International Journal of Advertising

The Review of Marketing Communications

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rina20

Keeping up with influencers: exploring the impact

of social presence and parasocial interactions
on Instagram

Hyosun Kim

To cite this article: Hyosun Kim (2021): Keeping up with influencers: exploring the impact of social
presence and parasocial interactions on Instagram, International Journal of Advertising, DOI:
10.1080/02650487.2021.1886477

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1886477

Published online: 15 Mar 2021.

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International Journal of Advertising
https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1886477

Keeping up with influencers: exploring the impact

of social presence and parasocial interactions
on Instagram
Hyosun Kim
Department of Communication, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

An experiment was conducted to examine the level of social pres- Received 28 May 2019
ence and the mediating role of parasocial interaction in influencer Accepted 2 February 2021
marketing. In a simulated fitness influencer’s Instagram posts, social
presence significantly predicts individuals’ purchase intent toward KEYWORDS
the brand featured in the posts as well as self-efficacy, working Influencer marketing;
through parasocial interactions. Parasocial interaction with influ- persuasion knowledge
encers serves as a mediator, while influencers can act as role mod- model; social presence;
parasocial interaction;
els to motivate people to take action and benefit the brand by self-efficacy
encouraging consumers to purchase the products featured in their
posts. Higher social presence in the posts led individuals to feel
that the posts were less promotional. The effect of parasocial inter-
action was moderated by advertising recognition, such that lower
social presence posts appeared to suggest a promotional appeal
and negatively affected purchase intent. Thus, social presence and
parasocial interaction are key predictors of successful influencer
marketing, yet they can pose a concern because they may hinder
consumers from developing accurate persuasion knowledge.

Introduction
In the past few years, influencer marketing has gained considerable attention from
the marketing and advertising industry; indeed, 84% of marketers view influencer
marketing as an effective marketing tactic, and 87% of consumers have made pur-
chases prompted by influencers’ brand endorsements (IAB 2018). Influencer marketing
is a tactic that advertisers and brands employ by working with individual social media
users to promote their brand messages and products (IAB 2018). These individuals
are also popularly known as influencers, who can range from ‘being celebrities to
more micro-targeted professional or non-professional “peers”’ (IAB 2018). It is not new
that a layperson would carry stronger persuasive impact as a source with their
attractiveness and similarity to the audience, as explained by source credibility liter-
ature (Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955; McGuire 1985); however, the endorser effects of

CONTACT Hyosun Kim Hyosun.Kim@indstate.edu Indiana State University, Department of Communication,

217 N. 6th Street Gillum Hall, Third Floor, Terre Haute, IN 47809, USA.
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 H. KIM

influencer marketing are much more complex than the traditional concept of a lay-
person source like friends and family, in that influencers are socially distant, yet may
be psychologically just as close as ‘someone like me’. The relational aspects of influ-
encer marketing suggest that consumers identify themselves with influencers and
perceive influencers as more relatable figures than traditional celebrities (Shan, Chen,
and Lin 2020). This perceived similarity then helps enhance parasocial interaction with
influencers and ultimately positively affects consumers’ decision-making. In addition,
the content-specific perspectives of influencer marketing suggest that many consumers
simply put more trust in an online review created by a user of a product or an inde-
pendent third party as opposed to the product maker (Dou et al. 2012) because the
message is constructed based on fellow consumers’ own points of view, which gen-
erates empathy and lessens consumer resistance to the message (Bickart and Schindler
2001; Dou et al. 2012; Li and Zhan 2011). According to Lou, Tan, and Chen (2019)’s
recent study, influencer-promoted content, in fact, enjoys greater engagement (e.g.
likes, shares, and comments) than brand-promoted postings.
Building on these key driving factors of influencer marketing success, the present
study aims to explain how influencers’ social presence on Instagram enhances con-
sumer brand engagement and persuasion knowledge. More specifically, the current
study explores how social presence affects purchase intent of a brand featured in
an influencer’s posts as branded content or as sponsored posts that are woven into
the influencer’s daily journal, i.e. day-to-day real-life postings on social media, in a
form of advertorial, in other words, placed so as to be featured, similar to product
placement in reality TV shows, resulting in paid brand exposure often being mis-
construed by consumers as mere user-generated content. This type of promotion,
a more covert format of advertising, e.g. product placement, sponsored social media
posts, and sponsored news content, is in fact effective because the brands are
exposed, in an unobstructed and inconspicuous manner, as a part of scene in the
TV show or individual’s status updates on social media to minimize advertising
disruption (e.g. Boerman, Van Reijmersdal, and Neijens 2012). Its advertising effec-
tiveness notwithstanding, covert advertising is known to potentially mislead con-
sumers by lessening persuasion knowledge because this format deliberately impairs
individuals ability to process information carefully and systematically, causing them
to disenage in advertiser’s persuasion attemts (Wojdynski and Evans 2020). Numerous
studies have shown that one of the cues that activates persuasion knowledge is
sponsorship disclosure, and scholars thus have offered suggestions for how to
disclose sponsorship adequately, in terms of its place, language and presentation
(Evans et al. 2017; Krouwer, Poels, and Paulussen 2017; Wojdynski and Evans 2016;
Wojdynski et al. 2017). De Veirman and Hudders (2020), in fact, found that spon-
sorship disclosure negatively affects brand attitudes and influencer’s credibility, and,
more importanly, exacerbates advertising skepticism. However, it remains to be seen
what else, other than sponsorship disclosure, may affect persuasion knowledge in
the context of influencer marketing specifically, where endorsers (influencers) pro-
mote brands and products through their personal communication channels.
Therefore, to fill the gaps in the current literature of influencer marketing and to
better understand how persuasion knowledge works in influencer marketing, the
current study defines influencers’ social presence as daily journal postings and seeks
 International Journal of Advertising 3

