Executive Summary

In this report, a qualified fitness instructor who has amassed an internet following is profiled.
This report demonstrates how the online celebrity leverages her character as a brand to
maintain contact with her audience. Various followers are drawn to her depending on her
various personality traits. In order to appeal to each platform's audience, the online celebrity
in this article displays herself in a distinctive way on each platform. The report comprises an
introduction about the online celebrity, a platform overview of each social media site where
the celebrity is active, information about the online identity each platform displays, and a
conclusion that wraps up the entire report.
Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Platform Overview................................................................................................................................4
YouTube............................................................................................................................................4
Instagram...........................................................................................................................................4
TikTok...............................................................................................................................................4
Twitter...............................................................................................................................................5
Online Identity.......................................................................................................................................6
YouTube............................................................................................................................................6
Instagram...........................................................................................................................................7
TikTok...............................................................................................................................................8
Twitter...............................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................10
References...........................................................................................................................................11
Appendix A – YouTube......................................................................................................................13
Appendix B – Instagram......................................................................................................................14
Appendix C – TikTok..........................................................................................................................15
Appendix D – Twitter..........................................................................................................................16
Introduction
American social media fitness entrepreneur Cassey Ho Vinh runs a company that offers
activewear and a YouTube channel (Team NIH, 2022). Ho wrote on her blog in 2014 to draw
attention to the negative health effects of picture manipulation after witnessing a
photoshopped image of a model with an unnatural-looking thigh gap on Target's website.
Target later issued an apology for changing the image. Ho made a YouTube video titled “The
Perfect Body” in April 2015 in response to remarks made about her physical appearance. Ho
was included in the third annual list of "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet"
published by Time in 2017 (Jana, 2021). Females in their early twenties to forties who are
interested in adopting a healthy lifestyle or shaping their bodies make up the majority of the
online celebrity's audience.

To seek a profession as a fashion buyer, the internet star relocated to Massachusetts from
California. She wasn't just saying goodbye to her loved ones and close friends; she was also
saying goodbye to the pupils who cherished her engaging, pop-filled Pilates courses. She
made the decision to share her training videos in order to maintain contact with her pupils.
Her films got thousands of views and hundreds of comments, she discovered. When she saw
how important it was to encourage having a healthy, good body image, she made the decision
to take her channel seriously. She came to understand that social media platforms had
allowed her to interact with countless other women who desired to lead healthier lives and
that she could help them using her platform.

The goal of this paper is to use brand and image theories to determine how online celebrities
convey their brands and images to their audiences. Online celebrities will also be able to use
this study to gain a better understanding of how the opportunities and limitations of the
platforms that they use to interact with their audience affect how they engage with their
audience. In order to become more competitive on the job market, self-branding requires
people to view themselves as goods that can be sold to a wide audience. The discourse of
self-branding leads to self-presentation in a very particular, practical way, necessitating
continuous self-reflection and review in order to build a strong brand that will be consistent
throughout all encounters.

These famous people have been gaining a huge following on social media over the past ten
years and are known as social media influencers in a commercial setting. As a result, they are
valued as partners by businesses that are interested in promoting their products (Ziewiecki,
2018). Marketers work with social media influencers for commercial endeavours because
they view their impact on their communities as critical since these YouTubers' standing has
evolved from amateur to professional content makers (Whitmer, 2018).

Platform Overview
YouTube
The online celebrity has a YouTube channel called "blogilates" and is a licensed personal
trainer. With approximately 7.51 million subscribers, it is one of the most popular channels
for women's fitness. The online celebrity has more than a thousand videos, including shorts,
uploaded on her channel. She is confident in her role as an ally who promotes a healthy
lifestyle and a good body image. She focuses on Pilates on her channel, but she also includes
other workouts and seven-day challenges (Walravens, 2022).

She is one of the most-watched female fitness influencers on YouTube because her simple-
to-follow training videos allow people to get the greatest workout for free (Hickey, 2021). As
many as 31 million people have seen some of this online celebrity's videos, indicating the
interest her channel has garnered from viewers.

Instagram
People may post their photos using their phones with the well-known photo-sharing app
Instagram. The online celebrity has 2.3 million Instagram followers. The Instagram account
of the online celebrity has posts that keep her admirers updated approximately every 2-4
days. On her Instagram account, she has 5,960 posts, some of which have received as
many as 510k likes (Groth, 2022).

The publishing of reels instead of pictures has become the new Instagram algorithm. Regular
posting of reels is necessary to maintain contact with followers. The online celebrity appears
to be aware of this and has switched to publishing reels to keep her audiences entertained
while still achieving her account's goals. Additionally, she promotes more engagement on
Instagram stories by using stickers, sparks discussions with thought-provoking captions and
comments, and incorporates hashtags and keywords into her posts (Geyser, 2022).

