doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2020-1456
Article
Engagement and evolution of spanish-speaking fashion instagrammers
Engagement y evolución de instagramers hispanohablantes de moda
Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion1
Ignacio Aguaded2
1National University of Loja. Ecuador.
2University of Huelva. Spain.
Abstract
Introduction: With the technological boom and the deployment of digital devices, the instagrammer phenomenon has become a global revolution, producing a change in the communicative paradigm from which Latin America and Spain are not exempt; which requires an engagement analysis of users in their participation and interaction with online contents.
Methodology: It was mainly quantitative and descriptive with data collection through Social Blade and Fan Page Karma monitoring tools, which provided information about the activity and engagement of influencers on Instagram and the main variables of interaction. We conducted a cross-sectional study on ten accounts of Spanish-speaking fashion instagrammers (Latin America-Spain) during February in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Results: The level of engagement of Latin American Instagrammers is prominent compared to Spain. There is no relation between the numbers of followers and the commitment registered for both cases; there are notable variations and similar trends in the fashion sector.
Conclusions: The Spanish-speaking instagrammers present a community with more than millions with a decreasing tendency in the interaction with contents, base of the engagement with their followers suggesting new correlations between their abilities to influence and the effort spend on Instagram.
Keywords: social media, instagrammer, digital culture, Instagram, engagement, fashion, influencer.
Resumen
Introducción: Con el auge tecnológico y el despliegue de dispositivos digitales, el fenómeno instagrammer se convierte en una revolución global, produciendo un cambio del paradigma comunicativo, del que América Latina y España no quedan exentas; se requiere un análisis respecto al compromiso de los usuarios en la participación e interacción con los contenidos online.
Metodología: Principalmente cuantitativa-descriptiva, con extracción de datos por medio de las herramientas de monitoreo SocialBlade y Fan Page Karma, que facilitan información sobre la actividad y engagement de los influencers en Instagram y las principales variables de interacción. Estudio transeccional del mes de febrero (2018, 2019 y 2020) en diez cuentas de instagramers hispanohablantes de moda (América Latina-España).
Resultados: El nivel de engagement de las instagramers latinoamericanas es prominente en comparación al español. No existe relación entre el número de seguidores y el compromiso registrado para ambos casos, se observan variaciones destacables y tendencias similares en el sector de la moda.
Conclusiones: Las instagramers hispanohablantes presentan una comunidad que suma millones con una tendencia descendente en cuanto a interacción con los contenidos, base del compromiso con sus seguidores, con nuevas correlaciones entre su capacidad para influir y el esfuerzo dedicado en Instagram.
Palabras clave: redes sociales, instagramer, cultura digital, Instagram, compromiso, moda, influencer.
Contents
1. Introduction. 1.1. The impact of Instagram. 1.2. Instagrammers: The new opinion leaders. 1.3. The engagement between instagrammers and followers. 2. Methodology. 2.1. Sample. 2.2. Data collection and processing. 3. Discussion of the results. 3.1. Engagement of fashion instagrammers in Latin America. 3.2. Engagement of fashion instagrammers in Spain. 3.3. Global ranking: comparison of fashion instagrammers in Latin America and Spain. 4. Conclusions. 5. References.
Correspondence:
Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion. National University of Loja. Ecuador. erika.gonzalez@unl.edu.ec
Ignacio Aguaded. University of Huelva. Spain. aguaded@uhu.es
Received: 05/02/2020.
Accepted: 26/05/2020.
Published: 31/07/2020.
Financing
This work has been elaborate within the framework of Alfamed (Euro-American inter-university Research Network on Media Competencies for Citizenship), with the support of the R + D + I project (2019-2021), titled “Youtubers and Instagrammers: Media competence in emerging prosumers:” under the code RTI2018-093303-B-I00, financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).
How to cite this article / Standard reference
Gonzalez-Carrion, E. L., & Aguaded, I. (2020). Engagement and evolution of Spanish-speaking fashion instagrammers. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, (77), 231-252. https://www.doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2020-1456
Translation by Carlos Javier Rivas Quintero (University of the Andes, Mérida, Venezuela).
1. Introduction
Currently, social media promote an ideal place for cyber-contact between individuals and groups with similar habits and interests. On these platforms, browsing is carried out easily and cost-free, even though some authors allude to implicit sales of data and personal information (DeHart et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2017). However, the number of registered people on these sites multiplies every day. The resources uploaded provide the audience with a sensation of closeness, breaking down the idiosyncrasy, culture or language barriers, enhancing the inherent human socialization (Ibáñez-Cubillas et. al., 2017). That way, online social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter or TikTok, bring their dynamism to the process of communication which allows users to immerse in new realities (Ladogina et al., 2020). Or, as Capriotti et al. (2019, p. 1095) say; “it is necessary to deem social media as an instrument of dialogue and interaction with audiences”. Additionally, consumption patterns changed from a model of analogue practice and behavior to a digital one, transforming the attitudes of users; a 2.0 world with increasingly heterogeneous demands to which the creators of private and industrial contents must respond quickly (Hung et al., 2019).