to examine how social presence in the context of a fitness influencer’s Instagram

posts and parasocial interaction activates persuasion knowledge to affect purchase
intent toward the brand featured in the posts in a form of product placement. In
addition, to deepen our understanding of endorser effects in influencer marketing,
this study investigates whether influencers could serve as role models and motivate
consumers, considering that people view influencers as someone they aspire to be
like (Chae 2018). The present study posits that the social presence of influencers in
the posts (from the content-specific perspective) and parasocial interaction with influ-
encers (from the relational aspect) might serve as another determinants that activates
persuasion knowledge, making the branded post seem less promotional. Based on
the findings, this study aims to contribute to the persuasion knowledge model liter-
ature by exploring what other factors – apart from sponsorship disclosure – facilitate/
hinder persuasion knowledge in influencer marketing. Also, this study advances our
knowledge of endorser effects by investigating how an influencer can go beyond
being a mere similar, relatable figure to serving as a role model for consumers.

Theoretical framework
Influencers and influencer marketing on instagram
Scholars have conceptualized social media influencers as ordinary people who have
relatively large followings on social media, engage with their followers in digital
spaces through content they post about their personal lives and lifestyle, and mon-
etize their following by integrating branded content (De Veirman, Cauberghe, and
Hudders 2017; Enke and Borchers 2019). On Instagram specifically, these high-profile
celebrities, ordinary people who create user-generated content and achieve fame
among users, are called ‘Instafamous’ (Jin, Muqaddam, and Ryu 2019). Interestingly,
these individuals do not necessarily conform to the traditional concept of celebrity,
such as movie stars, TV personalities, and sports celebrities, and remain unknown by
mainstream media, yet they are extremely popular among their followers and boast
huge viewership in the social media sphere, positioning them in between megastars
and the average joe (Neal 2017).
For instance, Chiara Ferragni, named one of the top fashion bloggers by Forbes in
2017, started blogging about fashion and travel, and now her blogging business
revenue is reported to exceed $9 million, with sponsorships and promotions on her
Instagram with brands ranging from casual to high-end such as American Express
Amex Platinum and Gucci (O’Conner 2017). According to Harvard Business School Case,
Chiara Ferragni is one of the first to showcase how blogging can be a viable profes-
sion and effective promotional channel, adding that she not only garnered many
followers but also successfully monetized her followings (Keinan et al. 2015). Since
she has been recognized by marketing scholars, academia began to pay close atten-
tion to social media influencers and view their value as brand endorsers. Unlike
traditional celebrities whose value is created by the characters they play and perfor-
mances they give – which are broadcasted via mainstream media – the most followed
influencers’ fame is largely dependent on something they do, rather than something
they are (Marwick 2015); and so, for this reason, we call them beauty vloggers, fashion
4 H. KIM

bloggers, or fitness influencers. As shown by Chiara Ferragni’s case, influencers are

seen as appealing promotional channels for advertisers. A recent study also suggests
that it is influencers’ authentic quality as third-party ‘peer’ endorsers that creates
credibility (Lou, Tan, and Chen 2019), as well as their ability to reach a wider audience;
in addition, active audience sharing activities help extend brand reach and amplify
marketing messaging tremendously (Childers, Lemon, and Hoy 2019) .
Because influencers don’t have a plethora of established images and symbolic
meanings formed through public appearances, they instead utilize self-presentation
techniques created under their full control, engage with fans actively, and broadcast
their day-to-day life to attract viewers and create intimacy. In particular, posting their
mundane daily life activities helps create a sense of authenticity and social presence,
which makes influencers seem like more approachable personalities than the overly
rich celebrities people watch on TV. Consumers, in fact, aspire to influencers’ lifestyles
while also viewing them as touchable celebrities (Ki and Kim 2019). Recent studies
have suggested that consumers strongly identified themselves with influencers and
view them as more relatable and trustworthy figures than traditional celebrities, which
results in positive brand attitudes toward advertisers (Schouten, Janssen, and Verspaget
2020; Jin, Muqaddam, and Ryu 2019). Thus, the nature of influencers’ content being
native, created by peers in their everyday life settings, seems to attract consumers
as well as advertisers.
Extant influencer marketing research focuses on source effects and content strat-
egies. Drawing on source credibility literature and parasocial interaction, which exam-
ines influencers’ similarity as peers (Childers, Lemon, and Hoy 2019; Lou, Tan, and
Chen 2019) and their attractiveness as aspiring celebrities (Schouten, Janssen, and
Verspaget 2020; Jin, Muqaddam, and Ryu 2019; Ki and Kim 2019), some studies have
shown that consumers develop trust with influencers through parasocial interaction,
which then help enhance brand attitudes and purchase decision (De Veirman,
Cauberghe, and Hudders 2017; De Veirman, and Hudders 2020; Djafarova and
Rushworth 2017; Lou and Yuan 2019; Yuan and Lou 2020). Another body of research
in source effects explore how fit between influencers and product as well as influ-
encers and consumers’ self-image help affect consumers’ decision making through
the lens of the match-up effect (De Cicco, Iacobucci, and Pagliaro 2020; Schouten,
Janssen, and Verspaget 2020). This line of research helps us better understand the
endorser effects of influencers and the relational perspective of influencer marketing.
Another body of research in influencer marketing exploring content perspective
demonstrates how influencers utilize visual information and narratives in their posts,
and specifically focuses on the content strategies of influencer marketing. For example,
Kim (2020) explored consumers’ content consumption motivations through the lens
of uses and gratifications theory and Feng, Chen, and Kong (2020) explained the
narrative persuasion in influencers’ posts guided by transportation theory. Also, Lou,
Tan, and Chen (2019) showed how influencer-promoted content and brand-promoted
content contribute to brand engagement differently.
To deepen our understanding of endorse effects in influencer marketing, the present
study seeks to investigate whether influencers serve as role models that help motivate
consumers through the lens of the social cognitive theory. In order to better under-
stand content specific perspective, drawing on the concept of social presence, the
 International Journal of Advertising 5

