapstreaks

Snapchat. (2018). About Stories. Retrieved from https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/a/about-stories

Thompson, C. (2008). Brave New World of Digital Intimacy. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html?_r=1

Vaterlaus, J., & Barnett, K., & Roche, C., & Young, J. (2016). “Snapchat is more personal”: An exploratory study on Snapchat behaviours and young adult interpersonal relationships. Computers in Human Behaviour, 62, 594-601. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.029

Wang, H., & Chung, J., & Park, N., & McLaughlin, M.. & Fulk, J. (2012). Understanding Online Community Participation: A Technology Acceptance Perspective. Communication Research, 39, 781-801. DOI: 10.1177/0093650211408593

Facebook’s Negative Impact on Romantic Relationships Through Encouraging Interpersonal Electronic Surveillance

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Social Networking Site Facebook’s Negative Impact on Relationships Through Encouraging Interpersonal Electronic Surveillance

Abstract

This paper explores the negative impact that the social networking site (SNS) Facebook is having on romantic relationships through encouraging interpersonal electronic surveillance (IES) online. Examined throughout this paper is the heavy involvement that SNSs are playing in romantic relationships, whether it be building new relationships or maintaining pre-existing relationships. This paper discusses the contributions of jealous, anxious or attaching personality traits and how these can provoke relationship jealousy. This paper also discusses how jealousy within a relationship can lead to individuals conducting online surveillance of their romantic partner. The paper examines how relationships are being managed online and how SNSs are being used as a tool to maintain both online and offline relationships. It is also discussed in this paper the impact that IES can have post relationship and how individuals continue to monitor an ex-partners profile once they are no longer romantically involved with one another.

Keywords: social networking sites, social media, interpersonal electronic communication, dating, online dating, communities/networks.

Social Networking Site Facebook’s Negative Impact on Relationships Through Encouraging Interpersonal Electronic Surveillance

Social Networking Sites are becoming increasingly popular not only to create and develop new interpersonal relationships, but they are also commonly used to maintain existing relationships. SNSs have also presented a new platform for surveillance within romantic relationships. Tokunaga (2010, p. 705) argues that “SNSs have been reinvented into a tool for interpersonal surveillance along with their social networking capabilities”, this is an important theory to keep in mind when considering the growth of SNSs and the hierarchy that they play in romantic relationships and in online dating communities and networks. Whilst adults are still able to function without having their romantic partner right next to them, it is the emotional availability and support aspects that many expect from a romantic partner that remains a concern due to the increased use of social media and SNSs in romantic partnerships (Morey et al., 2013). This paper discusses how the online social media site Facebook has negatively impacted relationship trust by encouraging IES. The articles referenced throughout this paper will strengthen this argument by discussing how romantic relationships have been influenced by IES, what individual personalities are more likely to participate in the online surveillance of their partner and the effects that this surveillance is having on relationships and individuals even once the relationship has concluded.

Discussion

Online Relationships. Social networking sites, particularly Facebook, play an important role in the maintenance of existing online and offline romantic relationships. It has been discussed how “research has convincingly shown that SNSs are important in the emergence and maintenance of romantic relationships even though this may not be apparent from an individual’s perspective” (Neyer & Voigt, 2004, p. 282), which is an interesting point of discussion considering that majority of people use social media for reasons other than dating and romantic relationships and are becoming unaware that the emergence and maintenance of their romantic relationship, in fact, relies heavily on social media and SNSs. Social networking sites can make or break relationships; they give both a platform for individuals to find information about potential romantic partners such as hobbies and interests (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016), but also give the individuals the platform to obsess over and observe the online actions of others. Van Ouytsel et al. (2016) discuss in their article the popularity of initiating a relationship online through social networking platforms such as Facebook, with 47% of the 18-24-year-old age group surveyed admitting to using the internet and social networking sites for romantic advances. The growth and success of Facebook has created a solid platform for SNSs and its users around the world and over the years with “Facebook becoming the most successful single platform with more than one billion users worldwide” (Fox & Warber, 2014, p. 3) which shows just how dedicated users are to social media. By signing up to Facebook and creating a personal profile, romantic partners can send personal messages through the platform, can post directly to their partner’s profile publically, view photographs, investigate timeline history, and can even search through their partner’s online friends list (Fox & Warber, 2014). SNSs provide romantic partners with all they need to know about their loved one and provide users with the confidence to engage in new romantic relationships and maintain existing relationships through a social networking platform. However, there are numerous issues that can stem from individuals using Facebook as a means of communication and security within their romantic relationship.

