Sustainable fashion social media influencers and content creation calibration

Abstract

Given the rise of social media, social media influencers have become an essential part of marketing agencies’ strategies. Advertisers seek to leverage influencers’ large community of followers who place trust in influencers’ recommendations. This trust makes the use of influencer marketing a powerful tool for advertisers. With increasing consumer interest, the sustainable fashion industry has grown and social media influencers are being leveraged to shift consumer perspective and purchasing behavior. Using semi-structured interviews, this research addresses the use of influencers as an advertising tactic in the sustainable fashion industry to analyze the social media practices and monetization strategies of sustainable fashion social media influencers. The term ‘sustainable fashion social media influencers’ is introduced to describe influential content creators who discuss sustainable fashion on social media. Importantly, the research identifies ‘content creation calibration’, which refers to the practice of social media influencers calibrating their content to account for their ethics and desire for compensation. The research highlights the future challenges for advertisers and influencers when linking sustainability to entrepreneurship in influencer marketing.