How to Engage with Younger Users on Instagram: A Comparative Analysis of HBO and Netflix in the Spanish and US Markets

Social media have become useful tools for audiovisual promotion, especially to reach niche audiences. Twitter promotional strategies have been widely studied, yet other growing platforms such as Instagram have been less analyzed. This paper examines the Instagram promotional strategies of two pay-per-view platforms (HBO and Netflix) in two markets (the United States and Spain). A total of 731 messages, posted between May and November 2017, were analyzed to identify their formal features, objectives, and their content’s emotional and cognitive elements posted on HBO and Netflix’s Spanish and U.S. accounts. The results showed acute differences between how HBO and Netflix use their Instagram accounts in the two markets (Spain and the United States). The Spanish accounts mostly provided information, while the American accounts both provided information and promoted program content. Posts from U.S. accounts more frequently included links to social media, particularly to celebrity accounts. Spanish accounts relied more on diegetic images, whereas U.S. accounts emphasized non-diegetic and off-set images. Netflix used humor more than HBO did, and a stronger focus on celebrities. Humor and positive tone were found to be linked to higher engagement

This post is sponsored but all opinions are my own: does fashion blogging offer an authentic voice? An investigation into the credibility of fashion blogger sponsored content and blogger perspectives on the tensions between authenticity and commercialisation.

This study investigates the impact of commercial sponsorship upon fashion blogging, a form of digital communication that has become important in influencing online consumer behaviour. Fashion companies appreciate the marketing value of blogs and have utilised them to their own advantage. As a result, the fashion blogosphere has become increasingly commercialised. Existing research into changes in fashion blogging has generally focused upon the attitudes and perspectives of blog readers. Relatively little research investigates the attitude of fashion bloggers themselves. This thesis therefore specifically examines the attitudes of UK fashion bloggers as regards the impact of commercial sponsorship upon their practice and on the credibility and authenticity of their blog output. This study takes an interpretative, qualitative research approach with a combination of an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews. It focuses upon over 300 fashion bloggers divided into three distinct groups: young and old active bloggers and significantly a third group of bloggers who have discontinued the activity. A review of existing literature identified a number of key areas for exploration: the effect of sponsorship upon blogger motivation, design and content of blog output, the pressures upon bloggers resulting from accepting sponsorship rewards, blogger perception of the impact that commercialisation may have had upon their practice values, the potential effect of sponsorship upon their relationship with readers, their views on the changing status of the fashion blogosphere and their role as fashion bloggers. The findings offer a number of new perspectives upon the evolving fashion-blog sector, especially with reference to the following themes: the personal pressures felt by some fashion bloggers as a consequence of their involvement with commercial partnerships and the negative impact that this can have upon their mental health; the increased discrepancy between the ways in which fashion bloggers talk about their practice and the reality of their actual online behaviour as regards disclosure of sponsored material, self-censorship and reluctance to be critical; the increased priority that many fashion bloggers now place upon commercial opportunities rather than their relationship with readers. This research is of significance as it has explored the tensions affecting fashion blogger attitudes and practice from their own point of view. It has specifically analysed the general decline of social community in the fashion blogosphere and the impact that this has had upon the authenticity and credibility of the fashion blogger voice