present study examines how social presence formed through influencers’ life sharing
– photos of day-to-day activities – on Instagram affects persuasion knowledge as
influencers’ portrayal in those posts can help create their personalities as endorsers,
which then creates their symbolic value to contribute to the brand, according to the
meaning transfer model (McCracken 1989).

Social presence on instagram

Conceptually, social presence is defined as ‘the degree of salience of the other person
in the interaction and the consequent salience of the interpersonal relationships’
(Short, Ederyn, and Bruce 1976, 65). In a computer-mediated communication envi-
ronment, social presence is operationalized in terms of how ‘sociable, warm, sensitive,
and personal’ (Short, Ederyn, and Bruce 1976, 66) individuals perceive the commu-
nication medium to be, because individuals tend to attribute higher social presence
to more human-like computer representations when the degree of anthropomorphism
of computer-generated face images is manipulated, for instance (Gong 2008). In a
similar vein, individuals feel a strong social presence of the interactant when they
perceive that interaction with the mediated persona is nearly as close as that with
a real person and actual interaction (Gong 2008; Lee and Nass 2005; Short, Ederyn,
and Bruce 1976). Individuals thus seem to equate social presence with ‘human-like-
ness’ in this regard (Lee and Jang 2013, 30). As many celebrities’ and public figures
use social media, their strong social media presence seems to help create a sense
of social presence and human-likeness because it allows them to showcase a personal
side of themselves outside – or behind the scenes – of their own profession. For
example, a politician’s social media posts, which included his personal news, led to
positive evaluations of the politician and stronger voting intentions for him (Lee and
Jang 2013). Particularly in the e-commerce environment, sellers’ social presence is a
strong indicator that enhances their trustworthiness (Lu, Fan, and Zhou 2016).
Moreover, a recent study showed that influencer-endorsed (vs. traditional celebri-
ty-endorsed) promotion itself enhanced social presence, positively affecting brand
evaluations (Jin, Muqaddam, and Ryu 2019).
In general, influencers tend to be highly self-disclosing in their posts – often post-
ing unfiltered images of themselves – because self-disclosure helps create a sense of
authenticity and strong psychological connections with followers, so even negative
self-disclosure is perceived as authentic in the eyes of consumers (Ferchaud et al.
2018). Particularly on image-based platforms such as Instagram where most commu-
nication occurs via photo-sharing, it is easy for individuals to post updates about
their day-to-day activities and document their life with a simple snapshot (Chen 2018).
Bashir et al. (2018) argued that visual-based communication allows richer graphic
conversation and is effective in creating affective responses from viewers. Also, ama-
teurism appeal – in the form of snapshot aesthetic (vs. a professional studio shot)
– enhances content engagement and resonates with average consumers because it
appears as though it was taken in a real-life setting (Colliander and Marder 2018).
Instagram, in fact, defines itself as a social platform to share users’ life with friends
through a series of pictures (Chen 2018), so the surveillance motivation, i.e. creeping
through other people’s posts, is considered the most important gratification for using
6 H. KIM

Instagram (Sheldon and Bryant 2016). Celebrities often use social media to express
their innermost feelings and broadcast their mundane daily routine. In a similar vein,
it is common for influencers to share scenes from their normal life, for example, family
gatherings, trips, and even coffee breaks with friends, in addition to sponsored post-
ings (Senft 2008; Neal 2017). This way, the audience might feel more as though they
are interacting with a close friend due to a heightened social presence. Based on the
discussion from previous studies, the present study thus operationalizes social pres-
ence as life sharing, i.e. sharing personal daily activity photos on Instagram, and
predicts that those photos might enhance consumers’ psychological connections with
them and elicit stronger parasocial interaction.
H1: The level of social presence postings will positively predict the parasocial interaction
formed with the influencer, such that participants in a high social presence condition
will elicit a stronger parasocial interaction with the influencer than those in a low social
presence condition.