In this context, Instagram is positioned as the digital platform with the greatest visual potential and capacity to transmit messages through images (Thomas et al., 2020). Since its creation in 2010, it has gained millions of users around the world, making it one of the most representative channels for interaction, promotion, and dissemination in the digital environment. Lee et al. (2015) point out that among the motivations leading to the repetitive use of Instagram, there are social interaction, the gathering and storing of photographs, the different forms of expression provided by the platform (hashtags, filters, IGTV, stories, mentions, etc.) and the active participation in the lives of other users. The emergence of role models and/or opinion leaders (instagrammers) does not represent an isolated fact since its configuration facilitates the creation of strategies that consolidates the conception of digital celebrity (Niklander et al., 2016). An inherent role in the Big Data era whose potential depends on the audiovisual content created and disseminated at an international level.
Given this context and addressing the new trends of the Network Society, a preliminary and exploratory study was considered, whose purpose is to analyze and compare the variables of interaction and engagement between Spanish-speaker fashion instagrammers and followers. In this way, we intended to identify a new environment for social attraction from an international perspective that discovers new formats of online interrelation, implementing a prospective research of its annual evolution in a complementary way. Therefore, this contribution measures the engagement level of two different geographical contexts, in a way that facilitates, through the exploratory design of the phenomenon, a basis for the comprehension of the impact and feedback between followers and fashion instagrammers at present.
1.1. The impact of Instagram
Digital printing and content expansion, primal foundation of Instagram, reveal a remarkable interest of the global population to tell stories through images (Hernández and Hernández, 2018). As indicated by Casaló, Flavián and Ibáñez-Sánchez (2020), Instagram creates leadership profiles, by its inherently visual nature and the capacity to transmit trends. The Spanish-speaking content covers a global surface of 4.9%. That way, a close relation between users and a platform mainly supported by mobile devices, computers and tablets, takes place (Openshaw, 2014; IAB, 2019).
The latest report of Global Digital Report by Hootsuite (2020) indicates that commercial or business accounts created on Instagram have a monthly average growth (followers) of 2.5%, an estimated of daily posts of 1.7, a percentage of posted photographs on their pages of 79%, a percentage of videos of 21%, and, finally, a rate of stories of 13,1 per month.
According to Boy and Uitermark (2017), Instagram works basing on images, facilitating its users the gathering and dissemination of contents. Additionally and recently, the platform has added a set of functions that intensify interactions as well: filters, stories, GIFs, IGTV, etc. (Woo and Kim, 2019; Seyfí and Soydas, 2017), exhibiting a metamorphosis between technologies and new flows of visual cyber-communication as means of human relation (Sheldon and Bryant, 2016).
The format of platforms like Instagram allows the creation of self-managed means to engage with an expansive audience through the construction of posts, using visual and textual modalities (Rietveld et al., 2020). Instagram, in this sense, offers a variety of audiovisual resources and tools, leading to more vivid, personal and emotional posts (Parmelee and Roman, 2020). This platform stands out as an effective tool for communication and marketing to display products with visual descriptions (Ponnusamy et al., 2020). To Ceyhan (2019), we are now in an era in which an average person has more possibilities of watching a video or a photograph than reading a text. Immediate and on-demand consumption becomes a routine for all users, while the demand of cross-platform contents finds an ideal space on Instagram, for both producers and consumers.
The networking software company, Sprout Social (2020), stresses in their latest report that Instagram users spend 53 minutes per day on this platform, a strong indicator of positioning as a leisure and entertainment network. In addition, an increase in the number of users is expected in the coming years, becoming also a perfect complement for digital marketing, offering new products and services. For this reason, digital models that combine business and entertainment emerge in the face of an audience willing to consume them.
1.2. Instagramers: the new opinion leaders
The already well-known instagrammers operate under these conditions: users with influence on huge communities, inciting different advertisers to market their products and services through their personas, given their high persuasion and advertising endorsement capacity (Sammis et al., 2015). Due to its structure and nature, Instagram already exhibits a promotional interest aesthetic, and this situation is accentuated on the accounts of instagrammers, given the commercial and business strategy it means for the industry. As stated by Fernández-Gómez et al. (2018), influencers position themselves as marketing resources combining their personal brand functions as advocates and managers on social media.
As pointed out by Jin & Ryu (2020), instagramers strategically display a wide variety of photographs to show their lifestyles, promote the brands that support them and share their daily life stories. People or consumers interested in a particular area follow these instagrammers as news and trends reference, in addition to considering them influential people (Weismueller et al., 2020). The greatest distinction for an instagrammer is the access to a large amount of information linked to the number of users who follow them. Hence, the higher the followers rate, the higher the popularity (Castillo and Palma, 2017). Likewise, to Díaz (2017) this impact on visibility makes these influencers create personalized massages that, in many cases, will result in promotional recommendations.
