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Why we follow influencers: the role of Asian female fashionistas in Los Angeles

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Why we follow influencers: the role of Asian female fashionistas in Los Angeles

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Why We Follow Influencers:
The Role of Asian Female Fashionistas in Los Angeles

by
Vivien Li

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND
JOURNALISM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS

May 2020

ii
Table of Contents
List of Figures…..………………………………………………………………..………………iii

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………..iv

Glossary of Terms………………………...…………………………………………………….....v

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….1
What is an Influencer? ………………………………………………………………..…..3

Defining the Industry……………………………………….……………………………………..6
Audience………………………………………………………………………………......6
KOLs: Who Are They and How Do They Compare? …………………………………....8

A Niche Market: Asian Female Fashion Influencers in LA……………………………………..15

Audience Analysis……………………………………………………………………………….21
Sentiment vs. Follower Count…………………………………………………………....21
Popularity vs. Influence………………………………………………………………….24
Asians: Demographic or Community? …………………………………………………..27

Representation………………………………………………………………………………...….29
When Choosing Who to Follow: How Important Is Race? ……………………………..29
Celebrities as Influencers………………………………………………………………...34
Asian Spending Power…………………………………………………………………...36

Location………………………………………………………………………………………….37
Asians in LA……………………………………………………………………………..37
KOLs: Why LA? ………………………………………………………………………...40
Brands Evolving in LA…………………………………………………………………..42

Measuring Impact………………………………………………………………………………..44
Using Data……………………………………………………………………………….44
KPIs: What Metrics Should We Really be Using? ……………………………..……….50

The Future and Beyond…………………………………………………………………………..52
Industry Growth and Relevance………………………………………………………….52
For Future Influencers in This Market…………………………………………………...57

Bibliography…..…………………………………………………………………………………58

Appendices.....................................................................................................................................61
Appendix A: Focus Group.….......………………………………………………………61
Appendix B: Interviews.……………...…………………………………………………63

iii
List of Figures

Figure 1: Sylvia Jade, Instagram………………………………………………...……………..….2
Figure 2: Estimated Influencer Marketing Growth Chart…………………………………………5
Figure 3: How Influencers Differ From Other Social Media Users……………..………………..7
Figure 4: Results of KOL Marketing in China…………………………………..………………..9
Figure 5: Yifan Liu, Instagram…………………………………………………..………………10
Figure 6: Asian American Social Media Stars Have US Influence……………..……………….15
Figure 7: Sara Ameri, Instagram………………………………………………..………………..16
Figure 8: Christine Kong, Instagram………………………………………….…………………17
Figure 9: Ellenor Kim, Instagram…………………………………………….………………….18
Figure 10: Weylie Hoang, womn., Instagram………………………………….………………...19
Figure 11: Aimee Song, Instagram………………………………………………………………20
Figure 12: Crimson Hexagon Username Word Cloud………...…………………………………44
Figure 13: Crimson Hexagon Emotion Analysis………………………………………………...45
Figure 14: Crimson Hexagon Sentiment Analysis……………………………………………….46
Figure 15: Crimson Hexagon Hashtag Cloud………………………………………………..…..47
Figure 16: Crimson Hexagon Platform Source Breakdown……………………………………..48
Figure 17: Crimson Hexagon Topic Wheel……………………………………………………...49

iv
Abstract
As our economy continues to modernize, we are constantly learning to welcome new
developments in this digital age. One of the most groundbreaking discoveries to come out of this
era is the power of influence created by an individual. Influencers now hold the power to use
their social media and interpersonal branding skills to shift the way brands do their marketing.
What was once an innovative way for a blogger to make her or his passion a full-time career is
now a job that is so widely accepted that there are influencer marketing agencies that work
tirelessly to manage these creators and align them with appropriate campaign opportunities.
Among these influencers is a group that has an immense amount of impact in the fashion
industry. The niche I will be focusing on in this paper is Asian female fashion influencers that
currently reside in Los Angeles. The fashion world has always been one that thrives off of the
relations between designers, buyers, enthusiasts and most importantly, shoppers. Because
influencers build their success off of being “regular people,” these individuals are pushing the
boundaries of what consumers are capable of. Throughout this thesis, I will be using a focus
group, individual interviews and data analysis to question why these influencers’ audience
members choose to follow them. I will also be challenging what sets these creators apart from
one another and why learning about these specific influencers is crucial in the world of public
relations. It is critical for public relations professionals to stay current on different forms of
branding, both personal and commercial. Consequently, it is key for public relations
professionals to stay up-to-date on influencers that work and actually inspire their audience
members in this ever-changing world of media.

v
Throughout this paper, you will encounter familiar and new terms, some of which can be used in
a variety of ways, so I have provided a clear definition of how I'm using each word as follows:

Glossary of Terms
Asian Instagrammers – a term coined for content creators of Asian descent that typically use
Instagram as one of their primary sources of marketing

Celebrity – a very well-known person with a following of 5M+, who is usually an entertainer

Collaboration (Collab) – the action of working with someone to produce or create something

Community – a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in
common

Demographic – a particular sector of a population

Engagement – some form of interaction between the customer and the brand, that takes place on
social media (“What Is…Engagement”)

Ethnicity – the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common nationality,
ancestry, or cultural tradition

Fan base – a distinct social grouping that supports an individual

Follower count – the number of people who follow the account

Following – the group of people who follow the account

Growth – the process of increasing in size, or something that has gradually developed

Influence – the capacity to have an effect on the character, development or behavior of someone
or something, or the effect itself

Influencer – an individual who has a following in a particular niche, who has the power to affect
purchasing decisions of others because of their own knowledge, authority, interest or experience

Iphoneography – the act of taking professional looking photos with an iPhone

K-beauty – Korean inspired beauty and skincare products

KOL – a key opinion leader who has expert product knowledge or influence in a certain field

Lookbook – a collection of outfits worn by a model to showcase a clothing line or collection

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Macro-influencer – an influencer with 100,000 – 1 million followers; usually gained fame
through the internet itself (i.e. vlogging, funny content)

MCN – (Multi-Channel Networks) – an organization that works with video platforms to offer
assistance to a channel owner in areas such as "product, programming, funding, cross-promotion,
partner management, digital rights management, monetization/sales, and/or audience
development" in exchange for a percentage of the ad revenue from the channel

Mega-influencer – an influencer with over 1 million followers; often more famous than
influential and more distant with members of their following

Micro-influencer – an influencer with 1,000 – 100,000 followers; generally perceived as an
opinion leader or topic specialist, with stronger relationships than a macro influencer

Nano-influencer – an influencer with >1,000 followers; highest level of engagement

Popularity – the state or condition of being liked, admired or supported by many people

Qualitative – relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something rather than its
quantity

Quantitative – relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something rather than its
quality

Race – the physical characteristics of a person, referring to a person’s skin color, eye color, hair,
bone structure, etc.

Relevance – the quality or state of being closely connected or appropriate; the measure of
importance in a given thing

ROI – return on investment

Sentiment – a view or attitude towards a situation or event; an opinion

Social media influencer – an influencer who utilizes her or his large following(s) on their social
media channels to post about their chosen topic(s)

Social media stars – an individual whose fame is primarily attributed to an event or personal
element that is arguably non-influential on a day-to-day basis

Sponsorship – when a company pays to be associated with certain people or events

Success – the accomplishment of an aim or person

Youth market – a way to describe a group of young people, typically ages 13-35

1
Introduction

In 2011, I was thirteen. I was young, highly impressionable and I had just stopped letting
my mom pick my clothes for school. I was active on social media – back then it was Myspace
that was the most popular, but YouTube was my favorite platform. I was intrigued by the way
anyone could search practically whatever they wanted in the search bar and there would be some
kind of video related to what they wanted to watch. I still remember the video that popped up on
my explore page at the time. It was titled, “Lookbook: Spring 2011.” What’s a lookbook? The
thumbnail was a girl wearing several different outfits, edited with each outfit modeled on herself
side-by-side. A lookbook is loosely defined as a collection of outfits worn by a model to
showcase a clothing line. The entire video was only three minutes long, so I clicked on it.
While the lookbook was intended for the spring season, I was watching it in the fall. In
her description box, she mentioned that these were the clothing items that she had been wearing
recently, and predicted they would be on-trend in the spring, too. She also linked where to
purchase all of the items she had featured in the video, and categorized them by outfits numbered
1-10. Then she mentions that she was gifted a few pieces, but that she was not paid to make the
video and that all opinions were her own. The first outfit featured a white leather jacket, a black
knit infinity scarf, dark-washed jeans and tall black boots. Hey, I have an infinity scarf. I kept
watching. The next outfit presented an army green jacket that cinched at the waist. The girl
paired it with black lace leggings, a white long sleeve, a thin black jacket to layer underneath the
green one and camel booties. I had seen that jacket paired so many different ways that month,
both in school and online. Even to this day I’ve never forgotten that outfit, because that girl was
the first person I had come across that wore the green jacket in a similar way that I would. In that
instant, I was hooked. I finished the video, hit the subscribe button and clicked on her channel.

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Her name was Sylvia Jade. At the time, her channel was named “beautycakez,” and she
posted weekly videos revolving around beauty products, hair tutorials and lookbooks. Like me,
she was petite with long black hair and of Asian descent, so it was no surprise that I wanted to
look just like her. I re-watched that video several times, making sure to take note of which items
I already had in my closet and which ones I wanted, confirming that the pieces I craved were
both versatile and trendy. Ooh, I like that one. I even shared the video to a few of my friends, and
later that school year, I began throwing together outfits of my own. I had a lookbook that I
created for myself, and although I never shared it with anyone, it made me feel more confident
knowing that I was going to wear these stylish outfits to school the following season. If
beautycakez can do it, so can I. This was the first time I could remember being so heavily
inspired by an online persona.
In 2011, Sylvia had a few thousand subscribers and her videos would sometimes get tens
of thousands of views. Now, she has almost 200K subscribers on YouTube, and she has one
video that has been viewed by millions. She eventually quit her day job to work on making
videos full-time, and now Sylvia defines herself as a digital creator on Instagram (see fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Jade, Sylvia. “Hellosylviaa.” Hellosylviaa, 2020, www.instagram.com/hellosylviaa/.

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With 47.4K followers on Instagram, Sylvia is an ambassador for several well-known
brands such as The Body Shop. She has a following that consists mainly of Millennial Asian
women. Many of her fans and viewers have followed her throughout the years from when she
first began uploading YouTube videos. While she may not be the biggest fashion star of them all,
several people in the YouTube community coin her to be “one of the OG (original) fashion and
beauty Youtubers.” In today’s vernacular , Sylvia is an influencer.

