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Running Head: FASHION BLOGGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA Johnson 1

Fashion Blogging: Instant Access to a Personal Shopper

Riley C. Johnson

Spring Hill College

CMM 335.1: Communication Research

Dr. Sharee Broussard

November 18, 2016


Abstract

This pilot study was conducted in order to determine how fashion bloggers create

a profitable career by connecting with followers through social media. As the the fashion

world’s presence on the internet is rapidly expanding, fashion bloggers have the power to

become a personal shopper. Social media allows consumers to build relationships with

fashion bloggers as they trust them for fashion inspiration.

Surveys were distributed to 100 people including students of Spring Hill College,

employees at Mobile Ballet and Facebook friends. Once the data was collected, the

information was input into the SPSS Statistics software. Tests including Frequency,

Descriptive Statistics, Crosstabs and Chronbach’s Alpha were run on the collected data.

The majority of the tests run yielded results that supported the hypothesis.


Introduction

Millions of people are engaging with fashion brands on the Internet in today’s

society. For example, 16.2 million people follow Chanel on Instagram, and that is simply

one brand. Fashion retailers utilize social media in order to build an audience, which

ultimately results in greater engagement. “The 21st century is witnessing an explosion of

Internet-based messages transmitted through these media,” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p.

358). One of social media’s most prevalent areas of promotion is fashion blogging.

Fashion bloggers are a secondary channel through which consumers can view and

purchase clothing. Following the launch of the first fashion blog, nogoodforme, in 2003,

“the fashion blogosphere has asserted itself as a key space for the production and

circulation of fashion discourse.” (Rocamora, 2009, p.409) Not only do the consumers

benefit from the advice of a fashion blogger, the fashion blogger receives benefits from

the brands which he or she promotes. Some fashion bloggers have become successful

enough that blogging turns into a full-time job. Consumers become intrigued with fashion

bloggers as they make it easier for consumers to decide where to shop and what to buy.

Fashion bloggers use consumer engagement in order to increase followers. Similar to

social media, fashion trends are “adapted throughout their lifestyle to fit in better with the

users’ norms, values, and preferences,” (Wolny & Mueller, 2013, p.563).

Social media and fashion trends are changing rapidly. Consumers are able to do

almost anything, anywhere, anytime. “Consumers are winning control through the

function on Internet-enabled mobile devices that facilitate product search and research,

purchase and payment, and connections to social media,” (Niemeier, Stefan, Zocchi,

Andrea, Catena & Marco, 2013, p.95). Advancements in technology have made it


convenient for consumers to not only search for and follow brands whenever they like,

but also purchase items with a few simple clicks on their phones. There are many factors

that cause fashion bloggers to gain a large following in the rapidly changing world of

fashion and technology. The purpose of this pilot study is to explore Public Relations in

the fashion industry from the perspective of fashion blogging and social media. It will be

examined through the lens of the Theory of Reasoned Action to determine answers to

theresearch question: How do fashion bloggers gain a following on social media that

leads to a profitable career?

Literature Review

In a society centered around social media, the rapidly changing and developing

world of technology has become a constant. “Social media encompasses a wide range of

online, word-of-mouth forums including blogs, company sponsored discussion boards

and chat rooms, consumer-to-consumer e-mail, consumer product or service ratings

websites and forums, Internet discussion boards and forums, moblogs (sites containing

digital audio, images, movies, or photographs), and social networking websites, to name

a few,” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p.358). In today’s fast paced culture, social media is

the ideal form of communicating, receiving news, making purchases and more. Blogging,

a rapidly developing social media platform, has evolved into a media vehicle that

conforms to a consumer’s preferences. “Weblogs, or ‘blogs,’are frequently updated

websites where content (text, pictures, sound files, etc.) is posted on a regular basis and

displayed in reverse chronological order” (Schmidt, 2007, p.1). Blogs originated as a way

for people to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas. “If you want a pure definition of a

blog, you should probably select the one that makes the most sense, or make up your


own, because just what a blog is, or what a blog should be, is often a bone of contention”

(Banks, 2008, p. xix). Bloggers share thoughts on a variety of topics in a variety of ways.

“Blogging is one of the most increasingly popular social media, where people are

engaged through being part of a conversation,” (Thevenot, 2007, p.287). Bloggers

establish personal relationships with consumers by sharing their thoughts and engaging

interest. As the blog audience grows, the blogger becomes a famous figure to the readers.

