ABSTRACT

The popularisation of social media platforms has birthed of a new type of celebrity; Social Media Influencers (SMI’s). To maintain their popularity on expansive digital platforms with so much to offer, SMIs such as popular TikTok influencer Anna Paul must form and maintain nuanced digital communities that are regularly interacted with. Using Anna Paul’s TikTok community as a tool of assessment, this paper explores the idea of social media as a “Third Space”, emphasising how the digital platform facilitates a nuanced and reshaped notions of community.

INTRODUCTION
In considering traditional notions of community, one would most likely conjure an idea of a group of individuals that share a common interest or goal, forming a group around this. Perhaps a neighbourhood or parent teacher committee come to mind, something that exists through “real-world”. In a time where individuals within society seemingly cling to an idealised version of this “real” or traditional community (Hampton and Wellman, 2018), social networking sites have become platforms that are able to facilitate conversation and connection that is extremely alike to something that would exist traditionally, thanks to the rapid technological advancement of the post-web 2.0 digital landscape. Furthermore, different theorists have argued whether the social media platforms within the digital space could be considered a place that facilitated community that matched with that made in the real world. A particular theorist, Ray Oldenburg, is known for coining the concept of “third place” regarding places in which communities can be formed and thrive. Oldenburg (1999, as cited in McArthur and White, 2016) argues that the third place is one where individuals can gather outside of orthodox gathering places, such as home or work, to ultimately create new communities. To provide a way to define this new space for community building, a criterion was created by Oldenburg to measure whether a space offered key aspects such as:
“(1) neutral ground, (2) leveler, (3) conversation, (4) accessibility and accommodation, (5) regulars, (6) low profile, (7) playful mood, and (8) home away from home.” (Oldenburg, 1999, as cited in McArthur and White, 2016). Previous studies have presented arguments that have considered social media as a third place through measurement against Oldenburg’s criteria, such as Vaux and Langlais’ (2021) research into Facebook as a third place, that drew conclusions of the platform offering the primary components of a third place to create a space where its users can mold communities. Furthermore, with the ever-changing state of Social Media Platforms, new communities such as Social Media Influencer (SMI) communities, have become prevalent, with big names like Anna Paul, a TikTok star who offers video blogs of her daily life to fans, presenting updated examples of how Oldenburg’s ideas on the “Third Place” can be observed in social media communities. By drawing on Oldenburg’s ideas and “third place” criteria, this paper argues that social media platforms and networking sites act as a “third place” that can facilitate new community formats and functions, exploring this argument via Tik Tok social media influencer (SMI) communities and using popular SMI Anna Paul’s Tik Tok community as a lens to express such ideas.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER

As the popularity of particular social networking sites is ever-changing, even applications such as Facebook, that Oldenburg’s “third space” criteria has been assessed against are now considered outdated platforms. However, despite the little research produced on the app, many elements of the “third space” can also been identified on TikTok in the communities it creates space for. The overnight sensation of an entertainment app has transformed many community practices and has popularised the SMI communities. in the digital landscape, SMIs have hastily risen to the status of a “traditional” celebrity with a community that the influencer themselves is at the core of. In a study regarding the acquisition of “celebrity capital” as a SMI, Brooks, Drenten and Piskorski argue that “SMIs are able to synergistically accrue celebrity capital from both content and community.” (2021). An argument such as Brooks, Drenten and Piskorski’s sheds light on how equally important the presence of community and their presence in the community themselves is for SMIs. Furthermore, it could be suggested based on their argument that, as content is equally as important to celebrity capital acquisition, an SMI will go out of their way to create content that is well received by the community they are at the core of. In Anna Paul’s TikTok community, she creates content that promotes a particular self-image, selling this branded self through the videos she posts within her fan community to ultimately bring the community together, such as a video posted in 2022 in which Paul (2022B) promotes an attitude of self-love to her community, and this is a persona that is carried throughout most of her content. Khamis, Ang and Welling (2016) provide an argument based around self-branding on social media, suggesting that it is a way of attaining fanbase, or community, as a strong personality can bring consumers to an SMI in the attention economy. Anna Paul has utilised the attention economy to create a self-brand, selling her brand to her community through interaction and content creation of a particular style and emotion. This way of community functioning is one that social media has facilitated. Furthermore, the examples of how Paul promotes herself within her community adhere to the criteria Oldenburg has theorized about and presents how social media is a third space through the fact that her self-branding encourages conversation in an accessible way to her community.