Online Relationship Jealousy. Online social networking has been demonstrated to impact people’s romantic relationships in multiple ways. For example, “research documenting the negative impacts that social networking can have on romantic relationships by spurring jealousy, especially amongst individuals with anxious attachment styles” (Carpenter & Spottswood, 2013, p. 1531) illustrates the effects of social media and how it fuels jealousy in romantic relationships. Jealousy is a common feeling that is often experienced in romantic relationships and is especially prevalent in relationships between individuals who experience anxious or attaching personality traits. “With 950 million active Facebook members logging into their accounts daily” (LeFebvre et al., 2014, p. 79) there is no doubt that individuals are going to experience some uncertainty when it comes to their partner being active in online social networking environments such as Facebook. The frequent use of Facebook by an individual in a romantic relationship has had proven connections to some forms of jealousy (LeFebvre et al., 2014). The use of Facebook by relational partners has also been related back to Facebook-related jealousy which can be demonstrated through acts as simple as becoming jealous of a partner sending a friend request to the opposite sex (LeFebvre et al., 2014). Elphinston and Noller (as cited in LeFebvre et al., 2014, p. 80) argue that “determined cognitive jealousy and surveillance behaviours are linked to relationship dissatisfaction” this is a valid argument and puts forward the insinuation that online social networking use within romantic relationships influences the quality and outcome of the relationship.

It is the feeling of jealousy that seemingly drives those in romantic relationships to feel the need to dig further into their romantic partners’ social networking lives and online media profiles for more information on what they are doing, who they are engaging with and what they are engaging in online. This leads to uncertainty and trust issues within the relationship, “relational uncertainty stems from perceptions of ambiguity within the relationship, such as not knowing if the partner is serious about the relationship or if the relationship has a future” (Fox & Warber, 2014, p. 4). In other words, relational uncertainty in a relationship is often the cause for individuals in relationships to participate in jealous online behaviours such as IES. It is extremely normal for “the partner experiencing uncertainty to explore the content on their partner’s profile to determine what their partner is doing and who they are interacting with so that they can alleviate any uncertainty they may have about their partner and the relationship” (Fox & Warber, 2014, p.4) on the other hand, looking through a partner’s profile can also confirm any suspicions being had. Significantly, relationship surveillance through social networking sites such as Facebook is often seen as a tool of control and has also been referred to as the term Little Brother.

Little Brother is described as the occurrence in which individuals on the internet engage in surveillance through social networking sites to gain further awareness about the online behaviours and actions of others (Tokunaga, 2010). Today where online social networking is the norm, participation on social networking sites has become one of the most important ways to stay a fundamental part in a partner’s daily life (Tokunaga, 2010), which is considerably concerning. When we consider being in a romantic relationship or partnership with someone we do not presume that this means staying furthermore in touch with their social networking lives and profiles than reality itself and the physical and emotional sensations of a relationship. It is not uncommon for individuals to not realize that they are participating in IES as “surveillance can be as simple as an individual casually examining their romantic partner’s profile to gather the simplest information” (Tokunaga, 2010, p. 706). As this suggests, IES whether it is intentional or not can have a negative impact on a couple’s relationship.

