When Brands Become Stans: Netflix, Originals, and Enacting a Fannish Persona on Instagram

While brand-run accounts of Twitter have attracted many a meme for their hit-and-miss attempts at relatable humor, on Instagram one type of brand account is quietly thriving: the Netflix Original series Instagram account. This paper studies brand personification on social media at a niche angle. By analyzing posts from three popular Netflix Original series Instagram accounts, we found that each account co-ops fan practices and enacts its own specific fannish persona. This paper reports on how and why Netflix enacts a fannish persona on its Original series Instagram accounts, to locate the personified Instagram account within the context of social media communication strategies. As the original advertisers of Instagram, there is established research on influencers which investigates the implications of people turning themselves into brands. What may call for more research in the future is the opposite: what are the consequences of brands turning themselves into people?