Parasocial interaction as a mediator

Recent studies in the area of endorser effects have addressed the relational aspects
of influencer advertising and its impact on consumer behavior. Specifically, studies
have shown how the concept of parasocial interaction plays a role when investigating
the underlying mechanisms of influencer marketing. The concept of parasocial inter-
action (PSI) originated in mass communication scholarship to understand how audi-
ences build relationships with media personae and how these interactions influence
viewership. PSI is referred to as the illusionary relationships viewers develop with
media personae (Horton and Wohl 1956). In other words, the nature of this relationship
is meant to be one-sided, a simulated interaction that viewers develop with media
characters over time (Ballantine and Martin 2005; Rubin and McHugh 1987). PSI was
initially developed in relation to TV performers, such as news anchors and soap opera
characters (Rubin and McHugh 1987; Rubin, Perse, and Powell 1985; Stern, Russell,
and Russell 2007; Sherman-Morris 2005); for example, local TV channel audiences
developed a close connection and built strong trust with local weathercasters during
severe weather events and tended to take the advice from them to seek shelter and
avoid hazards more seriously (Sherman-Morris 2005).
PSI research in advertising scholarship has centered on the spokesperson effect.
Studies have shown that the interactive feature of salespersons (‘hosts’) in teleshop-
ping is positively related to the number of sales made (Auter and Moore 1993), as
well as the product placement effect, which was largely attributable to the media
characters’ relationships with a brand, as consumers are prone to favor the products
that their favorite TV stars use in a show (Russell et al. 2016). Theoretically, from the
perspective of traditional media being a one-way communication channel, audiences
form one-sided intimate relationships with media characters and develop loyalty
through multiple exposures to their performance in the media (Levy 1979; Rubin and
McHugh 1987; Stern, Russell, and Russell 2007).
Contrary to the traditional media environment, the interactive nature and partici-
patory culture of social media enhances PSI, which may blur the traditional definition
of PSI as being a one-sided, imaginary relationship with media personae, as a more
 International Journal of Advertising 7

recent study found that individuals felt stronger PSI when they experienced a recip-
rocal relationship – in the form of a retweet, for instance – with media personalities
they follow (Bond 2016). Also, Yuan and Lou (2020) suggest that relational equality
between influencers and followers positively affects product interests that influencers
endorse, highlighting the importance of the relational aspect of PSI on social media.
Moreover, unlike the traditional media environment, viewers are able to access mul-
tiple ‘episodes’ of posts by influencers in a one-shot exposure, meaning that repeated
viewing may not be a necessary condition to evoke a psychological connection with
media personae on social media.
More recently, several studies have shown the crucial role of PSI in influencer
marketing, emphasizing influencers’ active engagement with followers because con-
sumers perceive influencers as relatable, identifiable figures, and strong identification
leads to purchase intention of recommended products (Schouten, Janssen, and
Verspaget 2020; Shan, Chen, and Lin 2020). Additionally, studies have shown how PSI
serves a mediating role, suggesting that some individuals even develop additive
consumption beyond their illusory relationships with influencers (Hwang and Zhang
2018), and influencers can serve a mediating role to create consumer desire for
products by enhancing product interest and leading to purchase intent (Kim 2020).
H2: Parasocial interaction will mediate the relationship between social presence and
purchase intent.

The effects of PSI on persuasion knowledge and self-efficacy

One legal issue for influencer marketing is that influencers often fail to disclose their
partnerships with brands adequately: 90% of sponsored content on social media, in
fact, has omitted or mispresented the creator’s partnership with brands (Mathur,
Narayanan, and Chetty 2018). This is problematic, as it can mislead consumers by cre-
ating an impression that the sponsored content is based on the influencer’s own
unbiased opinions and also prevent consumers from making informed decisions (Evans
et al. 2017). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has thus expressed concerns over
sponsorship disclosure of paid promotion in influncers ‘ posts and provided compre-
hensive guidelines for industry professionals (FTC 2019). Studies have shown that spon-
sorship disclosure in covert ads, such as Instagram posts increases advertising recognition,
yet negatively affects brand attitudes, purchase intent, and willingness to share the
content (Evans et al. 2017; Krouwer, Poels, and Paulussen 2017; Wojdynski and Evans
2016; Wojdynski et al. 2017) because people tend to be defensive against persuasive
episodes when they are aware of a communicator’s persuasive intent, leading them to
form negative attitudes toward the communicator, according to the persuasion knowl-
edge model (Friestad and Wright 1994; Wright, Friestad, and Boush 2005).
The nature of brand exposure in covert advertising is often subtle because it is
designed to minimize disruption of the persuasive intent that consumers might expe-
rience when they are exposed to marketing messaging. Jung and Heo (2019) suggested
that persuasion knowledge is activated by individuals’ prior experience with social
media advertising rather than sponsorship labeling, which implies that average con-
sumers still may not recognize the persuasive intent of influencers’ sponsored content,
8 H. KIM

especially if they are not familiar with influencer marketing tactics. Unlike billboard
ads, print ads, or TV commercials, brand promotions in influencer advertising are
more subtle and not easily recognizable in their commercial intent because the con-
tent is posted as part of the influencer’s personal day-to-day updates.
More importantly, sponsorship disclosure not only affects brand attitudes but also
influencers’ credibility by activating consumers’ skepticism (De Veirman and Hudders
2020). Therefore, advertising recognition directly affects influencers. The present
study, however, argues that social presence and PSI may reduce the promotional
appeal of branded content by making the promotional messaging seem more subtle
because the parasocial relationship influencers develop with audience and their life
sharing on Instagram enhances the sense of authenticity.

