Social Media Influencers (SMIs) play a key role in affecting the way users interact on social

media, and organizations have learnt to leverage on this group when they prepare their
communication and public relations plans (Freberg et al., 2011; Moreno et al., 2015; Li,
2016; Ge and Gretzel, 2018; Ong and Ito, 2019). SMIs represent “a new type of independent
third party endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other
social media” (Freberg et al., 2011).
With their audience looking up at them as credible sources of information, SMIs can provide
valuable support to organizations, while equally being a potential menace (Li, 2016; Ramadan,
2018; Ong and Ito, 2019). Influencers can promote a brand, enhancing an organization's
popularity and becoming, in this way, part of the enterprise's social media strategy (Booth and
Matic, 2011; Ge and Gretzel, 2018). A number of companies already promote their brand
through blogs posted by famous bloggers or artists who mention a particular product or label on
social media, often in connection with experiences in their daily life. On the flip side, influencers
can also represent a hazard for organizations, when they point out bad results or negative
situations involving the enterprise or, even worse, when they pass on false information, which
can often originate from fake social media accounts, or when they actually write bogus material
themselves (Freberg, 2012; Wan et al., 2015; Jahnke and Kroll, 2018).
It follows that organizations must engage proactively with social media influencers and plan
specific communication strategies around them. In the available studies, an influencer is defined
as someone who has been empowered by their network, is extremely active on social media and
so makes a significant impact (Li, 2016). These studies, however, have not been concerned with
classifying SMIs or examining how they connect with the personal relations strategies set in
place within organizations. This implies that the overarching term of SMI brings together users
who exert several kinds of influence. Influencers are, in some cases, those with very many
followers, other times, they have a high number of connections or they may be extremely prolific
bloggers (Himelboim et al., 2014; De Veirman et al., 2017; Djafarova and Rushworth, 2017). If
influencers are taken as a single category of social media users, companies will find it difficult to
set in place a public relations strategy customized to the kind of influence being exerted.

There is the widespread recognition that social media users play different roles within social
media platforms based upon their level of engagement with the production and consumption of
information (Shao, 2009; Muntinga et al., 2011; Austin et al., 2012; Li, 2016; Ge and Gretzel,
2018). Independently of the various classifications of social media users, users are generally split
into two main categories, active social media users and passive social media users (Li, 2016).
While passive social media users are spectators watching from inside social media platforms,
“active social media users are the creators, critics, collectors, and joiners” (Li, 2016: 51).
Influencers are considered to be a particular type of active social media user, and are defined as
“opinion leaders who can use their online platforms to diffuse information and affect the
attitudes and behaviours of their audiences” (Moreno et al., 2015).
The first research stream is focused on the relationship between SMIs and other social media
users, with studies exploring how the general public perceive information posted on social media
by SMIs, often comparing this information with that provided through traditional media (Hayes
and Carr, 2015; Johnson and Kaye, 2015; Djafarova and Rushworth, 2017; Ge and Gretzel,
2018). The second research stream explores the relationship between SMIs and the organization,
placing particular attention on how organizations manage their interactions with influencers (Jin
and Liu, 2010; Pang et al., 2016 Ong and Ito, 2019). For example, Pang et al. (2016) developed a
conceptual model to frame a strategy for cultivating effective relationships with SMIs, while Jin
and Liu (2010) explored how organizations can interact with influencers to manage potential
crises. A third recent research stream is concerned with the personal characteristics of SMIs.
Concerning this last point, Freberg et al. (2011) adopted a California Q-sort method to provide a
qualitative description of the salient personality traits of SMIs. The practices of self-branding and
“micro-celebrity” used by social media influencers have been investigated in other studies,
where the focus was on identifying and analyzing the behaviour of SMIs (Wiedmann et al.,
2010; Khamis et al., 2017).
Despite this growing literature on SMIs, management scholars have, to date, given little attention
to how influencers can be detected or appraised once identified. A proxy for quantifying
influencers is sometimes obtained by counting the number of posts they publish, their followers,
the hits they receive on social media channels or their connections (Himelboim et al.,
2014; Agostino and Arnaboldi, 2017; Djafarova and Rushworth, 2017). The main disadvantage
of these approaches is that the different kinds of influence exerted by SMIs, whether determined
by the number of connections, posts from followers or something else, collapse into a single
pigeonhole labelled influencer.
A small number of studies propose more sophisticated approaches to detect SMIs. For
example, Booth and Matic (2011) developed a valuation algorithm, also called influencer index,
that it is based on a weighted average of different parameters (such as posting frequency,
citations, views per month and level of engagement). While this approach brings a number of
different influencer-related characteristics into the elaboration, each of these characteristics on
entering the index as variables must be classified manually - and so subjectively - on a scale
from 1 to 5. The process of identifying influencers is, as a result, biased according to the
analysts’ individual perceptions. More recently, De Veirman et al. (2017) suggested that the ratio
between the number of followers and of followees should be taken into consideration, since they
found “that a high number of followers may negatively impact influencer likeability for
influencers who are following few accounts themselves” (p. 813).
All these studies have increased our understanding of the role played by SMIs and their impact,
but somewhat limited attention has been paid to the methodologies for measuring these SMIs.
SMIs are seen as a single category of users, without looking at the different kinds of influence
they can exert within their network. This study addresses this issue by proposing a methodology
and a set of indicators theoretically grounded on social network analysis to quantify and classify
SMIs.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6522665/
Influencer marketing emphasises the use of influencers to drive a brand’s message to
reach the target segment (Smart Insights 2017). In the age of ubiquitous Internet,
social media influencers have emerged as a dynamic third party endorser (Freberg et
al. 2011). Leveraging on a plethora of social media platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter and Youtube, social media influencers are aptly used to publicise
product information and latest promotions to online followers (Markethub 2016).
Social media influencers typically engage with their followers by regularly updating
them with the latest information (Liu et al. 2012).

