Alexa Landsberger
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Amanda Martinez
Everyone has enough knowledge about pop culture to understand how people have become celebrities. Professional athletes, musicians, actors have all mastered their craft, making it easy for us to understand how they have become famous. Social Media Influencers on the other hand don’t have the same identifiable talents that traditional celebrities have, so the question becomes how they are using social media in order to obtain fame. Through my research I was able to conclude that Social Media Influencers (SMIs) use their social media profiles in order to create their own brand (which they attach to a traditional idea of fame: actor, model etc.). In my study, I analyzed 15 posts from 10 Social Media Influencers to see how they used social media to obtain gain enough attraction within the social media network to achieve fame. My finding and further investigations into SMIs helps us better understand how users are interpreting social media sites and the value we place on certain users. Because SMIs use their platforms to promote their brand, interact with others and disclose information they have made their profiles places people want to go to consume content because they think of it the same way as watching a movie star or listening to a musician.