Interpersonal Electronic Surveillance. Interpersonal electronic surveillance can impact romantic relationships in numerous ways. Le et al. (as cited by Sinclair et al., 2015, p. 78) state that in fact “analysis has shown that perceived social network approval is a consistent, negative predictor of relationship termination” which is an interesting argument and shows the impact that SNSs have on approval within romantic relationships online. Online social media profile analysis is otherwise known as IES, which is characterized as “surreptitious strategies individuals use over communication technologies to gain awareness of another user’s offline and/or online behaviours” (Tokunaga, 2010, p. 706). IES is an interesting concept and is very real in many romantic relationships where partners are regularly using social media platforms and SNSs to communicate with others outside of the relationship. The use of SNSs can provoke jealousy and surveillance which often leads to trust being broken within a romantic relationship, one individual may feel that their privacy has been invaded by their partner. Online social networking, in general, has affected the way in which we communicate with our romantic partners. Instead of face-to-face communication in relationships, couples are now turning to media and SNSs to communicate with their romantic partners; the internet specifically is changing relational communication, which is altering the quality of the communication within their relationship. IES, however, can develop further than just consistently observing a partner’s Facebook profile. Helsper and Whitty (as cited in Utz & Beukeboom, 2010, p. 514) report that “in about 30% of married couples at least one partner has at least once secretly read the e-mails of SMS text messages of the other partner” however, reading a partner’s emails or SMS messages is ultimately a breach of trust within a romantic relationship and is still a form of IES even though it is not conducted through social media or SNSs.

There are many different reasons for which individuals may feel the need to conduct surveillance of their partner in a romantic relationship. The first is suspicious jealousy, which can arise when a romantic partner may feel threatened by an external source whilst in a relationship (Tokunaga, 2010). The second is that individuals who have previously experienced a break of trust or infidelity with their romantic partner feel some uncertainty within their relationship and feel the need to observe their partners’ social networking profiles (Tokunaga, 2010). Interpersonal electronic surveillance can continue even after a relationship has ended with many individuals continuing to observe their ex-partner’s profiles.

Post-Relationship Surveillance. If it were not for online social networking and social media, after a break-up, many couples would have no option but to go their separate ways and would most likely not hear from or need to see their ex-partner again. But due to most individuals having online Facebook profiles along with other social networking profiles, it has become increasingly easier for people to stay in touch with one another.

It has also become increasingly easier for individuals to keep an eye on what their ex-partner is doing and who they are communicating with both online and offline. Furthermore, “when romantic relationships dissolve, people can retain access to an ex-partners status updates and pictures by remaining friends or through shared friends or information that is publically available” (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016, p. 78) this is concerning when considering the lack of privacy and security that SNSs often don’t provide. With Facebook allowing the upload of status updates and pictures, other users still have a clear view of what is occurring in a person’s life events, even if they are no longer romantically connected (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016). Interestingly, “almost a quarter of American adult social networking site users have admitted to searching online for information about someone they had dated in the past” (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016, p. 78) which many would consider seemingly unnecessary and inappropriate considering the romantic relationship has already ended. It is compelling to consider that even once a romantic relationship has ended that individuals can still watch what their ex-partners are doing. Whether an individual chooses to observe their ex-partners Facebook profile depends entirely on the individual themselves and the circumstances in which the relationship ended. There are many relationships that end and with that communication and online friendship is also cut off, and whilst this is the case for some it is not uncommon for “individuals who did not terminate the relationship themselves to search for information about their ex-partner rather than those who have initiated the breakup themselves” (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016, p. 78).