TikTok
A social networking site called TikTok allows users to make, share, and find short films. The
software gives young people a platform to express themselves through lip-syncing, comedy,
dancing, and other forms of expression. Users may also make films and share them with other
people in their community (Bailey, 2021). Since 41% of TikTok users are between the ages
of 16 and 24, it is more popular with younger people. Ninety per cent of these TikTok users
claim to use the app often (Isaac, 2020).

On her TikTok account, the online celebrity has 3.4 million followers and over 86.3 million
likes. She mostly uploads all of the reels from her Instagram account to her TikTok account.
However, the majority of her TikTok followers are different from her Instagram followers,
which is why she keeps sharing the same reels (Moon, 2022).

Twitter
Users may submit "tweets," or short messages, and engage with one other on Twitter, a social
networking and microblogging platform. Twitter enables for conversational tone and
informal interaction between people and companies. In contrast to other well-known
networks, this is a conversational social platform where users are ready to interact with the
information they enjoy and not only reshare it but also offer their opinions to it (Feiner,
2022). Instagram is used to interact and engage with influencers while sharing the greatest
images and videos with followers. In contrast to Twitter, which is used for idea sharing and
keeping up with global news and trends (Forsey, 2021).

182.6K people follow the online celebrity on Twitter, and she has sent out 38.7K tweets. Her
tweets mostly concern herself and her own company's marketing. She appears to be
promoting her brand using this platform. However, she also advertises her brand on all of her
other platforms, but on Twitter, it appears like this is the only thing she is concentrating on.
Her firm is expanding well, and it appears that her strategy is working since she receives a
sufficient amount of engagement on her postings from her followers (Origy, 2021).
Online Identity
YouTube
Qasem (2019), defined influencers as those who can cause a shift in other people's views and
actions. One of the female fitness influencers on the internet, this online celebrity has
demonstrated that anyone can achieve their goals if they have a strong desire to change their
physical appearance. In order to make it simple for individuals to locate the type of workout
they have in mind; she maintains a collection of videos on YouTube. People were moved by
her distinct style and upbeat attitude when she uploaded her debut video on YouTube, and
they clamoured for more videos with various training techniques. It didn't take long for her
subscriber base to grow quickly as a result of the popularity of her videos. Viewers began to
follow her for her distinctive workout style and were inspired by the way she incorporated
music into her choreography to create a truly enjoyable workout that was not only healthy but
also simple to do (Vicky, 2020). This can be related to framing theory. According to Philip
(2018), the media gives the audience with specific information within a frame, which causes
the audience to reflect and shapes their decisions based on how they will digest the
information.

However, on her YouTube channel, she hasn't posted a complete video in nine months, but
she has started posting shorts often. Since her regular subscribers expect to see fresh fitness
videos, this action by the online celebrity is giving them a slightly unfavourable impression
of her. Her subscribers are dissatisfied, and some of them have even commented negatively
about her. They believe she has abandoned her followers in favour of pursuing financial gain
as a result of her actions. For example, one of her subscribers said, "I feel prepared to
unsubscribe at this time. I had hoped that someday full-length videos will return, but it's been
a while, and I'm sick of only seeing shorts on my feed ". Another person added, "She recently
stated in an interview that she was moving away from videos on YouTube in favour of shorts
since she was receiving far more views from them. Since YouTube videos make up the bulk
of blogilates, I think it's a stupid decision, but I assume she just thinks about quick cash these
days " (Riley, 2022).

According to Obwald (2017), the unpleasant emotions that occur when the content is no
longer relevant to the subscribers have been recognized as one of the numerous elements that
contribute to subscribers' unfollowing behaviour. Many of her subscribers believe that they
are not given the same significance as previously, and this is creating a bad impression of the
online celebrity and making her appear as though she simply thinks about money these days.
People are now leaving comments on her YouTube page about unsubscribing, saying they
used to love her workouts and she was a great motivator because her older videos were
fantastic, but they have ultimately stopped watching her because the new content she posts on
their only consists of short videos that only demonstrate one exercise. The reason people
followed her, they claimed, was because she had a lively vibe, but they are having trouble
locating it nowadays (TIEN, 2022).

In order to satisfy her fans and prevent them from developing an unfavourable opinion of the
online celebrity, she can start by posting one full-length video per week if she is too busy to
do so more frequently. She has to keep things in check across all of her social media channels
so that she can also please her YouTube fans.

