An Examination of the Communication Strategy Undertaken by Beauty Influencers on Instagram

Abstract

With the beauty industry shifting its focus more towards online and the majority of marketers planning to increase their influencer marketing budgets year-on-year due to increased competition, it has become necessary for beauty brands to understand what type of content engages consumers; as the level of engagement a brand receives is an indication of the impact a brand has towards the consumer’s decision making process. This study thereby analyzed 311 Instagram posts, published between October 2017 to December 2017, from the top 5 beauty influencers of the world, in terms of: post type, creative composition and caption composition. The results indicated that there was no correlation between the frequency of posts and that despite photos being the most popular format published by influencers, video posts were the most engaging. Furthermore in terms of creative, posts that showed the influencer’s face resulted in a higher engagement rate, as implied by the literature.