Often, social networking usage after a breakup can turn nasty, unreasonable and sometimes obsessive. IES is not the only way that ex-partners can keep in contact through social networking post-breakup (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016). Individuals can post on their personal profiles after a breakup to try and catch the attention of their ex-partner or someone who may be in contact with their ex-partner. There are three main ways that ex-partners can disturb each other through social networking; covert provocation, public harassment and venting (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016). Covert provocation can be simple things such as posting song lyric or poetry lines within status updates in reference to their ex-partner (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016). However, “these messages can be used to hurt the ex-partner or to communicate with the intention to get back together” (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016, p. 78) which often ends up having a negative effect on both the ex-partner and the individual committing the act. Public harassment activities, on the other hand, are less frequent and can include things such as “changing one’s relationship status from “in a relationship” with the intent to make the ex-partner jealous or posting embarrassing pictures of the ex-partner to humiliate them” (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016, p. 78) however, public harassment activities can also lead to a more damaging outcome. The third process of online social media disturbance is venting which includes “writing negative comments about the ex-partner and posting mean-spirited or hateful comments in a response to pictures of an ex-partner” (Van Ouytsel et al., 2016, p. 78) which is more commonly seen between young adults on social media today and majority of people have fallen victim to venting. Personality traits can also influence social media usage after breakups. Fox and Warber (2014, p. 2) discuss how “attachment styles influence reactions to breakups and that those with anxious attachment styles often have a longer recovery period and may continue to seek information about their partner after the breakup.” Fox and Warber (2014) conclude that their findings have proven that anxious attachment can cause further distress and frequent partner monitoring post-breakup. Overall, SNSs and IES can continue to impact a relationship even once it has concluded.

Conclusion

The popularity of social networking sites being used within relationships as a tool to both create new, and develop on, existing romantic relationships is becoming an increasing issue within social media platforms and SNSs which negatively impacts romantic relationships and breaks the trust between romantic partners. Social networking sites have also amplified the issue of surveillance within relationships particularly interpersonal electronic surveillance. The online social networking site Facebook has negatively impacted romantic relationships by encouraging interpersonal electronic surveillance. Surveillance within romantic relationships has been identified throughout this paper in relation to personality traits and jealousy issues being the leading causes when it comes to individuals observing their partner’s online profiles. Trust has also been identified as a contributor to interpersonal electronic surveillance. The impact that online surveillance has on relationships is negative and has affected the way that people may feel in a relationship or may treat their partner in a relationship. It was also discussed how surveillance of social networking profiles can continue even after the relationship has ended. There are many contributing factors into why individuals choose to observe their romantic partner’s social networking profiles but overall conducting surveillance of a partner’s Facebook profile is both an invasion of privacy and a violation of trust. Arguably, without the ability to survey a partner’s social networking profile, romantic relationships would work differently and would not be so negatively impacted by social media usage.

References

Carpenter, C., & Spottswood, E. (2013). Exploring romantic relationships on social networking sites using the self-expansion model. Computers In Human Behaviour, 29(4), 1531-1537. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.01.021

Fox, J., & Warber, K. (2014). Social Networking Sites in Romantic Relationships: Attachment, Uncertainty, and Partner Surveillance on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, And Social Networking, 17(1), 3-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0667

LeFebvre, L., Blackburn, K., & Brody, N. (2014). Navigating romantic relationships on Facebook. Journal Of Social And Personal Relationships, 32(1), 78-98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265407514524848

Morey, J., Gentzler, A., Creasy, B., Oberhauser, A., & Westerman, D. (2013). Young adults’ use of communication technology within their romantic relationships and associations with attachment style. Computers In Human Behavior, 29(4), 1771-1778. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.019

Neyer, F., & Voigt, D. (2004). Personality and social network effects on romantic relationships: a dyadic approach. European Journal Of Personality, 18(4), 279-299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/per.519

Sinclair, H., Felmlee, D., Sprecher, S., & Wright, B. (2015). Don’t Tell Me Who I Can’t Love. Social Psychology Quarterly, 78(1), 77-99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0190272514565253

Tokunaga, R. (2011). Social networking site or social surveillance site? Understanding the use of interpersonal electronic surveillance in romantic relationships. Computers In Human Behaviour, 27(2), 705-713. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.08.014

Utz, S., & Beukeboom, C. (2011). The Role of Social Network Sites in Romantic Relationships: Effects on Jealousy and Relationship Happiness. Journal Of Computer-Mediated Communication, 16(4), 511-527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2011.01552.x

Van Ouytsel, J., Van Gool, E., Walrave, M., Ponnet, K., & Peeters, E. (2016). Exploring the role of social networking sites within adolescent romantic relationships and dating experiences. Computers In Human Behaviour, 55, 76-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.042

Creative Commons License: CC BY-ND

The Instagram Phenomenon: Shaping young women’s expectations about beauty and success