As for the audience, Instagram has a diverse, peculiar, and heterogeneous online population with different levels of interaction. Tiggermann and Zinoviev (2020) consider that users, in this sense, create their own personal accounts, share and disseminate information, form online relations and interact with others in their networks. It leads to a digital model on which individuals arrange their own content, participate in conversations, give feedback on different contents, or just enjoys an audiovisual conglomerate appealing to them. Given the numerous amount of interactions generated between influencer and followers and a marked interpersonal communication, these are perceived as credible, even if related with a slightly inconsistent brand (Breves et al., 2019). Echegaray (2015) suggests that the staging of a viewer that consumes and produces at the same time leads to a transfiguration of the audience concept. In this way, an instagrammer covers a set of characteristics inherent in the medium on which contents go viral (Márquez and Lanzeni, 2018), stimulating dynamics of interaction with the audience in a novel, collaborative and narrative way (Sanjuán et al., 2014; Martínez-Sanz and González-Fernández, 2018).
1.3. The engagement between instagrammers and followers
The Instagram-instagrammer synergy presents a set of strategies of virtual dialogue and asynchrony with vast communities, based upon the latent socializing conception of the network (Candale, 2017). This communication is performed immediately and with a significantly expansive power, to the point that the interaction is not only promoted by peer users, but it also allows totally diverse people to express their opinions or sensations, consolidating a network on which participation has no filter and it is unlimited (Nedra et al., 2019). Based on these premises and according to Ballesteros-Herencia (2019), engagement is defined as the manifestation of different symbolic representations, mainly through “likes”, “shares” and “comments”; the rise of social networks brought different ways to create and build bonds. The creation of contents is not enough, now a permanent and constant involvement must be present to generate updates and to consolidate a true dialogue with followers (Carrasco-Polaino et al., 2018). As Tur-Viñes et al. (2018, p. 1214) stated, “the engagement justifies and supports a ‘special’ type of relationship that is established between some consumers and determined audiovisual content”.
In this sense, Kim et al. (2017) point out that the profiles on Instagram showing the highest levels of feedback, are also the ones accumulating the most followers, since the increase of interactions due to common interests results in greater similarity in a group of users (homonymous) (Vizcaíno-Verdú et al., 2019). Supporting this approach, Castelló-Martínez (2016) argued that the emergence of new models and opinion leaders multiplies the scope of their actions of communication, leading to a key digital reputation to attract thousands of followers and generate strong interaction or engagement. A new concept is then defined in human relations and in the aspects which define a person as an instagrammer, focusing on popularity as a central point and on the personality as feedback generator (Csikszentmihalyi, 1998).
According to Da-Luz et al. (2017), in this procedure the use of a particular language intertwined with technological advances configures new meanings through semiotic elements, images, sounds and others. Influential people on social media, such as instagrammers, use these systems of expression to disseminate information and achieve their goals. The engagement of users with a certain type of profile has the capacity to improve their reputation and increase innovations, since retaining, keeping and nourishing users is becoming a more and more important and complex task (Zolkepli et al., 2015). To Cyhan (2019), the fact of a prosumer audience being participative on a page account is essential to enhance a positive perception. That is, improving the level of engagement on a network such as Instagram requires time, positioning, identity and predesigned actions executed at the right time. Therefore, this context of interactive necessities entails an assessment of the engagement that, in the fashion and lifestyle environment, acquired greater signification (McFarlane & Samsioe, 2020; Schöps et al., 2019; Skjulstad, 2018; Caldeira, 2018).
2. Methodology
This research implemented a quantitative-descriptive methodology through data collection. To do so, two monitoring tools were combined, Fan Page Karma, which allows accessing to a detailed analysis of the performance indicators of an Instagram account (engagement, interaction, posts and the reactions on them); and SocialBlade, which facilitates analyzing the selected profiles and establishing a global positioning of them. The ultimate goal is to analyze the interaction variables (essential activity for the engagement between instagrammers and their followers) and other communicative resources generated by the five most representative instagrammers in Latin America and Spain, as well as to define the differences in the selected sample.
The period under analysis comprises the months of February in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The selection behind these dates is justified by the null implication of circumstantial events that may cause alterations in the normal activity of the fashion instagrammers. This exploratory study, through monitoring and comparison, is grounded in previous international researches related to the object of study, engagement and evolution of instagrammers (Segarra-Saavedra and Hidalgo-Marí, 2018; Padilla and Oliver, 2018; Pérez and Luque, 2018; De-Casas-Moreno et al., 2018).
