ABSTRACT
In the marketing world a new online entity, the influencer, is affording brands nuanced ways to reach consumers online by promoting products in exchange for compensations. The appeal that influencers have for the marketer rests on the large followings that they have gathered and the relationship of trust that is built between the influencer and his audience in terms of perceived authenticity. This thesis sets out to determine when and how influencers are successful in producing and maintaining an authentic quality in terms of their audiences’ perceptions while engaging with endorsements. It takes as its case study four Instagram influencers and focuses on the role of the platform’s
affordances in maintaining the correct equilibrium between the involved parties that is key for authenticity to persist. The first contribution of this thesis is a new definition of online authenticity based on the concepts of the attention economy, micro celebrity, instafame and affective immaterial labour as well as a proposed method to study it. The analysis shows that authenticity on Instagram is performed through the repurposing of platform affordances such as the hashtag and @-mention. Furthermore influencers must conform to clicheéd visual and textual typologies whilst performing a coherent,
recognisable and endearing personality within its boundaries. The findings suggest a shift in what is understood as authentic from unique and one-of-a-kind to fabricated and repetitive. This thesis thus argues that the dependence of performing authenticity on platform affordances makes them the new dictators of the branded world.
KEYWORDS
PREFACE
Writing this thesis has been an extremely valuable experience. In the course of a couple of months I have learned so much more then just about the topic of my thesis, both academically and personally. A couple of random things out of the many: I need to seriously reconsider my caffeine consumption, this can not be good for a human being; thinking about your thesis topic within larger debates takes a lot of time and only works once fully emerged in your own work, which means genius strikes last minute; I have also learned new things about my text editing program that would have been useful years ago; and lastly I am completely sure that the world of new media is truly where my interests lie both academically and career wise.
The internship I followed whilst writing my thesis served as a great inspiration for my topic. For six months Influencer Marketing Agency (IMA) has been my workspace and because of the guidance of my colleagues I am now not only an expert on
influencers and their authentic performances in an academic sense, but also in a practical sense. I would like to take this moment to thank everybody at IMA for being awesome and doing what they do for influencer marketing worldwide.
A great thank you is also addressed to my thesis supervisor, Natalia Saénchez-Querubíén MA. Our meetings together were always very constructive and helped me in many ways. However, what I cherished most was that her feedback was always focused on the bigger picture of the thesis. This was something I had to get used to, as intuitively I would have liked very specific feedback. I soon started to realise the value of this type of feedback though and would not have had it any other way in hindsight. I would like to thank Drs. Sabine Niederer in advance, as she will be the second reader of my thesis. Thank you for taking the time to do so.
Of great importance of completing this thesis as well were my fellow master students. Although all of them are awesome I am specifically referring to Britt Boss, Lieke Kersten, Rosa Boon and Lianne Kersten. Together we have spent many hours in the university library discussing each other’s work, but they also provided me with great company during lunch, coffee and dinner breaks. Others that have always
supported me during this process are my mother, father, brother, sister, boyfriend and roommate. A big thank you to them for providing me with food whenever I did not have time or energy to cook and providing me with love whenever I needed encouragement and hugs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT... II KEYWORDS... II PREFACE... III TABLE OF CONTENTS... IV LIST OF FIGURES... VI LIST OF TABLES... VIII
1. BRANDS AS IMITATORS OF CONSUMER AESTHETICS...9
1.1 BRANDSANDAUTHENTICITY: ASOLUTION... 11
1.2 THEPRODUCTIONOFONLINEAUTHENTICITY... 12
2. A NEW ONLINE ENTITY: THE INFLUENCER... 14
2.1 INFLUENCERSASTHEULTIMATEAUTHENTICBROADCASTERS...15
2.2 THERULESOFTHEINFLUENCERMARKETINGGAME... 16
2.3 THEINTERNALCONTRADICTIONOFINFLUENCERMARKETING...17
3. AUTHENTICITY IN A SOCIAL MEDIA ENVIRONMENT...18
3.1 AUTHENTICITYASACURRENCY... 19
3.2 MICROCELEBRITYONSOCIALMEDIA... 21
3.3 AUTHENTICITYASAFFECTIVEIMMATERIALLABOUR...23
3.4 CONSTRUCTINGAUTHENTICITYTHROUGHTHEAUDIENCE...26
3.5 ENGAGEMENTRATESASTHEMARKEROFAUTHENTICITY...27
3.6 THEPARADIGMOFONLINEAUTHENTICITY... 28
4. METHODOLOGY... 30
4.1 WHY INSTAGRAMISTHEPLATFORMOFTHECASESTUDY...31
4.2 THEPROCESSOFSELECTINGTHEINFLUENCERS... 31
4.3 DATAGATHERINGANDPROCESSING... 32
4.3.1 Coding the sponsored content... 33
4.3.2 A data subset of extreme values... 33
5. INSTAGRAM EXPLORED THROUGH THE EYE OF AN INFLUENCER...36
5.1 THEFEEDASTHEMAINSITEOFTHEINFLUENCER’SPERFORMANCE...36
5.2 THEPROFILEASANEFFORTTOGETPERSONALANDSELF-BRAND...39
6. THE SUCCESES AND DOWNFALLS OF SPONSORED CONTENT...41
6.1 PERFORMINGAUTHENTICITYTHROUGHCLICHEÉDCONTENT...42
6.1.1 Clicheé’s as the aesthetics of influencer imagery...42
6.1.2 How the influencers’ voice captivates and binds an audience...45
6.2 HASHTAGS: BETWEENVISIBILITYANDOPACITY... 46
6.2.1 Constructing hyper visibility through the use of hashtags...47
6.2.2 Hashtags as endorsements obfuscating devices...50
6.3 THE @-MENTIONASACOMMERCIALSHOUT-OUTMECHANISM...54
6.4 THELOOKSOFSPONSOREDAUTHENTICITYON INSTAGRAM...56
7. LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS... 59
7.1 THELIMITINGASPECTSOFDEFININGPERCEIVEDAUTHENTICITYINMETRICS...59
7.2 HOWTIMECOMPLICATESTHESTUDYOFPLATFORMPERFORMEDAUTHENTICITY...60
7.3 COMPLEMENTARYRESEARCHSUGGESTIONS... 61
8. CONCLUSION... 62
9. BIBLIOGRAPHY... 66
10. APPENDICES1... 71
APPENDIX A: QUEENOF JETLAGS’ BESTANDWORSTPERFORMINGPOSTS...71
APPENDIX B: LIZZYVD LIGT’SBESTANDWORSTPERFORMINGPOSTS...75
APPENDIX C: FABLE FRIQUE’SBESTANDWORSTPERFORMINGPOSTS...79
APPENDIX D: BILLIE ROSE’SBESTANDWORSTPERFORMINGPOSTS...83
1 Due to the large size of the images that are the appendices they are deleted from this version of the thesis, meant for UvA Scripties Database upload only. In order for this version to be as complete as possible, the Table of Contents is not adapted to match this change.