In marketing, endorsement plays a significant role in achieving a company's good

reputation and business goals. In recent years, social media influencers have
established themselves as potential endorsers by generating a range of buzzwords as
compared to other marketing strategies (i.e., celebrity endorsement), and are deemed
to be the most cost-efficient and -effective marketing trends (Harrison 2017; Patel
2016; Talaverna 2015). Additionally, social media influencers can also showcase
compelling outcome in both media coverage and consumer persuasion (Booth and
Matic 2011). Nevertheless, research on social media influencers is still relatively
scant (Godey et al. 2016).

Based on the tenets of influencer marketing, companies generally invite social media
influencers such as bloggers with thousands of followers in their social media
accounts as their brand ambassador (Tapinfluence 2017). Messages proclaimed by
social media influencers are often perceived as more reliable and compelling to
consumers, and have been substantiated by 82% of followers' polls, in which
consumers are reported to be more likely to follow their favorite influences'
recommendations (Talaverna 2015). Compared to celebrity endorsement promotion
strategy, the use of social media influencers are regarded as more credible,
trustworthy and knowledgeable due to their amiability in building rapport with
consumers (Berger et al. 2016), especially for businesses that target the younger
generations.

According to a Neilsen marketing survey, influencer marketing yields “returns on

investments” (ROI) 11 times higher as compared to digital marketing (Tapinfluence
2017). In contrast, celebrity endorsement are more instrumental in raising brand
awareness among consumers, whilst social media influencers play a highly significant
role in driving product engagement and brand loyalty (Tapinfluece 2017) as they are
more capable of communicating to a niche segment. Organisations believe that
endorsement can warrant the factuality of product information (Amoateng and Poku
2013; Sassenberg et al. 2012). Echoing this popular believe, social media influencers
as a brand endorser has grown more sought-after especially among new and small
online businesses. Media Kix marketing reported that approximately 80% of online
marketers claimed that social media influencers are potential endorsers who boost
their online businesses to higher levels (Forbes 2017). These statistical evidences can
validate the effectiveness of social media influencers in stimulating consumers'
purchase intention. Recent influencer marketing reports also demonstrated an
estimated 50% of the brands earmarked an uptick fund allocation in hiring social
media influencers to promote their brands (Forbes 2017). Moreover, social media
influencers are perceived as more sincere in delivering and demonstrating the
endorsed product to their followers (Tapinfluece 2017).

