Keeping Up with the Kardashians on Instagram: Celebrity Practice on Social Media

Abstract

This study analyzed celebrity practices on Instagram, a mobile content social network. Visual and textual content analysis was applied as method to examine the behaviors and strategies that reality TV superstars Kourtney, Kim and Khloé Kardashians use on Instagram. This research study looked at how Instagram creates opportunities for celebrities to interact with fans and helps to maintain and expand their celebrity brands. Analysis revealed Intimacy and Self-Brand Promotion as the most used practice of the Kardashians. The study also demonstrated high amounts of endorsements and promotion practices embedded along with the personal photos. These findings suggest that parasocial interaction plays a key role in the Kardashians’ Instagram use. Moreover, this study implies that the Kardashians appropriate Instagram as an advertising platform, while rewarding their fans with an illusion of backstage access.