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: Still of Natalie Amyot’s first video. This Figure is a still from Natalie Amyot’s original video at 0:14, showing the amateurish setup. During the clip the setting remains the same. Picture source: still from YouTube video http://bit.ly/1Q7QNyk. ... 10 Figure 2: Example pictures of the coded categories. This figure displays example images
of the categories used to code the sub dataset. The images are ordered clockwise starting at the left top and represent the following categories: personal scene, outfit shot, object, face, food, scenery, interior or other. Picture source:
http://bit.ly/1Vke8ls... 34 Figure 3: An Instagram post as it appears in the feed. This figure shows what every post
looks like in the Instagram feed. The feed exists of all the different posts in an algorithmic defined order and users can scroll through it. Picture source:
screenshot from within the Instagram app...37 Figure 4: An Instagram user profile. Figure 4 shows a screenshot of an Instagram user
profile. A numbered red box marks the different elements important for
influencers. Picture source: screenshot from within the Instagram app...40 Figure 5: A comparison of average engagement rates. The average engagement rates for
sponsored and non-sponsored posts per influencer plotted against the average
engagement rates for the whole sample per influencer...41 Figure 6: Sponsored post combined with a personal caption. Figure 6 shows a sponsored
post from Frederique. The caption section shows how she ensures the sponsored content is perceived as more authentic by adding a personal note in the caption.
Picture source: http://bit.ly/1WPKNRc... 46 Figure 7: Keds campaign captions. Figure 7 shows the captions that Lizzy van der Ligt
(left) and Noor de Groot (right) wrote alongside their sponsored Keds posts. They both show content of the same scope and included the same hashtags and @-mentions, except for Noor’s #amstergram. Source: http://bit.ly/1TYVD0U &
http://bit.ly/1RtXNnl... 47 Figure 8: Overview of the hashtag count. The bar graph displayed shows the hashtag use
for each of the 160 posts included in the more in depth analysed subset of the data sample. Each red bar represents one post and the number of used hashtags in it. When no bars are visible zero hashtags were used in those posts. The blue line in the graph represents the average number of hashtags per post (3,1 hashtags), the median of the dataset (3) and the most common value in the dataset (3) at once. The order of the bars is from the lowest engagement rate (left) to highest
engagement rate (right)... 48 Figure 9: The most hashtagged posts. This figure shows screenshots of the most
hashtagged posts from the subset of the data sample. The posts are organised from top to bottom, left to right from most to least hashtagged. Picture source:
Figure 10: The use of disclosure hashtags. This figure shows one of five posts in which Noor de Groot employs a disclosure hashtag for sponsored content, here she
employs #ad. Picture source: http://bit.ly/1RtYEVg...51 Figure 11: The use of obscuring hashtags. These two posts by Lizzy van der Ligt show
attempts to obscure campaign hashtags by placing them in between other hashtags. Picture sources: http://bit.ly/22qyZEU & http://bit.ly/1TLLo49...53 Figure 12: The @-mentioning of a brand. This figure shows Rosanne @-mentioning the
brand Hero in a sponsored post to promote Hero’s breakfast produce. Picture
source: http://bit.ly/1TYVQRR... 55 Figure 13: The typology of sponsored aesthetics. This figure shows a wireframe that
contains a template for the ultimate sponsored influencer post. The specific characteristics are explained on the right side of the image. Wireframe developed via Mockflow: http://bit.ly/1UDOMP4... 56 Figure 14: One of Essena O’Neill’s adapted captions. This is one of the posts that Essena
O’Neill has adapted to be more true to the actual events prior to her posting the
picture. Picture source: Essena O’Neill’s now deleted Instagram account...58 Figure 15: Example of a like-and-win contest. Figure 20 is an example of like-and-win
contest posts as they appear on the feeds of influencers. The posts usually generate a relatively high engagement rate, because users have to engage with the post in order to get a chance to win a certain prize. Picture source: http://bit.ly/1TCGpPA. ... 60
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Table 1: The influencers of the case study. This table lists the influencers that are selected for the case study. Information on the real name of the influencer, the name of their influencer personas and the number of followers they had on the 5th of May 2016 is given. Source: http://bit.ly/1Vke8ls...32 Table 2: Categorisation of the imagery. This table shows the categorisation of the posts
based on their imagery. The table makes a distinction between non-sponsored and sponsored posts and between the posts belonging to the best and worst performing posts of the sub dataset... 43 Table 3: Average engagement rates. This table shows the average engagement rates per
category for the sponsored posts. When there is no rate listed, there where no posts coded as such... 45
1. BRANDS AS IMITATORS OF CONSUMER AESTHETICS
On the last days of August 2015 Natalie Amyot’s YouTube video went viral. In a one-minute video clip she pleads for help in finding the Australian guy that she had shared an exciting night with a few weeks prior. In the video she addresses her viewers and tells them her story: three months ago she had travelled to an Australian place called Mooloolaba. On her last night there she was at a party and she met a guy. For her, she states, it felt like “love at first sight” (Sellar, Funniest). She continues by saying that the pair had spent a beautiful night together. But, as it was her last day in Australia, she had to fly home to Paris the following morning. During her flight she allegedly lost her mobile phone and therefore lost his number. Six weeks later she found out that she was pregnant. As she had no way to contact her holiday romance she decided to fly back to Australia and search for him in the town she met him, Mooloolaba. Through the video she hoped to reach more people who could bring her closer to finding her unborn baby’s father.
Several Australian news outlets including The Australian, Brisbane Times and Daily Mail Australia picked up the video. The wide coverage of the fairy-tale-like story in Australia had as an effect that foreign news outlets began to cover the story as well. Natalie’s tale was featured on the websites of the Mirror, FOX News and Times, amongst others. This wide international attention made the video go ‘viral’, meaning that an usual high number of people saw it in a short period of time. However, the plea for help
turned out to be a carefully constructed marketing stunt. The aim of the stunt was to promote the Australian town Mooloolaba as a holiday destination (Sellar, I Found). Natalie turned out to be an acting French exchange student and was not pregnant with the child of an unknown Australian guy. The hoax came to light when Natalie posted a following video titled ‘I Found Him’. In this video she immediately gives the floor to Andy Sellar, the owner of a social media marketing company, he clarifies the real nature of the video.
The original YouTube video was carefully constructed to come across as an amateurish video posted by a real person. The clip did not look like a professionally produced video in any way; the image was somewhat shaky, it was not heavily edited and it was kept fairly simple, showing only Natalie as she speaks directly to the camera. A still of the video can be found in Figure 1. The video’s characteristics have presumably led the media outlets to believe that this girl was in fact a desperate traveller looking for a lost lover whose child she was carrying.
Figure 1: Still of Natalie Amyot’s first video. This Figure is a still from Natalie Amyot’s original video at 0:14, showing the amateurish setup. During the clip the setting remains the same. Picture source: still from YouTube video http://bit.ly/1Q7QNyk.