2.1. Sample
The delimitation of the sample bases upon the categorization made by Influencer Marketing Hub (leading resource to measure the influence on the different digital platforms) and the statistics online portal of Statista (international supplier of online consumer data).
Due to the relevance of the Spanish-speaking population on Instagram and the abundant bibliography about female fashion instagrammers, we proceeded to select the Latin-American and Spanish sample. Basing on the “2019 Top 25 Latin-American influencers on Instagram” from Influencer Marketing Hub (https://bit.ly/2xToZzZ), the five Latin-American accounts with the greatest level of impact on the fashion industry were selected. Concurrently, we used the online statistics portal Statista to categorize the five most popular accounts in the field of fashion in Spain in 2019 (https://bit.ly/35S9aWK). In both cases we discarded those instagrammers who did not fit the influencer concept as criteria of exclusion. That is, accounts created by celebrities from the film, television, fashion industry, etc., were not included in the final sample, but those who have built their instafame from anonymity (Jab?o?ska and Zajdel, 2020). Consequently, and as inclusion criteria, we identified accounts with the following characteristics: a) Accounts with more than one million followers; b) Women; c) Fashion sector; d) 35 years old age limit; e) Latin America/Spain.
Table 1. Sample.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub and Statista.
2.2. Data collection and processing
In the first phase of data monitoring, the tool Fan Page Karma was used to extract variables directly related to the conception of engagement during the months of February in 2018, 2019 and 2020, in order to establish evolutionary differences in the rates and set the parameters that define it. The variables selected and provided by the tool are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Engagement evaluation variables.
Source: Fan Page Karma.
During the second phase, the SocialBlade platform was implemented to establish a position of the instagrammers in the global context, according to the variables in Table 3.
Table 3. Evaluation variables of global positioning based on engagement.
Source: SocialBlade.
Through this system, we began the comparison study regarding the engagement impact in Latin America and Spain.
3. Discussion of the results
3.1. Engagement of fashion instagrammers in Latin America
The research is grounded in the evaluation of one whole month (February) in 2018, 2019 and 2020. As it is observed in the data of 2018 (Table 4), the leading instagrammers in Latin America demonstrate a high level of engagement, whose maximum percentage corresponds to Mariale Marrero (25%), and whose minimum percentage corresponds to Yuya (0.75%). The rest of accounts have an engagement that ranges from 0.93% to 9.5%.
As for the followers, Lelé Pons consolidated herself as the instagrammer with the greatest prominence on the platform, due to the fact that she draws 22.7 million users, while Mariale Marrero (who shows the best engagement level from the selected accounts), has the lowest amount of followers (3.8 million). Bethany Mota, Camila Coelho and Yuya cover an important amount of followers that goes from 5.5 to 11.2 million, respectively.
Table 4. Engagement and interaction in February, 2018: Latin-American Instagrammers.
Source: Fan Page Karma.
On another note, the interaction level that these instagrammers produce does not exceed 19%. Such is the case of Mariale Marrero. In fact, Camila Coelho shows the lowest level of interaction in the sample with 1.4%. The remaining instagrammers have an interaction rate ranging from 3% to 10%. The weekly evolution and total performance index of the accounts positions two instagrammers as the influencers with the highest productivity on their accounts: Mariale Marrero (89%) and Lelé Pons (45%), becoming reference models in the sector.
Similarly, and regarding the interchange and actions of users, Lelé Pons and Mariale Marrero maintain their positions with the highest amount of “likes” accumulated, (58.9 and 21.7 millions respectively). The other three accounts were below ten million “likes” during the time analyzed (from 1.4 to 8.3 million). We noticed a direct relation between the number of posts made and the interaction with the audience, since three instagrammers upload more posts onto their accounts: Camila Coelho (88 posts, more than two per day), Mariale Marrero (37 posts, more than one per day) and Lelé Pons (26 posts, almost one per day).
Finally, the number of comments and reactions show the great disengagement existing between the instagrammers in the same geographical extension. These data place Lelé Pons as the leading account (with an estimate of 717,000 comments and 59.6 million reactions in one month), Yuya (123,000 comments and 2.1 million reactions in one month) and Mariale Marrero (with 4,400 comments and 26.1 million reactions in one month). It is important to point out that these instagrammers obtain very high levels of interaction in a relatively short period (one month), which is proof of their scope and influence on a digital environment.
Table 5. Engagement and interaction in February 2019.
Source: Fan Page Karma.
In 2019, a variation is observed regarding the ratings each instagrammer holds. However, Mariale Marrero and Lelé Pons continued to lead the way among the analyzed fashion accounts, with an engagement of 5.7% and 5.1%, respectively (notably lower level than 2018), becoming the more prominent accounts. The rest go from 0.93% to 4.2%, showing a decreasing tendency compared to the previous year. As for the number of followers registered on each account, all the instagrammers increased their audience on the platform. For example, Lelé Pons reached 34.4 million and Yuya, 13.6 million, while the others gained from 5.1 to 8.1 million followers.
