Construcción y uso de marca personal en Instagram, de los estudiantes de la Universidad Técnica de Machala de la carrera de Comunicación

Abstract

The competitive professional environment within the communication career requires the management of communication strategies framed in new social trends. In this sense, the construction and development of the personal brand is therefore a very useful tool in the educational and professional field in the area of communication. From this arises the need to investigate students' knowledge and perception of the value of a solid personal brand. The general objective of this study is to identify the communication strategies used by communication students from the Technical University of Machala who manage a personal brand on Instagram. To achieve the general objective, specific actions are proposed such as identifying the communication strategies used by communication students who manage a personal brand, analyzing the communication strategies they use on Instagram, and determining the communication strategies for building the brand. The theory regarding the topic and its background is relatively new, since it emerged in recent decades with the appearance of ICT and virtual environments, in which social networks become part of the media, for their part. Instagram is one of the most current networks, among its advantages are accessibility, universality, and the fact that users are people of economically active ages; Among the disadvantages are, the traceability and vulnerability that arises from the use of virtual platforms are the most relevant.. Regarding the methodology, the approach of the study is qualitative, its main methodological interest is the content analysis, supported by the descriptive method; The techniques and instruments for collecting information are the survey and interview; The information collection process consists of two phases, in the first a survey was applied to 113 students of the communication major, of which five were selected using the discretionary sampling technique, in which the fundamental criterion was that they possess a solid and active personal brand, with a minimum of 1000 followers, in the second phase an interview was applied to those selected, and with this the content analysis of their personal brands was carried out, for which purpose the aspects observed in the brands were synthesized , in a content analysis matrix. Among the most relevant results, the communication strategies of the brands were identified: Posts, Reels, photos, videos (type Vlogs), stories, direct messages, collaboration with other brands and exchanges. In addition, it was possible to relate the success of some brands, with strategies such as the interaction of the brand owner through direct messages and with a greater frequency of publications. The main conclusions are summarized in: the personal brand on Instagram allows you to possess an identity and build a community of followers, it is evident that the humanization of the brand, frequency of publications, interaction with followers, are key aspects for its success. It was found that this platform is used to promote businesses, for monetary interest purposes.