Social media influencers also identified as micro-celebrities commonly entitled influencers, who provide content or thoughts based on their ideas and present experiences and ideas in the form of content or opinions. They are gaining popularity in the world of brand endorsement for attracting, developing and retaining consumers for their financial gain. The key emphasis of this study is to comprehend what motivates an individual to follow an influencer on social media platforms, so that the companies can efficaciously choose a social media influencer for their brand endorsement. Specifically, the major purpose of this study was to explore why an individual follows an influencer, so company can choose an influencer effectively. To achieve these aims, we choose to use questionnaires for an online survey among the social media users who follow at least one influencer, the questionnaire was circulated through social media and email. 392 individuals above 16 years old filled out the questionnaire. The outcome of the study confirmed that there are seven primary factors that motivate the social media audience to follow their selected influencers, namely authenticity, trustworthiness, attractiveness, credibility, expertise, legitimacy and likeability. The key takeaway from the study is that marketers, influencers and advertising agencies will be able to understand what factors affect the social media audience’s intention to follow the influencers. This study will make theoretical as well as practical contributions for the marketers as well as the influencers to understand what influences the users’ intention to follow social media influencers.

Social media, influencer, followers, audience, intention to follow

Abidin, C., & Ots, M. (2016). Influencers tell all: Unravelling authenticity and credibility in a brand scandal. In M. Edström, A. T. Kenyon, & E.-M. Svensson (Eds.), Blurring the lines: Market-driven and democracy-driven freedom of expression (pp. 153–161). Göteborg.

Agnihotri, A., & Bhattacharya, S. (2021). Endorsement effectiveness of celebrities versus social media influencers in the materialistic cultural environment of India. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 33(3), 280–302.

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.

Argyris, Y. A., Muqaddam, A., & Miller, S. (2021). The effects of the visual presentation of an influencer’s extroversion on perceived credibility and purchase intentions: Moderated by personality matching with the audience. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 59, 102347.

Balaban, D., Iancu, I., Must?t,ea, M., Pavelea, A., & Culic, L. (2020). What determines young people to follow influencers? The role of perceived information quality and trustworthiness on users’ following intentions. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 22(3), 5–19.

Balog, K., Rijke, M. D., & Weerkamp, W. (2008). Bloggers as experts: Feed distillation using expert retrieving models. In S. H. Myaeng, D.W. Oard, F. Sebastiani, T.-S. Chua, & M.-K. Leong (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st annual international ACM SIGIR conference on research and development in information retrieval (pp. 753–754). ACM.

Belanche, D., Casaló, L. V., Flavián, M., & Ibáñez-Sánchez, S. (2021). Building influencers’ credibility on Instagram: Effects on followers’ attitudes and behavioral responses toward the influencer. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 61(4), 102585.

Boerman, S. C., van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Neijens, P. C. (2015). How audience and disclosure characteristics influence the memory of sponsorship disclosures. International Journal of Advertising, 34(4), 576–592.

Bognar, Z. B., Puljic, N. P., & Kadezabek, D. (2019). Impact of influencer marketing on consumer behaviour. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, pp. 301–309.

Byrne, E., Kearney, J., & MacEvilly, C. (2017). The role of influencer marketing and social influencers in public health. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 76(OCE3), E103.

Campbell, C., & Farrell, J. R. (2020). More than meets the eye: The functional components underlying influencer marketing. Business Horizons, 63(4), 469–479.

Casaló, L. V., Flavián, C., & Guinalíu, M. (2011). Understanding the intention to follow the advice obtained in an online travel community. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(2), 622–633.

Casaló, L. V., Flavián, C., & Ibáñez-Sánchez, S. (2017). Antecedents of consumer intention to follow and recommend an Instagram account. Online Information Review, 41(7), 1046–1063.

Casaló, L. V., Flavián, C., & Ibáñez-Sánchez, S. (2020). Influencers on Instagram: Antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership. Journal of Business Research, 117, 510–519.

Chae, J. (2017). Virtual makeover: Selfie-taking and social media use increase selfie-editing frequency through social comparison. Computers in Human Behavior, 66, 370–376.