The interaction of these accounts also presents some weakening compared to the previous year, highlighting three instagrammers: Yuya, Lelé Pons and Mariale Marrero, in which the limit of 4.9% is not exceeded (in 2018 the instagrammer with the greatest interaction reached 19%). In terms of the weekly evolution and the performance index of the page, also produced significant losses. The most outstanding are Lelé Pons (27%) and Mariale Marrero (26%). As well, the rest of instagrammers showed negative values raging from 2% to 14%.
Participation with users exhibits some variations in contrast with 2018, particularly in the decrease of the actions performed by the audience (although it is still significant for the most outstanding instagrammers). Therefore, Lelé Pons and Yuya consolidated as leaders with 46.6 and 10 million “likes” during the period under analysis. The other three accounts have numbers ranging from 712,000 to 8 million “likes”, figures below the data collected in 2018. In this sense, the continuity of posts increases in some cases and decreases in others, having the first places Camila Coelho (58 posts, more than two per day), Mariale Marrero (33 posts, more than one per day) and Lelé Pons (30 posts, one per day), demonstrating that the number of posts does not always determine the engagement established with the audience.
Consequently, the number of comments and the total amount of reactions generated on the accounts exhibited decreases compared to the previous data. Despite this, the first positions are held once more by the instagrammers Lelé Pons (with 406,009 comments and a total of 47 million reactions) and Mariale Marrero (with 796,000 comments and 8.7 million reactions). Only Yuya gets close to them with an estimated of 55,000 comments and 10.1 million reactions. The rest had numbers lower than these references.
Table 6. Engagement and interaction in February 2020.
Source: Fan Page Karma.
In February 2020 (Table 6) there is a clear decreasing tendency in the engagement of these instagrammers, reducing, even more, their numbers compared to 2019. In this case, Lelé Pons continues to lead with an engagement of 3% and, from this point on there are relatively similar levels among three instagramers (Yuya, Mariale Marrero and Camila Coelho) with percentages raging from 2.1% to 2.6%. Bethany Mota continues to have a notably inferior level, achieving only 0.18% of engagement. As for followers, all these accounts increased the numbers of their communities (with Lelé Pons and Yuya at the top), with the exception of Bethany Mota, whose page dropped from 5.1 to 4.9 million followers.
All the instagrammers, except Lelé Pons, experienced lower rates in the interactions with their posts, a situation that was already noticeable when comparing 2018 and 2019. Therefore the interaction numbers are between 5.8%, as the maximum (Lelé Pons) and 1.2% as the minimum (Camila Coelho). Similarly, when determining the percentages reached during the weekly evolution and the performance index of the page, they kept decreasing. In this context, Yuya and Lelé Pons hold the first positions with a performance of 17% and 15%, respectively. Both Camila Coelho and Mariale Marrero achieved the same performance of 10%, while Bethany Mota only obtained 1%.
The participation of users through “likes” started to decrease when comparing it with both the months of February 2018 and 2019. In spite of this, and as it has been underlined before, Lelé Pons and Mariale Marrero are the instagrammers having the most significant rates of ‘likes’ (33.6 million and 11.6 million). The others range from 249,000 to 5.3 million “likes”. The regularity as how the content has been posted was also affected when comparing it with the previous years. Therefore, Camila Coelho becomes, once again, the account with the highest number of posts (52 post, almost two per day), Mariale Marrero (20 posts, equally distributed), Yuya (18 posts equally distributed during the month), Lelé Pons (15 irregular posts), Bethany Mota exhibited the lowest amount of activity with just two posts during the entire month of February.
In the total number of reactions, which goes beyond the “likes” and includes all kind of shared content, we noticed that among the Latin American fashion instagrammers, Lelé Pons stands out among the others with an average of 177,000 comments and 33.7 million reactions (higher numbers compared to her peers’). The accounts getting nearer this position are: Mariale Marrero (723,000 comments and 4.2 million reactions) and Yuya (31,000 comments and 11.6 million reactions). However, it is important to mention that Camila Coelho achieves around 5.3 million reactions, which positions her as reference in the region.
3.2. Engagement of fashion instagrammers in Spain
As for the case of the Spanish instagrammers, there are significantly lower rates compared to the Latin American ones. In February 2018 (Table 7), the engagement achieved (except for one account) did not exhibit major differences. Aida Domènech (Dulceida) is positioned as the fashion instagrammer with the greatest engagement (15%), followed by María Pombo (12%) and Rocío Osorno (10%). The remaining two, Paula Gonu and Mónica Morán, obtained 8.2% and 0.5%. Regarding followers, Aida Domènech and Paula Gonu lead with 2.2 and 1.7 millions, respectively; the amount of followers the other instagrammers accumulate during this period ranges from 603,000 to 622,000 followers.