Instagram
According to Karen et al. (2011), there is a little positive correlation between trait anxiety and
both the total number of follows and followers. Instagram users compare well to non-users in
terms of increased body monitoring, pressure connected to beauty, eating pathologies, and
worse body satisfaction. Numerous studies have demonstrated that users who deliberately
promote themselves on Instagram and take more selfies, such as by editing or altering photos,
report greater levels of body dissatisfaction and poorer body esteem (Öhlund, 2015).

In an effort to inspire others, the online celebrity started her Instagram account by writing
about her efforts to get healthy and how her physique had changed. She also made use of her
position to inform the public about the risks linked with cosmetic surgery and unrealistic
physical expectations. For the purpose of demonstrating to the public that it is OK to have
curves and faults, she shared photos of her body without any manipulation or filters. She
inspired the crowd to stick to her diet and exercise regimen in order to get the figure they
wanted without resorting to dangerous methods (Brar, 2019). This personality of the online
celebrity can be considered as ‘charismatic’. Wai (2021), used the phrase "charismatic
authority" in opposition to inherited and methodical, bureaucratic, "flat" methods of gaining
power and influence over others.

According to Panjrath (2021), body image is frequently found to be skewed when we place a
lot of attention on the form or size of the body and think that it is out of sync with societal
norms, or that it is different from or less desirable than the ideal portrayed in the media. The
online celebrity wanted her audience to understand that they should love and accept
themselves as they are, regardless of how they look, and not strive to fit into a current ideal.
She urged her followers to love and accept their bodies and resist the pressure to conform to
the ideal of beauty. She advised her followers to love their bodies because they are each
created with a wonderful physique (Pomarico, 2018).

She also creates reels to entertain her audiences and spread positivity to her followers, in
addition to these inspirational messages. She routinely interacts with her followers on
Instagram by doing question-and-answer sessions. People ask her questions about their diet,
exercise, health, or anything else they like, and she responds in a really gratifying and upbeat
way that makes them adore her and feel connected to her (Lieberman, 2019).

She has, however, recently begun to produce reels for her own brand that advertise her goods.
While some of her fans enjoy what she has to give, others would want more inspirational and
transformative videos. What she can do is make another page just for marketing her company
and preserve the current page for the reason for which it was created.

TikTok
According to Brian et al. (2022), to maintain and increase the number of their followers,
online celebrities must successfully manage their human brands and image. The online
celebrity creates engaging videos for her TikTok viewers, featuring mouth-watering diet food
recipes, quick workouts, and videos advertising her products. In order to address the issues
that individuals have with their workout attire and accessories, the designer solicits their
feedback and difficulties before creating the corresponding items. This demonstrates her
optimistic outlook and conveys the idea that she is concerned about her listeners. People are
drawn to this concept and feel heard, which encourages them to keep in touch with this online
superstar (Andre, 2022).

She is seen by the public as a jovial and welcoming fitness professional. She instructs with
sincerity, tells humorous tales, and grins because she truly wants to see her followers
succeed. Her aesthetic is derived from there. She doesn't use any filters or other forms of
deception when she speaks, which gives the listener a genuine impression of her. This is
because she adheres to the philosophy that exercise should be enjoyable and not feel like a
duty in order to become a long-term and sustainable component of lifestyle (Lieberman,
2019).
Twitter
Twitter activity by the online celebrity does not accurately reflect who she is. It serves more
as a marketing platform for her business. She used to share details about her marriage,
travels, and how she became interested in fitness when she first started using Twitter, which
helped others get to know her better. However, it's possible that now her new fans are
unaware of her true character. To connect with her fans personally, she could put more
emphasis on displaying various aspects of her lifestyle (Origy, 2021).

Audiences

How the brand is perceived: Because the online celebrity represents the brand in this case, her
personality will reflect the brand. We shall only discuss females because her audience
consists entirely of females. It has been described how females perceive her.

What can be done differently

The reason of her online presence

Conclusion
Controlling and influencing how people view and think of a person is necessary for effective
perception management and personal branding. In today's online, virtual, and individual era,
where we spend an increasing amount of time online and where the internet is a crucial
location to be seen, having a strong personal brand seems to be a highly valuable asset.
Creating identity through social media and using photographs as a tool to do so helps the
concept of personal branding. The report in this analysis demonstrates how Cassey Ho
engages her audience by utilizing a variety of personality qualities and her appearance. It has
also been demonstrated that in order to prevent the audience from losing interest, it is
imperative to maintain a sense of equilibrium throughout.
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Appendix A – YouTube
Appendix B – Instagram
Appendix C – TikTok
Appendix D – Twitter