After the deception came to light media outlets started covering the story again. This time the reports were mostly about the deception and the said inappropriateness of such a campaign. The reaction of the media to the revelation seemed to reflect the thoughts of many, reveal the comments to the YouTube video (Sellar I Found; Sellar Funniest). As extreme as this example is, a consumer being fooled by seemingly authentic user-generated content is not new. The Mooloolaba campaign is a striking example of brands imitating the aesthetics of the people in order to reach their audience in an engaging way. The necessity for marketers to find other ways to connect with their audience is partially a reaction to a new savviness amongst consumers who now easily see through slick marketing campaigns. On the other hand brands have always wanted to imitate its consumers to interact with them in a more consumer natural manner.
Brands are also profiting from the user-generated aesthetics in less extreme manners. They are mimicking user-generated content and are collaborating with
content creators in order to engage their consumers online. Brands have been especially keen on mimicking users’ habits on social networking sites. The widespread appearance of user-generated content on the web has contributed to that. User-generated content “comes from regular people who voluntarily contribute data, information, or media that then appears to others in a useful or entertaining way” (Krum, Davies & Narayanaswami 10). Everything from restaurant reviews, Instagram updates and Snapchat stories falls under its heading. It is understood to be real, sincere, original and not commercially manufactured. Within those aspects lays its strengths. Brands that are present on social media try to feed off of this content by mimicking the user-generated aesthetics aiming to convey an authentic feeling. Authentic here indicates that the user, or in this case the brand, is perceived as trustworthy, real and being true to one’s own identity.
1.1 Brands and authenticity: a solution
The authentic feeling brands try to convey on their social media channels by mimicking the aesthetics and dynamics of user-generated content inherently clashes with their commercial roots. Companies thus face the challenge of negotiating their authenticity with online consumers via their content and the conversation about them on the social media platforms. When brands go overboard, as happened in the Natalie Amyot case, consumers feel tricked which can cause adverse and unwanted effects. The relationship between brand and consumer is therefore a very fragile one that requires a lot of careful consideration on the brands’ part. Trying to come up with a solution for that challenge the marketing world created the concept of influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing offers brands a compromise between the importance of branded content and the by them coveted authentic feeling user-generated content. The influencer is an online profile owner on social networking site’s who has gathered a large following due to the popular content he or she shares on their social media accounts. When influencers and brands collaborate, influencers will create content about the brand and post that to their social media accounts. This content could be argued to be authentic in the sense that it comes from the influencer and the influencer chooses how to engage with the products. Next to that, the content is branded, as the influencer will highlight the brand it is collaborating with in the respective post. The influencer offers brands the happy medium between controlled branded content and the user-generated, authentic feel that they covet (Martin n. pag.).
This thesis will be an exploration of the collaboration between brand and influencer as a relationship that takes place in the media and the issues that emerge with it. The focus of this thesis will then be on the concept of online authenticity (or what it is understood by it as well as disputed) as this has proven to be at the base of a successful influencer marketing campaign. Although not yet addressed, the platform has a defining role in how authenticity can be performed and perceived, as it must be
performed within the platform’s affordances. This research aims to study the role of the platform within creating the equilibrium between the influencer, the brand and the platform to successfully perform authenticity. By including the platform as an actor in the relationship of influencer marketing this thesis aims to contribute both conceptually and methodologically to the study of online authenticity as an object of interest within the field of New Media and Digital Cultures. Resulting from these observations on the rise of a new online persona, the emphasis that is placed for that persona on
authenticity and the important role reserved for the platform in this relation, this thesis thus addresses the following research question:
How and by which means are influencers successful in producing and maintaining a quality of authenticity as perceived by their audience when they engage with sponsored
content on Instagram and what role do the platform’s affordances have herein? The goal is then to build a model through which online authenticity can be understood in terms of platform metrics and affordances. Furthermore the model must provide a paradigm to study the production of authenticity in relation to the audience as well as the platform. The model will be put to test with a case study through which an answer to the research question will be sought. With this specific research question this thesis aims to make visible the labour that it takes to produce sustained online authenticity and the platform dependency of this performance.
1.2 The production of online authenticity
The importance of authenticity in this new form of marketing is undeniable, but as a concept authenticity is very vague. It seems to be something people ‘feel’ and
‘experience’, which makes it difficult to pinpoint what exactly makes that an online account is perceived as authentic. Although a fair amount of theoretical research has been done about authenticity as a personal quality, and in a lesser extent to authenticity online, the specific figure of the online influencer is a new concept. The influencer’s emphasis on perceived authenticity and high dependence on platform affordances is an undiscovered relationship in the field of New Media. Hence the occurrence of sponsored posts on the social media channels of these influencers is also unfamiliar territory.
In relation to influencer marketing the question rises if sponsored content will ever be perceived as being truly authentic, as it has never fully sprung from the
influencers mind. It can even be doubted if there is such a thing as authenticity in non-sponsored content. With the rise of popular literature about a ‘branded self’ and how we should ‘manage’ our online presence it is questionable if even the social media users who have exclusively acquaintances following them post fully authentic updates. When an online image is altered, adapted and filtered in a way to only show our best selves and the best part of our lives the mere existence of online authenticity can be
questioned. This realisation makes any research on authenticity difficult, as interacting with the term is problematized by a variety of issues. Thus it is productive to step away
from a normative approach (trying to stabilise a definition) and instead focus on how we evaluate what we perceive as authentic and the constant changes within that
perception. Whit this in mind, this research will not focus on the philosophical questions around authenticity. Rather, for now it will be assumed that social media content can be perceived as authentic, meaning that the content feels true to the influencer’s
personality in the perception of their audience. A set of parameters to achieve perceived authenticity will emerge through the analysis.
The question at stake here focuses on how influencers can maintain their perceived authenticity in the present online culture. The general question of what authenticity as a quality of media (and as problem of the medium) means in a changing and developing society is not a new one. One of the authors concerned with this field was cultural philosopher and media theorist Walter Benjamin. Already in 1968 he questioned the authenticity of artworks in an age in which technical reproductions of those artworks could be made. He argues that the authenticity of an artwork is not only manifested in the visual and tangible thing itself, but that it also resides in “its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (220). Benjamin captured this conception of authenticity in the word aura. He states that no matter how perfect a replica is and whether it is mechanically made or made by hand, it will never have the aura of the original piece, making that the truly authentic one.
One can argue that brands are dealing with a similar question: how do they invoke an authentic perception, a certain aura, in their interactions with consumers whilst imitating the user-generated aesthetics? Walter Benjamin might argue that when brands are imitating user-generated content it is emulated and therefore without aura or authenticity. Whether this is undesirable remains to be seen, but according to Benjamin it does not have to be; instead the concept of what aura means is in call to be re-evaluated. He illustrates this with the example of photograph negatives. As new prints of the photograph can be made endlessly from the negative, does it even make sense to speak of only one being the authentic original?
