Sustainable fashion social media influencers and content creation calibration

Abstract

Given the rise of social media, social media influencers have become an essential part of marketing agencies’ strategies. Advertisers seek to leverage influencers’ large community of followers who place trust in influencers’ recommendations. This trust makes the use of influencer marketing a powerful tool for advertisers. With increasing consumer interest, the sustainable fashion industry has grown and social media influencers are being leveraged to shift consumer perspective and purchasing behavior. Using semi-structured interviews, this research addresses the use of influencers as an advertising tactic in the sustainable fashion industry to analyze the social media practices and monetization strategies of sustainable fashion social media influencers.

The term ‘sustainable fashion social media influencers’ is introduced to describe influential content creators who discuss sustainable fashion on social media. Importantly, the research identifies ‘content creation calibration’, which refers to the practice of social media influencers calibrating their content to account for their ethics and desire for compensation. The research highlights the future challenges for advertisers and influencers when linking sustainability to entrepreneurship in influencer marketing.

Keywords:

• influencer
• influencer marketing
• sustainable fashion
• social media marketing
• fashion marketing

Data availability

This study uses qualitative data whereby participants were not asked to agree to their data being available for other studies. Due to privacy and ethical concerns, the transcripts of the original interviews cannot be made publicly available. Ethical approval for this research study was granted by Ryerson University.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University (TRSM Research Advancement Grant).

Notes on contributors

Jenna Jacobson

Jenna Jacobson is an Assistant Professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. She is also a Research Fellow at Ryerson’s Social Media Lab. Her research analyzes the consumer and producer perspectives of digital technologies with a focus on social media, branding, and digital retailing.

Brooke Harrison

Brooke Harrison is a graduate of the Communication and Culture Master’s Program at Ryerson and York University. She is also a Research Assistant at the Ted Rogers School of Management. Her research focus analyzes the intersection of media and popular culture, focusing on social media influencers, sustainable consumption habits, and digital community building.