Social Media Influencers (SMIs) are active members of social networks who have a huge number of followers. Some studies have called them the opinion leaders of the age of social media. These people ...are likely to affect the different aspects of beliefs and/or behaviors of the people who follow them. The current study aimed to investigate the relationships between people’s partner choice criteria on the one hand, and the amount and type of attention they dedicated to influencers on the other hand. A survey was conducted to see if people who pay more or less attention to influencers perceived appearance, wealth, religiousness, culture, and personality as important criteria in their partners. The results showed that there were direct relationships between dedicating attention to influencers and perceiving wealth and appearance to be important. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between dedicating attention to influencers and religiousness but it was an indirect relationship.
Influencer marketing is the practice of compensating individuals for posting about a product or service on social media. Influencer marketing is on the rise, and many marketers now plan either to ...start using influencers or to increase their use of them in their media mixes. Despite such growth, relatively little strategic or academic insight exists that is specific to influencers. In this article, we describe the roots of influencer marketing and the many different types of influencers that now exist. We identify influencers’ three functional components: the audience, the endorser, and the social media manager. We then detail for each of these components the different sources of value influencers potentially offer marketers. We draw on relevant academic research to offer advice about how to leverage each component strategically. We close by describing how the interplay of these functional components makes influencers a potentially powerful—and undervalued—marketing tool.
The main objective of this research is to investigate the impact of social media marketing activities — restricted only to Instagram influencers — on online impulse buying through the mediating ...effect of source credibility (attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness), predicated on Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory. The hypothesised relationships were examined using cross-sectional data obtained from 273 Instagram users. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using the SMART-PLS software was employed as the primary data analysis method. The results revealed that the perceived social media marketing activities of Instagram influencers have a significant positive influence on the perceptions of followers pertaining to all three dimensions of source credibility (attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness). In turn, only attractiveness and trustworthiness were found to have a significant positive influence on online impulse buying. Moreover, this study revealed that it was the perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness of Instagram influencers that were the influential mediating factors in the relationship between perceived social media marketing activities and online impulse buying. There is a dearth of studies that have been conducted on the examination of the mechanism through which Instagram influencers’ social media marketing activities influence online impulse buying. This study is significant as it provides new insights into the importance of Instagram influencers social media marketing activities in affecting followers’ online impulse buying through source credibility.
Twitch.tv is one of the most successful online live streaming platforms in the world, with 200 million viewers, 2 million regular "streamers," and a market value of over $1billion. In this paper, we ...offer a first conceptualization of streamers as social media influencers, and how effectively they can perform strategic communication for sponsors. We draw on extensive ethnographic research and over a hundred semi-structured interviews with streamers to address two questions: first, how does Twitch operate as a platform for strategic communication; second, what skills do streamers need to be successful influencers? In the first case, we show Twitch is well suited to influencing, in large part due to its integration of data analytics, while streamers are using these tools to adopt a business-oriented mindset; in the second case, we show the importance of authenticity to both streamers and clients, and how channels of different sizes offer strategic communication opportunities. The article contributes to the emerging literature on Twitch, developing insights from influencing and strategic communication, but given the increasing scope of live streaming, we also argue the phenomenon - particularly when combined with the economic dynamics of influencing - is just as important for making sense of the wider media landscape today.
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.
Companies are increasingly relying on influencer marketing as a relevant pillar of their marketing communication strategy. It is therefore of vital importance to practitioners to understand better ...under what conditions a larger number of followers can trigger more positive responses in consumers than a smaller number and vice versa. Through a laboratory study, the authors recorded simultaneously eye‐tracking and electroencephalogram data from 109 participants to test the research question with a 2 (type of influencer: micro vs. meso) × 2 (argument quality: weak vs. strong) between‐subject design using mediated moderated linear regression analysis. The results highlight that the photo of the influencer using the product attracts more attention (i.e., fixation percentage) in the weak (vs. strong) argument quality only for micro‐ and not for meso‐influencers. Moreover, we found a statistically significant index of moderated mediation through the level of attention, which suggests that the percentage of fixations on the photo mediates the joint effect of influencer type and argument quality on behavioral activation system (BAS). Specifically, we found that when the advertising post presents weak argument quality the enhanced attention to the photo of the micro‐influencer leads to an increase in the BAS, with possible implications on advertising effectiveness and online message design. Our findings offer important theoretical and practical contributions to the influencer marketing domain by showing how the different verbal and visual elements of influencer posts affect Instagram users' responses to such posts.
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.
Digital celebrities found on social media platforms are found to be successful in endorsing brands and products, and influencing purchase intentions of their followers. However, influencers also ...promote values and lifestyles on their channels, such as healthy behavior and fitness. In this article, we investigate the motivations of users who follow fitness influencers on YouTube and how parasocial interaction and intentions to watch fitness are related to intentions to exercise. Watching fitness videos and social interaction seems only to motivate followers that are already physically active. Non-exercising users are attracted to YouTube by entertainment and a parasocial relationship with an influencer that has no impact on their intentions to exercise.
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•E•Explore the motivations for following fitness influencers on Youtube and its relationship with intentions to exercise.•Non-exercising audience is motivated to watch fitness videos by parasocial relationship and by the entertainment.•Exercising audience is motivated by social interactions and entertainment.•Watching intentions are related to exercising only for the follower that already exercise.•No relationship is confirmed between parasocial interaction and intentions to exercise.
This work examines the determinants of the success of influencer marketing on the youth-focused TikTok, the fastest growing social network. It analyses the effects of influencers' account ...characteristics (originality, quality, quantity and humor) on their followers' hedonic experience and perceived opinion leadership, and how these impact on their intentions to follow influencers’ accounts and advice. A survey of followers of a popular Spanish TikTok influencer showed that originality and opinion leadership play important roles and that, because TikTok is distinctive, humor increased the effectiveness of messages (through hedonic experience). Suggestions are made to advance the understanding of this novel phenomenon.
Utilizing social media celebrities as a communication channel has become a strategic practice for many organizations. By using the concepts of celebrity endorsement and authenticity, the effect of ...celebrity and content characteristics on followers' attitudes towards the content and, in the case of sponsored content, purchase intentions are scrutinized. Instagram followers (N = 592) of 45 celebrities responded to a survey on nine photos of the celebrities. The results show that both the perceived authenticity and attractiveness of the celebrity are positively related with photo attitudes, but only authenticity has an effect on purchase intentions. Photos of social media influencers, people who have become famous through social media, increase purchase intentions more than photos of general celebrities. Congruence between the photo and the celebrity has the strongest positive effect on photo attitudes and purchase intentions. Sponsored photos are less favorably perceived than non-sponsored photos, but, among sponsored photos, sponsor disclosure has no effect on purchase intentions. The perceived authenticity of both the celebrity and her content is said to explain favorable audience perceptions. The findings imply that organizations should seek authentic matches between their message and the endorsing celebrity and that the content should align with the usual style of the celebrity.
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