A similar re-evaluation of the authentic now seems to be required for our social media presence. The new environments and associated new modes of self-representation force us to rethink what authenticity means within those new media platforms. To formulate such a re-evaluated understanding of authenticity as well as creating a model to study online authenticity is the goal of this study. In the second chapter the concept of influencer marketing will be addressed in more depth. This will provide background information on the practice in order to study it appropriately. Then an overview of previous literature concerning authenticity will serve as the foundation of the new dynamic definition of online authenticity in chapter three. Here the concepts of the attention economy, micro celebrity, affective immaterial labour and instafame are introduced. At the end of the chapter the established definition will be converted into a model that repurposes platform metrics to study the so-called digital authentic in a platform environment. Subsequently the choices concerning the study of the four influencer profiles are illustrated in the methodology. This chapter is followed by an exploration of the Instagram platform that is focused on the important affordances within influencer marketing practices. After the platform exploration the findings of the case study will be presented in chapter 6. The case study is an analysis of sponsored and non-sponsored content on the Instagram feeds of a selection of four Dutch influencers in terms of the conditions for their perceived authenticity. Subsequently the visual and textual content of a post, the use of hashtags and the use of @-mentions will be
content. Chapter 7 then addresses the limitations of this research and puts forward suggestions for future research. Lastly the conclusion will summarise the most
important findings of this research. Furthermore the findings are related to larger media debates and their implications will be discussed. Part of this conclusion is also an
outlook on the future of influencer marketing and online authenticity as a platform dependant construct.
2. A NEW ONLINE ENTITY: THE INFLUENCER
The online persona of the influencer was shortly introduced in the introduction. That figure is crucial in this research as well as the relationships between him, the brand, the audience and the platform that together allow for sponsored content to be perceived as authentic. In order for all parties to profit from influencer marketing all those
relationships need to be in equilibrium with each other. In order to grasp the
importance of that equilibrium these relationships will be introduced more extensively in this chapter. The in-depth knowledge will provide valuable insights for the following parts of this research. First there will be an account given of the influencer as an entity that enjoys ascribed authentic. Subsequently several challenging aspects of influencer marketing will be addressed and lastly a contradiction internal to the practice is explored.
2.1 Influencers as the ultimate authentic broadcasters
Although social networks are primarily for contact with people users know and have known in the past the platforms also offer a new and personal way to have a more direct relationship with celebrities. Celebrities’ social media accounts are usually highly followed due to their fame in other fields like music, acting and sports. Known and loved for their websites bloggers can also gather a large following on social media and become celebrities in their own terms. Furthermore social media have allowed for ‘normal’ people, with professions outside of the public eye, to become highly followed online personas. These persons usually have no previous authoritativeness in a different field other than that they are popular on social media (Saul n. pag.). Because of their
extensive following the social media accounts of celebrities, bloggers and mentioned ‘normal’ people have audiences sizes that were traditionally only reached through broadcast-media like television or radio (Marwick, Instafame 139).
The marketing field refers to the individuals who post on these highly followed accounts as influencers (Schogt, n. pag.). The notion of the influencer arose from the awareness that hugely popular blogs and social media accounts can influence the behaviour of their followers and therefore also the purchases they make (Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations 199). This is due to the relationship and trust that has formed between an influencer and his audience. The influencer can have a variety of
backgrounds ranging from celebrities, musicians, models, bloggers, stylists, vloggers and so on. Mostly they are conventionally good-looking though and are working in “cool” industries, for example modelling and tattoo artistry (Marwick, Instafame 139).
Whenever the term influencer is used it can thus refer to anyone who has a considerable following on social media.
The strength of the influencer furthermore lies in their ordinariness. Belch and Belch mentioned that businesses have expressed a desire to work with regular looking, everyday people to connect with their following, as consumers can easily identify with them (172). Joshua Gamson also emphasises this search for ordinariness and he
attributes this to the democratised media platforms through which fame can be achieved (1067). On social media everyone can broadcast everything to a potentially unlimited audience. As Gamson puts it, self-publicity has become technologically easy (1067). Influencers perfectly fit the ordinariness description, as they are, besides from the celebrity influencers, regular people with personal lives that their audience is often updated about. According to Haugtvedt, Machleit and Yalch that is what makes
influencers the perfect channel to promote products through (1). As the accounts of these normal persons come across as credible, authentic and reliable they are very well able to sell products (Haugtvedt, Machleit & Yalch 1).
Further aiding to the effectiveness of influencer marketing is the tendency of consumers to base their judgements of products on other peoples’ online reviews and opinions (Nielsen 6). This is a direct validation that influencers who are promoting products have the potential to highly influence their followers’ buying behaviour. By personally engaging readers into their communication, marketing materials shift from merely being exposed to potential consumers to content that consumers engage with via conversation with influencers (Wright xii). This has often been described as a big
advantage of marketing via channels like blogs and social media (Allen 5).
Influencers are the perfect broadcasters for brands to promote their products through real user-generated content, as consumers have learned to understand specific influencer performances as authentic. The president of influencer marketing platform Linqia, Maria Sipka, states that the content of the influencers is often considered being authentic and thus able to establish an emotional connection with their followers (Sipka n. pag.). That relationship is coveted by brands. Influencers allow for brands to reach consumers in a way that preserves the aesthetics of authentic content. Furthermore it perfectly mimics the natural interactions consumers have online, as the relationship between an influencer and his audience is natural. John Hall the CEO of Influence & Co., a company specialised in influencer promoted content creation, also endorses this. He specifically states that authenticity is an essential part of marketing and that influencers are one way to collect natural, authentic content (Hall, n. pag.). Influencers can thus serve as the missing link in brands’ negotiations on perceived authenticity on social media.
2.2 The rules of the influencer marketing game
Influencer marketing is mostly endorsed in via one of two ways. The first manner is the oldest and is derived from original influencer activities. As influencers often got asked about the brand of certain pieces of clothing, most of them mention the brands of the items they are wearing when they post. A brand can anticipate to that and send
influencers an item in the hope that they like it, wear it and post about it on their blog or social media accounts. This way the content that the influencers create is completely authentic and not meddled by a brand other than that the brand gave them the
opportunity to show their product. This strategy can also have the opposite effect, for example if an influencer posts a negative review about an item, or, less harmful, when they do not post anything about the product.
The other way in which brands can affiliate with influencers is via official
promotional agreements. Brands and influencers then enter into a contract that ensures monitored postings for the brand and a monetary compensation for the influencer. Marketing professionals advise in this case to not make the rules to which the
way of interacting influencers have with their followers (Sipka n. pag.). Restricting them with too many rules, thus defeats the purpose of the influencer marketing strategy. 2.3 The internal contradiction of influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is by now adopted by a multitude of brands, companies, agencies and by the influencers themselves. Some reports have even found that 75% of the marketers are using influencers in their strategies (Roy n. pag.) There are however some challenging aspects that come along with this commercial method. For one there is the internal contradiction within the philosophy of influencer marketing. Influencer
marketing is effective because their followers not only admire the lifestyle, fashion sense and the skills of the influencer, but also because they have come to value the opinion of the influencer, as they have established a mutual sense of trust (Schogt n. pag.). This makes that if an influencer features a product their followers are likely to covet that product in order to obtain a similar social identity. Influencer marketing can thus be argued to be more effective then an advert that is instantly recognisable as a marketed expression. It is in fact an online version of word-to-mouth marketing (Schogt n. pag.), which has proven to be the most effective form of marketing (Nielsen 3). The power of influencer marketing therefore lies within the authenticity and reputation of the influencer that connects his or her name to a product.
