Running head: PR AND YOUTUBE BEAUTY GURUS 1

Public Relations in the YouTube Beauty Community: How the Audience Feels

Melanie Alize

Kennesaw State University

PR AND BEAUTY GURUS 2

The popularity of the beauty community on YouTube continues to grow; The advertising

of products on beauty channels has also significantly increased. As Berryman and Kavka (2017)

emphasize, the beauty community is “one of the fastest-growing and most overtly feminized

subsets of the YouTube community”, meaning a lot of people look up to these influencers (p.

307). With such easy access to social media today, influencers have become more powerful and

impactful than in the past (Brahma, 2018).

The purpose of this qualitative research is to explore how audiences of beauty influencers

on YouTube react to an influencers choice to advertise PR packages and how it affects their

following. Many studies have been done on the role these influencers play, the pros and cons

between influencers and doing business through PR, and how advertising like this has changed

over the years, but little, if any, research has been done from the audience’s perspective and how

they feel about it. The following research question will be addressed:

RQ: How do audiences feel about influencers advertising products on YouTube in the

beauty community?

Literature Review

The following review of literature focuses on two central themes related to the beauty

industry: Influencers on YouTube and public relations.

Influencers on YouTube

Over the past several years, YouTube, and the beauty community on YouTube, have

grown staggeringly. Berryman and Kavka (2017) emphasize that this is one of the fastest-

growing subsets of the YouTube community. Wolf and Archer (2018) define an influencer as an

“individual who has the power to substantially influence the behavior or opinion of others, often

due to perceived superior power, wealth, social status, expertise or intellect” (p. 502). Someone
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who exemplifies this definition on YouTube is woman named Zoe 'Zoella' Sugg, who was

quoted saying, “It is really bizarre, because they know everything about me; they know where

I've been, what I've been up to, what I had for dinner last night ... and I don't know anything

about them” (Berryman and Kavaka, 2017, p. 3). This quote illustrates the intimacy between the

influencer and the viewer, but from the influencer’s perspective. They go on about how her

success ultimately comes from the strong intimacy she shares with her audience.

Research also focuses on the power influencers possess. Brahma (2018) points out that

with such easy access to social media today, influencers have become more powerful and

impactful than in the past. Zeljko, Jakovic, and Strugar (2018) explain that “individuals like

certain bloggers and similar public opinion leaders have a stronger influence and credibility than

traditional media such as the Wall Street Journal” (p. 2). A survey was conducted by Xiao,

Wang, & Chan-Olmsted (2018) and “The results reveal that trustworthiness, social influence,

argument quality, and information involvement are influential factors affecting consumer

perceived information credibility on YouTube” (p. 188). With the types of audiences these

influencers have, it is more beneficial for certain brands to reach out to influencers and partner

with them because they play such a large role on a significant amount of people.

Zeljko et al. (2018) stress that influencer marketing requires a lot of work and planning

on both sides. Brands and businesses need to make sure that influencers are portraying the

correct thing and their principles, while still making it personal through the intimacy they already

share. Wolf and Archer (2018) share that at end of the day, the company’s values still are key.

Companies still need to be very wise in choosing who they do business with because it could

potentially turn for the worse and ruin a company’s reputation (Brahma, 2018). Since social

media is so widely used today, if the company and the influencer had a fall out, this influencer
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could use their power and turn perhaps millions away from them. Zeljko et al. (2018) say that

“consumers have more confidence in the opinion of influencers than traditional advertising,

especially family and friends” (p.3). The quality of being trusted in is crucial for these

influencers, and they have to demonstrate it to their audiences.

Influencer credibility also plays a key role in how influencers can market brands.

Audiences must have trust in these people in order for the companies to be successful and

something that comes with credibility is the influencers following. Zeljko et al. (2018) say that,

“One of the most frequently used measures to identify the influencer is the number of followers”

(p. 3). Based on the following of an influencer, this will determine the success that the influencer

brings to the business. In addition to influencers intimacy with their audiences, they also need to

have the appropriate skills in order to be successful.