What is an Influencer?
It seems that nowadays everyone knows what an influencer is, but the way the term is
defined from person-to-person varies. For this paper, we are defining an influencer as someone
who has a following in a particular niche, who has the power to affect purchasing decisions of
others because of their own knowledge or authority (“What Is an Influencer”). It’s important to
know that while influencers in their respective markets have always been around, social media
influencers really only came about in this past decade. Millennials (1981-1996) and Gen Xs
(1965-1980) may remember a time where their social media platforms were not consumed by
sponsored ads and posts, but Gen Zs (1997-2015) likely do not.
Social Media influencers use their various social media platforms to post about their
area of expertise. Like Sylvia, these individuals actively engage with their followers and
encourage them to be excited about their topic(s), so much so that brands that revolve around
those topics take notice. These types of influencers start out by promoting their own excitement
and enthusiasm for whatever market they’re in, but soon have a platform that is large enough for
them to be able to spread awareness on whatever they choose. Brands love social media
influencers because they have the ability to create trends and encourage their followers to spend
their money on products that they promote (“What Is an Influencer”). This is different from

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celebrity endorsements, which have been around for decades. Because social media influencers
gain their followings from being thought leaders in their niche market, they have a higher sense
of credibility than someone who is simply famous or wealthy.
That being said, there are also social media “stars” who have a large following without
being thought leaders in any market, and those individuals are known as social media
influencers, too. While Kylie Jenner is a celebrity, she is also the perfect example of this kind of
influencer. With a whopping 156 million followers, Kylie can post any product on her Instagram
and it will generate more conversation and exposure than if it were displayed in a traditional
television ad. Because of this, Kylie makes an estimated $1 million per sponsored post on her
Instagram, making her the highest paid celebrity influencer on the app (Mejia). What separates
Kylie’s endorsements from traditional celebrity endorsements is the fact that Kylie actively
engages in her social media, positions each platform to appeal to her followers and intentionally
uses these marketing skills to monetize her posts. She is frequently seen endorsing well-known
brands like Fashion Nova, Adidas and Puma on her Instagram. By positioning herself as one of
the trendsetters of her generation, Kylie is doing what so many influencers around the world are
doing in today’s digital age – making money off of social media.
In general, 33% of respondents in a study have said that influencers were their most
trusted source for shopping recommendations (Barker). The rise of influencer marketing has
absolutely dominated social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, but its evolution is
most apparent on Instagram. Instagram influencer marketing is now a $2 billion industry, with
options to create a profile solely for business purposes and promote products in real time through
the Instagram LIVE function (Dutta). Other social media platforms have also come out with new
features in recent years that aid in influencer marketing strategies. Because this industry is still

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relatively new, it is growing rapidly. According to influencermarketinghub.com, influencer
marketing was predicted to grow in 2019 more than double what it was in 2017 (see fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Influencer Marketing Hub, 2019.

Over the past three years, Google searches for “influencer marketing” have increased by
1500% (“The State…Benchmark Report”). The spike in general interest added to the amount of
people entering the industry even today proves that influencers hold an incredible amount of
purchasing power that even advertisements and brand campaigns can no longer compete with.
Influencers create and promote earned media, and they are experts in content marketing and
content creation. They have a relationship with their followers that is much more intimate than
most brands have with their consumers. They have the ability to post about their daily lives,
struggles and achievements, making it seem like they are friends that people know, rather than a
business. Over 2/3 of businesses who already budget for influencer marketing intend to increase
their spending on influencer marketing in the next year (“The State…Benchmark Report”).
Public relations practitioners also need to understand how influencers work to best communicate
with them and the brands they work with going forward. Throughout this paper, I will be
narrowing my focus to Asian influencers, and the types of people that make up their diverse
audiences.

6
Defining the Industry
Audience

So, what kind of people are following these influencers? There is no official answer, but
through data analytics and market research, we are able to see patterns in the demographics of
people who follow various kinds of social media influencers. But before doing this, we must
understand their range. Nano-influencers tend to have influence within their local neighborhood
or community, so their followers are more likely to know them personally (Ismail). Micro-
influencers typically focus on a specific niche. Because they are usually seen as industry experts
but do not have an enormous following, their audience is mostly uniform. A more diverse and
sizeable following would be those of macro-influencers, who typically gain at least part of their
following through internet fame. There are more likely to be fans in this audience. However, the
lines between micro and mega-influencers are often blurred. There’s no exact science in
differentiating these two categories (Ismail). The highest-ranked social media influencer is a
mega-influencer. These people are often more famous than they are influential. Their audience
is arguably the most diverse, with several varying topics of interest (Ismail).
No matter what tier of influencer a consumer chooses to follow, he or she is always in
search of ones with credibility—a degree of trusted insight. This may not be exactly why people
choose to follow influencers as a whole, but for many successful entrepreneurs that drive sales,
this is what keeps their following loyal to them. Especially for social media figures who have
been around for several years, their own brand persona that they have developed over time
directly correlates with how much their audience enjoys their content and engages with them.
Still, there is much to be said about people who follow social media figures that they haven’t

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necessarily trusted or known for years. In a market that is becoming more and more saturated as
we speak, how do people choose to follow someone?

Fig. 3 Connolly, Bill, 2017.

Beyond getting people to follow someone is the challenge of getting them to purchase
products that are actively endorsed. If influencers can convey to their followers that they are
more credible than the average person, their viewers will be more inclined to consider adopting
their opinions. Generally, the difference between influencers and regular social media users is
already apparent in the way that they post on their platforms (see fig. 3). Many of the most
successful influencers nowadays make their living off of brand partnerships, sponsorships and
collaborations. Not only do we need to define what gets consumers to follow these figures on
social media, but we must also uncover what motivates them to buy their products.
Different industries will pick up different patterns. In the beauty industry, for example,
“the aesthetic of visuals is the top motivator for choosing to follow beauty influencers across all
regions involved in [a] survey,” (Connolly). Not too far afield from that is the fashion industry,
where “Instagram (74%) and Pinterest (74%) are used most for fashion-based influencer content.
The aesthetic of visuals is the top motivator for choosing to follow fashion influencers across all
countries…,” with the exception of the U.K. (Connolly). For these markets, presentation is a key
factor. Still, there are so many other factors. What else makes followers want to purchase?

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Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)
We’ve introduced social media influencers at every level, but to thoroughly assess
individuals who sway purchasing decisions and dominate the internet, we also have to include
key opinion leaders, otherwise known as KOLs. While some influencers would consider
themselves to be key opinion leaders and vice versa, not all parties would consider themselves to
be both. A key opinion leader is a person or organization that has expert product knowledge
and/or influence in a respective field (“KOLs…”). These types of influencers don’t need any
kind of social media or online platform to be considered a successful KOL. They simply want
recognition for having expertise in a given area. This doesn’t mean that KOLs can’t spend their
time online—many definitely do. An example of a KOL would be Stephen King, who is a clear
key opinion leader when it comes to horror writing (“KOLs…”).
There are several types of social media influencers around the world, but when we’re
talking about KOLs, these influencers are most widely known and utilized in China. While my
research will mainly focus on influencers in Los Angeles, it is still imperative to my findings that
we take KOLs into consideration, too. Many Chinese KOLs come to LA and ultimately play a
role in our influencer community. The KOL market in China is so effective that KOLs there have
moved from using only live stream, text & photos, video and Q&A to now integrating e-
commerce, online television and more to reach their intended audiences (Allison). In China,
KOLs tend to have completed some form of higher education, and many of them were born post
‘80s and ‘90s. There is nearly an equal amount of male to female KOLs, and the majority of
them live in first and second-tier cities.
In their audience demographics, KOLs in China’s main target audiences are between the
ages of 19 and 22. These are the people who have the highest interactions on Weibo, especially

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with celebrities (Allison). Still, followers in their mid-to-late twenties also move the needle.
They are more mature luxury buyers, so these parties have a higher ratio of pret-a-porter jewelry
than all of the younger generations. Just like with social media influencers, KOLs in China can
be divided into various tiers to rank their reach (see fig. 4).

Fig. 4 Daxue Consulting, 2019.

When working with brands, KOLs will try to reach as much of their audience as they can,
through KOL campaigns that may produce results 1 to 3 months after execution. The influence
of a KOL will determine a brand’s ROI and awareness (Allison). This is also what influencers in
the U.S. do as well, from launching influencer campaigns with well-known brands to tailoring
these tactics to the scale of influence that each person holds. In some ways KOLs and influencers
are unalike, but at the end of the day they both have the same goal: to persuade their audience to
consider purchasing what they’re promoting.

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Yifan Liu is a Chinese international student at the University of Southern California who
is also a Chinese KOL. Over here, she can also be considered a micro-influencer, for her
Instagram following of 23.3K (see fig. 5.)

Fig. 5 Liu, Yifan. “Yifanyeee.” Yifanyeee, 2020, www.instagram.com/yifanyeee/.
However, Yifan is actually considered a macro-level KOL on Chinese social media
platforms, with over 500K followers on Chinese TikTok. Just like macro-influencers, macro-
level KOLs have over 100,000 followers and are usually well-known for the content they
produce. In this case, Yifan is known for vlogging and creating funny and relatable TikToks.
Mega-influencers come directly after macro-influencers, and they typically have over a million
followers. They typically interact less often with their audience members than the preceding tier.
I decided to interview Yifan to develop a stronger idea of what a Chinese KOL’s job
encompasses, with Los Angeles as her home. I wanted to see if it was similar to that of a U.S.
influencer, and how she tailors to her audience specifically. The following Q&A highlights how
Yifan became a content creator, and what her experience has been like being a KOL in LA:

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Q: Okay, so as a content creator, can you tell me a little bit about how you got started?
What kind of content do you like to produce?
A: I got started in Summer 2018. It was less than two years ago, like a year and a half. After I
got the offer [to attend] USC, I started thinking about it, because I was a finance major back then
and I started thinking about… Communications major. What can I do [with] it? So I was
thinking about social media. In order to find a job here in the social media field, I was thinking,
maybe I could be a content creator so that I can have a portfolio to show when I’m going job
hunting. So I was an intern at an MCN company in China. It has all of these very famous...you
guys call them “YouTubers,” but we call them “key opinion leaders” in the MCN. But I was a
business intern. So I was learning about the sponsorships and the contracts but I picked up some
content creating skills. So I started it and at first I was doing comedy stuff (like skits), but then I
transitioned to vlogs and slower-paced content.
Q: What content did you use mostly?
A: I used several: TikTok (the China one), Douyin, Weibo, Bilibili.
Q: So you started when you were over here but your audience was mostly Chinese?
A: Yes, I started creating content in the language school [ESL Summer 2018]. We didn’t have
too much [of a] workload. I thought, “LA’s cool and USC’s cool, so why not use all those
resources and start creating content?” And I just started it and I got more than 500K followers, I
think, in less than a month.
Q: All together or on one platform?
A: On one platform. I got my major audience on Douyin first, and I already signed [a] contract
with an MCN company. They had an office in LA. But you know, at first they didn't even notice
me. [I’m] a new girl, whatever, but then I got a huge audience on Douyin and then they realized,
Oh! Okay, she has some talent. And then they just promoted my content on Weibo and that's
how my Weibo platform grew. [My content] slowly transferred to Bilibili.
Q: Do you know what your audience demographic is?
A: Girls. Girls count for 80% of my audience, usually. They are in high school, undergrad or
people who have already graduated college like Millennials and Gen Z.
Q: What kind of brand partnerships have you secured?

