The many meanings of measure: Social media metrics and their implications for collective organizing in the influencer economy

The professional cultural production of social media influencers is mediated by social media metrics. However, metrics are the site of significant ambiguity and contest across the influencer economy. What meanings and meaningfulness do these cultural producers derive from their measures? How do they shape how influencers understand the value of their work and themselves, and with what implications for the possibility of collective organizing across this sector of the creative and cultural industries? Drawing from 16 semi-structured interviews with social media influencers, this article examines the complex and contradictory meanings that influencers derive from their social media metrics. Findings show that the meaning of metrics is fraught and far from stable, oscillating between an imposed and coercive force that does not define their worth and an internalized value system that they believe and invest in.