Chan, F. (2022). A study of social media influencers and impact on consumer buying behaviour in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Business & Management Studies, 3(07), 2694–1449.

Chao, P., Wuhrer, G., & Werani, T. (2015). Celebrity and foreign brand name as moderators of country-of-origin effects. International Journal of Advertising, 24(2), 173–192.

Chen, L., & Yuan, S. (2018). Influencer marketing: How message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58–73.

Chen, X., Yuan, Y., Lu, L., & Yang, J. (2019). A multidimensional trust evaluation framework for online social networks based on machine learning. IEEE Access, 7, 175499–175513.

Choi, S. M., & Rifon, N. J. (2012). It is a match: The impact of congruence between celebrity image and consumer ideal self on endorsement effectiveness. Psychology & Marketing, 29(9), 639–650.

Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: Science and practice (Vol. 4). Pearson Education.

Cosenza, M. N. (2015). Defining teacher leadership: Affirming the teacher leader model standards. Issues in Teacher Education, 24(2), 79–99.

Cosenza, T. R., Solomon, M. R., & Kwon, W-Suk (2015). Credibility in the blogosphere: A study of measurement and influence of wine blogs as an information source. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 14(2), 71–91.

Cotter, K. (2019). Playing the visibility game: How digital influencers and algorithms negotiate influence on Instagram. New Media & Society, 21(4), 895–913.

Daneshvary, R., & Schwer, R. K. (2000). The association endorsement and consumers’ intention to purchase. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(3), 203–213.

De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2017). Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising, 36(5), 798–828.

Dibrell, C., Craig, J. B., Moores, K., Johnson, A. J., & Davis, P. S. (2009). Factors critical in overcoming the liability of newness: Highlighting the role of the family. The Journal of Private Equity, 2(12), 38–48.

Djafarova, E., & Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities’ Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 1–7.

Doney, P. M., & Cannon, J. P. (1997). An examination of the nature of trust in buyer–seller relationships. Journal of Marketing, 61(2), 35–51.

Duffy, B. E. (2017). (Not) getting paid to do what you love: Gender, social media, and aspirational work. Yale University Press.

Ellegaard, C. (2012). Interpersonal attraction in buyer–supplier relationships: A cyclical model rooted in social psychology. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(8), 1219–1227.

Erdem, T., & Swait, J. (2004). Brand credibility, brand consideration, and choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(1), 191–198.

Erdogan, B. Z. (1999). Celebrity endorsement: A literature review. Journal of Marketing Management, 15(4), 291–314.

Fink, J. S., Cunningham, G. B., & Kensicki, L. J. (2004). Using athletes as endorsers to sell women’s sport: Attractiveness vs. expertise. Journal of Sport Management, 18(4), 350–367.

Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K., & Freberg, L. A. (2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 90–92.

Gräve, J. F., & Bartsch, F. (2022). #Instafame: Exploring the endorsement effectiveness of influencers compared to celebrities. International Journal of Advertising, 41(4), 591–622.

Hair, N. L., Hanson, J. L., Wolfe, B. L., & Pollak, S. D. (2015). Association of child poverty, brain development, and academic achievement. JAMA Pediatrics, 169(9), 822–829.

Harnish, R. J., Abbey, A., & DeBono, K. G. (1990). Toward an understanding of ‘the sex game;: The effects of gender and self-monitoring on perceptions of sexuality and likability in initial interactions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20(16), 1333–1344.

Hass, R. G. (1981). Effects of source characteristics on cognitive responses and persuasion. In R. E. Petty, T. M. Ostrom, & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Cognitive responses in persuasion. Hillsdale, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hayes, A. S., Singer, J. B., & Ceppos, J. (2007). Shifting roles, enduring values: The credible journalist in the digital age. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 22(4), 262–279.

Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion. Yale University Press.

Hu, S., Liu, H., Zhang, S., & Wang, G. (2020). Proactive personality and cross-cultural adjustment: Roles of social media usage and cultural intelligence. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 74, 42–57.

Hughes, C., Swaminathan, V., & Brooks, G. (2019). Driving brand engagement through online social influencers: An empirical investigation of sponsored blogging campaigns. Journal of Marketing, 83(5), 78–96.