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A: I had L’Oreál, Aussie, and [the] Met Gala. Met Gala in New York—they invited me. I was
the only Chinese influencer and they invited me there to film the red-carpet content and promote
the fashion event on Douyin. Just a lot of deals—makeup brands for most.
Q: Can you walk me through what a brand partnership with makeup would look like?
With L’Oreál for example?
A: Usually for the brand partnerships, first I will get a product. They tell me they want to
promote this lotion or this conditioner and I have to write a script and revise the script and then I
film a demo for them and they change it but [for] the final video, I post it.
Q: So now that you have a wider audience, are you on some more American platforms
too?
A: Not really. I post everything on YouTube. But I just post them. I'm not going to do more. I
think you have to do more covers and subtitles on it if you want to reach more American
audiences, but I'm not doing that. Instagram I use for personal use because I have many friends
there and my parents are not on Instagram, so I feel more secure posting everything.
Q: Do you follow a lot of KOLs or American influencers?
A: Not really, but I watch David Dobrik and Liza Koshy and I feel like their content is very
entertaining and I also listen to David Dobrik's podcast. [It] just helps me learn more oral
English. It’s very simple but very catchy.
Q: So would you say that your content is inspired by other influencers, or mostly just from
what you come up with?
A: Actually the vlog is kind of like a new concept in China, but I started watching vlogs from
Amber Liu. She's a former K-pop girl from f[x]. Amber posted a lot of vlogs and content on
YouTube. I started watching it four or five years ago, but I didn't know that was a vlog. It’s very
entertaining—documenting your life with your friends, and I want to do something like that. I
started from there. That kind of gave me the idea of what a vlog is. And I watch a lot of Korean
reality shows, because they're very entertaining and relaxing and I feel like my stuff is like that.
So it's not very pretty, like lifestyle vlogs, mostly [it’s] just being real and authentic and funny. I
don't watch many influencers’ vlogs, basically just Korean reality shows.
Q: What are some pros for you personally living in LA?
A: LA is a very diverse city. You can find anything here. If you want to try Korean food or
Japanese food, Thai food, LA has everything.

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Q: So career wise, what would you want to do here in LA? Do you want to keep being a
content creator?
A: It’s definitely a problem for me because I'm an international student. So I have to find a way
to stay here. I have to get a Visa sponsorship, so only doing videos is not enough for me to get a
sponsorship. I’m still trying to figure it out. But I love creating videos and creating content.
When I’m on the editing software, I just don't feel like the time is passing. I just get sucked in.
Q: What would you say are some main differences between Chinese KOLs and influencers
here?
A: Oh, that's a good question. The influencer business started pretty late in China so some of the
macro-influencers in China are doing the copycat thing after some American influencers. For
example, Jeffree Star, Liza Koshy. There are some very big Chinese influences copying them—
copying the content, copying the styles -- and they still get very popular in China because lots of
Chinese audiences have never seen stuff like that. As you know, it’s because of the firewall
between China and America. But China definitely has its own environment and atmosphere for
doing this business; the business model is very different. In China, basically every creator has
her or his own agency, which plays a bigger role in their business. But here, I feel like creators
are doing their own thing. And they only have a manager taking part of their work. The manager
only gets like, 10% of their income. But in China, it’s the opposite. The agency takes about 70%
of their income.
Q: And you are with an agency, right?
A: Yes, it’s called Erka.
They have an office here in LA and that's why I decided to sign a contract with them. But they're
not the biggest in China, so that’s why I kind of feel regret. I was thinking about how maybe I
would have done much better if I had signed a contract with that [different] agency. But [in]
China, the environment is very different. TikTok is very big in China, so most of the influencers
just want to do content on that platform. It’s important to make money very quickly. And it just
seems like anyone can get a million followers overnight.
Q: So, what number would you say you have to reach for agencies to want to start to work
with you?
A: Two years ago, you had to have some existing content already for agencies to notice you.
Now, the business model is really changing and every agency is trying to get more creators. Back

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at that time, maybe the agency would offer 30% for the creators and 70% for the agency, but
now it's like 70% to creators because every agency is trying to get more talented creators. Now it
seems [as though] every influencer, if they keep posting, will get offers from some agencies. I
was shocked, because I was able to sign [a] contract with only 30%.
Q: How many hours a week do you spend on content creation?
A: For one video, at least twelve hours a week. If bilingual subtitles are required, that takes at
least six hours to just put them on, and that’s why I don’t do them anymore.

I found it compelling how Yifan’s success as a KOL is partially due to her experiences in
both Los Angeles and at USC. Had she not chosen to go to school here, her content may not have
been as successful. It speaks to how important your audience is, but also your location. Even
with her success through, the main obstacle for a Chinese influencer in America is still that he or
she isn’t promised stability within her or his career because he or she cannot be sponsored to stay
this way.
It is fascinating to compare the differences and similarities between influencers in Asia
and those in the U.S. And within the U.S., it’s no secret that a vast chunk of influencers build
their careers and live in Los Angeles. I found it interesting that Yifan mentioned that creators in
China can seemingly reach a million followers overnight, because becoming viral overnight is a
craze that has been happening in the U.S., too. In a market that appears to be so over-saturated all
over the world, how do we encourage new entrants to join in? And should we encourage them to
enter, or is it no longer worth it? These are the types of questions that compel me to do further
research in this industry. But while KOLs are crucial to LA’s influential demographic, they only
make up a small part of a bigger market that thoroughly intrigues me.

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A Niche Market: Asian Female Fashion Influencers in LA
As an Asian-American, it’s important to me that I follow people with whom I resonate,
who inspire me to work harder towards my own personal goals. But aside from my own interests,
I also find Asian-American influencers to be an intriguing demographic because they are without
a doubt bourgeoning in this space.

Fig. 6 Nielson, 2018.

In Nielsen’s 2018 Asian-American consumer report, they found that several Asian-
American mega-influencers were rated higher than their peers in overall likability, trendsetting
and influence (see fig. 6). Michelle Phan, one of the mega-influencers listed in the report, is a
beauty and lifestyle social media influencer with 2 million followers on Instagram. Many other
Asian-American influencers and Asian KOLs from around the world have had similar success,
especially within the fashion industry, and majority of them are women. By mixing personal
interest, societal demand and rising power, I have decided to focus my main research efforts on
this niche – Asian female fashion influencers in Los Angeles.

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Michelle Phan and Sylvia Jade were two of the very first fashion and beauty social media
influencers to pioneer this digital industry. As this niche developed, so did apps like Instagram,
Facebook and YouTube. While Michelle and Sylvia both obtained a majority of their followings
from creating videos on YouTube, others started elsewhere. Sara Ameri, a micro-influencer on
Instagram with 3K followers (see fig. 7), began posting outfit pictures when she was thirteen.
She started by posting on deviantART and then lookbook.nu, and moved to Instagram
iphoneography when the app rebranded itself around 2014. She is best known for her rainbow-
colored feed that she has kept up with for years (see fig. 7).

Fig. 7 Ameri, Sara. “Iomoo.” Iomoo, 2020, www.instagram.com/iomoo/.

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Other Asian fashion influencers also use Instagram as their main way to showcase their
style. Christine Kong, otherwise known as @dailykongfidence on Instagram (see fig. 8), is an
Asian fashion influencer located in Orange County. While Orange County is sometimes
considered part of the Greater Los Angeles Area, with an Asian population of over 600,000,
there is a huge demographic of Asian content creators there as well, especially in the beauty,
fashion and lifestyle sectors (Do, Goffard). Christine focuses mainly on fashion, beauty, lifestyle
and travel, but she is also a mom. When speaking to her at a fashion event about a year ago, she
told me that the key to her personal branding was that she focused her page on what she wanted
to (fashion), rather than always posting about her family life. With 116K followers on Instagram,
Christine is considered a macro-influencer.

Fig. 8 Kong, Christine. “Dailykongfidence.” Dailykongfidence, 2020,
www.instagram.com/dailykongfidence/.
Ellenor Kim, or @spreadfashion, is another macro-influencer (see fig. 9) living in Los
Angeles whose primary platform of choice is Instagram. She began her blog,
https://spreadfashionblog.com/, about a decade ago while she was working a 9-5 job, and

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eventually quit to pursue being a full-time social media influencer. She is Korean American and
often posts her cooking recipes, ranging from Asian cuisine to healthy American concoctions,
onto her Instagram stories. This brings an even wider audience to her following, showing that
fashion influencers can easily transition into lifestyle influencers as well, just by producing a
wider range of content.

Fig. 9 Kim, Ellenor. “Spreadfashion.” Spreadfashion, 2020, www.instagram.com/spreadfashion/.
As we can see from the figure above, Ellenor (Ellen)’s story highlights start with fashion
and transition into cooking and other lifestyle features. While she still considers her niche to be
fashion and style, she is constantly searching for other ways to grow her audience as a digital
creator with over ten years of activity.
An example of an Asian mega-influencer would be Weylie Hoang, or @ilikeweylie on
YouTube. Weylie is Chinese, and is most widely known for her “How to Put On a Tampon”
video that went viral nine years ago. With nearly ten million views, that video began her career
as a content creator, and through the years, Weylie has found herself talking about a variety of

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women’s topics from coming-of-age struggles to sustainable, stylish clothing. Recently, Weylie
launched womn., “a female-focused apparel line that makes limited runs of [socially] conscious
clothes.” She launched this line with another fashion social media influencer, Sophia Chang,
otherwise known as @fashionista804 on YouTube. Both of these creators live in Los Angeles.
The figure below shows both Weylie and her apparel line’s Instagram accounts. She intentionally
mirrors her personal aesthetic on womn’s [sic] page.

Fig. 10 Weylie, Shopwomn, 2020.

The last female fashion influencer I studied is Aimee Song. With 5.5M followers on
Instagram, @aimeesong (see fig. 11) is one of the most well-known fashion influencers in
America. She is a Korean American blogger, influencer, interior designer and fashion designer.
Her blog, http://www.songofstyle.com/, generates over two million page views per month. She
was born in Los Angeles and is still based here today, although she spends much of her time
traveling to other fashion capitals and working with companies like Revolve, Dior and Armani.

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Fig. 11 Song, Aimee. “Aimeesong.” Aimeesong, 2020, www.instagram.com/aimeesong/.

Not all of these women started out as fashion influencers, and some of them didn’t begin
their careers with the intent of becoming one at all. This shows that while this sector of social
media influencers is unique, it is also versatile and encompasses several different facets of
lifestyle. These women all generate content that appeals to their individual audiences, but I
presume that many of their followers overlap and share similar qualities with one another. The
following section analyzes what kinds of people are following these influencers.

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Audience Analysis
Sentiment vs. Follower Count
We often analyze which influencers brands want to work with and why. But an influencer
is nothing without her or his audience, also known as the creator’s following. Each person that
chooses to subscribe to or follow certain influencers is an audience member and together, the
audience comprises the influencer’s follower count. So, how important is this follower count,
anyway? As of today’s digital age, it appears that this number is so crucial to an influencer’s
success that we’ve created labels for types of influencers based on said number. Sure, this may
work to identify how wide an influencer’s reach may be, but I propose that especially in the case
of Asian female fashion influencers, there is something else that strikes a chord within their
audience. Rather than following based on this number, audience members like to choose their
influencers based on sentiment.
As part of my research efforts, I conducted a focus group with eight graduate students
from the University of Southern California’s Strategic Public Relations program. The group
members were all classmates and the balance highly skewed, but what better way to understand
sentiment than to ask people who spend their free time following influencers and studying them
professionally? I made sure to include a mix of gender, race and personal interest when selecting
these participants. Two of my participants were Chinese international students as well. Not all of
them follow fashion influencers, but a majority of them do. Likewise, not all of them follow
KOLs, but a majority of them do. Here are some excerpts from the discussion. The following
comments in bold italics are my own personal thoughts.
To begin, I asked them how they typically discover the influencers that they currently follow.
Jordan: I think Instagram has that suggested feature where you see similar accounts and that’s
how I follow mine.

