Self-Promotion Practices and Context Collapse Management of Adult Content Creators on OnlyFans

Content creators' self-promotion strategies play a significant role in their usage of social media. While these self-promotion practices have been extensively researched, there is less known in regards to content creators who produce adult content. Our study focuses on OnlyFans, a digital patronage platform with a large user base of adult content creators. Despite its popularity, OnlyFans possesses key limitations that lead creators to other social media platforms for self-promotion and audience building. This study explores the self-promotion strategies and context collapse management among adult content creators on OnlyFans. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 OnlyFans creators, we investigated their approaches to self-promotion, audience growth, and boundary management among different social media platforms. OnlyFans creators face unique challenges compared to other creators due to the stigma associated with adult content and digital sex work. Our findings reveal the unique strategies they employ to navigate the constraints of their work in tandem with maintaining boundaries to avoid context collapse. This research contributes to a broader understanding of the nuances of impression management within under-researched, stigmatized online communities. We discuss how these motivations and strategies to build a sustainable online presence lie in tension with the risks associated with adult content creation.