Abstract

This paper explores how Social Networking Sites (SNS), with specific reference to Instagram communities, are changing the way humans communicate, which in turn is changing the entire inner workings of our social lives and how we conceptualise and understand “the self”. Drawing on a number of academics, this paper brings together notions of “self-promotional behaviours” and ‘narcissism” (Moon et al., 2016), the ways Instagram is serving as a new platform for “creative self-enterprise” (Duffy and Hund, 2015), the reflection of capitalist ideals through the notion of “self-branding” (Khamis, Ang and Welling, 2016) and lastly, the influence of social media’s fitness culture on perceptions of beauty and body image (Norton, 2017). These interconnected notions explain how Instagram communities are deeply affecting young women’s expectations of happiness and success through self presentation which largely emphasises living the “ideal” life.

Keywords: Instagram communities, self-branding, capitalism, self-esteem, young women, expectations

Introduction

Over the past 15 or so years, a great number of academics and industry researchers have begun discussing the affects of Social Networking Sites (SNS) on social life and human communication. SNS, as we know them today, came to fruition in 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) launched his soon-to-be billion dollar site at Harvard University (Thompson, 2008, p.1). Since then, SNS have provided a new platform and space for a new form of self presentation, as well as forming and maintaining relationships (Moon, et al., 2016, p.22). One study suggests that users of the SNS, Instagram, tend to post photos of their “ideal” self, always looking photo-ready whilst out enjoying leisurely activities, which is inherently problematic as it creates unrealistic expectations of day-to-day activities and duties, as well as what it means to be happy and successful (Moon, et al., 2016, p.22). In this paper, I argue that Instagram communities shape young women’s expectations and understanding about happiness and success through self presentation which largely emphasizes living the “ideal” life. Firstly I will discuss Moon’s (2016) article around the self-promotional behaviour of Instagram users and its connection with narcissism which will help in providing an understanding of the dominant demographic of Instagram users. Secondly, I will be introducing Duffy and Hund’s (2015) ideas around Instagram serving as a new platform for women to create income streams while maintaining their femininity and sense of empowerment. Thirdly, I will be introducing the significance of Capitalism in the context of the “self-branding” phenomenon seen on Instagram through looking at an article by Khamis, Ang and Welling (2016), and lastly, I will be discussing Norton’s (2017) analysis of Instagram’s fitness culture and how it affects body image and self-esteem. Furthermore, the discussion will include the limitations to each of these articles in hope of providing a holistic argument.