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Caroline: Usually it’s if I've been watching a YouTube [video]. Last year I followed Aimee
Song, and I think it was through a collab that Desi Perkins did? Through that, I thought, “Oh, she
seems really interesting.” I deep dived, and I started following her [Song] and I like the content
she posts so I haven’t unfollowed.
Iris: I don’t follow any influencers [from] here [in the U.S.]. Most of my influencers I follow are
Asian, but they build their career [in] Canada or in the U.S. so the way they do their career is like
a mix of Asian style and the style here…I know a lot of [KOLs] I follow have their own
collections using their name or their brand or their designs. So I feel like it’s pretty different from
influencers that are here.
I found that this range of responses garnered a fair variety of interests, but the
common thread was that my participants followed people that they found on their own. They
weren’t recommended or pushed through advertisements or because a certain influencer was
trending. When asking them who their favorite influencer may be, two of them had an answer
right away.
Rex: I have mine. She's a YouTuber, Antonio Garza, she’s very funny. Very quirky, and she’s
only 16. She dropped out of high school to be a YouTuber and she just got her Tesla—typical
YouTuber things. I think the way she does her videos…it’s funny. The content is more
entertaining than helpful to me. So I look[ed] up her YouTube channel for entertainment. I want
to know what she's using or what she is promoting.
Caroline: There’s this one girl, Devon Lee Carlson. She’s the co-founder of Wildfox phone
cases. She dresses very ‘90s, and that's what I'm drawn to, because I was born in the ‘90s. So
that's what I like. It's very simple so I can thrift it or pull it off in my own affordable way. And if
it is something I really like I’ll also search for it. That's very heavily influenced from her.
While Rex resonated with his favorite influencer because she was funny, Caroline
chose hers because she was heavily inspired by her similar taste in clothing. Neither of them
mentioned how many followers their creator has, but Rex did point out Antonio’s seemingly
mega-influencer status. It’s worth noting that her status may, at the very least, impress him.
With that being said, maybe follower count does matter to an extent, but not explicitly.

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Without a doubt though, it doesn’t take precedence over sentiment. To try to approach my
claims from a different angle, I asked them what it was about influencers that typically turn
them off, or away from following.
Shamara: Pretty much what we were talking about, like [those influencers who are] starting to
partner with every brand and starting to change how they talk. Sometimes you can tell [with]
people...a message of who they are changes, and turns into this fake, “everyone-else” type of
message. Nothing feels real at all so I just start unfollowing them and I don’t feel bad about this
at all.
Kathy: A lot of people now are really repetitive, and there’s a lot of click bait.
After each comment, I noticed that the room would nod and murmur in agreement. I
knew from being a Millennial and an avid influencer follower myself that these notions were
true, but just in case we were falling victim of groupthink, I asked another person for an
interview, one who didn’t go to USC, or even live in LA. Her name is Connie Kim.
What are some things that turn you off in an influencer/account? What would cause you to
unfollow?
Connie: If they [influencers] come off too preachy about advertisements or their profiles seem
like a walking advertisement, I unfollow. As much as that is their livelihood, I think influencers
need to have a healthy mix and need to have something about them that sets them apart from
other influencers, whether that be they’re super funny, honest or relatable.

From that response, the words “preachy,” “honest” and “relatable” stood out to me.
“Preachy” gives off the impression that the influencer in question loses credibility, in this case
from generating too many sponsored posts. “Honest” and “relatable” both play into sentiment—
without these factors, people like Connie and Shamara start to lose interest. To summarize the
most important takeaway from this series of questions: Influencers can actually become too big
and lose their audience members’ trust. My conclusion: High follower count is not always a good
thing.

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Popularity vs. Influence
To put it simply, I believe that individuals don’t need to be popular to be influential.
Those who have real influence will be able to enact change or action when needed, without
relying on the amount of people in their circle. However, there is something to be said about why
people are popular to begin with. Doesn’t it naturally follow that popular people are well-liked,
so shouldn’t they, in turn, be influential? I asked Sara Ameri (@iomoo), what she thought about
the influencers that she chooses to follow.
Sara: I follow all of the “real” fashion influencers on my personal account rather than my main
account because I follow hundreds of them and to be honest, actual influencers post way too
much for me to want to deal with on my main account. That being said, I love influencers who
post consistently, whose content I actually like (they’re editing things in a tasteful way, wearing
things I like, are visiting places I want to visit), and most of all, ones who aren’t pretentious and
often engage with their followers via Q&As or just answering people in the comments. All of
them are influential to me in a weird way where I don’t necessarily think we’d be friends but I
just love how they go about life and try to live life in a similar way. Basically, they’re influential.
Sara emphasizes how these accounts resonated with her personal taste and style, so
much so that she grouped them into their own ”real” influencer category. Curious to see what
more audience members who weren’t content creators themselves thought, I asked Connie
Kim the same question.
Connie: Initially, I follow influencers for their content but I stay for their personalities. I usually
end up becoming very engaged with these influencer’s lives and enjoy seeing their everyday
content because of their likeable and easygoing personalities.

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Connie mentions in our interview that she spends about an hour per day looking on social
media, but that her entire hour is always spent looking at influencers, since she doesn’t have any
other forms of social media. Connie only uses Instagram and, like Sara, she picks the people she
follows based on their influence on her. Still, when asked specifically which influencers Connie
follows, she gave me examples such as @sivanayla, @spreadfashion, @imjennim and
@thesaltyblonde. All of these women are considered macro-influencers on Instagram, which
reiterates my claim that influencers may be popular because they are influential. Now, I know
that there are other Instagram creators that have much higher followings than these women, so it
is a fair argument that the extent of an influencer’s popularity is not crucial to her or his success.
In my interview with Yifan Liu, there was a moment where I also asked her if she knew
women who followed fashion influencers—as for the most part, Yifan herself did not follow
them. Her response was:
Yifan: My best friend is very into fashion and she’s doing all kinds of fashion PR things. She
likes to watch fashion influencers’ vlogs and she always wants to be inspired—what could be the
best outfit for the season, etc. She just likes to listen to them talk, you know, it feels very
comforting and relaxing. I think for fashion influencers, the aesthetic is very important. They
have to make their videos very pretty and the ending has to be very elegant and fluid…Yeah, it’s
a different style.
The words “comforting” and “relaxing” here are key because they tie into both Sara and
Connie’s points that actually influential creators draw their audiences in so much that they stay
for the creator’s brand personality. Whether it’s through a vlog or through their Instagram feed,
the “influential” effect that the creator has on her or his audience is that he or she has built trust,
credibility and most of all, likeability. The likeability proves it—popularity is earned overtime.

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However, there are social media “influencers” out there, like Logan Paul, who are highly
ridiculed and criticized for their controversial content, but perhaps those people shouldn’t be
called social media influencers at all. Perhaps they should be called, social media stars. If these
individuals aim to entertain, but they still have small followings, they would also fall under the
category of “social media star” over “influencer.” This means that they serve more as
entertainers, but they are still considered content creators—their content is just arguably non-
influential. Unfortunately, the term influencer now serves as an umbrella term for those with
actual influence and for those without. The creators that entertain but also have purchasing
power however, can make a difference within their niche.
The women we focus on in my research are prime examples of influencers that make a
difference, mainly due to their chosen niche—fashion. The fashion industry is known for
“putting its focus on the digital platform, which involves the innovative uses of technology along
with the most recent fashion trends” (M, Sudha). Before the utilization of social media
influencers, models would don apparel on runways. While they still do this, having fashion
influencers post their outfits online is an even faster way to reach a much wider audience, thus
forming a correlation between fashion influencers and sales. Every person now has the
opportunity to model to their own communities, with the convenience of apps like Instagram and
YouTube. The fashion industry is more driven by influencer marketing than any other industry
because it is the most prone to using influencers and it “offers many ways of collaborations
between bloggers and brands” (M, Sudha). With this in mind, influence definitely takes
precedence over popularity, especially in this community.

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Asians: Demographic or Community?
Probably one of the most key components of any niche is the notion that the sector under
scrutiny is not simply black and white. When it comes to Asian influencers, there is no
exception. I asked my focus group members if they thought Asians in America were a
demographic or a community, and these were their responses:
Rex: Probably demographic. I just think it's more than a community. It’s not about where you
live, whether you live together or not. Something [here] is deep-rooted. We have some
characteristics that we carry around for several generations. It's definitely more of a demographic
than just a community.
Caroline: I think it’s both. I guess it just depends [on] where you are, right? But I would say
both because they take part in both aspects.
Would you say that you guys are all a demographic or is it possible that you are all in the same
community?
Rex: It’s possible. American-born Asians are obviously growing up in America. So, the cultural
background is definitely different. I think although we look alike, there are certain things [where]
we have differences.
Kathy: I do know that there are some first-generation Chinese people who come [to the U.S.]
who don't try to integrate at all. They only speak Chinese and only hang out with Chinese
international students. So that’s the major difference.
To Kathy’s point, Iris, a Chinese international student herself, elaborates:
Iris: I feel like there are two kinds of those people. Maybe they want to stay here but if they
want to live a life here, they need to build their network here. If they have that kind of thought,
that means they have the will to integrate and interact with the community here. So they are
active, more engaged and can communicate with people or students here, instead of just staying
in the Asian Chinese community.

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Depending on their personal and professional goals, International Asians can choose
for themselves whether or not they want to enter a community, but at the end of the day, they
are all under the same demographic. I found my audience responses to be mixed, but they all
seemed to recognize that the term “Asian” may be too broad to accurately encapsulate the
sector that many of them are a part of. To be sure that my answers from all Chinese students
weren’t too biased, I also asked Cathy Park, a Korean American USC student, to comment.
Cathy: I personally would define Asian-Americans as more of a demographic because I would
say that Asian Americans tend to lack community aspects when compared to other
demographics, such as the black/Hispanic [communities] and I think this is largely because there
are so many different sectors of “Asian-American.” We have yet to see Asian-Americans, as a
group, mobilize for a certain cause.

Cathy’s thoughts further proved that the terms “Asian,” and even “Asian-American,” are
still too broad. If we can only agree on one thing after this discussion, let it be this:
Don’t assume that the Asian market is clearly defined. Asians and Asian-American consumers
still are clearly linked to their countries of origin, rather than the continent itself. For example,
Chinese Americans have specific types of linkage to their country of origin that other Asians
may or may not have in their own respective cultures. Chinese Americans who maintain close
ties with their family and friends in China may watch Chinese news over FOX or CNN, but this
doesn’t mean they watch all Asian news channels. Their media consumption may vary, and this
applies to their shopping habits as well. They may buy Chinese products and foods that link back
to their country, due to the products’ overall familiarity. This may not always be the most
convenient option, but the fact that they still reach for these commodities says a thing or two
about the Chinese market. Fashion is no different—consumers will search for that sense of
familiarity if they feel it is valuable enough.

