Going pro in the business of influence: unfolding influencers’ trajectories through influencing capital

This study examines the rise and professionalisation of fashion influencers, focusing on their visibility and legitimacy achieved through professional content production and social media monetisation. It draws on the concept of ‘trajectories’ to capture the dynamic nature of influencers’ professional paths, contrasting traditional notions of ‘career’. The research analyses the resources influencers mobilise and generate to sustain their activities, based on in-depth interviews with 21 influencers. A process model traces their transition from amateur bloggers to professional influencers, unveiling the mechanisms driving the business of influence. The study introduces ‘influencing capital’, a unique form of professional capital that underpins this business. By synthetising diverse trajectories and forms of capital, it addresses gaps in influencer literature, proposing a unified interpretative model. Using a Bourdieusian framework, it reveals how influencers transform cultural, social, and economic capital into influencing capital, a resource central to professionalisation and capital accumulation in the platform economy.