Literature Review

As mentioned in the introduction, Moon et al. (2016) discuss the self-promotional behaviours of Instagram users and the suggested correlation with the personality trait narcissism, a term which refers to inflated self image and feelings of superiority over others (Lee, 2004, p.4). The study shows that people who show a higher propensity for narcissism spend more time in online communities participating in self-promotional activities for example, posting “selfies” (Moon, et al., 2016, p.24), a colloquial term referring to the “self-portrait photograph” coined in the early 2000’s in Australia (The Guardian, 2013). This study helps to create an understanding of the sorts of people who are the dominant users of Instagram. We can see how these people form a “distorted self-concept” in an attempt to elevate their perceived status (Moon et al. 2016, p.22). Moon et al. (2016, p.22) highlighted that this was seen to be driven by feelings of low self-esteem which is particularly interesting as one would think that low-self esteem would not be closely associated with narcissistic behaviours. Moon et al. (2016, p. 22) propose that their research shows that close to half of the photos posted on to Instagram are “selfies” or photos of the users with their friends. The study found that the frequency at which the photos were posted lead back to the link between people spending significant amounts of time in online communities on social media, and narcissism. I argue this highlights the problematic nature of the influence of Instagram communities on self esteem and body image. This particular analysis of the personality trait narcissism and its close relationship with promotional online behavior could be used as a way of understanding what is at the core of what is shaping young women’s expectations about body image and beauty. In addition, Linnebach (2004, p.3) uses the term “socio-cultural epidemic” to refer to unrealistic beauty standards which are affecting how women perceive themselves in relation to this beauty standard. I argue using the term “epidemic” is powerful in understanding the magnitude of this issue in today’s society.
Similarly, Duffy and Hund (2015, p.1) look into the notion of “having it all” and how Instagram has become a new platform for women, in particular, to create income streams through “creative modes of self-enterprise” for example, the rise of micro-celebrities and fashion bloggers. They argue that Instagram has evidently been a place where women can build lucrative careers, based at home, whilst maintaining their femininity, sense of individuality, and empowerment; however, the enterprise has done little to reconcile or tackle issues on the gender and race inequalities prevalent on the app (Duffy and Hund, 2015). This was noted by there being a serious underrepresentation of “women of colour, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals, as well as plus size models” in photos (Duffy and Hund, 2015). I would argue that these issues of gender and race inequality, all add to the pressures which exist because of the Western hegemonic heteronormative expectations in these online communities. Anecdotally, I can attest this through my own observations of the popular images on Instagram being white, straight, skinny and attractive individuals. Furthermore, Duffy and Hund (2015) argue that there are limitations to consider in the analysis of the rise of “creative self-enterprise” and that individuals must be critical when thinking about online SNS such as Instagram. Their concluding thoughts also suggested that these women, and the content of their blogs and profiles, are inherently driven by the capitalist agenda, constraining them by ensuring that they maintain the role of the blind consumer (Duffy and Hund, 2015, p. 9).
As we can see, Capitalism thrives, still, as the under current of even the most creative and independent careers. Khamis, Ang and Welling (2016) address this by seeking to conceptualize the term “self-branding” within the bounds of the Capitalist system. The term “self-branding” refers to the idea of selling one’s public image for commercial gain and/or social/cultural capital (Khamis, Ang, and Welling, 2016, p.123). Like Duffy and Hund (2015), the authors make connections between the idea of advanced consumer capitalism, marketing, and “self-branding” in these online spaces, such as Instagram. The paper looks at the rise of term “self-branding” as a reflection of the “uncertain labour markets” and a way in which neo-liberal governance encourage people to see themselves as entrepreneurial, money making subjects (Khamis, Ang, and Welling, 2016, p.201). I would argue that this correlates with what Duffy and Hund (2015) suggest as being essentially just another form of consumerism in an advanced capitalist society. Moreover, Ziółkowski (2004) writes on the topic of the commodification of social life and in particular, Marx’s introduction of the term “commodity fetishism” which he used in reference to the commodification of the workforce (2004, p.387). I believe there can be a connection made between Marx’s theory of “commodity fetishism” and the aforementioned notion of “self-branding”. Lastly, I would like to bring in an article which provides a good example of how influential Instagram communities can be in shaping the expectations of young women’s ideas about beauty and success. Norton (2017) addresses this issue by analysing social media’s fitness culture and the effects it has on body image and self esteem. He begins by highlighting the fact that on the surface, “fitspiration” and motivational health blogs do exactly what their names entail, inspire fitness; however, “like everything in the media” (2017, p. 6), there is always a person behind the message who may or may not be taking into account social and cultural diversity. Norton (2017, p.6) argues that this can create feelings of low self-esteem and negative body image among, particularly, women (even those who are not categorised as belonging to a minority group). However, this can also be seen in Instagram communities with predominantly men as members (bodybuilders), which Norton (2017, p.6) suggests is due to feelings of inadequacy and discouragement which is seen as a natural response to the unrealistic facade many people create. Following on from this, Social psychologist, Leon Festinger, proposed that people will build perceptions of themselves by comparing their image and their “success” to others, which can be problematic as this is generally done in a way of “upward social comparison” (Norton, 2017, p.16). This type of comparison, that encourages an individual to compare themselves to someone who they perceive to be better, is certainly not uncommon on social media, despite being seriously damaging (Norton, 2017, p.17).Norton (2017, p.7) uses examples such as people obsessing over their body image for the sake of appearance in the form of self-destructive eating and exercise habits. Conversely, the article also mentions that “fitspiration” does allow for people to connect with one another in online communities which provides a level of social support as well as encouragement and motivation (Norton, 2017, p. 27). Despite this, the repercussions (negative effects on body image) must be accounted for. Norton (2017, p.26-27) makes quick mention of how this can be done through “media literacy”, which “aims to educate people on how to better access, analyze, evaluate, and create media”, something that I would argue could be a useful focus for further research into how we, both as individuals and as a society, can be better equipped in dealing with the effects of social media and online social networks such as Instagram.