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Representation
When Choosing Who to Follow: How Important is Race?
As the discussion of Asian fashion influencers continues, it’s worth questioning just how
important these creators’ race and ethnicities are to their respective audiences. When asked in
the focus group (on a scale of 0-10) how important race was to them when choosing who to
follow, these were their responses:
Jordan: I don't really pay attention to race; it’s just the content I’m more drawn to. I guess a 6?
Caroline: I would say 0...But if you look at my following, you might say different, but I don't
think that's intentional. I think it's just what happens.
Nick: The same answer. It would be 0, but it might be skewed.
Rex: Yeah, 0 or 1.
Kathy: I’d say 5. There are some influencers out there that have done some cultural
appropriation or [made] racist remarks, so I’d stay away from those.
It appeared that each person agreed that content was more important than race, which was
not surprising to me. What was surprising, however, was how the majority rated their preference
to be extremely low. Those who answered 0 or 1 realized that the people they follow may be
skewed, but that it wouldn’t be intentional. This brings up a fair point that while we may not
purposely choose to follow people of certain races, we may do so subconsciously, for reasons
that we may be unable to tap into. Kathy also offered a strong argument on how influencers who
have made negative decisions surrounding race were immediately people she would choose not
to follow. When murmurs of agreement filled the room, I drew the conclusion that people will
care more about an influencer’s views on race, rather than the individual’s actual race or
ethnicity. To ensure that my focus group wasn’t too biased, I also asked Connie, a Bay Area

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native and avid follower of anything fashion-related, the same question. She replied, “Race is not
that important to me. But most of the influencers I follow are either White or Asian. No
particular reason, but I guess I like following Asian influencers since I like to see fashion worn
on familiar faces [and] bodies.” While her response strengthened the notion that race is not that
important, she also taps into why it may actually be something worth considering, when audience
members follow these women to gain style inspiration. Two other focus group members, who
both gave ‘8’ as an answer, agreed.
Kyndall: Seeing people who are built the same way as I am and being able to see how they
emulate different styles is [important]. In the 1950s and 1960s , white bodies were the idealistic
type of bodies, and now it’s progressed. The definition of beauty is all-encompassing different
types of people. Being able to follow these different people who are breaking societal norms and
[are] still not afraid to put on a garment just because somebody else said it had to be a size 0 but
they’re really a size 6 with big boobs and a butt? That’s important for me to see.
Shamara: Yeah, that’s important for me because I [like] the athletic
[influencers] that I follow that aren’t necessarily pros, but they’re everyday people. I follow ones
of color that have similar body shapes because it doesn’t make sense for me to look at this model
who is a fitness model, saying this is how they got the way they are, when really that’s just how
they’re naturally built. I wouldn’t follow their workout and get the same result. It would look a
lot different.
In my interview with Sara, I also asked her this question to gain an Asian-American
influencer’s point of view. She told me, “My mom is Taiwanese from Taipei and my dad is
Persian from Tehran. I would answer with 3-4. I would say ethnic groups play a solid role but

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race doesn’t necessarily. I don’t go out of my way to follow Taiwanese or Persian influencers
just for the sake of race, but I did notice in the last 2 years that of the 600 accounts I follow,
about 20% are Asian. I definitely noticed I’d follow more Asian accounts from the Asian
accounts I already followed…I think this observation is significant because the influencer
lifestyle was primarily European/Caucasian for the longest time…but now it’s far more diverse.”
Sara’s point about ethnic groups playing a strong role got me thinking about the correlation
between style and culture. Race may not be a deciding factor, but what about ethnicity? I made
sure to touch on this in my focus group.
As people of color, how do POC influencers inspire you?
Kyndall: By being an example. Honestly like a role model, especially people of color who are in
roles that, 20 years ago, you wouldn't see people of color in.
Shamara: I think it’s influential to see people of color not change when they get to the same
level as the rest of the society. The majority of society isn’t people of color. They’re usually
higher in number or in reach but, when people of color get to their level [and] they don't try to be
like them? That's what influences me, when they don't try to do things that they do because
they're [at] the highest [level].
What Shamara is referring to here is a level of authenticity, one that inspires her no
matter how wide the influencer’s reach may be. This does go a long way in ethnic groups,
especially when the influencer world was previously dominated by European and Caucasian
creators, as Sara mentioned. Sara also speaks on influencers in her own ethnic group. When
asked about “Asian Instagrammers”, she says, “There are so, SO many realms of Asian
Instagrammers especially in LA. Asian fashion, Asian food accounts, Asian workout accounts,

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etc. I’ve definitely noticed some Asian influencers tend to primarily hang out with other Asian
influencers, for reasons I can’t define just by one answer…I noticed the same patterns when I
was in school though, and I get that it’s due in part to just being cultural. In a professional sense,
I think it has to do with absorbing similar audiences. I once went to a PR event for a restaurant
and the PR representative and I had a deep chat about growth on Instagram and her number one
tip when I asked how to promote organic growth was “Collaborations,” which of course
insinuates working with people whose audience you want to absorb. I can definitely see a
transitive logic of assuming the best way to perfect your reach is by absorbing the audience of
someone very similar to you.” The thought of absorbing similar audiences ties directly into my
claims that sentiment strikes a much deeper chord than however many followers an influencer
has.
While majority of the focus group members may not initially think about race when
analyzing an influencer’s content quality, some of them do recognize that influencers in America
have platforms that they should use, if they can.
So for those of you who follow Asian KOLs, what differences do you see between their posts
and the influencers here in America?
Kathy: They [American influencers] definitely talk about representation more. One woman that
I follow is Eva Chen. She makes kids’ books, and she always talks about empowering women
and also including people of color. Just in her everyday posts, she emphasizes that point. I think
she’s a pretty awesome person.
It makes sense that Asians living among so many other races would feel the need to speak
out about representation more, while Asians who live among other Asians don’t necessarily feel
the need to be as vocal on these topics. Even if influencers’ audience members don’t need the

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creator to be outspoken as a requirement for following, it can only help the creator appear more
inclusive and for followers like Kathy, this goes a long way.
So, we know that audience members definitely resonate with ethnic groups, and are for
the most part, indifferent about race at first glance. But, what about brands? Do they care about
race to a certain extent? Last year, CNBC published an article titled, “Instagram influencers are
often white, and now the brands that pay them are getting pushback”. The piece spotlights
different influencer marketing campaigns done by brands that chose nearly all “skinny white
girls,” and the negative reactions that came after them. Instagram influencers are often white, and
now the brands that give them money and a voice are becoming more and more criticized
(Graham). Followers want to see more diversity in ambassador programs, so it doesn’t feel like
the only social media creators being praised for their work are women who look a certain way.
While it’s true that a large amount of brands are still predominantly featuring people who
represent a more Western standard of beauty, others that are becoming more successful and more
prominent have started to notice this weakness and make more conscious efforts towards
inclusivity.

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Celebrities as Influencers
Among the highest tier of mega-influencers, some of them are celebrities. Celebrities can
choose to use their respective platforms to become influencers, but not all influencers can
become celebrities, unless their following grows into the millions. Even then, an argument can
be made about their title, based on the actual, measurable weight they pull in their industry.
Jessica Alba is a prime example of a celebrity who is also an influencer. As someone who
has been acting in movies and playing major roles since she was a teenager, Jessica was no
stranger to the spotlight in the past decade. In 2012, she decided to use her fame and resources to
launch The Honest Company, a wellness brand that offers a collection of household goods,
diapers and body care products. By 2014, the business was already valued at $1 billion. By 2015,
Jessica had written a book based on her experiences creating a non-toxic life for her family,
called The Honest Life. Then in 2015, she also launched a collection of beauty products and skin
care, called Honest Beauty. With 17.1M followers on Instagram, Jessica is constantly posting
about her business, along with her other various endeavors, and promoting her brand on a
secondary account. @honest, her Instagram for The Honest Company, has 984K followers and
its mission is to empower people to live happy, healthy lives. Jessica can also frequently be seen
on Instagram’s explore page, from promoting her skincare products to being an ambassador for
the food delivery service, Hello Fresh. As a celebrity and an influencer for multiple movies and
brands, Jessica has become a face that is associated not only with romantic comedies and
exciting new movies, but also with family, wellness and beauty.
I find that one of the channels that several celebrities choose to explore when switching
over to marketing and business entrepreneurship is beauty—specifically skincare. In this realm,
Asian-American influencers have dominated social media influence in the skincare sector, and it

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doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon (“Asian-American…Mainstream”). This is one
of the many ways that Asian representation is making its mark across the U.S. Furthermore, “the
adoption of Asian-inspired staples like Sriracha, sushi, yoga and Korean beauty techniques and
products (K-beauty) can be attributed to the rapid growth and increasing power of Asian-
American consumers” (“Asian-American…Mainstream”). This leads me to question the impact
of Asian-American social influencers that aren’t necessarily trying to become famous, but are
simply living in their niche, the way celebrities do. As it turns out, “Asian-Americans made up
just under 6% of Team USA’s athletes for this year’s Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang,
South Korea” (“Asian-American…Mainstream”). Asian-American athletes are exactly the kind
of influencers I’m talking about—those who are extremely inspiring in their particular niche, in
this case, sports. It’s not surprising that with Asian-Americans appearing on screen as star
athletes, marketers have a tremendous opportunity to reach Asian-American consumers who are
also sports fans (“Asian-American…Mainstream”). Asian-Americans tend to have a diverse
range of sports interests, and “during the fourth quarter of 2017, the top five network sports
shows and the top 16 cable sports shows with more than five telecasts among Asian-American
adults (18+) included NFL, MLB, NBA and WWE programs” (“Asian-
American…Mainstream”).

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Asian Spending Power
On the subject of Asian influence across the U.S., it is inevitable that we evaluate the rise
of Asian spending power. With such a large demographic of Asians in all parts of the U.S. but
especially in California, “Asian-American consumers are growing faster than the general
population and maintaining income and education rates higher than any other racial or ethnic
group. This year’s report highlights Asian-American consumers as predictive adopters of new
media and technology—including the platforms consumers use to watch their favorite shows,
what they buy online, and which apps they choose to enhance their everyday lives” (“Asian-
American…Mainstream”). It is groundbreaking that we are now able to collect so much data in
this day and age regarding audience demographics and buying patterns. When combining these
forces together, it shows us that Asian influencers are also able to study this data and more
narrowly target their own audiences when promoting products.
In 2018, Asian-American buying power topped $1 trillion, and was predicted to be an
area of opportunity for all businesses (Lam). As this community’s youngest spenders mature
over the course of this decade, the spending power is expected to break $1.3 trillion by 2023.
This number is higher than I ever could’ve possibly imagined, especially since in the 2017
report, the buying power was only at $986 billion. Not only is Asian spending power increasing
at a rapid rate, but more Asian influencers are realizing that they have a place to create
significant change in the market. It may be both a pro and a con that the influencer realm is
becoming more and more saturated as we speak. Before these studies, I’ll admit that I found the
high spike in influencers of all industries to be more of a negative factor than a positive, but
when looking at it as an opportunity for more diversity and inclusivity, it appears to be a major
achievement.

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Location
Asians in LA
So, why are there so many Asians in LA?
From a social media standpoint, many of the top creators in the Asian-American
community all come from California. Of the 20M Asians that live in the U.S., nearly half (45%)
of them live in the West. Out of these residents, about one-third (31%) live in California alone
(López). Within California, Asians are mostly populated in the Bay Area (NorCal), and Los
Angeles (SoCal). In Cunningham’s publication of “Multichannel networks and the accelerated
evolution of the new screen ecology,” he talks about the incredibly “distinct, world-leading
industrial cultures which are increasingly clashing and converging” in both Northern and
Southern California (Cunningham). In context, it relates to the type of content that is being
pushed out on YouTube, because so much of widespread trending content on YouTube for the
past few years has revolved around the cultural geography of these two areas.
It’s exceptional that this trend has been noted and studied by professionals, because this
is an argument or “rivalry” that the Asian community has been at the forefront of for years.
When searching for simply “Norcal vs. Socal” on Youtube, the second video to pop up is the
Fung Bro’s NorCal Asians vs. SoCal Asians, in the midst of several videos that are not centered
around race. The stigma behind a NorCal and a SoCal Asian is so heavily discussed in the
community that this video has generated over 2 million views. The video was released nearly six
years ago, and many still find it relatable to this day. As an Asian who has lived in both areas my
entire life, I find some of these representations to be scarily accurate, while others are sillier.
Either way, this is a huge topic of conversation among Asians, even outside of California.