Two worlds are colliding as fashion lovers are using blogs to express their style

and inspire others. “A fashion blog is a blog about fashion, but the term is generally used

to refer to ‘personal style blogs,’ in which people post photographs of themselves posing

in different outfits” (Marwick, 2013, p.1). Fashion bloggers use blogs as a channel to

share fashion advice and to show their followers the brands they are wearing. “Fashion

bloggers and their readers often consider blogs to be more authentic, individualistic, and

independent than the traditional fashion media” (Marwick, 2013, p.1). There is no

application or audition process for a fashion blogger. All it takes is creating an account on

a blog site with no promotional rules and regulations. “Subsets of fashion bloggers, such

as fat empowerment fashion bloggers and modest fashion bloggers, trade information,

post pictures, and create visual and consumerist landscapes for populations ignored by

Vogue or Style.com. This rhetoric holds that fashion blogging opens up spaces for

‘democratic’ engagement with clothing and fashion in a way antithetical to the rigorously

patrolled fashion world” (Marwick, 2013, p.1). Entrepreneurial people without

opportunity to be featured in a popular magazine, have the power to become equally as

successful by simply expressing themselves and attracting an audience through a blog.


Many fashion bloggers have become highly successful. It appears as if the passion

these bloggers posses turns into a vast amount of followers and a constantly increasing

profit. One of the world’s most famous fashion bloggers, Chiara Ferragni, now has over 6

million followers on Instagram and has been featured on the cover of Vogue. After years

of posting photographs of herself in different outfits, one morning she “posted a photo of

her airport look on Instagram half an hour earlier and was reassured to discover that it

already received tens of thousands of ‘likes’ from her followers” (Keinan, Maslauskaite,

Crener, & Dessain, 2015, p.1). Inspired by other successful fashion bloggers, Ferragni

began her blog, The Blonde Salad, by creating a blog post every morning, which became

a part of her readers’ daily routine. “After just one month of blogging, The Blonde

Salad’s readership had grown to 30,000 daily visits” (Keinan, Maslauskaite, Crener, &

Dessain, 2015, p.3). Ferragni’s celebrity status continued to heighten and by 2014, she

was commanding fees ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 for participating in or hosting

events (Keinan, Maslauskaite, Crener, & Dessain, 2015, p.6). This is an extreme case of a

famous fashion blogger, but ultimately the goal of each blogger..

As the blogging world expands, so does the popularity of the bloggers themselves.

The goal is for consumers to become enamored with the bloggers from whom they seek

fashion advice. “Authenticity came up frequently in interviews, whether as something

bloggers strived for in their own blogging, as something that differentiates a ‘good’

fashion blog from a ‘bad’ one, or as a quality that distinguishes fashion blogs from

mainstream fashion media like magazines” (Marwick, 2013, p.4). Through online

engagement, readers feel a connection with the blogger, more so than they do while

reading a magazine article. “While some bloggers considered their blog to be a small


business with a potential for revenue generation, many pointed out that an authentic

blogger should not be too concerned with self-promotion” (Marwick, 2013, p.6). The

authenticity works in favor of fashion bloggers, giving them a brand that is attractive

because it is personable. “A personal brand can position you as being a part of a hot

business methodology or technology,” (Montoya, 2002, p.24). Fashion bloggers become

their own business. They are their own bosses, they select the content and they attract the

audience. The blogger becomes the brand of the blog, not necessarily the fashion.

Consumers have complete control of whom they follow. Fashion bloggers become a

version of a personal shopper as people look to them for recommendations on what to

buy. Once the personal brand is built, consumers place trust in the blogger. “An authentic

fashion blogger provides personal information about herself to create intimacies between

her and her readers, but also to provide a perspective or context for her opinions. Fashion

bloggers engaged with brands in a wide variety of ways, from writing critical reviews of

beauty products to gushing over runway collections, but it was presumed that their

authentic opinions would not and should not be tarnished by advertisers” (Marwick,

2013, p.7). Consumers place trust in fashion bloggers as they take the bloggers’ advice

and purchase the suggested clothing. Blog sites are a free means of style inspiration, as

opposed to the common alternative of paying for a magazine subscription.

