Document Type
Article
First Faculty Advisor
Zdrakovic, Srdan
Keywords
social media; influencer; marketing
Rights Management
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to identify what factors contribute to the effectiveness of social media influencers’ posts. The first phase of this project studied people’s initial feelings towards social media influencers using a focus group. The results indicated that social media influencers are in fact effective and influential. The second phase of this study tested what factors increase and decrease the effectiveness of a social media influencers post, and what factors will get them the most engagement. This was tested through sixteen experimental conditions with different variations of a fake social media influencer post. Five dependent variables were tested, willingness to share the post, willingness to buy, attitude toward the brand, attitude towards the ad, and attitude towards the influencer. Four independent variables were also measured, size of the influencer (micro or macro), picture (present or not), discount (present or not), and level of purchase involvement (high or low), as well as several contributing variables about personality. The results contended that the presence of a picture in a social media influencers ad was had a positive effect on willingness to share the post, willingness to buy, attitude toward the brand, and attitude towards the ad. Discount also was significant to consumers’ attitudes towards the brand and the ad. Level of involvement and size of the influencer only proved to be statistically significant towards the effectiveness of the post when interaction effects were found between one or more of those variables. The research and analysis conducted will provide valuable information regarding the effectiveness of social media influencers and the relevance of them pertaining to technological shifts and advancements in the marketing field.