Ironically the characteristics of the relationship between influencer and audience are abused in favour of the relationship between an influencer and a brand. The
influencer serves as a broadcaster of a commercial message in return for a monetary reward. This causes the message to be unauthentic in the sense that it would not have been posted if they did not get paid to do so. Halvorsen et al. point out that an audience might lose their trust in influencers as they become aware of the compensation
influencers receive for the promotional activities (215). The campaigns can thus affect the reputation of the influencer and harm the relationship with their audience.
Eventually this has as a consequence that influencer marketing as a practice loses its effectiveness (Halvorsen et al. 215). As an influencers’ normal style is what made him successful, sponsored content needs to be true to that style in order for it to be
perceived as authentic (Sipka n. pag.).
A second problematic aspect of influencer marketing is the presence of a highly unpredictable third actor that is not controlled by either the influencer or the brand; influencer marketing is always practiced on the changeable medium of a social networking platform. Both brand and influencer constantly have to adapt their strategies to that changing medium. Due to its unpredictability and its established manners to communicate, the medium can be argued to be the most influential actor in the interplay. The dependence of influencer marketing on the platforms’ affordances became painfully clear when Instagram announced its new algorithmically ordered timeline instead of the chronological timeline it has previously asserted. Although Instagram announced its update with a promising headline: “See the moments you care about first”, it predominantly caused panic amongst Instagram's influencers (Instagram, See the). In order to assure that the influencers’ audiences would see their posts they frantically posted images that asked their followers to put their notifications on. When this function is turned on, the Instagram user will get a notification every time a picture is posted on that account in order to not miss out on any updates. For the influencers the notifications are now the only way to guarantee that their followers will see their posts, which is essential for their revenue models and success as an influencer (Hunt,
3. AUTHENTICITY IN A SOCIAL MEDIA ENVIRONMENT
Multiple authors have already concerned themselves with questions concerning
authenticity. Here a selection of those authors and their concepts will be addressed. This overview of previous literature will provide a framework to formulate a new fluid definition of authenticity in social network environments. The new definition will be based on different, but overlapping, concepts through which one can understand authenticity in relation to the medium. First the attention economy perspective will be explored in which authenticity is deemed a currency off which one can profit and as something that can be earned and lost. Second authenticity will be considered a quality of a media persona; hereby Theresa Senft’s concept of micro celebrity is employed. The third approach to authenticity will be authenticity as a performance in and through the media that requires constant maintenance. Authenticity then is a state that only exists because of the labour that is put in. The last approach to authenticity will be as
something that is defined by others, in this case by audiences, and reflected in media engagement. Naturally all these approaches have considerable overlap, but the starting points of the different concepts differ, which makes them relevant to discuss on their own. Formed through these perspectives is a new model to engage with the perception of online authenticity in a research related sense.
After exploring the different ways in which other authors have dealt with
authenticity issues, the platform will be addressed; specifically Instagram, as this is the platform central in this thesis. Studying the relevant affordances of the platform will provide insight in how authenticity can consequently be identified, valorised, performed and evaluated through them. The theoretical knowledge regarding authenticity together with the knowledge of the platform will be translated in a proposed model that can be employed to study the performance of authenticity on social networking platforms. 3.1 Authenticity as a currency
Modern society is becoming oversaturated with different media outlets promoting all sorts of information competing for people to notice and acknowledge them. The lack of consumers’ focus on media communications has led to a new concept within the
marketing world that expresses how hard it is for advertisers and labels to get their messages noticed by consumers: the attention economy. Charles Fairchild, a media professor at The University of Sydney, states that the attention economy is already an established reality for advertisers (359). With only more screens, more media platforms and more information directed at consumers today, almost ten years after Fairchild’s observations, the fight for consumers’ attention is even tougher. In terms of the
attention economy a value is ascribed to authenticity, as the authentic is what grabs the so-coveted attention.
In her paper concerning instafame Alice Marwick, who focuses her research on social media, consumer culture, celebrity culture and self-representation, draws upon Fairchild’s concept of the attention economy. She briskly describes that the attention economy is centred on the capacity of something to attract eyeballs (Instafame 138) and that capacity turns out to thrive by authenticity. A well-marketed expression in that case is one that attracts and holds the attention of the consumers long enough in order for the message of the mediated outing to get across. That a marketed outing will attract eyeballs is made more probable by implementing different techniques. These eyeball attracting techniques are however not only used by advertising firms and marketers, but are also employed by individual profile owners on social media platforms (Marwick,
Instafame 138). Social media users have been handling the attention-gathering
techniques to increase their online popularity and visibility and a very important one is displaying a coherent, authentic and recognisable image.
Marwick continues to argue that social media have become a way for people to govern themselves (Marwick, Status Update 18), or as Alison Hearn, researcher in the field of media and culture, would define it, brand themselves (422). Hearn regarded the branded self specifically in relation to working, job and career opportunities. Marwick uses that same concept of branding oneself, but in a broader manner, namely as an overall tactic to put oneself in the spotlight and to stand out. The desire to stand out encourages people to regulate their behaviour according to business ideals and via business tactics (Status Update 19). That the self is handled like it is a profitable company is made clear by the terms that are used describing this concept such as branding, managing and promoting. These are all originally occupations and concerns of corporations and consumer brands, but not of regular persons.
The ideal version of the self is apparent in a multitude of media locations. One example of Marwick is the makeover centred television shows featuring an undesirable before subject and, as she dubbed it, a “consumer friendly ‘after’” (Status Update 21). The ideal subject is also visible in reality television, which markets individuals as
products (Status Update 20). For this research the most important location in which this ideal subject appears though is through Web 2.0 technologies. These technologies very clearly glorify and honour specific persona’s, namely the ones that are highly visible, entrepreneurial and the ones that let others watch and consume their self configured online image. Marwick emphasises that social media offer ways to prosper in a society that thinks highly of mediation, visibility and attention. As success on the Internet is always dependent on others who like, follow, comment and up vote account or posts, an increased status, a good reputation and high popularity all encourage the engagement of one’s followers.
