Self-Branding on Social Media: An Analysis of Style Bloggers on Instagram

The concept of self-branding is prevalent in society today due to the emergence and growth of various social media platforms. In particular, this new digital media environment has empowered especially women to market themselves as brands. Despite increasing scholarly and practical attention being paid to the influence of social media on individuals' self-branding practices, little empirical research has systematically examined how people use social media as a tool to establish their branded-selves. Using a content analysis method, we analyzed 243 posts from the top 10 style bloggers' Instagram accounts according to a systematic coding scheme. The results of our analysis indicate that although most leading style bloggers still adhere to traditional beauty and hierarchic criteria, social media provides great opportunities for women to establish their branded-selves and allows them to market themselves in line with the increase of awareness of women's rights. Results also show that a huge number of the style bloggers' followers are influenced by the way the bloggers use technological functions along with their modes to present themselves, through which they become emotionally attached to the bloggers. Based on these findings, we discuss academic and practical implications for self-branding via using social media.