Exploring female siblings as social media influencers in the Arab World

Abstract

This paper aims to explore a new phenomenon sweeping across the Arab World of female sibling social media influencers. Social media influencers are well known for having started as informed bloggers and social networkers. They built for themselves an aura of authority in certain areas thus attracting people to follow them; some of their followers become fans. This paper will give an overview of the phenomenon of female sibling social media influencers, drawing upon the case study of a number of examples of female sibling social media influencers from the Arab World. It will look at why this is an important phenomenon, how female social media influencers behave online and the common characteristics they have. This paper is of exploratory nature and draws the attention to a growing phenomenon worth exploring and researching further. The paper identifies a number of potential areas and opportunities for future research.