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A direct quote from the video is, “Between the Asians in…NorCal and the Asians
in…SoCal, they have been very influential in shaping the image of young Asians in America.”
As the video progresses, the Fung Bros mention the perks of working in SoCal. “In SoCal,
everybody thinks it’s cool to work in the entertainment industry: Hollywood, TV, even
YouTube.” Fashion, especially when marketed in the media, has always been a form of
entertainment, even though it also falls under the style category. The whole foundation of a
fashion social media influencer is that her or his outfits and online brand persona are shown, and
exposure in entertainment can only help these individuals build their followings. To put in
perspective why Asians come to NorCal and SoCal, Fung says, “Because SoCal’s the number
one place to do entertainment in the world and NorCal’s the number one place to do tech in the
world, everybody in the world moves there to work in those industries. And that has a huge
ripple effect on the culture of those regions which you can feel, even if you’re not in those
industries.” It is not surprising that trend-setting Asian fashion influencers, both men and
women, are flourishing in SoCal because of the culture that is so apparent around them. While
they may not be working to be Hollywood actors, it’s not uncommon to be shooting content at a
local coffee shop in LA. Furthermore, those who move to various parts of Southern California
for entertainment likely follow more influencers, and because they live around these people even
though they themselves may not be content creators, they are a large part of the target audience
these influencers are trying to reach.
As the Fung Bros’ video continues, they compare which areas feature better Asian food
overall, ranging from one Asian ethnicity to the other. The point made here is that there are so
many prominent, Asian-dominated cities in SoCal, that they won the debate over which area had
a more authentic variety of Asian cuisine. From Little Tokyo and Koreatown to Irvine and San

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Gabriel, there are several places to consume quality Asian food around the Greater Los Angeles
Area. This can only mean that the market for Asian food influencers or “foodies” is stronger here
as well. A 2013 NY Times article titled, “New Suburban Dream Born of Asia and Southern
California,” it talks about how “Asians have become a majority in more than half a dozen cities
in the San Gabriel Valley in the last decade, creating a region of Asian-dominated suburbs that
stretches for nearly thirty miles east of Los Angeles” (Medina). With data to support these
popular claims, there is a higher demand for Asian-run businesses and creators to constantly
push out new ideas and collaborate off of one another.
Asians in LA: For Those in Fashion
From a fashion perspective, having so many creators all around the LA area also helps to
inspire and challenge them to be more creative. For fashion influencers, having local access to so
many places with photogenic potential helps, too. In my interview with Sara, she mentions that
before she relocated here, “I went to school outside of LA and spent time visiting the city often,
and I flew down to LA constantly after graduating and moving back to SF.” During this time she
frequented Disneyland quite often, and was able to shoot and collect content. The Greater Los
Angeles Area also has arguably the best weather in all of California, with consistent sunshine
and very little rain. This allows fashion influencers to have more opportunities to shoot content
in optimal weather conditions as well. The Fung Bros’ video concludes with four word
associations that they chose to depict young adult Asians in their respective areas. The SoCal
Asians were deemed “Hollywood, FOB, trendy and glamorous.” These connotations also
typically describe an Asian social media influencer, too, otherwise known as “Asian
Instagrammers.”

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KOLs: Why LA?
Even in the shopping centers around the San Gabriel Valley, “Chinese-language
characters are on nearly every storefront, visible from the freeways that cut through the area
(Medina).” KOLs like Yifan are able to produce content in multiple languages if they choose to,
given their environment. It’s almost…too easy.
Interview with Yifan:
Q: Would you say that there’s a good Asian population here?
A: Yeah. And the Asian culture in general. But one thing I don't like about USC or LA: there’s
just too many Chinese [people] here. Back in Berkeley, maybe it was because of my major. I was
taking some education classes and I feel like there were no Chinese [people] in that classroom,
so I got to practice my English. Here, I can survive [by] only speaking Chinese. There are lots of
Chinese students here, your advisor understands Chinese and Chinese food [is] everywhere. I
want to learn more about American culture and practice my English. But LA just… [it’s] because
it’s diverse. I can choose which culture I want to live in.
Q: That's really interesting that you mention that there's so many Chinese. Do you want to
stay here, after [graduating]?
A: Yeah, I do. It just feels so different. When I was in other cities in the states, I felt like I don't
belong. But LA always feels like I'm home.
The fact that there could be so many Asians in one specific region to the point where
creators of this race feel as if they should be pushed more out of their comfort zones, is
absolutely incredulous. It speaks volumes about the amount of potential these cities hold for
Asian influencers in any lifestyle-related industry. Yifan also comments on her KOL community
here and her community back home in China, and how LA is perceived to them.
Q: Something that I’m talking about in my thesis is the importance of these Asian
influencers in LA. So, can you talk about your experience living in LA as a creative person?
What kind of opportunities do you think the city has?
A: Most of my collaborations are not here. But I know many creators here in LA that are Asian
American, and I feel like their life has been very stressful. LA is a very great city for creators
because you have all those brands, all those connections, all those events. I think for me,

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especially [since] I'm studying abroad, most of my audience would be very interested in
watching things that are related to American culture, my life on campus and in LA. LA has a lot
to offer; I always go to events and it helps me to connect with the brands.
Q: What would you say the connotation of LA would be in China? How do people [there]
view LA?
A: It’s a very cool city. And people view LA as Hollywood, entertainment, and they just think
Oh, yeah, it’s a cool city. They want to learn more English, so I have lots of English
conversations in my vlogs, and [I] also [include] the classroom environment, what students talk
about on campus…They're very interested in that kind of content. And some of my audience,
they have already been [here] to study abroad, so they find it very nostalgic to watch my content
and feel it was [like] my life in America.

Even without a majority of her collaborations taking place in the city, Yifan recognizes
that this location is imperative to producing content that her mainly-Chinese audience will enjoy
watching. This further proves that viewers will resonate with her posts because the works invoke
feelings of nostalgia, excitement, envy and more. In Yifan’s case, the fact that she can promote
her content on both Chinese and American platforms gives her an incredible advantage. For
instance, Yifan can use Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is only accessible to people
in Mainland China, and the American version of TikTok as well. While residents in LA may not
be as fascinated by a Chinese girl living and studying in LA, KOLs still have the opportunity to
reach wider audiences that creators here don’t even have access to. On this same note however,
China’s censorship laws don’t allow its people to have access to Facebook or Instagram at all.
Because of this, Chinese KOLs are only at an advantage on platforms like TikTok, where the app
is popular in both countries. For these creators especially, the types of platforms they choose to
grow themselves on is crucial.

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Brands Evolving in LA
Another significant reason why LA is filled with so much opportunity for people in
creative industries is that there are a lot of startup companies in the city. Having more startups
equates to more brands that need marketing, and influencer marketing is inevitably a great way
for people to take notice of newer companies. But how much do brands and startups actually use
influencers?
FabFitFun is a lifestyle brand headquartered in Los Angeles that has relied on influencer
marketing so much that the company now operates an in-house influencer marketing agency. In
2013, they launched their ambassador program, where they hand-picked some of their favorite
bloggers and influencers to contribute content onto their site. From there, they partnered with
twenty social media influencers from Instagram and YouTube to promote one of their seasonal
boxes. By 2016, they were collaborating with over 1,000 influencers each season, quadrupling
their influencer marketing team (Siegel). Now, FabFitFun has been so heavily promoted on
Instagram in these past few years that it’s hard to find a Millennial nowadays who isn’t at least
familiar with the name. Given this strength, the company currently focuses more on generating
subscription sales over improving brand awareness. (Nimedez, 2020). They utilize the
influencers they work with by maximizing deliverables and negotiating with them as much as
possible (Nimedez, 2020). FabFitFun is known for its traditional “unboxing” photo that
influencers of all sizes post when working with them.
Markett is a Venice-based startup company dedicated to developing a network of users
that represent different brands in their day-to-day. Co-founded by COO Erin Pederson, Markett
provides people with access to earn income on their own time by marketing well-known brands.
In an interview with Built in LA, Pederson claims that when it comes to social media influencers

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and their brands, “these niche followings have given companies with limited budgets the ability
to effectively reach consumers in a way they previously couldn’t.” She mentions the success of
Michelle Phan’s beauty company Ipsy and Jessica Alba’s Honest Company to highlight how
influencers creating their own companies will be a trend going forward. The success of these two
companies shows that “when influencers with genuine passion for products join forces with great
business minds, success is not far behind” (Siegel). It’s crucial that we analyze not only how we
look at influencer marketing for brands so far, but also how we predict it will play a role in the
Los Angeles business atmosphere in the future.
It’s worth mentioning that among all of the Asian female fashion influencers that are
dominating their niche here in LA, many of the most prominent macro to mega-influencers in the
nation are here, too. LA is not perfect just for Asian Instagrammers, but digital content creators
of all genders, industries and platforms as well. To name a few, Tyler Oakley (6.3M), Chachi
Gonzales (1.6M) and Ryan Chua (64.1K) are influencers in the city flourishing in completely
different spaces (“Meet…Influencers”). For instance, Ryan Chua is a fashion and lifestyle
photographer who typically shoots with LA bloggers. The fact that photographers have more
models to work with and bloggers have more photographers willing to create content with them
only solidifies the argument that LA is a melting pot of creativity which paves the way for
content creators of all different niches to thrive. It’s no wonder why brands, even personal ones
such as Ryan’s, find themselves surfacing and evolving so quickly in LA.

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Measuring Impact
Using Data
To bring my research back to the influential women we studied initially, there is much to
be said about the kind of impressions these creators generate. Using Crimson Hexagon, an AI
platform that generates insights from various social media sites, I was able to input the social
media handles of several of the influencers I studied, and track their data starting from 2011.
When inputting Aimee Song, Weylie Hoang, Ellen Kim and Wendy Nguyen, I was able to
generate a word cloud that included the hashtags that are typically associated with their pages:

Fig. 12 Leveque, Matthew. “Crimson Hexagon.” Word Cloud, 9 Feb. 2020.
Despite the fact that Aimee Song has the most followers on all sites by far, I was
surprised to see that Weylie Hoang outperformed Aimee and generated the most traction out of
all these women. Surrounding their handles were words and emojis that conveyed joy, positivity

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and style, and as I conducted further research, this appeared to be a pattern (see fig. 13). Since
most of these chosen influencers are also bloggers, their most used hashtags are #ootd, #nyfw
and #fashionblogger. Similarly, their best platforms for content are Instagram and Youtube.

Fig. 13 Leveque, Matthew. “Crimson Hexagon.” Emotion Analysis, 9 Feb. 2020.
Using AI, I was able to conduct an emotion analysis here that contextualized the
meanings of six universal emotions. The emotions were sadness, disgust, surprise, anger, neutral,
joy and fear. The chart shows an overwhelming amount of joy, and the one that follows closely
after is neutral, making all the negative emotions so miniscule that the entire niche of Asian
female fashion influencers is all around positive. The spike in neutral emotion would be due to
those who are reporting on these influencers, such as news media and any public relations
announcements made surrounding these women. The chart shows emotion by volume over time
for this past decade, ranging from January 2011 to February 2020. As a brand, seeing this would
be incredibly appealing to businesses, and it’s important to consider this on a person-by-person

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basis too when choosing the right influencer(s) to work with. We can see through this analysis
that 61% of posts have emotional read off of them. To take this a step further, I also conducted a
sentiment analysis on the chosen women in our niche, just to ensure that the sentiment correlated
with the overall positive emotions that these content creators emulate (see fig.14).

