Honors Theses

Date of Award

5-10-2019

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Integrated Marketing Communication

First Advisor

Graham Bodie

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

In an age of social media, Instagram ranks among the most popular mobile sharing platforms in the world. Created in 2010, Instagram now boasts over 800 million users and has widespread community engagement, leading worldwide trends.With the exponential growth of Instagram, it is no surprise that companies and their brands began to pay close attention to its marketing potential. And although marketers have utilized Instagram in many ways, perhaps the most successful tactic has been through influencer marketing. An influencer is any person in a position to affect the decisions of others. Influencer marketing works well for brands because of the influencer’s highly engaged followership. While influencer marketing is seen as a strong method for modern day marketing, there has been little formal research into the Instagram influencer population itself. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the identities of female fashion influencers on Instagram. By knowing more about influencer motivation, experience, and perspective, brands will be able to more accurately identify how influencer marketing can work to meet their goals. In this study, I discovered data that suggests influencers value real interactions and real relationships, rather than simply presenting a facade. While their presence on Instagram is curated, planned, and strategic, influencers believe their online personas reflect their own identity very personally. It is important for marketers to remember the person behind the social media account if they hope to secure a lasting relationship, as well as gain the full benefits of influencer marketing.

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

Included in

Communication Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.