Hwang, K., & Zhang, Q. (2018). Influence of parasocial relationship between digital celebrities and their followers on followers’ purchase and electronic word-of-mouth intentions, and persuasion knowledge. Computers in Human Behavior, 87, 155–173.

Jabr, W., & Zheng, Z. (2022). Exploring firm strategy using financial reports: performance impact of inward and outward relatedness with digitisation. European Journal of Information Systems, 31(2), 145–165.

Jiménez-Castillo, D., & Sánchez-Fernández, R. (2019). The role of digital influencers in brand recommendation: Examining their impact on engagement, expected value and purchase intention. International Journal of Information Management, 49, 366–376.

Jin, S. A. A., & Phua, J. (2014). Following celebrities’ tweets about brands: The impact of Twitter-based electronic word-of-mouth on consumers’ source credibility perception, buying intention, and social identification with celebrities. Journal of Advertising, 43(2), 181–195.

Jin, S. V., Muqaddam, A., & Ryu, E. (2019). Instafamous and social media influencer marketing. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 37(5), 567–579.

Jin, S. V., & Ryu, E. (2020). ‘I’ll buy what she’s# wearing’: The roles of envy toward and parasocial interaction with influencers in Instagram celebrity-based brand endorsement and social commerce. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 55, 102–121.

Johnson, B. J., Potocki, B., & Vedhuis, J. (2019). Is that my friend or an advert? The effectiveness of Instagram native advertisements posing as social posts. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 24, 108–125.

Khamis, S., Ang, L., & Welling, R. (2017). Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of social media influencers. Celebrity Studies, 8(2), 191–208.

Ki, C. W. C., & Kim, Y. K. (2019). The mechanism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: The role of consumers’ desire to mimic. Psychology & Marketing, 36(10), 905–922.

Labrecque, L. I. (2014). Fostering consumer–brand relationships in social media environments: The role of parasocial interaction. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28, 134–148.

Lee, J. A., Sudarshan, S., Sussman, K. L., Bright, L. F., & Eastin, M. S. (2022). Why are consumers following social media influencers on Instagram? Exploration of consumers’ motives for following influencers and the role of materialism. International Journal of Advertising, 41(1), 78–100.

Lee, K. T., & Koo, D. M. (2012). Effects of attribute and valence of e-WOM on message adoption: Moderating roles of subjective knowledge and regulatory focus. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1974–1984.

Lou, C., & Yuan, S. (2019). Influencer marketing: How message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58–73.

Marwick, A. E. (2013). Status update: Celebrity, publicity, and branding in the social media age. Yale University Press.

Marwick, A. E. (2015). You may know me from YouTube: (Micro-) celebrity in social media. In David Marshall & Sean Redmond (Eds.), A companion to celebrity (pp. 333–350). Wiley.

McCracken, G. (1989). Who is the celebrity endorser? Cultural foundations of the endorsement process. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(3), 310–321.

McGuire, W. J. (1985). Attitudes and attitude change. In Gardner Lindzey & Elliot Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 233–246). Random House.

McQuarrie, E. F., Miller, J., & Phillips, B. J. (2012). The megaphone effect: Taste and audience in fashion blogging. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(1), 136–158.

Miller, G. P., & Basehart, J. (1969). Source trustworthiness, opinionated statements, and response to persuasive communication. Speech Monographs, 36(1).

Morhart, F., Malär, L., Guèvremont, A., Girardin, F., & Grohmann, B. (2015). Brand authenticity: An integrative framework and measurement scale. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(2), 200–218.

Moulard, J. G., Garrity, C. P., & Rice, D. H. (2015). What makes a human brand authentic? Identifying the antecedents of celebrity authenticity. Psychology & Marketing, 32, 173–186.

Moulard, J. G., Raggio, R. D., & Folse, J. A. G. (2016). Brand authenticity: Testing the antecedents and outcomes of brand management’s passion for its products. Psychology & Marketing, 33(6), 421–436.

Ohanian, R. (1990). Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers’ perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Journal of Advertising, 19(3), 39–52.