Fig. 14 Leveque, Matthew. “Crimson Hexagon.” Sentiment Analysis, 9 Feb. 2020.
By using Crimson Hexagon, I was able to train hundreds of thousands of posts to look at
the general sentiment of these said posts. Just as I predicted, there were mainly positive and
neutral sentiments overall. The only reason for the decrease in all three sentiments in these most
recent years is due to the fact that Instagram only allows a certain number of posts to be pulled at
once, so from March 2019-February 2020 in all of these studies, the recent Instagram percentage
is skewed. This is because of the changes in the Instagram API and availability data that
occurred in December 2019. The figure below shows one more word cloud that focuses more
specifically on the hashtags that this niche uses the most (see fig. 15).

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Fig. 15 Leveque, Matthew. “Crimson Hexagon.” Hashtag Cloud, 9 Feb. 2020.
As mentioned, the main hashtags of choice are #ootd and #fashionblogger, but this
doesn’t mean that hashtags such as #instafashion and #lifestyle are not posted and reposted
thousands of times each day. Aimee Song’s mega-influencer status is proven here because her
handle alone is of as much relevance as some of the sector’s most used tags. This means that her
audience members search for her style when looking at fashion-related posts in general, making
her a modern-day pioneer of this niche. In another source breakdown, we are able to see which
platforms are most efficient for these women (see fig. 16).

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Fig. 16 Leveque, Matthew. “Crimson Hexagon.” Source Breakdown, 9 Feb. 2020.
Once again, the 2019-2020 data is skewed, but it is still evident that both YouTube and
Instagram appear to remain relevant as more and more fashion influencers enter the market. The
breakdown in this graph is by month, and Twitter decreasing by 12% is expected, since it’s much
harder to post video content for over two minutes at a time and there’s less opportunity to write
long captions and post pictures on that social media platform. This once again emphasizes how
important choosing the correct platform is for content creators. This breakdown shows us how
important visuals are for these women, since their primary form of branding is styling and
showcasing outfits. Other lifestyle sectors also focus heavily on aesthetics and visuals, but not
nearly as much as the fashion world. In the last part of our data analysis, we are presented with a
topic wheel (see fig. 17).

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Fig. 17 Leveque, Matthew. “Crimson Hexagon.” Topic Wheel, 9 Feb. 2020.
A topic wheel uses natural language processing and an algorithm to take data and
contextualize all of the main conversations in this space (shown in the lighter blue circle).
Weylie’s personal branding takes up almost half of this wheel, making her the largest share of
voice for this conversation. I assume that she generates the most impressions out of all these
women because she is the one that combines the usage of YouTube and Instagram the most. If
bloggers want to grow their followings and become more successful, not only should they dabble
outside of the fashion sector and incorporate more lifestyle, but they should also explore and
maximize the use of other popular platforms. The outer circle, which shows what is taking place
within these conversations, also tends to be very positive. Again, thinking as a brand marketer or
a public relations practitioner, professionals would be very pleased to see so many signs of love
and happiness in a study like this.

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KPIs: What Metrics Should We Really Be Using?
When influencers first broke through the digital age, impressions, likes and comments
were the main form of measuring influence. Engagement is something that it seems like every
influencer feels passionate about, but as this market continues to evolve, the way we assess
influence does, too. It’s no longer good enough to just review positive and negative reactions to a
post. Instead, we need to view growth as more qualitative.
For the content of each creator mentioned here, we should be looking at whether or not
sponsorships and partnerships helped them increase their fan base. We should also assess the
growth of these collaborations over an extended period of time. For their audiences, we should
be evaluating the number of key audiences, their change of interest and tastes over time and their
change of target demographics over time. These studies can be done through more qualitative
research, like the focus group I conducted. Through more in-depth interviews, we will be able to
ask audience members more accurately targeted questions, so that we can eventually improve
influencer marketing past the typical impression.
But when it comes to these impressions, we must also recognize that they are not
completely invaluable to us, just because the influencer industry is expanding. In eMarketer’s
2019 Global Influencer Marketing study, impressions have told us that when it comes to
Instagram, there is a new, high demand for marketing via Instagram Stories over posting on the
feed. Marketers have begun to use influencers for things such as unboxing products, tutorials and
behind-the-scenes action at events (Williamson). These stories are also helping to bring
influencer marketing closer to the purchase decision simply because stories allow for outbound
links, such as the “swipe up” function. Stories may also be contributing to a decline in the
number of sponsored posts. As we know from our aforementioned research, too many sponsored

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posts tend to run the risk of an influencer losing credibility. Over a five-year span, InfluencerDB,
a search engine for finding influencers, has studied posts with sixty-eight different paid
partnership hashtags in fifteen different languages. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of
sponsored posts skyrocketed. It reached over 436,000 worldwide. But by July 2018, the number
had already declined to 385,000 (Williamson).
The Asian female fashion influencers here in Los Angeles are no exception to these
findings, especially since we’ve determined that they are part of a community that makes up a
wider demographic. It is imperative that they recognize their role in the wider scope of
influencers, and work towards measuring their power past likes and comments. Because
Instagram is one of their main platforms to create content for each and every one of them, these
women will need to find new ways to measure their growth once the app takes visible likes and
comments away for good. As the industry grows, I’m positive that there will be other
engagement analytics that are even more effective. Instead of asking, “How can I generate more
comments on my posts?” perhaps these women should be questioning, “What’s driving my niche
market these days? And should I really be treating it as one market, or several different
markets?”

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The Future and Beyond
Industry Growth and Relevance
As we know, the influencer market is facing extreme issues with over-saturation, even
though it is growing rapidly at the same time. In terms of relevance, influencers do seem like
they will be here to stay, but the forms in which they produce media content may change sooner
than we think. I returned to my focus group members one more time to determine what they
thought of the future of the influencer market in the next five to ten years, given that my
participants were quite familiar with this topic.
Do you think that influencers will [still] be here in 5-10 years?
Shamara: I think it will be, [but] in a different capacity. I think people are going to age out.
Iris: Yeah, I think they will find new ways.
Caroline: It might be not called influencers anymore, but it’ll still be [something]. Because
before influencers, there were celebrities. Now there’s influencers, and now there’s social media
influencers, and maybe the future will be AI influencers.
Do you think Instagram will still be as successful or do you think it’s on its way downhill?
Nick: I think it sucks now! I used to be obsessed with Instagram…and as of three months ago,
I'm seeing the same pictures pop up…it's just full of ads now. It’s stupid.
Shamara: Yeah.
Caroline: The algorithm is terrible.
Nick: It’s getting so bad.
Caroline: But unless something else comes out like Instagram-
Iris: Or better than Instagram.
Caroline: Or better than Instagram! It’ll still be around. Because MySpace didn’t die until
Facebook.
Shamara: That’s true, it’ll still be there, [but] I think the dependence and reliance and the need
to feed it will be a lot less. It’ll be one of those things that are just there and will end up like
Facebook! Like Facebook’s still here, I’m not going to delete mine it’s just...you know, you
don’t post as much. And people are realizing [they] don’t want to be too consumed on social

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media, and that’s the trend now, to not be consumed by social media. It’s obviously going to die
but it’s not going to take it away.

I found it intriguing that although my participants followed such a wide variety of
influencers past just Asian female fashionistas, they all seemed to agree that Instagram will not
remain on top in future years, depending on what else comes out. We are starting to see new
platforms take rise as we speak, from TikTok to even the other platforms that Yifan uses to target
her Chinese audience. When asking Sara the same question, she answered with a slightly
different approach:
Sara: I definitely have seen a shift in influencers doing more things for click-bait and less for
blogging purposes which definitely feeds into Instagram becoming more like YouTube where
it’s all about views and collaborations. I also know shopping is a huge thing on Instagram and I
know Instagram is pushing for it to become more of a marketplace. Considering how targeted
advertising is already within the app, I think that’s going to definitely take off even more in the
next few years.
According to Sara’s predictions, Instagram will still be a prime platform for marketing in
the next few years. If this is true (and arguably, even if it isn’t), our content creators will need to
stay up-to-date on the latest audience demographics and purchasing patterns so that they can be
one step ahead of the wave. Many of the influencers featured throughout my research earned a
lot of their success and popularity through starting early, and being a step ahead. I also asked
Sara where she saw influencers in the next twenty years. In the scope of blogging, this was her
response:
Sara: Blogging is weird because it’s new but not new. I used to wonder when I was younger if I
was just going to be on Instagram/Twitter forever or at what point I’d stop. If you look at the
direction of society, there’s no sign of stoppage anywhere. I think in twenty years people who are
truly passionate about blogging and digital creation will still be doing it to an extent, just maybe
not in the way they use platforms at age twenty-three, like me. I know a lot of bloggers who

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eventually become parents and make their children accounts and kind of blog vicariously that
way. Based on my hypothesis then, I’ll probably become the kind of mom who adequately trains
their child to take good outfit pictures.

Sara predicts that fashion influencers will break into another aspect of lifestyle blogging,
otherwise known today as “mommy blogging.” Wherever these women end up, it is a fair
argument that they will still like to incorporate aesthetically-pleasing beauty and style into their
content, because this is the premise of their brands.
If this happens, influencing through whatever social media platforms are predicted to
dominate in later years will still be plenty relevant. Even as the fashion world changes from
season to season, the demand in influencer marketing seems like it will be here to stay. If any of
the women we follow choose to stop posting outfit pictures and make accounts for their toddlers
instead, they will be able to promote all new products in all new industries. Whatever way we
look at it, relevancy is not a threat to them in the near future.
What does seem to be worth taking into account, though, is the future of Instagram.
Based on how well the app is doing these past three years, it does seem like it will continue to
stay on top of its competitors, as Caroline mentions. But as Nick and many other members in the
study shared, everyday users are starting to get tired of seeing so many ads. Feeds don’t look the
same as they used to, and what’s most important to note is the fact that the Instagram feed isn’t
even the primary form of marketing on the app anymore. Instagram stories will soon become
oversaturated with marketing tactics, and while this may bring up lots of new opportunities for
businesses, especially those with their own influencer marketing teams, this may bring the level
of user likeability down over time. It’s already happening now.

55
Towards the end of my interview with Sara, I asked her what her favorite part about
creating content and using social media was. I wanted to get a sense of why influencers do what
they do, and what the most exciting part may be for them, especially after posting and creating
consistently for several years. I wondered about burn-out, and if that had ever come across her
mind:
Sara: Aside from getting to visit cool places and wearing crazy outfits and being a burden in
public to get solid content, which, despite my tone, I’m actually not mocking because it’s fun, I
truly love the feeling of when my feed looks amazing because I have the perfect variety of
content and everyone notices it and revels in my hard work. It’s all about the FEED because that
is my product and therefore my end goal. I definitely do capitalize off that feeling of pride. I
noticed that my likes haven’t disappeared on Instagram yet and I sort of wish they would because
I really don’t care about numbers anymore. I love that I have a community made up of people
I’ve encountered over the years who root for me even though we barely interact and they owe me
nothing. That’s my favorite part about creating content, no matter what the app is. I just love
being able to be part of peoples’ lives that way.

