Date

10-14-2026

Department

School of Communication and the Arts

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Communication (PhD)

Chair

Marie Mallory

Keywords

Personal branding, cultivation theory, Instagram, content analysis, Forbes 30 Under 30, thematic analysis, audience engagement, self-presentation

Disciplines

Communication | Marketing

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the personal branding practices of 10 honorees from the Forbes 2025 North American 30 Under 30 list. Through a thematic content analysis of Instagram, the honorees’ posts, captions, and the conversation climate of their comments from October 2025 were analyzed to determine patterns and similarities in their personal branding practices. Grounded in cultivation theory, this study explored how repeated exposure to curated content of these high-achieving young professionals shapes their personal brand perception. Additionally, it explored their interaction with commenters and the types of comments they engaged with. The analysis revealed seven themes that were present in at least half of the honorees’ posts and captions, including: behind-the-scenes, collaboration, culinary content, lifestyle content, performance, personal connections, and promotion. The conversation climate findings indicated that honorees whose personal brands are grounded in their professional achievements outside of social media cultivated their brand perception through their posts, while honorees who largely built their brands through social media engaged with commenters through two-directional communication, which further shaped their brand perception. It addressed two gaps found in current personal branding and cultivation theory literature. No prior research has examined personal branding on Instagram through a cultivation lens or the comment section from the creator's perspective as a cultivating force. The findings are significant as this study extended cultivation theory to examine personal branding practices on Instagram, and demonstrated that individual content creators on Instagram can produce the same cultivating effects on audience perception that the theory initially attributed to mass media institutions.

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