Ohanian, R. (1991). The impact of celebrity spokespersons’ perceived image on consumers’ intention to purchase. Journal of Advertising Research, 31(1), 46–54.

O’Mahony, S., & Meenaghan, T. (1997). The impact of celebrity endorsements on consumers. Irish Marketing Review, 10(2), 15–24.

Ratten, V., & Tajeddini, K. (2017). Innovativeness in family firms: An internationalization approach. Review of International Business and Strategy, 27(2), 217–230.

Schouten, A. P., Janssen, L., & Verspaget, M. (2021). Celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising: The role of identification, credibility, and product–endorser fit. In Leveraged marketing communications (pp. 208–231). Routledge.

Schouten, H. J., Tikunov, Y., Verkerke, W., Finkers, R., Bovy, A., Bai, Y., & Visser, R. G. (2019). Breeding has increased the diversity of cultivated tomato in the Netherlands. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10, 1606. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01606

Serazio, M. (2015). Selling (digital) millennials: The social construction and technological bias of a consumer generation. Television & New Media, 16(7), 599–615.

Shepherd, D. A., & Zacharackis, A. 2003. A new venture’s cognitive legitimacy: An assessment by customers. Journal of Small Business Management, 41(2), 148–167.

Sokolova, K., & Kefi, H. (2020). Instagram and YouTube bloggers promote it, why should I buy? How credibility and parasocial interaction influence purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, 101742.

Sokolova, K., & Perez, C. (2021). You follow fitness influencers on YouTube. But do you actually exercise? How parasocial relationships, and watching fitness influencers, relate to intentions to exercise. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 58, 102276.

Stubb, C., Nyström, A. G., & Colliander, J. (2019). Influencer marketing: The impact of disclosing sponsorship compensation justification on sponsored content effectiveness. Journal of Communication Management, 23(2), 109–122.

Tafesse, W., & Wood, B. P. (2021). Followers’ engagement with Instagram influencers: The role of influencers’ content and engagement strategy. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 58, 102303.

Taylor, C. (1991). The ethics of authenticity. Harvard University Press.

Tellefsen, T., & Thomas, G. P. (2005). The antecedents and consequences of organizational and personal commitment in business service relationships. Industrial Marketing Management, 34(1), 23–37.

Thakur, S., Singh, L., Wahid, Z. A., Siddiqui, M. F., Atnaw, S. M., & Din, M. F. M. (2016). Plant-driven removal of heavy metals from soil: uptake, translocation, tolerance mechanism, challenges, and future perspectives. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 188, 1–11.

Van der Toorn, J., Tyler, T. R., & Jost, J. T. (2011). More than fair: Outcome dependence, system justification, and the perceived legitimacy of authority figures. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(1), 127–138.

Van der Waldt, D. L. R., Van Loggerenberg, M., & Wehmeyer, L. (2009). Celebrity endorsements versus created spokespersons in advertising: A survey among students. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 12(1), 100–114.

Wang, S. W., & Scheinbaum, A. C. (2018). Enhancing brand credibility via celebrity endorsement: Trustworthiness trumps attractiveness and expertise. Journal of Advertising Research, 58(1), 16–32.

Wang, T., Song, M., & Zhao, Y. L. (2014). Legitimacy and the value of early customers. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(5), 1057–1075.

Wathen, C. N., & Burkell, J. (2002). Believe it or not: Factors influencing credibility on the Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(2), 134–144.

Wei, K. K., & Li, W. Y. (2013). Measuring the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer behavioural intentions: a study of Malaysian consumers. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 14(3), 157–177.

Weismueller, J., Harrigan, P., Wang, S., & Soutar, G. N. (2020). Influencer endorsements: How advertising disclosure and source credibility affect consumer purchase intention on social media. Australasian Marketing Journal, 28(4), 160–170.

Wojdynski, B. W., & Evans, N. J. (2016). Native: Effects of disclosure position and language on the recognition and evaluation of online native advertising. Journal of Advertising, 45(2), 157–168.

Zimmerman, M. A., & Zeitz, G. J. 2002. Beyond survival: Achieving new venture growth by building legitimacy. Academy of Management Review, 27(3), 414–431.