Date of Award

Summer 7-23-2026

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Communication and Digital Studies

Department Chair or Program Director

Whalen, Zach

First Advisor

Goldman, Adria

Major or Concentration

Communication and Digital Studies

Abstract

This study examines how audiences engage with beauty influencer content across social media platforms, with a focus on James Charles on TikTok and Instagram. While existing research highlights the importance of authenticity, content strategy, and influencer characteristics in driving engagement, less attention has been given to how engagement varies across platforms and how users express interaction qualitatively. To address this gap, this study employs qualitative content analysis to examine 100 audience comments, with fifty comments collected from each platform.

Using thematic coding, comments were categorized into four primary forms of engagement: audience participation, product interest, entertainment, and trust/credibility. In addition, constant comparative analysis identified five recurring emotional subcategories: love, excitement, want/desire, pride, and idolization. Findings reveal that audience engagement differs significantly between platforms. TikTok fosters more participatory, conversational, and emotionally expressive interactions, often characterized by exaggerated language, emojis, and community-driven responses. In contrast, Instagram engagement is more structured and product-focused, with users frequently seeking information about products and expressing purchase intent.

The results also demonstrate that authenticity is closely tied to emotional engagement, as audiences respond more strongly to content perceived as personal and relatable. Furthermore, the findings suggest that for large influencers, engagement does not diminish but instead shifts in form depending on platform context. Overall, this study highlights the importance of platform-specific features in shaping how audiences engage with influencer content and emphasizes that engagement is both behavioral and affective in nature.

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