Social Media and Brand Credibility: Qualitative Content Analysis of Instagram Influencers in Beauty Sector

Influencer marketing has become a crucial branding strategy as social media evolves within the digital landscape. In the beauty sector, it holds particular significance due to product demonstrations, where influencers lead and shape consumer behavior to establish brand credibility. This research examines the relationship between social media influencers and brand credibility on Instagram within the beauty industry by analyzing selected influencers' posts, videos and view patterns. The study aims to explore how influencers convey brand messages to build brand credibility and investigates factors that influence followers' perceptions, such as trustworthiness, loyalty and awareness. To this end, the top four female influencers, ranked by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce based on interaction rate, number of followers, content quality and brand collaborations, were selected through purposive sampling and analyzed using a qualitative content analysis method. The findings indicate that influencers benefit from market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and digital marketing methods in maintaining brand credibility. This study aims to contribute to the growing body of literature on influencer marketing and provide insights for marketers and brand managers leveraging social media to enhance brand credibility.