INFLUENCER FANDOMS & THEIR RELATIONSHIPS
Although an SMI is a public figure with a supporting fanbase, much like a traditional celebrity parasocial relationship, social media platforms assist in providing a levelled community for all that interact with the SMI, facilitating in the creation of the “reciprocal” parasocial relationship between the SMI and their community contributors. Social media platforms like TikTok offer members of a community an accessible and level playing ground to voice opinions on SMI’s and their perceived relationships with them, whether they be positive or negative. A study by Mardon, Cocker and Daunt (2023), in fact, highlights how negative parasocial relationships (SMI hate accounts, hate comments on influencer’s posts, etc.) can ultimately impact the self-branding of an SMI that can hold a community together through the tarnishing of their reputation. Regarding negative parasocial relationships that can alter the community perception of an SMI, Anna Paul constantly uses the comment reply tool to create new posts that reply to fans comments, especially those that shed negative light on her self-brand. Paul has previously posted videos that feature comments highlighting hate she receives around her personality, and whether she was good, in a very laid back, colloquial way, replying to ultimately her fans within the community that she is a person just like them (2022A). The aspect of reciprocation in these parasocial relationships comes from such tools Paul uses that the TikTok application provides SMIs and general users alike. TikTok, therefore, facilitates an augmented element in celebrity communities in which celebrities can be influenced to create content and shape themselves in a particular way by what fans say and do, using such tools to do so. It is clear through this example of how Anna and her community reciprocally interact with each other, both negatively and positively, that SMI communities are ones that exemplify that social media is considerably a third space for interaction, with Paul’s community interactions such as replying to fan comments to justify behaviours, creating a levelled space where all are equal, and amplifying particular community voices to pinpoint regulars that set the tone and vibe only confirming that social media platforms like TikTok are a space in which Oldenburg’s “third place” criteria is apparent. Paul’s TikTok interactions give rise to social media being able to be considered a third space, one where the content sharing tools that the digital platform provides allows members of a community can shape each other regardless of level of importance.

SMI SELF-BRANDING AND BRAND COMMUNITIES
Social media, when considered as a third space, assists in creating new communities that were not apparent before the popularisation of the digital space, such as SMI communities. However, social media also continues to assist the creation of new digitalised communities, Like SMI brand communities. To elaborate on this idea, SMI’s utilise self-branding in the process of creating reciprocal parasocial relationships. As previously discussed, Anna Paul’s self-branding is truly at the centre of the relationships formed around her within the community she has created on social media. Furthermore, in forming a self-brand and community around it full of seemingly reciprocated parasocial relationships, Paul has been able to create a sub-community within her initial fan community, a brand community. Anna Paul has utilised her ability on TikTok to interact with fans, other members in her community, to ultimately create a self-brand that all members of the community share interest in consuming – whether their consumption warrants a positive or negative community interaction. However, Paul (2023) has also created content for her community that uses her strong personal branding to, further, promote her own physical brand. The “Paullie” Skincare brand that she promotes through her community on social media not only provides a new sub-community within her existing one, but also is an example of how social media has facilitated the creation of new types of community that were not apparent in the traditional notions of community that are created in other spaces, like brand communities. In creating a community around the shared interest in her self-brand and utilising the TikTok application to branch this into encouraging support for a physical brand, Paul has ultimately harnessed the parasocial relationships created within her community for personal gain. Although the use of the space that one’s community resides in for personal gain may stray from Oldenburg’s ideas, the creation of sub-communities for uses, especially like brand communities in SMI communities only assists in highlighting how social media and the communities it facilitates represents a third space.

CONCLUSION
It could be argued that social media as a “third space” for community engagement is the only reason that communities like Anna Paul’s exist. Without the community functions that can only really be found and work in a particular way on social media; self-branding being core to community, reciprocated parasocial relationships that shape a SMI and the ability to use SMI micro-communities for personal gain in pairing these elements, Anna Paul’s community would fail to continue functioning the way it does currently. Furthermore, it could be considered that social media has blurred the lines between communities and networks in giving a levelled ground for those with different status to interact. So little research has been sought out into the many new functions of communities that exist within social media when considering it as a “third space”, and further research to lead to a greater support for Oldenburg’s theories in association to the digital landscape.


REFERENCES

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Paul, A. [@anna..paull]. (2022A) “Replying to @estella ❤︎ TIKTOK PLS😭”.TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@anna..paull/video/7145828315838827777?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7356584433028531713

Paul, A. [@anna..paull]. (2022B) “Self love advice from Anna 💗🫶🏻”. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@anna..paull/video/7169513709805653250?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7356584433028531713

Paul, A. [@paullieskin]. (2023) “Paullie FINALLY restocks 9am this Sunday 15th October AEST 👏👏👏 Check out the website now #paullie #paullieskin”.TikTok.https://www.tiktok.com/@paullieskin/video/7289331252866436360?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7356584433028531713

Vaux, D., & Langlais, M. (2021). An Update of Third Place Theory: Evolving Third Place Characteristics Represented in Facebook. International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, 17(4), 117-130. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJTHI.2021100107