▶ Use of the California Q-sort (CAQ) to augment practitioner understanding of audience perceptions of social media influencers (SMIs). ▶ Ability to compare and contrast audience perceptions of SMIs ...and other relevant message sources, including CEOs. ▶ Introduction of concept of “social media influencer capital”. ▶ Addition of a method to assess quality and relevance of SMI influence, not just quantity as indicated by number of followers, etc.
Social media influencers (SMIs) represent a new type of independent third party endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media. A mature public relations literature has identified the characteristics of effective spokespersons, but relatively little is known about audience perceptions of the SMI. A q-sort technique identified core perceived attributes of four sample SMIs. A better understanding of the perceived personality of SMIs provides tools for optimizing an organization's SMI capital.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
This review provides insight into the research on the strategic use of social media influencers. A search in the Scopus database yielded a total of 154 peer-reviewed academic publications focussing ...on influencer marketing, published mostly in the last three years (2018-2020). Most of these studies were empirical and used survey research, an experimental design, content analysis, or interview methodology. While a few studies examined how influencers can incite behavioural change or affect public opinion, the majority of studies focussed on the use of influencers as a commercial marketing tactic. Using Stern's Revised Communication Model for Advertising as a theoretical framework, the studies were classified according to three research characteristics: source, message, and audience. The first research stream focussed on the perspectives of influencers and communication professionals. The second stream was concerned with the content strategies used by influencers in their sponsored posts. The third research stream focussed on the appeal of influencers and the efficacy of their sponsored recommendations. Several studies in the third stream were concerned with the transparency of this covert marketing tactic. The paper concludes with a future research agenda and implications for marketing practice and public policy.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Influencer credibility subdimensions affect consumer purchase intention.•Higher levels of influencer credibility lead into higher purchase intention.•Advertising disclosures affect influencer ...credibility and purchase intention.•A high number of followers increases influencer credibility and purchase intention.
This paper investigates the impact of social media influencer endorsements on purchase intention, more specifically, the impact advertising disclosure and source credibility have in this process. The proposed framework argues that advertising disclosure has a significant impact on source credibility subdimensions of attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise; subdimensions that positively influence consumer purchase intention. Empirical findings based on 306 German Instagram users between 18 and 34 years of age reveal that source attractiveness, source trustworthiness and source expertise significantly increase consumer purchase intention; whilst advertising disclosure indirectly influences consumer purchase intention by influencing source attractiveness. Furthermore, the results reveal that the number of followers positively influences source attractiveness, source trustworthiness as well as purchase intention. All in all, this paper makes a unique contribution to product endorsement literature, with evidence highlighting how social media influencers and advertising disclosure may be used on Instagram to effectively increase consumer purchase intention.
本文研究了社交媒体影响者代言对购买意愿的影响, 即在此过程中广告披露和来源公信力的影响. 本文提出的框架认为, 广告披露对来源公信力的三个子维度, 即来源吸引力, 来源可信度和来源专业度有着显著的影响;而这些子维度对消费者购买意愿有着正向影响. 通过对306名18 - 34岁的德国Instagram用户的实证研究发现, 来源吸引力, 来源可信度和来源专业度显著增加消费者的购买意愿;而广告披露通过影响来源吸引力间接影响消费者的购买意愿. 此外, 结果显示, 关注者的数量正向影响来源吸引力,来源可信度以及购买意愿. 综上所述, 本文对产品代言文献做出了独特的贡献, 有证据表明, 社交媒体影响者和广告披露可以在Instagram上有效增加消费者购买意愿.
The association between social media use and an individual's appearance dissatisfaction has generated broad scholarly interests. This study explored the specific appearance dissatisfaction resulting ...from the effects of social media influencer images on the appearance anxiety of users, in particular the differences between human influencers (HIs) and emerging virtual influencers (VIs). Women (n = 178) aged 18–35 were randomly assigned to HI images, VI images, and scenic images (control group) and were asked to answer related questionnaires. The results showed that images of both HI and VI induced significantly higher appearance anxiety than in the control group. The participants who were exposed to VI images reported significantly lower appearance anxiety than those who were exposed to HI images. Participants' state appearance comparison played a mediating role between the images of social media influencers and appearance anxiety. In addition, participants who viewed VI images reported significantly lower state appearance comparison than those who viewed HI images. Insights for influencer marketing practice were further discussed based on the results.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Social media usage is pervasive, and brands must manage this channel carefully in order to meet their strategic goals. The role of social media influencers (SMI) is progressively becoming crucial for ...shaping consumer brand attitudes toward the firms’ offerings. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine how SMIs can help brands build favorable brand attitudes and thus improve product acceptance and downstream business performance. Building upon naïve theory, consumer socialization theory and market signaling theory, we suggest that SMI power and SMI perceived source credibility are crucial in influencing consumer attitudes toward the brand. Using rich survey data from 231 U.S. social media users on Instagram the research employs confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to access the psychometric properties of the measures and path analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. Results indicate that while SMI power is positively related to consumer attitudes toward the brand and perceived SMI expertise and trustworthiness partially mediate that relationship. This study contributes to extant literature by demonstrating that SMIs’ role in shaping consumer attitudes toward the brand is a multilevel function of SMI power, partially mediated through SMI expertise and trustworthiness. Therefore, it is incumbent on brands to pay close attention to their SMI promotional channel.