This research further seeks to understand the notion of social media influencers by
examining the effect on consumers' attitude and purchase intention. Morwitz (2014)
interprets purchase intention as a widely-used marketing tool to estimate the
effectiveness of a marketing strategy, which can be used to predict sales and market
share. This study provides a comprehensive understanding towards measuring social
media influencers' effectiveness by using four constructs which are: source credibility
(Hovland and Weiss 1951), source attractiveness (McGuire 1985), product match-up
(Till and Busler 1998), and meaning transfer (McCracken 1989). Therefore,
identifying the effectiveness of social media influencers (i.e., source credibility,
source attractiveness, product match-up, and meaning transfer) on purchase intention
through customers' attitude could potentially offer valuable insights to marketing
practitioners, whereby they can develop promotional strategies to shape positive and
impactful customers' decision-making towards their product and services.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330635364_The_Impact_of_Social_Media_Influenc
ers_on_Purchase_Intention_and_the_Mediation_Effect_of_Customer_Attitude

Physical activity has a positive effect on youth’s physical (Janssen and LeBlanc, 2010) and
mental health (Biddle and Asare, 2011), academic performance (Trudeau and Shephard, 2008),
and life satisfaction (Brooks et al., 2014). However, 81% of adolescents worldwide do not adhere
to the recommended amount of daily physical activity (Guthold et al., 2019). Youth tend to
become less active as they grow older, and adolescents today are less physically active than
adolescents in previous generations (Boreham and Riddoch, 2001; Tudor-Locke et al.,
2011; Kohl et al., 2012). This is problematic, because (un)healthy habits formed in childhood can
persevere into adulthood (Boreham and Riddoch, 2001). Therefore, there is a substantial need for
effective interventions to promote physical activity among adolescents.

In the past decades, public health agencies and researchers have used mass media intervention
campaigns to promote physical activity at the community level (Cavill and Bauman,
2004; Dobbins et al., 2009). Mass media interventions use standardized messages to increase
knowledge, influence attitudes and beliefs, and change behavior (Kahn et al., 2002), and are a
relatively inexpensive way of reaching a large audience and, therefore, suitable for large scale
implementation (Redman et al., 1990). Although there are examples of mass media interventions
that have increased adolescents’ physical activity (e.g., Huhman et al., 2005), a systematic
review of traditional mass media campaigns concluded that there is insufficient evidence
indicating that mass media campaigns are an effective strategy to promote physical activity in
this particular population (Kahn et al., 2002). One of the reasons that mass media interventions
do not succeed in increasing physical activity is that people, especially youth, are resistant to
information from outside sources (Laverack, 2017). In addition, today’s adolescents are less
likely to use traditional mass media and more likely to use online social media (Wartella et al.,
2016; Valkenburg and Piotrowski, 2017). Nevertheless, a more recent review showed that
interventions that incorporated online social media (e.g., online platforms) as part of the
intervention were also not able to increase the amount of physical activity in children and
adolescents (Hamm et al., 2014).

Potentially, interventions can be more effective when utilizing the impact that adolescents have
on each other’s physical activity by having intervention messages that are communicated by the
adolescents themselves in these online social networks (Valente, 2012). Studies in graduate
students have shown that the number of enrollments in exercise classes increased when
participants were assigned to an online platform that incorporated online social networks
compared to an online platform that sends weekly promotional media messages (Zhang et al.,
2015, 2016). Therefore, incorporating social relationships in the promotion of physical activity
seems promising, by harnessing the effects peers have on each other’s health behaviors
(Montgomery et al., 2020).