Although authenticity is promoted in the practice of self-branding, it is also highly contradictory, as authenticity seems to be the total opposite of business targeted self-presentation (Marwick, Status Update 196). In this context authenticity is defined as something absolute that can be found through self-examination and is based on being true to yourself and your main marketable skills. This is affirmed by an ethnographic research that asked bloggers what they found authentic both in their own blogs and the blogs of their peers. Two main themes surfaced that all bloggers associated with
authenticity: revealing things about a true and inner self and a transparent relationship with one’s readers (Marwick, They’re Really 4). The current state of affairs then is that success is dependent on how much you are being your true self. This also works the other way around: what then is true and authentic is what is good for business (Marwick, Status Update 232). When authenticity is regarded in this particular way authenticity becomes a currency, a quality that can be used in negotiation and exchanges. It literally morphs into something one can profit from if one has it. The comparison to a currency has more implications for authenticity. It also means that not everyone has equal amounts of it and therefore authenticity can be seen as a scarce quality, making it desirable and an even more beneficial asset.
3.2 Micro celebrity on social media
The concept of micro celebrity, first introduced by Theresa Senft, a scholar in media and performance studies, is a different approach to the branded self. The term sees the light of day in Senft’s 2008 book Camgirls: Celebrity & Community in the Age of Social
Networks. In that book Senft describes the world of camgirls. Camgirls are women who broadcast their lives via webcams placed in their homes and live stream that image to a website. On this website people can log on and watch what their daily events as they unfold. While submerging herself in the lives of the camgirls she came across their practice of using still images, video’s, blogging and crosslinking strategies to present their online admirers with a coherent and branded package. Since then, Senft describes in a later article, branding has “exploded into the public sphere” (Microcelebrity 348). The micro celebrity that is accompanied by branding has afterwards transformed from an Internets’ margins practice to a mainstream habit. By micro celebrity Senft refers to a long-term commitment in deploying and maintaining a coherent online image as if one is a branded good (Camgirls 26). Important in her view on the concept is the
assumption that others do this as well. The activities that are part of maintaining a state of micro celebrity are therefore practically the same as Marwick’s and Hearn’s
previously discussed ideas of the branded self and its vital part in neoliberal society. This is also acknowledged by Marwick, who cites Senft’s micro celebrity practices and emphasises that those are pursued in the light of the attention economy and getting benefits out of their authenticity.
The fact that Senft’s notion of micro celebrity is indeed based on the same ideas as the attention economy becomes clear after a deeper analysis of the concept. When first introducing the term Senft uses the following phrase explaining micro celebrity: “[it] is best understood as a new style of online performance that involves people
‘amping up’ their popularity over the Web using technologies like video, blogs and social networking sites” (Camgirls 25). Noteworthy of this definition is the use of the term ‘amping up’. This might have to do with Senft’s original emphasis on the phrase, manifested by the quotation marks that they are placed in, but it is also due to its meaning. Amping up implies a rather forced and artificial way to become more popular on the web. It thus illustrates that a popular web presence does not come naturally and is in fact a state someone has to work for in order to achieve. This implication of forced-ness further echoes in Senft’s statement that micro celebrities must either “brand or die”, as their fans and followers all identify with them due to their specific
representation of themselves (Camgirls 26). Here the term authenticity comes into play, as it is a critical determinant in micro celebrity (Marwick, Status Update 119). For an online persona to become a micro celebrity they have to brand themselves into this strategically appealing persona and being authentic is a very important aspect of that (Marwick, Status Update 119). Authenticity is a very troubling notion though, as it can be obtained in multiple ways and via different actions. Therefore it is hard to measure or point it out in an exact way. Another troubling aspect of authenticity is the conflicting aspect within the perception of authenticity as a natural and effortless personal characteristic and the labour that actually goes in to being perceived as such.
In regards to micro celebrity Marwick mentions two means to establish an authentic feel for followers and fans. These practices are direct interaction with their followers and the sharing of personal information (Status Update 119). Authenticity and doing micro celebrity are really intertwined. The aforementioned practices of audience interaction and sharing personal information are not only markers of authenticity, but are in fact also part of the necessary steps to achieve micro celebrity (Marwick, Status Update 122).
3.3 Authenticity as affective immaterial labour
As determined previously the concept of micro celebrity relies heavily on the
construction of an authentic online persona. Micro celebrity is predominantly a practice that is conducted on the Internet and authenticity is an evident part of the image that one needs to convey when in pursuit of micro celebrity. Moreover, authenticity is a very fluid and insubstantial personality trait that is hard to specifically determine, but at the same time is at the source of successfully practicing micro celebrity. Before it was shortly discussed that creating an authentic persona can take a lot of time, work and effort from the person who wants to obtain the quality. This section will continue from there and explores authenticity as continuous affective immaterial labour.
Georgia Gaden and Delia Dumitrica, professors in communication and culture at the University of Calgary, introduce the ethical history of authenticity. Authenticity first was an ethic for leading one’s life “in a way that connects us, as individuals, to the community” (Gaden & Dumitrica 1). Authenticity was then the guarantor of fairness and equality. It stood for acknowledging that other people had the right to be different and mutual respect (Gaden & Dumitrica 7). In their research they compare that earlier sense of authenticity to the present conception of the idea, which they define as “a strategy for success in the modern world” and as totally enmeshed with political and market
structures (2). They cite Rebecca Blood, who was an early fan of the practice of blogging, as the one who first associated authenticity with an online presence in the form of blogging. Blood determined that authenticity was a truthful indicator for ‘good’ blogging (Blood in Gaden & Dumitrica 3). Blood makes another striking remark in the light of the present research: “readers can be sure [that the blogger] is not speaking to placate an important advertiser” (Blood 15). The central hallmark of online authenticity is then: constituting an own voice to speak from that is free of any commercial incentives. Furthermore this voice should be clearly defined in opposition to the development of commercial mass media products and outings (Gaden & Dumitrica 3).
There are four qualities that form the base of an authentic and therefore
successful blog according to Gaden and Dumitrica: personality, connectivity, immediacy and regularity (3). The first characteristic, personality, is important, because it is the essence of the blog. A weblog started out like an online diary, full of personal details about one's life, with striking resemblances to the original, offline diaries. Providing readers with the same kind of personal information that one would write down in an offline diary is where authenticity resides, according to renowned identity construction scholar Kitzmann (55). Bloggers that were interviewed by Marwick enclose similar feelings. They indicate that they write in their blogs, as they would speak to friends in real life in order to be perceived as authentic (They’re Really 4). Links are another vital part of authenticity on the web. Through links networks are created and by sharing links on his blog the writer not only invites his readers into said network, but he also makes it possible for them to experience the exact same journey that the blogger has
experienced. Furthermore the narrative of the blogger is now embedded in ‘real’
Internet places, adding to the sensation of realness of the blogger (Gaden & Dumitrica 3-4). Lastly the immediacy and regularity of blogging add to its authenticity. Both the idea that the blogger can post at any moment and the fact that blogs are regularly updated contributes to the realness of the person behind the blog, as this form of communication is very much the same as live communication (Kitzmann 60).
