Lecture 6

Question 1

Influencers

Answer 1

People who built a large network of followers and are regarded as trusted tastemakers in one or several niches. 75% of consumers are reached by influencer marketing, with 36% regarded as effective.

Question 2

Parasocial interaction potential

Answer 2

Influencers have higher parasocial interaction potential -> they have this closeness, this relatable aspect to them.

Question 3

How do parasocial relationships come to be?

Answer 3

There are 4 phases:
1. Initiation: impression formation
2. Experimentation: seeking exposure to the media figure
3. Intensification: being more and more present to attract the attention of the media figure
4. Integration/bonding: the media figure notices the user

Question 4

4 questions to decide if someone is credible (Ohanian, 1990)

Answer 4

1. Do they have (perceived) expertise?
2. Do they seem honest and believable?
3. Are they attractive?
4. Do they look/think like me? (Concept of homophily)

According to Lou & Yuan (2019), question 2-4 are the most important.

Question 5

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Answer 5

Two routes to information processing: the central route and the peripheral route

Central: conscious, argumentative, based on facts
Peripheral: based on impressions, positive or negative cues, heuristics
On social media, the peripheral route prevails

Question 6

Fitfluencers

Answer 6

It was tested whether fitfluencers could motivate people to be more active. They found that:
1. Source credibility predicted parasocial relationship
2. Parasocial relationship predicted to what extent one would watch videos of a specific fitfluencer, but only for people who already did exercise
3. Parasocial relationship did not predict the intention to perform more exercises, whether someone had already exercised prior or not

Fitfluencers do not really do better than traditional social media influencers to convince people to do well. It does not matter, as long as the advice comes from an influencer.

Question 7

The discrepancy hypothesis

Answer 7

When the background showed unhealthy food, participants reported (1) an increase in processing fluency and (2) an increase in their intention to eat healthy food. This is called the discrepancy hypothesis: there is a gap between our expectations and reality. If reality matches or exceeds our expectations, we feel positive emotions.

Question 8

Greenfluencers

Answer 8

Influencers who promote a sustainable lifestyle and eco-consciousness. Tend to promote green advertising (ie. environmentally friendly features). But there is skepticism about this: “Green” is a label that activates persuasion knowledge.

Micro-greenfluencers had a more positive effect on participant’s attitude towards the product and purchase attention, compared to a macro-greenfluencer.

Why micro-greenfluencers perform better than macro ones:
- The non-mainstream hypothesis
- Peripheral cue

However, more followers means more credibility, which means more trust. Micro-influencers can be at risk: unless they are open and transparent, they generate little trust. But there is also a too good to be true effect: if they seem too virtuous, this can create resistance on behalf of the follower. This relates to self-discrepancy: conflict between ideal self vs actual self.