Profession: Full time social media influencer An analysis of the constant development of working routines and career paths in the world of fashion Instagrammers

By sharing textual and visual narratives on social media, individual users have managed to attract remarkable audiences and move towards the status of social media influencers. As authentic intermediaries between consumers and advertisers, they have been shaping the marketing landscape of the of the fashion landscape during the past years. Moreover, working as an SMI has become a desirable profession because it seems to guarantee a glamourous, effortless life. The curated Instagram feeds often hide the numerous challenges that come with the job: adapting to platform algorithms, combining commerciality with authentic self-branding and the need of strategic, standardized approaches on content production. This study examines the working practices and career paths of five full time Instagram influencers, combining data from a visual and textual analysis of their Instagram feeds and Instagram stories (N=250) and in-depth interviews. The findings illustrate the influencer job as far more complex and labour intensive than the lifestyle displayed on Instagram implies. SMIs implement authenticity strategies through behind-scenes-content and how they strategically manufacture perceived interconnectedness with their audience in their Instagram stories. Sharing private life and posting consistently appear as the most relevant factors regarding their content production, which is likely to result in working hours above average. Due to the limited instructions on how to grow an audience and to find sponsors, influencers to be are often guided by other (aspiring) content creators or benefit from former professional experiences while they build their SMI career. Yet, the career paths of many SMIs seem to be characterized by frustration and disillusion about certain aspects of the job, such as being limited by platform algorithms. Unexpected situations contribute to the constant changes in the environment of Web 2.0: During the Covid-19 crisis, the studied SMIs have adapted their working practices by redesigning collaborations and coming up with new forms of content in order to deal with the uncertainty characterizing the economic and societal situation. Ultimately, the patterns in working practices show how creating content creation on social media has developed towards a serious profession from a form of expression, featuring strategies and principles around building a self-brand that attracts consumers and advertisers but also endangers the notion of authenticity.