Public Relations

Public relations between YouTube influencers and business has also grown and changed

in the recent years as it has changed from physical to digital. Berryman and Kavka (2017) found

the following:

Devoted to enriching product knowledge, sharing tips and teaching technical skills, the

YouTube beauty group consists predominantly of women aged 14–34 who, either by

posting videos themselves or contributing to discussions using YouTube’s commenting

function, have fostered a collaborative, knowledge-sharing community about makeup,

skincare, hair and nails. (p. 2)

Gendron (2017) states that while traditional media marketing is still important, today’s

PR campaigns take into consideration the new digital platforms as well as analytics to make sure
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companies are working with the right people. Knowing the influencer and their audience is key

to being successful.

Selection of media makes all the difference with reaching the right audience. Brahma

(2018) explains this with an example that when you are talking to young females, visual media

has a higher conversion rate compared with written content, so for example, Instagram, Snapchat

or Twitter would reach this audience best. If a company or business were trying to reach older

men in regarding something like government decisions, “nothing works more than good old

newspapers” (p. 6). While the variation may have made things more difficult, it is so important

to use PR on different platforms for different audiences for businesses to be most successful.

PR does not only benefit from the influencers advertising their products, but influencers

benefit too. They always keep the product they are advertising, they have better chances to collab

with other brands as well as having the chance to create their own brand or personal line within a

brand. Berryman and Kavka (2017) go on to talk about different examples of women in the

beauty community having great opportunities like this which ultimately helps both sides of the

spectrum greatly. The audience may feel as if this is a good opportunity for their idols online, but

there is so much more that goes into it. Wolf and Archer (2018) conclude that PR professionals

in Singapore and Western Australia are overwhelmingly positive about the future of their

profession and PR on digital platforms.

Method

Surveys

I will survey women from the ages of 18-24 using a questionnaire for time sensitivity in

this qualitative research. I chose this specific group as this is the age of women who utilize the

beauty community the most on YouTube. I expect to gain insight on their thoughts of the beauty
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community and see if they have the intimacy that others have that will drive them to buy

products advertised by influencers.

Sample

The sample will consist of 100 international women who watch the beauty community on

YouTube ranging from ages of 18-24. I am choosing a larger sample as this will be an online

questionnaire with open and close-ended questions that can be accessed with any mobile phone

or computer. I will begin by sharing my questionnaire link on my Facebook, Instagram and

GroupMe’s. I am 100% sure this will reach international women as I lived in Switzerland, went

to an international school and still keep in contact with these women. In addition to questions

being asked about YouTube, the questionnaire will ask for ethnicity and age to make sure my

data is precise.

Self-Reflexivity

As a 9-year-old living in Switzerland with nothing to watch on TV in English, I resorted

to YouTube for entertainment. I found the beauty community and have not stopped watching

since! I am very curious to see how influential these influencers really are, and how they affect

their audience.
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References

Berryman, R., & Kavka, M. (2017). ‘I guess a lot of people see me as a big sister or a friend’:

The role of intimacy in the celebrification of beauty vloggers. Journal of Gender Studies,

26(3), 307-320. doi:0.1080/09589236.2017.1288611

Brahma, M. (2018). Times they are a changin’ in corporate communications and PR. Global

Media Journal: Indian Edition, 9(1), 1-6. Retrieved from

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=b809933d-

f90c4cc290e8b0bdfe3e233a

%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d

%3d#AN=133734189&db=ufh

Gendron, M. (2017). From public relations to brand activation: Integrating today’s

communications tools to move business forward. Global Business & Organizational

Excellence, 36(3), 6-13. doi:10.1002/joe.21775

Wolf, K., & Archer, C. (2018). Public relations at the crossroads. Journal of Communication

Management, 22(4), 494-509. Retrieved from

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=8&sid=3c67edeb-

dbcc4794a9eeb3b59af992b8%40pdcvsessmgr06&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc

2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=132583334&db=edb

Xiao, M., Wang, R., & Chan-Olmsted, S. (2018). Factors affecting YouTube influencer

marketing credibility: A heuristic-systematic model. Journal of Media Business Studies,

15(3), 188-213. doi:10.1080/16522354.2018.1501146

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Zeljko, D., Jakovic, B., & Strugar, I. (2018). New methods of online advertising: Social media

influencers. Annals of DAAAM & Proceedings, 29, 41-50.

doi:10.2507/29th.daaam.proceedings.006