Findings of two experimental studies show that Instagram influencers with high numbers of followers are found more likeable, partly because they are considered more popular. Important, only in ...limited cases, perceptions of popularity induced by the influencer's number of followers increase the influencer's perceived opinion leadership. However, if the influencer follows very few accounts him-/herself, this can negatively impact popular influencers' likeability. Also, cooperating with influencers with high numbers of followers might not be the best marketing choice for promoting divergent products, as this decreases the brand's perceived uniqueness and consequently brand attitudes.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
A growing body of research finds social network sites (SNS) such as Instagram to facilitate social comparison and the emotional experience of envy in everyday life, with harmful effects for users' ...well-being. Yet, previous research has exclusively focused on the negative side of social comparison and envy on SNS. Thereby, it has neglected two important aspects: (a) comparison processes can also elicit a beneficial emotional reaction to other users' online self-presentations (i.e., benign envy) and, thus, (b) comparisons can be motivating, with positive outcomes for well-being. The present study aims at closing this research gap by investigating how social comparisons and envy on SNS are related to inspiration, a complex motivational state. Due to its specific characteristics of a creative and aesthetic visual culture, we focus our investigation on Instagram. A structural equation modeling mediation analysis with data from N = 385 Instagram users reveals that the intensity of social comparisons on Instagram was positively related to inspiration and that this relationship was fully mediated by benign envy. Furthermore, inspiration on Instagram was related to increased positive affect. Results of this study underline that to understand the effects of SNS on well-being, we also need to consider the positive motivational side of social comparison and envy.
While the literature related to this topic has predominantly focused on investigating the influence mechanism that social media influencers (SMIs) impose over their followers, less is known about ...their attachment mechanism. Given that social media platforms were originally designed to facilitate personal bonding and not product or brand recommendations, we posited that social media followers' emotional attachment to SMIs is an important precedent that affects the followers' behavioral inclination to accept the SMIs' endorsements. We thus drew new attention to the relationship between SMIs and their followers by focusing on their attachment development mechanism and its casual factors and effects. In doing so, Study 1 inductively analyzed the key causal factors, both with respect to SMI persona- and content-driven attributes, that make followers feel attached to SMIs. By integrating the findings of Study 1 with the human brand theory, Study 2 provided empirical evidence after analyzing 325 U.S. consumers' responses about how SMIs' personas (i.e., inspiration, enjoyability, and similarity) and content curation abilities (i.e., informativeness) affected followers to perceive the SMIs as human brands who fulfill their needs for ideality, relatedness, and competence—all of which resulted in an intense attachment to SMIs. It was this positive emotion shaped with SMIs that transferred to SMIs’ endorsements and positively influenced the followers to acquire the products/brands that the SMIs recommended.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•Ebola-related risk perception variables were present in more than 80% of Instagram posts but fewer than 50% of tweets.•Instagram may be a useful platform for establishing meaningful, interactive ...communication with the public in times of global health crises.•The CDC, WHO, and Doctors without Borders (MSF) posted few messages aimed at combatting Ebola-related misinformation on Instagram and Twitter.
Although social media have been used by public relations practitioners as a key vehicle for crisis communication, little is known about how these platforms were utilized by public health organizations in infectious disease outbreak situations and how this may have shaped the publics’ responses to the outbreak on and off social media. Taking the approach of strategic health risk communication, this study examined Ebola-related social media posts by three major health organizations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, also known as Doctors without Borders), on Twitter and Instagram, focusing on the types of communication that were used during the outbreak, the content and context of these communications, and the responses they elicited from the publics. While both platforms were utilized by all three health organizations, the results suggest that Instagram may be a particularly useful platform for establishing meaningful, interactive communication with the publics in times of global health crises, as evidenced by significantly greater levels of engagement on the part of health organizations and the publics. Furthermore, our findings indicate that social media messaging may be most effective when it is used by health organizations that are familiar with and to the publics, and when it is based on the strategic use of risk communication principles such as solution-based messaging, incorporation of visual imagery, and acknowledgement of public fears and concerns. We discuss the results in the context of strategic health risk communication guidelines and implications for public relations practice.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Commercial social media are being increasingly adopted in formal learning settings even though they have not been conceived specifically for education. Whereas highly popular social services like ...Facebook and Twitter have been thoroughly investigated for their benefits for teaching and learning in higher education, other social media platforms which have been gaining considerable attention among youth have been largely overlooked in scholarly literature. The purpose of this study is to fill that vacuum by analyzing whether and how social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and WhatsApp have become an integral component of teaching and learning in higher education. A total of 46 studies are analyzed in terms of what pedagogical affordances of these four platforms they identify (e.g., mixing information and learning resources, hybridization of expertise, widening of the context of learning) and the benefits for learning that the authors go on to investigate. Results show that although the use of WhatsApp is well documented in a plethora of studies, there is a dearth of research about Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. While more than half of the studies are carried out in the Middle East and Asian areas and investigate mostly benefits for second and foreign language learning, the overall geographical distribution of studies examining learning via social media reflects the preferences expressed for these services on the part of the general population. Moreover, it is found that the pedagogical affordances of social media are still only being partially implemented and that diverse social media exploit affordances to different degrees.