H3: Advertising recognition will moderate the effect of parasocial interaction and neg-
atively affect purchase intent.

H4: The level of social presence affects advertising recognition, such that participants in
a high social presence condition will perceive the postings as less promotional of the
brand, and participants in a low social presence condition will perceive the postings as
more promotional.

Extant literature has primarily focused on investigating the impact of parasocial

interaction on purchase behavior and word-of-mouth intention. To extend our knowl-
edge of PSI, this study investigates whether PSI predicts self-efficacy to understand
the role-model effect of influencers. Bandura (1977) postulates that ‘by observing a
model of the desired behavior, an individual forms an idea of how response compo-
nents must be combined and sequenced to produce the new behavior’ (Bandura 1977,
35). Vicarious learning, however, is not merely mimicry; rather, it constitutes a form of
proven skills and a custom of culture that individuals exemplify from observation
(Bandura 1989), and the similarity with the social model significantly contributes to a
learner’s self-efficacy (Manz and Sims 1981). Perceived self-efficacy refers to ‘belief in
one’s capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce
given levels of attainments’ (Bandura 1997, 3), and a strong sense of self-efficacy
enhances goal achievement (Bandura 1977). In health research specifically, Bandura’s
social cognitive theory has served as a useful theoretical framework to explain how
interventions help persuade people to change behavior or make healthy choices (Ajzen
2002; Sparks, Guthrie, and Shepherd 1997; Armitage and Conner 1999). Consumers
who aspire to influencers’ lifestyles view them as ‘wanna be’ (Chae 2019) and try to
mimic the lifestyle influencers portray on Instagram by purchasing products influencers
endorse and following the advice they offer in their posts (Ki and Kim 2019). Thus,
consumers might view influencers as people they wish to model who can also posi-
tively enhance perceived self-efficacy.

H5: Heightened parasocial interaction with the influencer will enhance perceived self-effi-
cacy, such that participants who build a stronger parasocial interaction with the influencer
will exhibit stronger self-efficacy.

Though influencers may serve as role models whom consumers wish to emulate,
viewing life-sharing posts alone may not affect self-efficacy directly. Thus, the present
 International Journal of Advertising 9

study proposes PSI as the underlying mechanism that helps mediate social presence
and individuals’ self-efficacy.

H6: Parasocial interaction will mediate the relationship between social presence and
self-efficacy.

Method
Participants
In a one-factor between-subjects design experiment, participants were recruited through
Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to participate in a research study delivered through
Qualtrics, an online survey tool. Qualtrics allows random assignment, and thus each
time a study participant accessed the link to the study, the survey tool randomly
assigned the participant to one of two conditions, and then delivered relevant stimuli
and questions. Those individuals who self-selected this study on Amazon MTurk com-
pleted the procedure at their own pace. After accessing the study, participants com-
pleted an online informed consent form and were directed automatically to a preliminary
questionnaire, followed by the stimulus material and a final set of questions.
US consumers were recruited through MTurk. Studies have shown that MTurk data
are as reliable and valid as data gathered through traditional methods (Sheehan 2018).
To ensure validity and increase the statistical power, however, several steps were taken.
To increase the statistical power of the data, this study employed instructional manip-
ulation check (IMC) measures in the form of an attention-checking question that reads,
‘Please skip this question. Do not click on the scale items that are labeled from 1 to
7. This is just to screen out random clicking’. This question was followed by a 7-point
Likert-type scale ranging from ‘very rare’ to ‘very frequently’. This allows detection of
negligent respondents who routinely answer the same questions and do not pay
attention to instructions (Oppenheimer et al. 2009). Additionally, to validate the par-
ticipation of human subjects, responses without a valid IP address were identified.
Thus, in the data cleaning process, participants who failed the IMC test and pro-
vided no valid IP addresses were excluded. Also, participants who spent less than
four minutes were excluded from the final analysis, as the average amount of time
participants spent completing the study was approximately 10 minutes, ranging from
a minimum of 2 minutes to 19 minutes. In the end, a total of 155 adults from MTurk
(46.5% male, 51.0% female, two participants who declined to provide their gender
information, and two participants who answered ‘other’) participated in the survey
in exchange for monetary compensation. The respondents’ average age was 32.7
(range = 20 to 65).