With present social networking sites constructing an authentic online persona surpasses the personal blogs Gaden and Dumitrica focused on. The blogging qualities are now strategically employed on multiple platforms and have become an online
strategy for many. When executed carefully this strategy will result in an increased online visibility and a loyal audience. In other words it will result in a micro celebrity status that is driven by the attention economy. In comparison to the ethical
interpretation of authenticity, this new reading has assigned a totally different role to the ‘Other’, which is one’s audience. Instead of the Other being an essential part of one’s own authenticity he is now a consumer of the Self’s authenticity (Gaden & Dumitrica 2). The Self is presented to the others via blogs, social media or other media platforms with the purpose of the Other consuming that Self. By social media practices such as liking, sharing and following an audience acknowledges the authenticity of the consumed authentic Self and validates this.
Just as with self-branding, blogging is thus all about coming across as an
authentic online entity. In order to maintain that image and perform these concepts one has to put in continuous work, it is a timely effort and the perception of authenticity can be built, lost and recovered in time. Hearn has dubbed the effort that goes into realising an authentic presence affective immaterial labour (427). Affective immaterial labour is a combination of affective labour and immaterial labour. Maurizio Lazzarato, a sociologist and philosopher, has written a renowned essay on immaterial labour in relation to changes amongst the working class environment. By Lazzarato’s definition immaterial labour is “the labour that produces the informational and cultural content of the
commodity” (133). With this definition Lazzarato refers to the production of immaterial commodities such as design, knowledge and communication. The immaterial
characteristics of these forms of labour mean that the labour does not necessarily generate produce such as factory work does (Lazzarato 133). The other part of Hearn’s concept of affective immaterial labour is based on Michael Hardt’s concept of affective labour. Hardt, a political philosopher, has defined affective labour as “our laboring practices [that] produce collective subjectivities, produce sociality, and ultimately produce society itself” (89). This kind of labour is thus based on generating affect and societal values and bonds.
Both Lazzarato and Hardt presented their ideas in the late 1990’s, meaning that they could not have known how applicable their concepts are in our present Internet and social media saturated society. The digital economy is now actually one of the most important areas in which affective immaterial labour is performed. Tiziana Terranova, an Italian scholar who focuses her research on digital labour, explicates that there are many forms of affective immaterial labour present on the web. Either that we recognise and acknowledge as such, for example web design, multimedia productions and digital services, but also practices that we do not immediately recognise as such, for example chats, real life stories, mailing lists, (amateur) newsletters and all the affective labour on social networking site’s such as liking, sharing and commenting (Terranova 38). The previously described work that is being done by bloggers in order to seem authentic, but also the things being done in order to brand one self and the practices that define the attention economy are therefore all forms of affective immaterial labour.
Another author who argues that the interpretation of authenticity as a concept has changed due to our shifting media environment is Andrew Tolson. Tolson is a media and communication professor at the University of Leicester who focuses his research on broadcast talk, communication via mass media channels and in recent years also on (micro) celebrity. For Tolson the most important change in authenticity has been the recent development towards a strong presence of user-generated content online (277). Users of a social networking site who want to participate in media technologies produce this kind of content by posting and updating their profiles. It is therefore that
user-generated content is also an element of participatory culture argues comparative media studies professor Joseé van Dijck (42). With ordinary people now weighing in on
previously professionally made content production, authenticity on the web has become fresher, more spontaneous and also more divers (Tolson 277) and influencers have been of great value in this process.
3.4 Constructing authenticity through the audience
After reviewing these three different approaches to authenticity it becomes clear that authenticity is of importance in different online practices. What has not been addressed yet though is the fact that authenticity is always dependent on others’ impressions. Authenticity is therefore a social construct and can be considered a relative quality. Influencers with profiles on social networking sites are very much aware of the
audiences that ascribe them their authenticity. Blogging, tweeting and other activities on social networking sites therefore happen with specific audiences in mind. Marwick and danah boyd have called this the conceptualised imagined audience. What they state, based on earlier publications by one of the co-writers boyd, is that bloggers and other online profile owners are very attentive to their audiences, they even adapt their writing to them (115). Carol Berkenkotter shows that audience awareness also greatly factors in the work of professional writers, mainly in the fields of goals, vocabulary, technique and subject matter (395). Constructing an imagined audience furthermore makes it easier for the profile owners to present themselves appropriately and coherently in the online social context. The awareness of the imagined audiences and that they have to be
pleased “implies an ongoing frontstage identity performance that balances the desire to maintain positive impressions with the need to seem true or authentic to others”
(Marwick & boyd 124). In other words, conceptualising one’s audience makes it easier to perform a coherent and convincing authenticity in online profiles.
To Marwick and boyd authenticity is a troublesome concept. They emphasise the socially constructed character of it and deem it manufactured and always in
contradistinction to something or someone else. Authenticity is described as a shared opinion of an audience that is reflected on the influencer (Marwick & boyd 124; Grazian 13; Marwick Status Update 133). It is then a “localized, temporally situated social construct that varies widely based on community” (Marwick & boyd 124). Whether or not one is judged as authentic or inauthentic thus depends on what the judging
audience deems authentic, sincere and true and is dependent on cultural and personal implications. In other words, authenticity lies in the eye of the beholder. Whilst fashion bloggers might seem authentic when they are able to put together an outfit showcasing both their own style mixed with current trends, technology bloggers could come across as inauthentic when doing the same. The cause of this is the difference in audience and what that audience expects form the blogger. Regularity and coherence of one’s
personality is thus of importance. Marwick and boyd conclude that in order to remain authentic and grow one’s audience twitterers have to balance their personal interests with the expectations of their (imagined) audiences in their online conversations (126). The findings of Marwick and boyd’s Twitter focused research can be transferred to other social media channels and forms of online presence, as the basic concepts of all the online profile websites work with the same one-to-many broadcast type. For all of these social networking profile-based sites it applies that the audiences’ expectations must be levelled with personal interest in the online conversations.
3.5 Engagement rates as the marker of authenticity
The quality of the attention of the modern consumer is changed due to the expanding flows of images that are exposed to them, argues Fashion Studies professor Elizabeth Wissinger (235). Instagram perfectly responds to that change by being based on a tap-in-tap-out ephemeral ideology. This characteristic of the platform stresses the need to catch users’ attention in a blink. But influencers do not only need to adapt to that specific Instagram characteristic, in fact their whole lucrative business is dependent on the affordances of Instagram. As the negotiating of authenticity with brand and audience is solely situated on the platform it is entirely adapted to the rules of that environment. If the platform changes, the relations between the influencer, the brand and the
audience will change as well. This dependence of influencers on the platform was vividly illustrated by the previously described scare that the introduction of the algorithmically ordered timeline brought the influencers.
Changes to the platform are unpredictable and force influencers to revise their performances of authenticity, but they are not necessarily negative. There are sources that predict a positive outcome for the influencers in respect to the now algorithmically ordered Instagram timeline. Frances Trapp, CEO of an influencer platform, expects that influencers will gain importance after the update (Trapp n. pag.; Milnes n. pag.). This is because the algorithm will favour more engaged content. As the engagement with the content of brands is usually quite low, the influencer will gain importance for the brands, as they have more engagements with their audience due to their personal communication style (Milnes n. pag).