Fashion bloggers also use social media accounts such as Instagram and Snapchat

to connect with their audience. According to Ad Week, as of September 2016, Instagram

has more than half a million advertisers, which is up dramatically from 200,000 in

February. (Heine, 2016) As bloggers’ fans follow the blogger’s Instagram account, they

are in the perfect location for not only seeing what the blogger is wearing, but followers

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/instagram-has-over-200000-advertisers-just-5-months-after-opening-spigot-169849

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/instagram-has-over-200000-advertisers-just-5-months-after-opening-spigot-169849


are now able to click on photos, tags and links to the brand’s Instagram page. Consumers

are in total control of who they choose to follow on Instagram, so it is important for the

bloggers to be constantly aware of the audience’s reactions. Posting attractive and

relatable photos can grasp an Instagram user’s attention quickly. For example, Starbucks

recently began posting pictures of their featured Fall drinks on their social media

accounts. “On Instagram, there have been more than 731,000 posts tagged with

#pumpkin related to the drink and another 468,000 are labeled with #PSL. Moreover,

Starbucks' pumpkin spice lattes receive 493 percent more likes per photo than shots

tagged with #Starbucks” (Johnson, 2016). Following Starbucks’ example, in order for a

fashion blogger to gain immediate “likes” and “follows” it is important that the blogger

post eye-catching photos with unique hashtags daily.

This study is being examined through the Theory of Reasoned Action. “An

underlying premise of the Theory of Reasoned Action is that the most important

determinant of behavior is behavioral intention” (Glanz, Rimer & Viswanath, 2015, p.

97). The behavioral intention of a fashion blogger is to post things with the goal of

gaining a positive responses from viewers. The behavioral intention of the fashion blog

reader is to follow and support fashion bloggers with an expectation of advice and

inspiration in return. “A fundamental assumption of the TRA is that individuals are

rational actors who process information, and that underlying reasons determine their

motivation to perform a behavior” (Montano & Kasprzyk, 2015, p.103). If a blogger’s

main goal is to become a celebrity, the blogger will post things solely with the intentions

of becoming famous. If the reader’s intention is to gain something by following a

blogger, the reader will only follow those that fit his or her specific interests.


Methodology

There were 100 people surveyed in this pilot study. The survey respondents

included students at Spring Hill College, employees at Mobile Ballet, and Facebook

friends. Paper surveys were distributed and a Google Form was shared on Facebook

through convenience sampling. Several people shared the Facebook link. Surveys were

distributed in these different areas in order to reach a wide age range. Each respondent

was asked to respond to the survey and return paper copies to the researcher or electronic

copies to Google Forms.

The majority of questions asked on the survey focused on relationships between

fashion bloggers and respondents. The questions included topics such as actively

following a blog, actively “liking,” “sharing” or “commenting” on a blogger’s social

media account, and purchasing a product based off of a blogger’s recommendation. These

questions are Q1, Q3, Q7, Q8, Q9, Q10, Q11, and Q12. Q1, Q2 and Q4 determined how

many respondents are avid social media users in general. All of these questions were

asked on a five point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Not

applicable was also included as a response option.

The remaining questions focused on respondent demographics. Q13 determined

the age of respondents and ordinal categories were presented. Q14 determined gender of

respondents and was presented nominally. Q15 determined social media preference and

was presented nominally. Q16 determined blog site preference and was presented


nominally. Q17 determined how many social media accounts respondents have and was

presented nominally.

Data Analysis

The data in this research was collected through convenience sampling. The data

cannot be applied to a population. Survey participants were a majority age 46 or older,

being a total of 45% of the questionnaire participants. The second largest group of

respondents were ages 18-25, being a total of 32% of the questionnaire participants.

Other age categories included ages 36-45, totalling 15% and ages 26-35, totalling 8%.

The majority of survey participants were female, being a total of 93%. Only 7% of survey

participants were male. Facebook was preferred by 68% of the respondents, with

Instagram following with 28%, Twitter with 1%, and Other with 3%. Survey participants

preferred Wordpress, being a total of 39%. Only 10% of respondents preferred Blogger

and 8% preferred Weebly. Another blog site other than the ones listed on the survey was

preferred at a total of 36%. This question concerning blog site preference was not

answered by 7% of the respondents. Most respondents have 2 to 3 social media accounts

registering 58% of the participants.