Table 7. Engagement and interaction in February 2018.
Source: Fan Page Karma.
The interaction of the accounts shows that Paula Ganu and María Pombo obtained the highest percentages, with 15% and 8.9% of interaction. From here on, the other instagrammers range from a minimum of 1.1% and a maximum of 6.9%. The weekly evolution and the performance index of the different accounts indicate that the instagrammers maintaining their accounts are Rocío Osorno (79%), despite not accumulating the largest number of followers; and María Pombo (51%). The other accounts, although the percentages are not minimal, decrease to rates from 18% to 38% of performance.
Now, and particularly the “likes” that each instagrammer accumulates, the dominance of Aida Domènech over other accounts is noticeable, with 9.2 million “likes”. The following four instagrammers range from 1.3 million to 3.7 million “likes”. Aida Domènech was the instagrammer who posted the greatest number of posts during the time of study (64 posts, more than two per day), followed by Roció Osorno (42 posts, more than one post per day) and María Pombo (37 posts, more than one per day). The other instagrammers have less than 15 posts, meaning a poor continuity in the content presented to their community.
In line with the “likes”, there is a similar tendency in the total number of comments and reactions accumulated by each instagrammer. Aida Domènech leads the group with 9.2 million reactions and an estimate of 42,000 comments, establishing a notable gap with the other accounts, followed by Paula Gonu (58,000 comments and 3.8 million reactions), María Pombo (57,000 comments and 2.3 million reactions), Rocío Osorno (207,000 comments and 1.6 million reactions) and Mónica Morán (27,000 comments and 1.3 million reactions).
Table 8. Engagement and interaction in February 2019.
Source: Fan Page Karma.
Some changes occurred for the Spanish fashion instagrammers in 2019 (Table 8). Three of them increased their engagement levels: Paula Gonu reached 13%, Rocío Osorno 11% and Mónica Morán 2.5%; while Aida Domènech decreased to 7.4% and María Pombo remained the same. As it has been a tendency among the fashion instagrammers, the number of followers increased from one year to the next, having the first places Aida Domènech (2.2 million followers), Paula Gonu (1.9 million) and Mónica Morán, which had one of the most significant increases, reaching 1.2 million followers. María Pombo and Rocío Osorno had 950,000 and 996,000 each.
Regarding interaction, during the month of analysis we found a reduction in three of them: Aida Domènech with 5.3%, Paula Gonu with 13% and María Pombo with 7.8%. However, the instagrammer, Mónica Morán, increased her interaction level to 16% and Rocío Osorno minimally increased her rates to 8.7%. In the weekly evolution and in the final compilation of the performance indexes of the accounts, the majority of them decreased. It is important to point out the performance achieved by María Pombo (36%) and Rocío Osorno (43%), who exceeded their 2018 rates on the overall effectiveness.
The “likes” obtained by the fashion instagrammers increased during 2019 in almost all cases, ranging from the minimum of 2.2 million and the maximum of 5.1 million. Only the instagrammer Aida Domènech (despite of her having the highest number of followers), experienced a decrease in the “likes” on her posts, obtaining 4.6 million, practically half compared to 2018. In this group, the three accounts with the greatest number of posts correspond to María Pombo (43 posts, more than one per day), Aida Domènech (39 posts, more than one per day) and Rocío Osorno (34 posts, generally one per day). Paula Gonu and Mónica Morán are the instagrammers posting the least during the whole month, with 28 and 10 posts.
With the comments, and, particularly the reactions, we can see how all the instagrammers increased their rates, except for Aida Domènech who went from 9.2 million reactions in 2018, to 4.7 million in 2019. The accounts standing out among the rest are Paula Gonu (70,000 comments and 5.2 million reactions), María Pombo (17,000 comments and 3.3 million reactions) and, finally, Mónica Morán and Rocío Osorno with 2 and 2.8 million reactions each.
Table 9. Engagement and interaction in February 2020.
Source: Fan Page Karma.
In February 2020 (table 9), the engagement of almost all the instagrammers showed a significant decrease, with percentages ranging from 2.6% to 7.2%, being Mónica Morán the only one who slightly increased her levels of engagement (2.9%). As for the number of followers, all of them increased their rates and surpassed the million fans: Aida Domènech and Paula Gonu lead with 2.8 and 2 million, respectively, while the others are in average between 1.2 to 1.5 million.
Similarly, almost all the instagrammers decreased their interaction levels on their posts, reflecting a margin from the minimum 5.3% (of Aida Domènech), to the maximum 16% (Mónica Morán). The other accounts ranged from 7.8% to 13% of interaction (data below to what was shown in the previous year). The interaction deficiencies also caused the rates of weekly evolution and performance to decrease as well, consolidating Aida Domènech (30%) in the highest position and Mónica Móran (12%) in the lowest one. The three remaining instagrammers exhibited similar figures raging from 14% to 17%.