•Social Media Influencers (SMI) and Influencer Marketing is on the rise, especially on Instagram.•SMIs can help brands build favorable brand attitude.•SMI power and SMI perceived source credibility influence consumer attitude towards the brand
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•We introduce a new classification of influencers: informers and entertainers.•Influencer type affects the level of engagement with the endorsement.•Brand warmth and competence moderate the effect of ...influencer type on online sale.
This research introduces a novel classification for social media influencers, namely informers and entertainers, and examines the impact of influencer type on engagement and online sales. Our findings suggest that endorsements by influencers who take on an entertainer role attract more engagement (number of views, likes, and comments) than endorsements by influencers who are informers. Furthermore, drawing on an influencer–brand congruency theory, the moderating effect of brand stereotypes is examined. We show that informers (vs entertainers) generate more online sales when endorsing competent brands. Contrarily, when endorsing warm and warm-competent brands, there is no significant difference between the two types of influencers. This study reaffirms the importance of identifying and selecting “fitting” influencers for brands and informs advertisers about the way brand stereotypes moderate the effectiveness of influencer marketing.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The purpose of this research is to examine the underlying mechanisms through which social media influencers' (SMI) content characteristics (information, design, and technology quality and creativity) ...influence consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs) (consume, contribute, and create) through parasocial relationships and wishful identification. Grounded in the integration of the two-step flow theory, social influence theory, and power theory, a conceptual model is proposed and empirically tested using a sample of 263 social media users who had followed at least one social media influencer on social media. We analyzed the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA). The results reveal that three of the four dimensions of SMI's content characteristics, namely design quality, technology quality, and creativity are significant predictors of parasocial relationships. Design quality and creativity are significant predictors of wishful identification. Parasocial relationships and wishful identification are also identified as significant predictors of COBRAs. The results of NCA analysis also identify the proposed content characteristics as necessary factors required to foster COBRAs. This study offers valuable insights into how social media influencers can position themselves to be more effective in promoting brands and products through the curation of their social media content.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The growing presence of social media influencers (SMIs) is increasingly modulating consumer behaviour in the travel industry. Trust is a vitally important topic in influencer and tourism marketing ...and is responsible for creating and maintaining successful long-term relationships between organizations and consumers. This study uses customer journey theory to explain the impact of SMI trust on customer travel decision-making and focuses on evaluating the role of customer journey constructs (including desire, information search, evaluating alternatives, purchase decisions, satisfaction and experience sharing) in mediating the interrelation between SMI trust and the dimensions of customer journeys. Using Smart PLS to analyze the data collected, the results indicate that consumer trust in SMIs has a positive effect on each phase of travel decision-making. Moreover, each step of the decision-making journey mediates the trust effect on the next step, having a spillover effect on the whole journey, implying continuous SMI input. Tourism marketers are advised to use SMIs to increase and stimulate the desire to travel as clearly, a means by which consumers search for information about their next journey. Besides SMIs as a marketing tool, their trustworthiness serves as a highly important aspect to successfully influence tourists' destination decision making.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Non-human influencers include animals, plants, objects, toys, mascots, robots, licensed characters, and virtual influencers.•More-than-human netnography reveals key source and content factors that ...drive user engagement.•Non-human influencers engage social media users by emulating the conventions of ‘being human’.•Source credibility, product-endorser fit and parasocial relationship can be applied in the non-human context.
This study examines the phenomenon of non-human influencers on social media, including living entities such as animals and plants, as well as non-living entities such as objects, toys, mascots, robots, licensed characters, and virtual influencers. Using more-than-human netnography, the study analyses 1112 user comments from 52 Instagram posts to identify and describe the key source and content factors that drive user engagement with non-human influencers. The findings suggest that users engage with non-human influencers for a variety of reasons, including entertainment value, emotional connection, and educational content. The study contributes to the conceptualisation of non-human influencers by proposing a framework mapping the engagement factors and presenting research questions for future exploration. The implications of this study are significant for brands and businesses seeking to work with non-human influencers in their marketing strategies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study examined the effect of social media influencer’s on SMEs performance in Ogun State, Nigeria. The research hypotheses were validated using the regression analysis. The data for the analysis ...were collected by the researcher using a questionnaire as the research instrument. The study used a random sample from the population of registered SMEs in the selected local government in Ogun State. From the result of the analysis, the study revealed that SMIs dimensions (authenticity and trustworthiness) have positive, significant and combine effects on SMEs performance with coefficient and p-value of β1 0.850= (p-value<0.000) and β2 0.854= (p-value<0.000) at F-stat=5.943 (0.000) and adj. R2 = 0.605. Therefore, it is concluded that SMEs performance can be achieved using authenticity and trustworthiness of social media influencers. It is recommended that SMIs should be authentic and trustworthy in every of their deals which leads to increase in SMEs performance in terms of profitability and large market share.
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