How does the platform design of Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Reddit/etc play into how we are receive and transmit information, and how that informs our social culture
Though there are distinctions to be made regarding influencers, celebrities, and marketers, we consider many of these categories as precursors to the influencer movement. In order to understand the effects influencers have on people it is useful to consider the effects that celebrities endorsed advertisements have on people since they as they are both utilized by companies in order to make their products or brand seem more credible and authentic.
"Marketers utilize the strength of reputable celebrity to reinforce the persuasiveness of advertisement. Advertisers consistently seek strategies intended to attract consideration regarding their correspondence and to differentiate their brand from contending brands"
Qualitative research suggests that influencers, compared to celebrities, have a stronger impact on brand attitudes and purchase behaviors of young consumers (Djafarova and Rushworth 2017). Djafaorva and Rushworth contrasted participant advertisement conducted by influencers as well as celebrities. This showed that not only are young people more likely to buy products endorsed by influencers over celebrities, but that these influencer endorsements “led to higher perceived similarity than celebrity endorsements” (pg 274).
Creating community platforms
Consumers not only are more likely to buy a product endorsed by influencers but also feel more connected to both. The evidence however was circumstantial. People are more likely to buy a product endorsed by a fitness influencer than a beauty influencer if they feel their body is similar to one influencer rather than the other. This study reveals that influencers affect consumers buying habits because of their perceived credibility and similarities.
Another theory states that people are usually credible because of their self-presentation (Goffman 1990) which is based on three dimensions: trustworthiness, attractiveness and expertise (Ohanian 1990). However another study found that this Self Presentation theory could be applied to micro celebrities otherwise known as influencers but based on four dimensions instead of three: trustworthiness, attractiveness, competence, and ‘online behavior/self-presentation (Djafarova & Trofimenko). This was a qualitative study based in Russia, which the researchers interviewed Russian women in their 20s who used Instagram. In this study they found that competence replaced expertise in that people think it’s not necessary to have expertise but instead “relevant experience” to find them credible. What is meant by this is any appropriate experience. This study found that users tend to follow those micro celebrities more if they see inspirational or high quality posts. Trustworthiness is also influenced by how much influencers actually respond to comments or interact with their following. Overall people tend to follow and find influencers credible if they are attractive, put effort into posts that are inspirational or are high quality, have competence, or are trustworthy. As for how these influencers may affect their followers when it came to ads 60% were neutral to advertisements but did find something interesting once in a while, 10 % did not like ads, and 25% trusted the microcelebrity but would still do additional research which hints that influencers may have some ability to influence consumers buying habits or attitudes (pg 1440).
When it comes to influencers themselves, it is also important to note the affordances that come with being an influencer. For instance female influencers are often times labeled aspirational laborers and pursue creativity activities because of social capital as well as economic capital however the rewards are uneven” (Duffy 2016). Erin Muffy who has done research on gender in relation to digital states that most of these digital labors tend to create content while also promoting this “Do What You Love Mantra.” This mantra seems inspirational but also tends to ignore the fact that most people cannot afford to do so. Although in our research project we will not talk to any influencers it is important to consider the content that sometimes female digital laborers may gain social capital but that oftentimes this also tends to reinforce this gender role of women as being consumers. Although this is not the main focus of our study, this study may be useful to consider when looking at our studies and seeing if there are any correlations between the type of influencers that are followed by male or female, or even to see if more females tend to follow influencers than males.