Stimuli and pretest

To construct the stimuli, a fictitious fitness influencer, Charlie, and her Instagram
postings were created. A fitness blog on Instagram was chosen for this study because
fitness blogs are one of the most popular genres on Instagram, with many fitness
influencers sharing their workout photos to encourage and motivate viewers, also
10 H. KIM

known as ‘fitspiration’ (Fardouly, Willburger, and Vartanian 2018). Fitspiration influencers

are also frequently covered in magazines (Edsor 2017; Neal 2017). A female fitness
influencer was selected because the most acclaimed influencers among popular fitness
Instagram were women (Fisher 2018; Forbes 2017). Prior to constructing the stimuli,
popular Instagram fitness influencers’ accounts were consulted to create plausible
posts that people are likely to see on Instagram.
Participants in both conditions viewed two posts, both featuring Fitbit, a fitness
tracker. One post had a photo of a Fitbit, showing the results of the blogger’s recent
run – for example, how far she ran and how many calories she burned after the run
– and the other post had a photo of the influencer running with the Fitbit on her
arm. Both posts include her brief comment updates, hashtags, and the Fitbit hashtag
(#fitbit) to imitate real branded user-generated Instagram postings. Next, social pres-
ence is operationalized in the current study by posting personal life-sharing events
as well. The level of social presence was thus manipulated by adding daily-life event
posts. For the high social presence condition, participants were exposed to two more
life-sharing event posts in addition to the fitness posts as a means of social presence
manipulation: one life-sharing post featured the blogger having a healthy brunch at
a friends’ gathering and another post showed her enjoying her vacation. Including
two posts with the branded content theme and two with the life-sharing event theme
was important in the study because it was a priority for participants to perceive a
difference between the two themes. Accordingly, the advertising repetition tactic was
employed, as repeated advertising exposure results in greater brand recall and better
advertising message comprehension (Craig, Sternthal, and Leavitt 1976). Additionally,
episodes of each theme were varied because advertising variation increases effective-
ness of repetition (Haugtvedt et al. 1994); besides, influencers rarely post the exact
same post twice in a row, so this also helped enhance ecological validity. Participants
in the low social presence condition, however, were not exposed to such life-sharing
posts (see Appendix).
A series of pretests was conducted to create stimuli that could best manipulate
social presence and rule out any possible confounding variables in the experiment
design. For the pretest, twenty-nine adults in the US were recruited through Amazon
MTurk. To increase the ecological validity of the stimuli, those who were following
any kinds of Instagram blogs were recruited to test if the stimuli modeled average
real Instagram posts. Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions: high
social presence vs. low social presence. The established social presence scale was
adapted from Lee and Nass (2005). Participants rated how well the following state-
ments described their feelings after viewing the posts: (1) I feel as if she were speaking
directly to me, (2) It feels as though I were talking her in person, and (3) I could
imagine her vividly. An overall social presence scale was created by averaging the
three items.
An independent samples t-test was then conducted to see if the experimental
conditions for social presence were being successfully manipulated. The t-test was
statistically significant at t (27) = −2.27, p < .05, so participants in the high social
presence condition evaluated the postings as containing a stronger social presence
of the influencer (M = 4.98, SD = 2.38) than those in the low social presence condition
(M = 3.14, SD = 1.92). In addition, participants were asked to evaluate how authentic
 International Journal of Advertising 11

they perceived the posts to be, because authenticity is one of the key factors that
help create social presence with mediated personae, and social media makes it pos-
sible to build a sense of authenticity (Lee and Jang 2013). An authenticity measure
was adapted from Gilmore and Pine (2007). Respondents rated the perceived authen-
ticity of the Instagram posts using five items, based on 7-point semantic differential
scales. The perceived authenticity items included (1) artificial: natural, (2) imitation:
original, (3) disingenuous: genuine, (4) fake: real, and (5) insincere: sincere. An inde-
pendent samples t-test was significant t (27) = −2.13, p < .05, demonstrating that
participants in the high social presence condition felt the posts were more authentic
(M = 5.32, SD = 1.72) than those in the low social presence condition (M = 3.99, SD = 1.63).

Procedure
The opening screen of the survey instrument indicated to participants that the pur-
pose of the study was to learn about how people use social media. The experiment
procedure consisted of three parts. The first part of the study asked participants for
background information about their Instagram use. Participants were asked whether
they use Instagram and follow any Instagram bloggers. Those who followed any
bloggers on Instagram were asked to name and describe the types of Instagram blogs
they follow. In the second part, participants were then told that they were going to
see a fitness blogger’s posts on Instagram. In this part of the survey, participants
were introduced to the experimental conditions and randomly assigned to either a
high social presence condition or a low social presence condition. Third, after viewing
the posts, participants were asked to rate their parasocial interactions with the blog-
ger, their perceived self-efficacy, their advertising recognition, and their purchase
intent for the product featured in the posts. Finally, participants were asked to answer
demographic questions, thanked, and debriefed (i.e. told the Instagram posts and the
blogger were not real and simply made up for the purpose of this study).