Social network interventions are an emerging approach to counteract the decline in physical
activity, by capitalizing on the influence youth has on each other’s behaviors (Valente, 2012). In
social network interventions, a small group of individuals, so-called influence agents, are
identified based on their central position within each social network (Thoits, 2011). The
influence agents are asked to either promote or discourage the targeted behavior within their
social network (e.g., classroom), by serving as role models, leaders or advocates of the healthy
behaviors. Previous work has shown that social network interventions can stimulate healthy
behaviors in the short and long term, such as healthy eating (Shaya et al., 2014) and water
consumption (Smit et al., 2016), or discourage unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking (Campbell
et al., 2008; Starkey et al., 2009) and substance use (Valente et al., 2007).
Only a few recent studies have adopted the social network approach to promote physical activity
among adolescents (Bell et al., 2014; Sebire et al., 2016, 2018; Brown et al., 2017; Jong et al.,
2018; Owen et al., 2018; van Woudenberg et al., 2018), However, these studies vary in
intervention method, target audience, influence agent selection strategy, and training method. For
example, different forms of nominations have been used to select the influence agents (Bell et
al., 2014; Sebire et al., 2016, 2018; Brown et al., 2017; Jong et al., 2018; van Woudenberg et al.,
2018), and two studies focused on girls only (Sebire et al., 2016, 2018; Owen et al., 2018). In
most studies, influence agents received intensive face-to-face training sessions to teach the
influence agents how they could promote the behavior within their classroom (Bell et al.,
2014; Sebire et al., 2016, 2018; Brown et al., 2017; Jong et al., 2018). One study did not use
face-to-face training but trained the influence agents on how to promote physical activity within
their class via online training on a research smartphone (van Woudenberg et al., 2018). The
majority of the studies, apart from the studies by Bell et al. (2014) and van Woudenberg et al.
(2018), successfully increased physical activity in the target group.

However, all previous social network intervention studies on physical activity have used designs
in which the effectiveness of the intervention was compared to a control condition that did not
receive an intervention. Therefore, these studies cannot distinguish whether the social network
interventions were effective because of the exposure to the general message of physical activity
promotion compared to a message specifically delivered by influence agents. No previous study
compared a social network intervention to a similar intervention without a social influence
component (e.g., mass media intervention) to determine the additional benefit of using the social
network intervention approach. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to investigate whether a
social network intervention is more effective in promoting physical activity than a mass media
intervention or no intervention.

In the current study, influence agents will create video blogs (‘vlogs’) that will promote physical
activity in order to give the influence agents a platform to model and communicate about
physical activity behavior (Obrusnikova and Rattigan, 2016), which are known mechanisms to
increase physical activity in adolescents (Salvy et al., 2012). Previous studies in adults have
shown that the content in tailored videos about physical activity is more accepted and people
spend more time on the intervention platform when videos are used in the intervention (Soetens
et al., 2014; Vandelanotte et al., 2015). Vlogs are a specific form of short user-generated videos
that are available online, for example on YouTube (Gao et al., 2010). Studies on dietary intake in
children have shown that when participants were exposed to vlogs in which unhealthy snacks
were portrayed, more unhealthy snacks were consumed compared to when participants were
exposed to vlogs about non-food products (Coates et al., 2019). Using vlogs as intervention
messages connects seamlessly to the purposes of this study, not only because watching vlogs
online has become immensely popular among adolescents (Snelson, 2015), but also because it
allows for testing the social network intervention principles in a unique and unprecedented way
in which the social network intervention condition is exposed to the exact same intervention
messages as the mass media intervention. Specifically, to test whether the social network
intervention is more effective in increasing physical activity than a mass media intervention or
no intervention, participants will be exposed to vlogs created by influence agents within their
class (social network intervention), or unfamiliar peers (mass media intervention), or will not be
exposed to vlogs about physical activity. The hypotheses are that (1) participants in the social
network intervention condition will increase more in physical activity than participants in the
mass media intervention condition and (2) participants in the social network intervention
condition will increase more in physical activity than participants in the control condition.

Moreover, because no previous studies have investigated the underlying mechanisms of social
network interventions, this study will take a first step by exploring secondary outcomes of the
intervention. Based on the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and the self-determination
theory (Ryan and Deci, 2017), four important secondary outcomes of the intervention are
defined: social norms on physical activity, enjoyment of physical activity, self-efficacy of
physical activity and motivation to be physically active. Likewise, because of the novelty of
using vlogs as intervention messages, there is no precedence in research on how adolescents
respond to these types of intervention messages. Therefore, the current study will explore the
responses to the vlogs (i.e., exposure to the vlogs, linking of the vlogs and perceived closeness to
the vloggers) in the social network intervention and the mass media intervention.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02913/full