Many of the questions asked in this survey had a variety of responses. As far as

“liking,” “sharing” and “commenting” on social media in general, 85% of respondents

agreed and strongly agreed that they are active in this manner. When it comes to checking

preferred social media accounts, 73% of respondents agreed and strongly agreed that they

check the accounts more than five times a day. The majority of respondents agreed and

strongly agreed that online shopping is more convenient than shopping in store, being a


total of 72% of the respondents. Respondents did not agree as much with the questions

that asked about fashion blogging specifically. As far as discovering new retailers

through a blogger, 32% of respondents agreed and 22% of respondents disagreed. Only

29% of respondents agreed and strongly agreed that they actively follow at least one

fashion blog, while 37% disagreed and strongly disagreed. There was no significant

difference in the amount of respondents who have purchased a product based off of a

fashion blog and those who have not. Respondents answered with 38% agreeing and

strongly agreeing and 37% disagreeing and strongly disagreeing. Only 20% of

respondents reported that they have interacted with a blogger on social media, while 61%

of respondents disagreed and strongly disagreed.

The descriptive statistics showed that 12 out of 12 questions had a maximum

response of five (strongly agree) and 10 out of 12 had a minimum response of one

(strongly disagree). One question, regarding “liking,” “sharing” and “commenting” on

social media had a minimum response of two (disagree). Another question, regarding

“liking,” “sharing” and “commenting” on bloggers’ social media accounts had a

minimum of zero (n/a). The mean for the majority of the questions was between a high

two and a high three. This means that the average respondent disagreed or was neutral

towards a question. The standard deviation for 10 out of 12 questions ranged between

1.035 and 1.230. The respondents answers to the surveys were fairly consistent

throughout.

Crosstabs were run using respondents who “like,” “share,” or “comment” on

social media, respondents who make purchases based off fashion blogs, respondents who

follow bloggers’ social media accounts, the amount of times respondents check their


preferred social media accounts, age, and the respondents’ number of social media

accounts. Chi-Square tests proved that six out of the nine crosstabs that were run were

related. Five of the crosstabs resulted in a .000 Pearson Chi-Square and one of them

resulted in a .025 Pearson Chi-Square.

Finally, Cronbach’s Alphas were run on eight questions (Q1, Q3, Q7, Q8, Q9,

Q10, Q11, and Q12) in order to determine the similarity between them. The Cronbach’s

Alpha resulted in .840, which proved that the questions tested were related.

Results

After convenience sampling and research, results gave the researcher an

explanation for the hypothesis: If a fashion blogger is perceived to have a relationship

with both brands and followers, the fashion blogger can create a profitable, full-time

career. The data was analyzed through frequencies, alpha coefficients and crosstabs. Data

analysis showed that people who check their social media accounts more than five times

a day are more likely to make purchases based off of a fashion blog. The majority of

respondents were neutral in regards to actively following a fashion blog, but it appears

that people who are engaged with a fashion blog, tend to discover new retailers and make

purchases. People who “like,” “share” and “comment” often on social media are often the

ones who make purchases because they are constantly engaged with social media. It

seems as the majority of respondents believe that online shopping is the most convenient,

while a few disagreed. Overall, people are more involved on social media than they are

on blogsites.

The aspect of my hypothesis that was not fully supported by the results was the

interaction with bloggers on social media. Few respondents have interacted with a


blogger on social media. A factor that may have affected this was that the majority of

respondents were ages 46+. If the majority of the respondents had been from a younger

demographic, it is possible that the results would have shown more interaction between

respondents and bloggers.

The age, gender and social media preference of respondents was fairly consistent.

The majority of respondents who are active on social media were females, age 46 or over,

and their social media preference was Facebook. The majority of respondents had two to

three social media accounts, so it appears as if this amount is the most manageable for

people.

Conclusion

The hypothesis in this pilot study was supported. It can be gathered from the data

analysis and results that many of the respondents supported the hypothesis. It seems as

though the dominant age category played a role in the amount of respondents who were

engaged in the world of fashion blogging. The majority of respondents did not seem to be

engaged with fashion bloggers, but the hypothesis was still supported by the demographic

that is engaged with fashion bloggers, even though it was a smaller amount. The data

supported that the more interaction people have with fashion bloggers, the more likely

they are to purchase items based off of the bloggers’ recommendations.

If this study is conducted again, the researcher should distribute more surveys

amongst college students, rather than the majority of respondents coming from an older

demographic on Facebook. By sharing the survey on Facebook, the researcher lost

control over exactly who responded. Because of this, the majority of respondents came

from a generation that is not engaged in Instagram and fashion blogs. Overall, the


hypothesis was supported and the pilot study was successful. As technology progresses in

today’s society, it is possible that more people will become engaged in the online world

and the statistics of people’s attachment to fashion blogs will be higher.

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