No matter what platforms we use in the future or how high in demand influencer
marketing may be in twenty years, those creators who will truly flourish at the end of the day are
still going to be the ones who do it because they love it, not because they’re desperately trying to
become mega-influencers. This mentality will ultimately take any content creator to the peak of
his or her success, because that success will be measured by her or his own sentiments that form
throughout the course of the individual’s creative work, not because of how many likes he or she
generates from each post or how many followers he or she has.
Based on our research, we know that influencers can actually become too big and in turn
lose some of their credibility towards their audience members. Because high follower count isn’t
always a good thing, influencers in any niche always need to stay current on their market

56
research so that they can tap into other lifestyle sectors if they need to and find new ways to
appear relatable and sentimental. If done correctly, these influencers will gain popularity
overtime, rather than controversial internet fame. Those who gain fame but don’t actually
resonate with their audience members are more of social media stars than they are actual
influencers, because they’re more of a new-age form of entertainment than they are inspiring.
They don’t inspire others to model their lives like theirs, or appear to be distant friends in the
same community.
Celebrities can choose to be influencers, and we do see a rise in the success of influencers
who have decided to become entrepreneurs as well. Women like Weylie Hoang in this niche,
who has just recently launched womn., are already starting to understand this and take matters
into their own hands. Ellen Kim (@spreadfashion) is recently pregnant with her first child and
although she has started to post pregnancy content and advice on her main page, she reassures
her audience that her main focus is still fashion, and that her content isn’t going to change
entirely. It’s a great example of how these women can pioneer this space and maintain their
relevance any way that they want, both within the fashion sector and outside of it, too. As we can
see, even Sara’s passion for her content stems from the feeling of pride she gets from arranging
her rainbow feed a certain way, and she could care less about being a micro-influencer or a
mega-influencer. In the future, it will be most important to work towards measuring a content
creator’s influence past just likes and comments. Since we are already finding new ways to
measure their growth that determines more qualitative data over quantitative, we are now
expanding this industry the way we need to as new digital platforms emerge.

57
For Future Influencers in This Market
Moving forward, how should we push these women and their accounts to grow, based on
the findings above? Should we encourage new entrants into the influencer market? For those
wanting to enter this niche, how should they go about it? To put our conclusions into simpler
terms, here is a list of takeaways that future and current Asian female fashion influencers should
take into consideration for the next generation:
1. Don’t get caught up in follower count.
2. Do take sentiment into account.
3. Asians are both a demographic and a community.
4. KOLs can benefit from being a content creator in Los Angeles, but only if they choose to
do so.
5. Don’t assume that the Asian market is clearly defined.
6. Los Angeles is going to remain a hub for Asian content creators, especially the ones in
this niche, for a long, long time.
7. Similarly, don’t count the Bay Area market out.
8. For influencers that don’t actually have purchasing power or credibility, they should
aspire to and be called “social media stars” rather than “influencers.”
9. There is still space for new entrants if they enter the market strategically. They should use
a variety of platforms and expand to more than one sector.
10. There is no stopping this niche in the near future. Asian influencers as a whole are here to
stay.

58
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Appendix A: Focus Group
Members: Caroline Kurdian, Iris Ding, Jordan Joyner, Kathy Zheng, Kyndall Echolls, Nick
Sheckells, Rex Lyu, Shamara Carney

Questions:
What are some things that turn you off in influencers?
Kathy: Slim teas! When they do the ad or sponsors for eating the detox teas or the [diet] pills and
stuff. It’s like, getting less...but there’s still some.
Caroline: Khloe Kardashian, basically.
What else? Maybe it's something about their page or their feed or the way that they write
their captions.
Caroline: I will be honest, I hardly read captions. If they're really long I probably won't read
them. But I mean it won't make me not like the picture, but I guess I don't like when there's not
much creativity in the picture.
Iris: For me, it’s [that] some creative influencers they do creative content. But then at some point
they start doing all vlogs. And then all of a sudden their content becomes vlogs. That’s the point
where I start losing interest. What’s the point of [that], why do I have to follow? Everyone has
their [own] life.

Do you feel like there’s anything that KOLs do better than influencers here should adopt?
Iris: I feel like there's a big difference. You know for Asian influencers, maybe it's cultural or
where they come from, they don’t have very strong individuality or personality like the
influencers here. Like Jeffree Star. In China, you will never see an influencer like Kim
Kardashian or Jeffree Star, because they are too in-your-face. They cause too many issues-
Caroline: Oh, [like] controversial.
I: Yeah, controversial. In China, no influencer would do that kind of thing because they know it
might hurt their reputation or the brands would be afraid to collaborate with them.

Do you ever feel more inclined to follow somebody because they look similar to you?
Kathy: I would say there’d probably be an internal bias that you don't recognize. But I feel like I
wouldn’t intentionally only seek out Asian influencers.
Jordan: It’s kind of like what you said. You wouldn’t know unless you look through your
followers that you actually do stick to your [race]. I think for me, I don’t know if you guys know
who Bryant is, but he has his own, [blog], TopTea. For me, I’m kind of drawn to the shade room
ideas with black entertainment, black celebrities, that kind of [thing] when I’m online or on
social media, so I can identify with who those stars are. I've seen them in shows that I like, or
movies that I like.

For those of you who follow influencers for style, like fashion influencers or fitness
influencers, what is it about their style that resonates with you?
Rex: I think one style/fashion influencer I follow is Go-go boy. I think we have more similar
lifestyle[s], you know, so he's promoting minimalism, like women's clothes for guys. This is my
same style. So I just feel like his recommendation really speaks my mind, so that's why I like his
content.
Iris: I know him; he’s a super famous, also [a] very girly influencer in China. For me I feel like I

62
don’t follow those super famous influencers. I feel like when they get super famous their content,
I start not trusting them.

Focus Group (Emailed)
Members: Cathy Park

Questions:
What type of content do you like to see? (real-time posts, posts that have links to where
they got items, etc.)
I personally don’t like seeing sponsored content, but if the influencer can integrate the product
well with their organic content, that’s definitely a plus. Overall, I tend to gravitate toward
humorous content.

For those of you who follow KOLs, what differences do you see between their posts and
influencers here, if any?
I feel like KOLs post content that provides more direct value to the audiences. An example is
Anna Akana. She’s an advocate for mental health and posts a lot of educational content about
mental health and how to live a happier life. Because she’s a KOL in the mental health space, she
has a specific niche that she speaks to, and she has more credibility in that space.

For those of you who do follow Asian influencers, what is it about them that resonates with
you? What doesn’t?
I really enjoy watching content that is related to food, family and more lifestyle aspects, since the
Asian American lifestyle is one that most Asian Americans can resonate with. I also like Asian
American influencers because in traditional media, like Hollywood, Asians have been severely
underrepresented. However, in nontraditional, social media, Asian American presence flourishes.
It’s truly a testament to how Asian Americans have risen up through their own means.

Where do you see the future of social media influencers in these next 10 years?
I personally think influencer marketing will lose value in years to come (if it doesn’t go through
some kind of restructuring). The market is so heavily saturated, and I think audiences and
consumers are kind of “over it” at this point. Although I don’t ever see it going away completely,
I think it will have to become more personable and niche-focused.

63
Appendix B: Interviews
#1: Follower Interview
Connie Kim

Questions:
On a scale of 1-10, how important is location (LA in particular) to you when choosing who
to follow?
Location is very important to me since I like to see fashion inspiration from people who live in
similar climates as me. Living in CA, it wouldn't make sense for me to follow influencers in the
Midwest since they would have more winter fashion which is unnecessary for me. The
environment is also important as it has to be relatable. I wouldn't want to follow someone who is
based out of Indiana since their lifestyles would just be so different from mine and I'm looking
for more relatable content.

In your own personal life, does LA seem appealing to you? Why or why not? And does
your race have anything to do with this?
LA is very appealing to me as I am trying to build a career in the fashion/e-
commerce/entertainment industry, which LA would be the most prime location for. There is also
a big community of Koreans and Asian-Americans in general here so there is a bit of a comfort
knowing that.

What are some ways that you find yourself engaging with influencers? (Giveaways, likes,
etc.) Which methods of engagement do you find most effective? Why?
I participate in giveaways whenever they create one, like photos, participate in polls, and
sometimes reply to their stories and exchange DM's. I think conversing with influencers is a
great way of engaging because you are getting that 1-1 interaction and speaking to them
personally.

#2: KOL Interview
Yifan Liu

Questions:
I know you've spoken to a USC class before right? What did you talk about there and how
was that?
I just introduced some Chinese platforms. Most of the students, they are not aware of the Chinese
platforms and how they work. [I talked about] how I got started and then my content and then
my future plan.

What are some things that make LA feel like home?
Probably because I have a cousin here and we are very close because [as] you know, we are all
the only child in China, right, their one child policy. So we are pretty close and then I love my
nephew and my niece. We just want to watch them grow and then I love my church friends here,
and...I don't know, LA just feels special. It has everything.

64

So, what number [following] would you say you have to reach for agencies to want to start
to work with you?
2 years ago, you had to have some existing content already for agencies to notice you. Now the
business model is really changing and every agency is trying to get more creators. Back at that
time, maybe the agency will offer 30% for the creators and 70% for the agency, but now it's like
70% to creators because every agency is trying to get more talented creators. Now it’s just like
every influencer, if you keep posting, will get offers from some agencies. Yeah, I was shocked,
cuz I signed [a] contract with only 30%. [The contract is] For 3 years.

#3: Micro-influencer Interview
Sara Ameri

Questions:
What type of social media influencer (Nano to Mega) do you consider yourself to be? Do
you consider yourself an influencer at all? Why or why not?
I love the term micro-influencer because it's a title that insinuates content creation without taking
it too seriously. Having under 5,000 followers mostly built from my communities (school,
Disney, etc) I don't consider myself to be huge, but I have had enough people I work with or am
friends with who tell me they did something because I did it and that in itself is enough to
constitute at least microscopic evidence of influential behavior!

What is the biggest challenge that you face as a content creator?
The greatest challenge is growth. Not likes or followers, but actual growth within ratios. I'm fine
when it comes to collecting content, being authentic, engagement, etc. But I've found that due to
forces both within and outside of my control that it's really hard to grow in an organic way. After
I graduated college I knew I wanted to push my account in a less "local" sense which is why I
leaned towards the Disney community for a while, but it's hard to fit in when I'm kind of a
myriad of account types...I do Disney stuff, fashion stuff, food stuff, etc...and I think that makes
it really hard for me to grasp one audience and grow within that one community. It's like I'm
spreading myself too thin among too many different realms because I just like a lot of things!!

If you could send one message to your following about your content, what would it be?
One message....I don't really feel like I resonate with this question because I don't really blog for
a greater purpose. That's my self-aware answer for you. I kind of just like to flex my outfits that
match with my environments. I guess I would want people to know even though I do things that
feed into "Social media being fake", such as how I stagger my content or change outfits in public
or use tons of hashtags to extend my reach, my content is still genuine. It all really accurately
reflects things I like and enjoy. I get why it's contradictory and hard to believe on Instagram, but
I want people to know that I am truly just a person who likes getting photos of my outfit taken
and sorting stuff by color. All that matters is the stuff I'm posting is stuff I've done at one point or
another!

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Asset Metadata

Creator Li, Vivien (author)

Core Title Why we follow influencers: the role of Asian female fashionistas in Los Angeles

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Strategic Public Relations

Publication Date 04/24/2020

Defense Date 04/23/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Asian,Asian American,content creation,digital media,Fashion,Female,influencer,Instagram,lifestyle,OAI-PMH Harvest,Public Relations

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Floto, Jennifer (committee chair), Kozinets, Robert (committee member), Nager, Freddy (committee member)

Creator Email vivienli@usc.edu,vivienli2010@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-288703

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA