Digital Influencers: Professionalization and Symbolic-Ideological Mediation

In a postmodern society dominated by information and capitalism, digital technologies, the Internet, and online social media - especially in the Web 2.0 phase - have facilitated the rise of digital influencers. These individuals use social media platforms to promote products and services to specific audiences, but their influence ability goes beyond commercial boundaries. Researchers have been interested in exploring two analytical dimensions of influencers. The first one is professionalization. Influencers perceive the online environment as a job market, employing strategies like brand partnerships, personal branding development, and audience management to transform their online visibility into a lucrative career. The second dimension involves their role as symbolic-ideological mediators. Through social media posts, influencers build narratives and use specific verbal and behavioural strategies to spread opinions, values, ideologies, beliefs and representations about authenticity, entrepreneurship, self-empowerment, body image, beauty, lifestyle, culture, and politics. Influencers' posts strongly impact their followers and have the potential to spark social movements, both online and in real-life contexts. In a multidisciplinary dialogue with a sociological focus, this communication offers theoretical and empirical insights on these topics. It presents key findings from global academic research and shares preliminary results from a critical discourse analysis of Instagram posts by Portuguese digital influencers in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industries.