•Social media research continues to increase and attract growing scholarly interest•Prevalence of the number of WhatsApp studies over the other three services considered•Pinterest and Instagram studies still attract mild scholarly interest•Snapchat is the least investigated of the services considered•Geographical distribution reflects the preferences expressed by the general population in regard to single platforms
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Personal branding is a crucial aspect of communication, particularly in social media. Someone who can influence others, usually referred to as an influencer, must have positive personal branding from ...the public perspective. An influencer can come from various industries besides entertainment, including politics and lifestyle. The research was conducted to examine personal branding as displayed by Maria Rahajeng and Tsamara Amany through their Instagram personal account, @tsamaradki, and @mariarahajeng, and to describe the alignment of their personal branding with the eight main concepts of Montoya's concepts. This study employed a postpositivist qualitative research methodology that focused on the personal branding phenomenon formed by the two influencers. This study uses eight main concepts of personal branding Montoya in analyzing content posted by the two influencers. Data was gathered from the influencer’s accounts through feeds, Instagram stories, reels, and comment features. Research results show that the personal branding displayed by Maria Rahajeng and Tsamara Amany differs according to the context of their work, where the two influencers show their respective advantages. Both influencers possess contrasting abilities in various aspects of Montoya’s eight main concepts in personal branding, setting them apart from one another.
Regulation prescribes that sponsored social media posts should clearly disclose their material connection with brands. However, research on the impact of such disclosures is limited. This study used ...an experimental 4 × 2 between-subjects design (N = 414), reflecting different types of material connections between the influencer and the brand and two kinds of message sidedness, to investigate how the sponsorship disclosure affects consumers' responses to sponsored Instagram posts. Findings show that including a sponsorship disclosure (compared to no disclosure) negatively affects brand attitude through enhanced ad recognition, which activates ad skepticism, which, in turn, negatively affects the influencer's credibility. Further, results show a significant moderated mediation effect in that source's credibility and, consequently, brand attitude was only negatively affected when the influencer used a one-sided message and not when the message was two-sided. Also, influencers who post genuine product recommendations and thus have no commercial relationship with the brand, do well by explicitly mentioning this. Iincluding a statement that a post is not sponsored, rather than leaving thisit unclear whether their post is sponsored, may generate more positive brand responses through lowered ad recognition and skepticism.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Featuring a longitudinal, structural study of European party and citizen activity on Instagram between 2012 and 2018, this article outlines the overarching changes in the ways that Instagram has been ...employed for political party communication. Differentiating between populist and non-populist political parties, the results indicate that much like for other platforms such as Facebook, the former category of parties enjoy higher amounts of citizen engagement than their non-populist competitors. Detailing the uses of different types of posts by the two types of political actors, the study provides insights into how political parties have adopted and used Instagram from 2012 and onward.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Social media influencers – such as the ‘Instafamous’ – are required to disclose any commercial relationship. To achieve transparency, Instagram has introduced a standardized disclosure (‘Paid ...partnership with brand’). This study examined whether this disclosure effectively raises ad recognition, and how this consequently affects consumers' responses to the message, influencer, and brand. Additionally, the effects of the disclosure were compared between micro- (<10,000 followers) and meso- (10,000–1 million followers) influencers. Results of an online experiment (N = 192) with a 2 (no disclosure vs. standardized disclosure) x 2 (micro-vs. meso-influencer) between subjects design showed that the disclosure did achieve its goal of increasing ad recognition. Furthermore, the disclosure positively affected brand recall and intentions to engage with the post, via ad recognition. The parasocial interaction with the influencer was not affected. Moreover, influencer type did not moderate the effect of the disclosure and did not affect people's responses to the message, influencer, or brand.
•The standardized Instagram disclosure helps users to recognize influencer marketing.•Disclosure indirectly increases brand recall and intentions to engage with the post.•The disclosure does not damage the parasocial interaction with the influencer.•Responses and effects did not differ between micro- and meso-influencers.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Arief Budiman is a foodgram and successfully built his personal branding behind Instagram account @kulineryogya. The purpose of this study is to find out Arief Budiman's personal branding model as a ...foodgram in the @kulineryogya Instagram account. This research is a case study. The post-positivism paradigm is used by researchers and also qualitative description method with data collection techniques in the form of documentation and interviews. Arief Budiman applies the concept of The Eight Laws of Personal Branding in @kulineryogya's Instagram content, which is able to communicate his concept to citizens through Instagram based on a strong specialization developed with credibility, making Arief Budiman able to show his competence in various matters regarding fields related to culinary. Its credibility is presented to the audience with a friendly personal approach. Friendliness in interacting with netizens is an important key to building personal branding on social media. This model is done by building interactions with his followers on social media. This shows that personal branding on Instagram social media must be carried out with an interactive communication approach. Interactivity is developed not only on social media but also by being actively involved in offline events. This personal branding model on Instagram social media is a unity that is intertwined.
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