Measures
PSI
Because the original parasocial interaction scale and short version were created with
TV newscasters or soap opera characters in mind (A. M. Rubin, Perse, and Powell
1985; R. B. Rubin and McHugh 1987), some items were not well suited for the on-de-
mand viewing nature of Instagram (e.g. ‘I look forward to watching my favorite
newscaster on tonight’s news’) or presuppose a particular program format or content
(e.g. ‘When the newscasters joke around with one another it makes the news easier
to watch’). To measure the PSI of social media influencers, previous studies have
adapted A. Rubin, Perse, and Powell (1985)’s original 29-item inventory and cut it
down to several items. Lee and Jang (2013)’s seven items were chosen for the current
study because this 7-item scale already showed strong reliability, α =.95, in their
study, and a pilot test of different versions of the PSI scale also confirmed that the
internal consistency of these seven items was well suited for measuring parasocial
relationships in the current study. Respondents were asked to rate how they felt
12 H. KIM

about the following statements. Items were rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale,
anchored with 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ to 7 = ‘strongly agree’ for the following six
statements: (1) I think I can understand what kind of person she is; (2) She makes
me feel comfortable, as if I am with a friend; (3) I see her as a natural, down-to-earth
person; (4) I can relate to her; (5) If there were a story about her in a newspaper or
a magazine, I would read it; (6) I would like to meet her in person, and (7) I feel as
if I have known her for a long time. An overall PSI composite measure was created
by averaging the seven items together, α = .93, M = 4.35, SD = 1.41.

Perceived self-efficacy
Since the general self-efficacy scale (GSE) was introduced (Schwarzer and Matthias
1995), the scale has been used in many studies to measure how much individuals
believe in their own ability to carry out tasks. The scale was then modified into dif-
ferent forms to measure specific abilities to perform certain tasks to meet goals, such
as, for example, eating a low-fat diet for a heathier lifestyle (Armitage and Conner
1999). For this study, a perceived self-efficacy measure was adapted from studies that
tested perceived self-efficacy on goal achievements in different goal-setting conditions
(Ajzen 2002; Sparks, Guthrie, and Shepherd 1997; Armitage and Conner 1999).
Respondents rated four items that came after the statement, ‘After viewing the
Instagram posts…’ Items were rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale: (1) I am certain
that I can start a running workout (1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree), (2) I
believe I have the ability to start a running workout (1 = Definitely do not, 7 = Definitely
do), (3) How confident are you that you will be able to start a running workout?
(1 = Not confident at all, 7 = Very confident), and (4) To what extent do you see yourself
as being capable of starting a running workout? (1 = Very unlikely, 7 = Very likely). To
create a composite measure of perceived self-efficacy, the four items were averaged
together, α = .95, M = 4.87, SD = 1.69.

Advertising recognition
Participants rated the degree to which they perceived the Instagram posts as adver-
tising. A single item asking them to ‘indicate the extent to which you thought the
Instagram posts were advertising’ was measured on a 7-point Likert-type scale
(1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree), with a single item deemed sufficient to
measure the construct (Boerman, Van Reijmersdal, and Neijens 2012) M = 4.97, SD = 1.54.

Purchase intent
Lastly, participants were asked to rate how much they would be interested in buying
products featured in the Instagram posts. On a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly
disagree, 7 = strongly agree), an established 4 items were measured, including (1) I
would like to try this brand; (2) I would buy other products of this brand; (3) I would
buy this product if I happened to see the brand; and (4) I would actively seek out
this product in a store in order to purchase it (Baker and Churchill 1977). An overall
purchase intent composite measure was created by averaging the four items together,
α = .91, M = 4.27, SD = 1.52.
 International Journal of Advertising 13

Manipulation check
In order to check if the experimental conditions for social presence were being
manipulated successfully, adopted from Lee and Nass (2005), an indepdndent samples
t-test was conducted on social presence, α = .84, M = 3.98, SD = 1.50. The independent
samples t-test indicated significant differences between the two conditions, t (153) =
−2.29, p < .05. Participants in the high social presence condition indicated they felt
a stronger presence of the influencer in the posts (M = 4.24, SD = 1.42) than those in
the low social presence condition (M = 4.24, SD = 1.42).

Results
Hypotheses testing
A series of mediation analyses was conducted using Hayes’ PROCESS procedure for
SPSS, in which a series of linear regressions was conducted and conditional indirect
effects were simultaneously calculated using bias-corrected 95% CIs based on 1,000
bootstrap samples (Hayes 2013). Hayes (2013) suggests multiple mediation analysis can
be run separately when there is more than one dependent variable. Prior to these
mediation analyses, the basic relationships between the predictor (social presence) and
mediator (parasocial relationship), and between the mediator and outcome variables
(purchase intent and self-efficacy) were assessed to ensure the appropriateness of a
mediation test (see MacKinnon et al. 2002). Age and gender factors were entered as
covariates because younger consumers, Generation Z and Millennials, are more favorable
to influencer marketing than older generations (Čop and Culiberg 2020), and female
consumers are more prone to mimic influencers’ lifestyles and purchase products influ-
encers endorse (Chae 2018; Djafarova and Rushworth 2017).