Discussion

All four articles raise some important questions around the SNS Instagram and its effects on how young women perceive beauty, happiness, and success. However, there are some limitations to each of these studies that are certainly cause for further questioning. Before going into the technological constraints, demographic factors, and issues of modality, I would like to make note of a shared limitation that I came across in all four articles; information inadequacy. Although the scope of research into the effects social media and new computer mediated technologies is expanding, there is certainly room for further research into how the younger generation are being impacted and how the “context” and “affordances” of these technologies are changing the way people develop their “self-concept” (Moon et al. 2016, p.22) and identity (Brown, 2016).

Technological limitations. The Moon et al. (2016) and the Norton (2017) studies both collected their data via online surveys, in comparison to Duffy and Hund (2015) who developed a varied data collection method. I would argue that limiting oneself to only one form of collecting data/information would in turn impede the research parameters and sample size, providing limited data for discussion. Duffy and Hund (2015); however, used a variety of different methods including: the coding of “about me” sections, “strategically” gathering photos and conducting in depth interviews, all of which make for a more holistic analysis and conclusion.
Demographic limitations. Again, the Moon et al. (2016) study was conducted in Korea, which very quickly narrows the scope of the research and lessens the validity of the findings. Furthermore, the only research conducted where there was mention of the affects on men, was the Norton (2017) article. The other articles focused solely on women, as a demographic, when the issue is not confined to women but can affect men as well.
Modality limitations. The Khamis, Ang, and Welling (2016) article did not provide any quantitative data which I would argue had an influence on the impact of their argument. The other articles provided both qualitative and quantitative data which further reinforced their argument, for example, the collection of both interview and survey data as well as a foundation in academic research.

Conclusion and Future Study

Throughout this conference paper I have discussed Instagram as a space for a new form of self-presentation. I have critically analysed four academic articles which have helped in developing my argument further and reinforcing ideas on the influence of the Instagram community in particular. The first article by Moon et al. (2016) discussed the role of narcissism in Instagram users, they concluded that the more frequently people post photos, the higher the levels of narcissism; however, the motivation for posting photos frequently, was to receive positive feedback and to elevate one’s own perceived status as compensation for low self-esteem. The second article by Duffy and Hund (2015) highlights the fact that Instagram has allowed for women to work in lucrative careers through self-promotion, based at home. The authors then go on to explain that although this may seem like a “win” for feminism and women in general, there is an obvious agenda which is driven by capitalist ideals, which keeps the women ignorant to their own oppression, grounded in consumption. Khamis, Ang and Welling (2016), further reinforce this notion by looking at how even the language used e.g. “self-branding” could be seen as way the neo-liberal agenda has crept into the social media discourse, making sure people remain ignorant and unconcerned with the power of consumption and the influence it has on their day-to-day lives. Lastly, Norton’s (2017) paper highlighted the affects of fitness blogs on self-esteem and body image. This article was particularly interesting as it not only provided a take on “fitspiration” that underpinned the negative aspects and influence it can have, but also touched on the ways that people can avoid developing negative feelings about their body image or self esteem. All four articles raised some important points surrounding the volatile and highly influential nature of the app. Moreover, they all reinforced my argument by providing evidence which suggested that Instagram communities can shape young women’s expectations and understanding about what it means to be beautiful and live a happy, healthy, and successful life. Finally, as I discussed briefly above, there were evidently some limitations to each study that I argue could certainly be improved on for future research, an example of this could be expanding the data collection parameters to gain a broader understanding of the SNS.

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