Is there a new type of fashion photography that only functions on Instagram? Chapter IV: Do influencers heighten the idea of Instagram Fashion Photography? ~ Part 7.
Referring to the points above, the discussion of influencers may come as a revelation, as this is something new and not traditionally linked to Fashion. Nevertheless, it is pertinent to discuss influencers who have developed a major influence on the users of YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Due to the other two being video-based, it is apparent that Instagram is the only media where influencers use photography to promote branded products. This means the type of photography they post is exclusive to Instagram.
An element of Instagram culture that makes a new type of fashion photography exclusive to this app plausible, is the impact of influencers. Influencers are eminent individuals who utilise social media and the internet to endorse products, often for money or sponsorship (Speer,2018), which has grown exponentially in recent years. Brands such as Pretty Little Thing, which is a clothing brand, utilise the impact of influencers in order to promote and advertise their products. Meaning, these individuals use photography techniques such as self-portraiture, also known as ‘selfies’, in order to capture the products. This is interesting when considering IFP, as this helps disseminate the idea that there is a sense of a new style. This is because, influencers are typically trend orientated and will therefore utilise ‘selfie’ trends or trending poses to capture their images and content. Businesses invest in influencers in order to generate publicity, as these content creators make their products seem ‘trendy’, which is what Instagram culture is about. This signifies that influencers may have inadvertently pinpointed the evolution and accidentally invented a new type of fashion photography.
Influencer marketing on Instagram
Vermin et al researched into the idea that Instagram influencers with a high number of followers are found more likable as they are considered popular and if the number of people that the influencer follows affects this. For this, two hypotheses were studied, the first was whether the number of followers affects the overall likability of the influencer, in terms of their popularity and opinion leadership. The second, was to research whether the amount of people the influencer follows back has an effect on their likeability.
To test these hypotheses, one-hundred and seventeen Instagram users were asked to view two falsified ‘influencer’ Instagram account screenshots, a male ‘influencer’ Stephan Jones and a female ‘influencer’ Stephanie Jones. In one condition the ‘influencer’ followed thirty-two people, this was named the ‘low number of ‘followees’ condition’. In the ‘high number of ‘followees’ condition’ they followed thirty-two-thousand people. Each participant was randomly allocated to one of these four conditions, they were then asked to view the Instagram accounts and to complete a questionnaire. It was found that, participants responded more positively towards the influencer with more followers due to a higher perceived popularity. Advancing on this, the results also showed that influencers with a negative correlation between number of ‘followers’ and people they followed, had reduced likability. However, this was only true for females. Vermin et al, also stressed that fashion brands encourage influencers to recommend their products as this helps them build their brand image and spreads their products among other influencers and a large base of followers, which is called ‘influencer marketing’. (Vermin, Cauberghe & Hudders,2017). It has been shown that influencers with higher ‘followers’ and ‘followees’ have more likability on Instagram. This results in brands focusing on these individuals to help market their product, followers tend to imitate the influencer and therefore, invest in the product depicted. It can be argued that these influencers are using “IFP” to market these products.