Self-branding on social media: A comparative analysis of social media influencers between China and the West

社交媒体的普及催生了社交媒体影响者（SMI）这一概念。中小企业有能力影响社会、经济和文化（Abiden, 2018）。大多数关于smi的研究都集中在西方(例如。页,2012;Khamis, Ang, & Welling, 2016)，但影响力依赖并反映社会价值观。中国和它的社交媒体在全球越来越重要，了解中国的网红如何自我塑造品牌，以及与西方的比较是至关重要的。本研究填补了这一空白，利用自我品牌、真实性和后女权主义的概念来了解时尚和生活方式的smi，他们的在线品牌活动反映了“后女权主义自我品牌”（Barnet-Weiser, 2012）如何在不同的社会文化背景下发挥作用。我将分析和比较他们在两个主要的视觉社交媒体平台上的帖子：1)西方网红广泛使用的Instagram；2)小红书，中国一个类似的社交媒体平台。一种新颖的混合方法，包括内容分析、平台分析和访谈，将用于研究时尚和生活方式SMIs的自我品牌实践，并调查数字媒体与日常生活之间的关系。

The popularisation of social media has given rise to thefigure of the social media influencer (SMI). SMIs have thepower to influence societies, economies, and cultures(Abiden, 2018). Most research on SMIs focuses on the West(e.g. Page, 2012; Khamis, Ang, & Welling, 2016), yetinfluence relies on and reflects social values. China and itssocial media are increasingly important globally, sounderstanding how influencers self-brand in China and howthis compares with the West is essential. This study fillsthis gap, utilising the concepts of self-branding,authenticity and postfeminism to understand how fashionand lifestyle SMIs whose online branding activities reflect"the post-feminist self-brand" (Barnet-Weiser, 2012) workacross different socio-cultural contexts. I will analyse andcompare their posts on two major visual social mediaplatforms: 1) Instagram which is widely used by Westerninfluencers; 2) Xiaohongshu, a comparable social mediaplatform in China. A novel mixed methodology includingcontent analysis, platform analysis, together withinterviews will be used to study fashion and lifestyle SMIs'self-branding practice and investigate the relationshipbetween digital media and everyday life.