How Does Brand-related User-generated Content Vary on Instagram?

This study explores differences in brand-related user-generated content (UGC) between highly symbolic brands and medium symbolic brands on Instagram. Qualitative analyses identified themes and brand mentioning strategies while quantitative analysis used 900 highly visual posts from Instagram to test hypotheses. Both qualitative and quantitative findings have showed the difference between six brands on individual prominence, product prominence and brand prominence in UGC. Additionally this study suggests making a distinction between different types of brands and gender when analysing brand-related UGC on highly visual SNS. It has been found that both highly symbolic and medium symbolic brand-related UGC on Instagram is used for self-presentational purposes thus this study shed light on how consumers self-present their identity through use of brands.