A new focus on engagement means a new focus on the quality of an influencer’s audience and the engagement that is induced amongst them (Chen n. pag.). Engagement with a post can be liking, commenting or sharing an update, but is also visible in an audience following tagged accounts and adopting campaign hashtags (Carah & Shaul 71). In other words engagement corresponds to the ‘snowball-effect’ that influencers generate (Schogt n. pag.). Brands and agencies working with influencers keep track of engagement through an engagement rate, a standard practice in the marketing industry (Carah & Shaul 75). This rate is based on the likes and comments that are generated with a post. The rate is important, because a high number of interactions make the post available in a wider information flow, attracting more attention (Carah & Shaul 75). A critical side note to this rate is that is does not cover all possible interactions with a post. It does however cover the most relevant engagements and all the engagements that are measurable on Instagram.
Micro-influencers, who are also referred to as power middle influencers (Chen n. pag.) or niche influencers (Schogt n. pag.), are very capable of sparking high engagement rates. They are specialised and popular in a specific niche and have a smaller set of truly interested followers instead of hundreds of thousands followers that are only somewhat interested in them. According to Chen research results released by the influencer-marketing platform Markerly show that smaller influencers generally generate more engagement than big influencers (Markerly qtd. in Chen n. pag.). Markerly CEO Sarah Ware has concluded the same based on her work experiences with influencer
marketing. For a weight loss-tea company she worked with the (in)famous Kardashian sisters who have individual followings of respectively 74,6 million (Kim Kardashian), 51,2 million (Khloeé Kardashian) and 42 million (Kourtney Kardashian)2. Although the
campaign with the highly followed sisters generated a lot of profit for the company, Ware indicated that thirty to forty micro-influencers were even more effective (Ware qtd. in Chen n. pag.). Schogt’s comparison of the big influencers to mere broadcasters of products and brands then seems very accurate (n. pag).
3.6 The paradigm of online authenticity
For influencers authenticity truly is constructed through and ascribed by their audience. From the influencers’ part it can be deemed a performance, as they post with the
intention of catering to their public. The performance happens via affective immaterial labour, or in other words the user-generated content that they create. The authentic perception can only be maintained if the influencer carefully manages his brand as to create a coherent display of himself. This continuity in presentation will leave followers with an idea of what to expect. In summarisation online authenticity is an on-going performance of a consumption ready, coherent identity through affective immaterial labour with the purpose of generating engagements with one’s audience as an acknowledgment of their authenticity and their value for marketers.
If an influencer must be authentic in order to be successful and engagement is the indicator of success, one can assume that a well-engaged influencer is successfully performing his authenticity. Based hereon one can thus repurpose the platform metrics to identify when an influencer is performing its authenticity best and when they appear to fail. With this in mind the proposed paradigm to study online authenticity falls back on the aforementioned engagement metrics, but it seeks to repurpose them so that the metrics of social media offer a way to regard online authenticity quantitatively. The numbers are then no longer just a metric, but they are a valorisation of the authentic and the online attention economy. The engagement rate will function as said
valorisation in this paradigm. That is to say that this formula will provide a number that can help determine how authentic the audience perceives different posts of an
influencer at a given time as well as an opportunity to zoom in and determine why. The calculation for the engagement rate is the following:
number of likes+number of comments
number of followers × 100 %
Source: Gottke n. pag.; Socialbakers n. pag.; Yamaguchi n. pag. Within this paradigm a higher engagement rate thus indicates that the audience perceives a post as more authentic, rewarding it with likes and comments. Likes and comments are thus not just likes and comments anymore; instead they are the fruit of the labour of the affective performance of the influencer. This paradigm thus not only emphasises the role of the audience in creating a quality of authenticity, but is also highly focused on the affective labour that is put in to the influencer’s performance.
Joey Chowaiki, co-founder of an influencer marketing agency states that the engagement rate helps to better understand the authenticity of an influencer (Yu n. pag.). Mark Traphagen also described that engagement numbers are a good indicator to know if one’s audience like and appreciate their content (n. pag.). Katherine Allen shares Traphagen’s point of view and states that engagement brings with it an expression of authenticity and trust in the content (n. pag.). Adam Arvidsson phrases his assent of this
conception a bit different. He explains that authentic products are in demand and that they have a higher use-value as attention generating “vehicles”, because of their unstandardized nature (12). Authentic objects fascinate and therefore create affective reactions and bonds. In the world of social media this would translate in more likes, shares and comments on authentic content than on any other content. Lastly Rachel Simmons describes likes as the “public, tangible, reassuring statement of a (...) social status” (n. pag.), determining engagements to be tokens of appreciation for an authentic self-brand.
The repurposing of the platform metrics makes this a Digital Methods-like approach. The Digital Methods Initiative is a leading research group in the field of Internet Studies. The focus of the research group is to design methods and tools with which online devices and platforms can be repurposed in order to research societal and political issues (Digital Methods Initiative n. pag.). A big part thereof is not only
repurposing the devices and platforms, but also repurposing the data and metrics extracted from those platforms.
4. METHODOLOGY
In order to answer the research question it was imperative to construct a definition of perceived authenticity within contemporary online platform usage, as there was none yet. The same applied to researching online authenticity; as there was no established method yet, this thesis produced and proposed a new method. This method is based on the components that together built the authentic perception of the online account. That was however not the sole objective of this research. This thesis set out to answer how and by which means influencers maintain a perceived quality of authenticity and in specific what role the platform metrics had herein. Those questions will be answered through a case study. The case study focuses on the Instagram accounts of four Dutch influencers with a various number of (international) followers. The analysis will be partially quantitative and partially descriptive. Here, the choices made for the analysis of the case study will be clarified, beginning with the platform the case study focuses on. Subsequently the influencers included in the case study will be discussed and lastly the process of gathering, coding and interpreting the data will be illustrated.
4.1 Why Instagram is the platform of the case study
This research is centred on a specific social networking site, Instagram. This choice on the one hand limited the research, but on the other hand made the research
manageable. With the choice for only one medium a multitude of other media on which a relationship between an influencer and a follower can be formed have been excluded, but it also provided a workable scope for this research and a frame to formulate the research question in.
On Instagram, a relation between users can be one-sided, meaning that one can ‘follow’, as it is called, another user without them having to accept this follow3. This is
the case on multiple platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat) and essential in order for 3 Note: On Instagram it is possible to put a profile on a ‘private account’-setting. Other users can then request to follow the account and the account owner has to approve or disapprove this request (Instagram, Hoe Stel Ik n. pag.). Instagram’s default mode is however not private, profiles and updates are therefore by default accessible for everyone (Instagram, Hoe Stel Ik n. pag.). Experience shows that influencers who have really big followings rarely have their account on the private setting.