Regarding the “likes” in 2020, the amount decreased for all the cases. Despite this, the instagrammers who managed to stand out were Aida Domènech with 4 million “likes” and María Pombo with 2.9 million. For the rest, the number ranged from 1.2 to 1.4 million. We noticed that these results maintain a connection with the number of posts made during the period of time studied, positioning Aida Domènech (40 posts, more than one per day), María Pombo (35 posts, in some cases having more than one per day) and Rocío Osorno (24 posts, one per day with irregularity) in the first places; Paula Gonu and Mónica Morán posted only nine and five posts during the month, respectively.
At this point, and although the number of comments increases in some cases, the total number of reactions decreased, indicating a lower rate of content being shared or transferred to the Instagram stories. Aida Domènech (13,000 comments and 4 million reactions) and María Pombo (83,000 comments and 2.9 million reactions) lead this ranking, while the other instagrammers reached similar rates from 1.3 to 1.7 million reactions.
3.3. Global ranking: comparative of fashion instagrammers in Latin America and Spain.
Based on the geographical analysis, we present a comparison of the variables that describe the engagement of the fashion female Instagram accounts in Latin America and Spain hereunder. In Figure 1, and regarding the engagement percentage criteria (interaction with the posts, weekly evolution and performance index), a predominance of the Spanish accounts is observed. Even if the variation is minimal, they exhibit a similar tendency in both cases.
Source: own elaboration.
Figure 1. Comparison of percentage variables in Latin America and Spain.
Different panoramas are observed in an evolutionary manner for each case. For example, in both Latin America and Spain the engagement provided by the platform decreases, as well as the performance or the interactions in the posts, reflecting a constant trajectory, but slightly negative. Regarding the variables corresponding to numerical aspects such as followers, “likes”, posts, posts per day, comments, and reactions, Latin America domains with an irregular tendency (Figure 2). These annual fluctuations describe a trajectory that, although it might be influenced by political and social events, differs in both territories. For example, the number of comments in Latin America decreased in 2019, while they increased in Spain. In fact, it is particularly interesting to point out that the number of followers decreased substantially during 2020 for the Spanish sample, in accordance with factors such as the number of “likes”, posts and reactions.
Source: own elaboration.
Figure 2. Comparison of numerical variables in Latin America and Spain.
At a global scale, and taking into account the classifications provided by SocialBlade, we observed that the Latin American instagrammer Lelé Pons holds the first place, being in the 63th position of the global followers ranking (Table 10). The most disadvantaged position corresponds to Bethany Mota, being in the 2,075th position. On another note, the positioning regarding followed accounts is not comparable, since outstanding accounts like the ones in the sample characterized by a high level of interactions and engagement do not follow a significant number of users.
Table 10. Global Ranking: Latin American instagrammers.
Source: SocialBlade.
Regarding the engagement level at a global scale, Lelé Pons stands out once more with 3.6, Yuya with 4.1 and Mariale Marrero with 5.2. The least favored positions are held by Bethany Mota and Camila Coelho. Although their digital media ranking, as well as their engagement, place them in a lower position in the global ranking, it is important to note that almost all the instagrammers obtain the “A” classification, except for Mariale Marrero (A-). This makes them digital reference models.
Table 11. Global Ranking: Spanish instagrammers.
Source: SocialBlade.
In the case of Spain, values that differ in terms of global positioning are shown (Table 11). The instagrammer Aida Domènech (Dulceida) obtains the best position in the 4,475th place, followed by Paula Gonu (7,475th place). The rest is beyond the 9,000th position. As it is noted and regarding the accounts followed by the Spanish instagrammers, the positions are reduced since, as well as in Latin America, there is a significant difference between the number of followers and the number of accounts being followed, that for most cases is low.
In terms of engagement, Monica Morán takes the lead (555 millions). Followed by three instagrammers holding close positions, Rocío Osorno (1.8), María Pombo (2.4) and Paula Gonu (2.5). Even if Aida Domènech is the instagrammer with the highest number of followers, she has a low engagement level compared to her peers. The classification of this sample shows an inferior level in relation to the Latin American instagrammers, since most of them received the “B+” classification, which indicates the necessity of improving several parameters (interaction and communication strategies) to enhance engagement. In this sense, Aida Domènech is the only Spanish instagrammer achieving “A-”.
In sum, the global presence of the Spanish-speaking instagrammers is essentially projected in the Latin American figure, in which the variables related to engagement and interaction reveal an emergent communication phenomenon of high recognition and influence among fashion lovers.
4. Conclusions
The Latin American and Spanish instagrammers exhibited dissimilar levels of engagement with similar annual tendencies, prevailing for almost all the cases in the fashion industry the Latin American profile. However, from 2018 to 2020, we observed a significant decrease in the evaluated indexes, as a result of a reduction in the interaction with their audiences. Nevertheless, the ten analyzed Spanish-speaking instagrammers increased their communities, improving the number of (inactive) followers year after year. That is, the digital audience of these instagrammers is not prone to giving “likes”, sharing or commenting regularly.
