Influencer Creep is published with University of California Press. Buy it here in the US or here in the UK.
Based on ethnographic research with influencers and artists, Influencer Creep is about three aspects of influencer culture and how they have transformed creative work: optimisation, authenticity and self branding.
Influencer creep recognises that influencers are specialists at navigating the technical requirements of platforms, capturing the attention of an audience and growing brand value, and that this work is highly skilled. So, instead of dismissing influencers as frivolous, vain, and consumerist, we should see them as sophisticated architects of some of the very strategies that shape life as lived on social media today.
Sophie Bishop 