Keywords:
Social media influencers, social media, product endorsing, influence marketing
Abstract
Industry practitioners and academic researchers have accorded social media influencer marketing considerable attention. Marketing professionals must identify potential social media influencers as endorsers. A well-known social media influencer is not always a good endorser. The popularity of social media influencers does not imply their influence on their followers. In this paper, we present a survey of the influence power of social media influencers based on their followers' attitudes toward trustworthiness, expertise, likability, social attractiveness, physical attractiveness, opinion leadership, enjoyability, similarity, interactivity, identification, fitness, originality, informativeness, entertainment, and self-serving. We gathered 4,919 responses to a user survey regarding the influence of Taiwan's leading social media influencers. Based on the survey results, we categorized social media influencers into five groups: high-impact influencers, knowledge influencers, entertainers, content creators, and product promoters.
Author Biographies
Chih-Chien Wang, Prof., Dayeh University, Taiwan; National Taipei University
Pro. Chih-Chien Wang is currently Dean of College of Management, Dayeh University (since 2022), and Distinguished Professor (since 2020) of Graduate Institute of Information Management, National Taipei University. He is also president of the Taiwan Marketing Research Association. His current research interests include online behavior, internet marketing, and cyber psychology. He published more than one hundred journal articles.
Shu-Chen Chang, Dr., National Taipei University of Business
Dr. Shu-Chen Chang (corresponding author) is an assistant professor of the Business Administration Department at the National Taipei University of Business, Taiwan. Her research interests include marketing technology, online advertising, e-commerce, and digital marketing. She has published articles in many journals, including the Journal of Business Research, Information Development, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, Social Networking, and the International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies.
Chi Heng Lu, National Taipei University
Ms. Chi Heng Lu graduated from the Institute of Information Management at National Taipei University. She also studied for one year in the sales and management master's program in Vienna, Austria. She is familiar with application of influencer marketing, website design, and content strategy implementation techniques.
