Relaciones con los públicos a través de Instagram: los influencers de belleza como caso de estudio

In: Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas, Band 10, Heft 19, S. 111-132

Abstract

The development of the Internet and the appearance of social networks has completely changed the way we relate. Influencers are important in the new paradigm composed by the different professionals of the digital environments because they have the ability to influence certain audiences when they share an opinion or assessment about products, brands or services. Followers respond to common interests being the centre of communication on social networks (Sicilia and Palazón, 2008).
From an organizational perspective, social networks are a very important tool in relations with the stakeholders. Social networks have become a fundamental tool to position brands in the minds of consumers (Chu, 2011). Social networks are already a reality within the communication strategies of many companies (Qualman, 2013). In the field of public relations, many companies are trying to make the most of social media and Instagram becomes an indispensable tool for companies working in the beauty sector. Social networks have overcome the limitations that traditional media usually brought and have enabled users to proactively interact with the organization. This is the result of the process of transformation of social networks (Kilgour et al., 2015). Currently, stakeholders have stopped perceiving the organization's messages as commercial content to be perceived as social content. Furthermore, these tools have generated new spheres of influence that have considerably altered the organization's stakeholders map.
In particular, Instagram is the most evolved social network in 2019 and its penetration has grown exponentially in recent years. In this case, beauty influencers have increased their importance among opinion leaders on Instagram because they accumulate millions of followers with their content, allowing the user to be informed of market developments. This has led companies all over the world to include social networks as an essential part of their communication strategies in order to improve relations with their stakeholders. Thus, Instagram becomes an increasingly important tool to position their products or services, especially for entities operating in the beauty sector.
This research aims to find out how beauty influencers implement their communication on the Instagram as well as how their followers receive them. Other objectives that have been established with this study are to know the degree of engagement among users and instagrammers, as well as to identify the contents and frequency of publication. For this purpose, the research applies a methodological triangulation based on a content analysis and a survey. The content analysis has been applied to the accounts that make up the sample: the five influencers with the most followers on Instagram; and the survey has been applied to a total of 300 users with a profile on the Instagram. The field research for content analysis lasted one year, from March 15, 2019 to March 15, 2020. Results confirm that beauty influencers have significant power of prescription despite limited communication effort they make. Furthermore, the number of reactions to posts is mostly proportional to the number of followers that influencers have, so the likes and comments are directly related to the number of followers that instagramers have. Instagram is revealed as a public relations tool for beauty brands.