Similarly, there is a direct connection between the number of posts, the content generated by the instagrammers and the number of “likes” they obtain. The frequency with which the posts are exposed represents a key aspect to arouse the interest of users and incite them to take different actions on these social sites. Although a reduction of these variables has been observed over three years for all the cases. That way, we verified the inexistence of a generalized tendency that demonstrates, through a case of study, that the fashion instagrammers with the greatest amount of followers are the ones with the best engagement levels registered. Although these parameters have a connection on some accounts, for others, the engagement index is not determined by the positioning in a global ranking.
The rate of comments on the instagrammers posts is representative. We observed decreases in the yearly comparisons, by which the participation of users exhibited changes, generally caused by the content being posted and the topic under discussion. In this case, it is proven that every fashion instagrammer has a strategy to retain an audience and attract new followers, which is grounded in a certain number of weekly posts or a material that generates massive reactions.
With the data obtained, a better digital management in the hands of the Latin American fashion instagrammers is notable by the movement generated on Instagram. Their interaction, evolution rates, and mainly, the reactions achieved with their publications stand out, together with an optimum classification in an environment with significant levels of competitiveness. That way, the fashion industry is one of the fields with the greatest degrees of influence on the Instagram community, and even with varied levels, they accumulate a relevant level of feedback for this platform.
On another note, and even if the level of global interactions and classifications are notable for the Latin American and Spanish cases, the decreasing tendency of the different variables needs a detailed study that describes, at the expense of the studies which highlighted the relevance of the female fashion industry on Instagram (McFarlane and Samsioe, 2020; Schöps et al., 2019; Skjulstad, 2018; Caldeira, 2018), the reason why the level of interactions decreases in these environments. Among them, the engagement level and the global performance of the account. Basing on the fact that these accounts gain influence through their followers and the value of self-branding on the platform, as stated by Castillo and Palma (2017), a hypothesis is proposed for future investigation lines. These results require evaluating whether the annual decreasing of engagement is proportionally linked to the increase of the instagrammer influence. That is, if the strategic self-promotion efforts are aimed exclusively at the Instagram community or, over time, at other media and platforms due to the level of fame archived. A fact that contradicts the premise of Díaz (2017) by which, the greater visibility, the greater the configuration of the content in order to increase interaction (and attraction) with the community of current and potential followers.
Therefore, in spite of the limitation of the sample, this study introduces a preamble to the analysis of the correlations between the engagements of the Spanish-speaking instagrammers regarding followers-visibility and visibility-interaction. Likewise, it proposes an evaluation model of an emergent phenomenon that reconfigures the social influence relations with regards to the fashion instagrammers, suitable for other contexts that reaffirm the resulting information and that delve into the tendencies among geographical regions and thematic areas.
References
Authors
Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion
Doctoral Candidate in the Communication Inter-University PhD at the Universities of Cádiz, Huelva, Malaga and Sevilla, in the line of Media Education and Media Literacy. She has an Inter-University Master’s Degree in Communication and Audiovisual Education from the Andalusian International University and The University of Huelva. She has a Degree in Social Communication from the Loja Particular Technical University (Ecuador) and a Degree in Education Sciences with English Language mention by the National University of Loja (Ecuador). She is a translator for the blog of the School of Authors of the Scientific Magazine “Comunicar”. She is a lecturer at the National University of Loja, has been granted a fellowship by the Post-Graduate Ibero-American University Association (AUIP) and by the Andalusian International University.
erika.gonzalez@unl.edu.ec
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3808-5460
Google Académico: https://tinyurl.com/yysrd76j
Ignacio Aguaded
University Lecturer at the Education Department of the Huelva University (Spain). He is president of the “Comunicar” group, veteran collective in Spain in Media Communication and Chief Editor of the recognized scientific magazine “Comunicar” (indexed in JCR-Q1, world top 4% 2019, Scopus-Q1, world top 1% …). He is also Director of the Research Group “Ágora”, responsible of multiple national and international researches and of directing numerous doctoral theses. He is Director of the Communication and Audiovisual Education International Inter-University Master’s Degree (UNIA/UHU) and Director of the Communication Inter-University Program (US, UMA, UCA y UHU). Awarded as Best Researcher of the Huelva University, 2015 in Social Sciences. He was Vice-Rector of Technologies, Innovation and Quality of the Huelva University for six years (2005-2012). Postal Address: Huelva University, Faculty of Education Sciences. 21071 Huelva (Spain). Institutional web: www.uhu.es/ago
aguaded@uhu.es
Índice H: 60.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0229-1118
Google Académico: https://tinyurl.com/yx9ql4tc