At the backstage of feminised content creation: How influencer marketing agencies and their data practices shape social media work

Abstract

To explore the strengthening role of influencer marketing agencies, this study turns its focus away from creators to the ‘backstage’ of feminised social media work. Using an algorithmic ethnographic approach informed by critical feminist inquiry, this study investigates how influencer marketing agencies’ data practices shape content creation. Through observation and content analysis of creator events, staff meetings, briefings, webinars and other educational material, as well as interviews with staff members, three distinct categories connected with data practices were recognised: anticipation, adaptation and negotiation. It is argued that while influencer agencies negotiate between creation and platform control, they only rarely resist the algorithmic logics of platforms or negotiate practices to fit their ideals instead of adapting to platforms and their business models. Situating agencies’ daily work within the larger historical tradition of advertising, commodification of audiences and feminised labour, this study offers pathways for understanding how influencer marketing shapes social media today.