“I am just posting myself online”

This study examines the ways in which prosumers (co-)produce their personal identity while generating branded content on Instagram. The research looks at how certain brands are related to the daily production of consumers’ identities and discusses the positive and negative experiences associated with their involvements in such practices. In order to answer the research question, the study employed in-depth interviews and netnographic like observations of participants’ branded Instagram content. The combination of both methods allowed for clarity and deeper understanding of the phenomena studied. The findings of this research show that participants tend to generate branded content on Instagram for positive self-presentation. Irving Goffman’s (1959) academic work on impression management is one of the underlying theories in this research in order to present the different ways in which people adjust their behaviour when around other people. Goffman’s work on self-presentation was then transferred to the social media context, in which participants in this research produce branded content, and, therefore, shape their identities. Interviewees prefer to produce their identities through generating and sharing branded content, to which values they want to identify with, which very often were big and prominent brands, such as Mercedes or Starbucks. As a result, a tension between who one is online and offline occurs. In order to interact with certain brands, respondents are likely to “exchange symbolic knowledge and emotional value” with them, which creates value on a primary level which was transferred to the market level through appropriation by brands (Cova & Dalli, 2009). Interactive practices of consumers with brands online are examined in relation to notions of “immaterial” (Lazzarato, 1997) and “social labour” (Anderson et al., 2016). Even though many theorists argue that such practices are forms of exploitation (Fuchs, 2011, 2014; Hardt & Negri, 2004; Tapscott & Williams, 2008), participants feel empowered by brands. This empowerment has been related to the variety of opportunities for access, autonomy and recognition brands offer to their customers, and, thus, the latter are not critical when prosuming online. Last but not least, limitations of the study and implications for further research are proposed.