Influencer Creep: How Optimization, Authenticity, and Self-Branding Transform Creative Culture

by Sophie Bishop

A look at how we are all increasingly expected to be social influencers at work.
 
A sculptor works while wearing a GoPro camera to capture Instagram content. A painter decides whether to make pieces that she won't be able to share on Instagram, after her account was blocked for sharing "sexualized" content. An artist finds that her portraits of light-skinned women get an algorithmic boost over those featuring dark-skinned models. These creative workers are now using the content-generation skills and promotional strategies pioneered by influencers to compete for visibility online.

Influencer Creep explores what happens when creative workers must go beyond their work to build a comprehensive online presence. Communications expert Sophie Bishop delineates how professional influencers affected the ways creative workers navigate social media platforms. They must optimize their content to win the favor of opaque algorithms they do not control. They must engage in relentless self-branding, creating a compelling, consistent, and platform-ready image. And that image, in spite of being carefully manufactured, must be perceived as authentic.

Taking seriously the motivations that drive more and more people into the contest for online visibility, Influencer Creep documents a creative workforce nervously conforming to the monopoly power of social media platforms—and occasionally resisting it.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction

273 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2025

Reviews

[Aurelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot I liked and appreciated about this book. Specifically, the sections about influencer apology videos and art vs. porn, which succinctly put into words thoughts that I’ve had for a long time. Bishop also talks about the performance of authenticity and amateurism artists and influencers must engage with to be successful and how artists use social media to validate their position as an artist. This section referenced Walter Benjamin’s theory on perceptions of authenticity in art, which I found to be very astute. Tbh this book was super well researched and had great examples, even tho it was weird reading about Mr.Beast and Emma Chamberlain in an academic setting.

The one thing that did bother me about this book ngl was the constant use of the phrase “influencer creep”. I get that it is the thesis of the book, but I did feel like the phrase did not necessarily fit into every sentence it was used in. This is a personal pet peeve of mine tho. I don’t really like when books rely so heavily on a phrase in this way.

[Bridget Cobb]

My new library didn’t have this book and I didn’t finish it before I moved