Predicting purchase intent

The first mediation analysis was performed using PROCESS model 14 to address H1
and H2 regarding the effect of social presence on parasocial interaction and the
association between parasocial interaction and purchase intent. In the first mediation
analysis, social presence was entered as the independent variable, parasocial relation-
ship was entered as the mediator, advertising recognition was entered as the mod-
erator, and purchase intent was entered as the outcome variable. A significant
conditional indirect effect for the model was interpreted as support for H2 regarding
purchase intent. The first model of the first mediation analysis predicting the effects
of social presence on parasocial interaction was significant, R2 = .63, F (1, 156) =
62.93, p < .001, indicating that social presence positively predicts parasocial interac-
tion, B = .73 SE B = .05, p < .001. Additionally, a separate independent samples t-test
was performed on H1 to test whether participants felt parasocial interactions with
the influencer differently when the level of social presence varied in the Instagram
posts. A significant difference emerged between the two conditions, t (153) = −2.11,
p < .05, indicating that participants in a high social presence condition exhibited
stronger parasocial relationships with the influencer (M = 4.58, SD = 1.32) than those
in a low social presence condition (M = 4.10, SD = 1.48). Thus, H1 was supported.
14 H. KIM

The second model of the first mediation analysis was significant, R2 = .26, F (2, 155)
= 62.93, p < .001, indicating that parasocial interaction positively predicts purchase
intent, B =.46 SE B = .18, p < .001. In addition, parasocial interaction fully mediated
the relationships between social presence and purchase intent, evidenced by the fact
that social presence became a non-significant predictor in the model, B = .10, SE B =
.12, p = .41. A conditional indirect effects test for social presence was significant at p
< .001, B = .33, SE B = .10, CI95 = .1429 to .5394. Thus, H2 was supported.
The full model of moderated mediation analysis was also significant, R2 = .29, F
(4, 153) = 62.93, p < .001. The effect of social presence and parasocial interaction on
purchase intent became non-significant, B = .04, SE B = .12, p = .71; B = −.20, SE B
= .27, p = .47; however, advertising recognition significantly predicted purchase intent
in the model, B = −.55, SE B = .21, p < .01 by negatively affecting purchase intent.
Also, the index of moderated mediation was significant, B = .09, SE B = .04, CI95 =
.0199 to .1773. The moderated mediation analysis revealed that social presence affects
purchase intent through parasocial interaction. However, parasocial interaction can
negatively influence purchase intent when individuals perceive that the postings
strongly suggest a promotional appeal; thus, H3 was supported.
Next, a separate independent samples t-test was performed to test H4 regarding
the effect of the level of social presence on advertising recognition. The analysis
indicated that the level of social presence significantly affected advertising recognition,
t (153) = 2.38, p < .05, in that participants in a high social presence condition per-
ceived the postings as less promotional (M = 4.69, SD = 1.57), whereas participants in
a low social presence condition perceive the postings as highly promotional and
advertising (M = 5.27, SD = 1.45), supporting H4.
Therefore, Instagram postings with high social presence help develop stronger
parasocial interaction with influencers, leading to purchase intent of the products
featured in the posts. Parasocial interaction with influencers serves as a mediator that
stimulates consumers to buy products featured in the posts. More importantly, how-
ever, the mediating role of parasocial interaction and its effects can be reduced, and
further, negatively affects purchase intent when consumers perceive that the posts
suggest a strong promotional appeal, while a strong social presence of influencers
in the posts was found to minimize the sense of promotional appeal.

Predicting self-efficacy
Next, a second mediation analysis was performed using PROCESS model 4, which
repeated the above analysis steps using self-efficacy as the outcome variable, while
also controlling for gender and age. The full model in this analysis was also statistically
significant, R2 = .18, F (2,155) = 6.52, p < .001. Parasocial interaction predicted
­self-efficacy, B = .34, SE B = .15, p < .05, supporting H5. In addition, parasocial inter-
action mediated the relationships between social presence and self-efficacy, evidenced
by the fact that social presence became a non-significant predictor in the model, B =
−.05, SE B = .14 p = .69. The indirect effects test for social presence on self-efficacy
was significant, B = .25, SE B = .10, CI95 = .0279 to .4031, indicating that H6 was sup-
ported (see Figure 1). Thus, postings with high social presence increase parasocial
interactions with influencers, and strong parasocial interactions with influencers also
help increase feelings of self-efficacy, in that influencers help motivate viewers.
 International Journal of Advertising 15

Ad Recognition

Parasocial
Interaction -.55**
.73***
-.20
.34*
Social Presence .04
(low=0, high=1) Purchase Intent

.19* (-.05)
Self-efficacy

Figure 1. Indirect effect of Social Presence on Purchase Intent and Self-efficacy through Parasocial
Interactions.
Note: *p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001

Discussion
Results revealed that participants showed stronger parasocial relationships when the posts
included some updates about the influencer’s daily life events in addition to branded
content, corroborating the previous studies that social presence helps enhance psycho-
logical connection with the mediated interactant (e.g. Jin, Muqaddam, and Ryu 2019; Lee
and Jang 2013). Another significant finding of the present study is the mediating role of
parasocial interaction with influencers. That is, on the fitness influencer’s Instagram page,
social presence not only affects purchase intent toward the product featured in the posts
through parasocial interaction with the influencer, but also motivates the viewer’s self-ef-
ficacy through parasocial interaction. This indicates that social presence, visual images of
influencers’ daily journal, is an Instagram-specific quality, and marketers can benefit from
this unique quality; however, it alone does not affect behavioral intent, and it is crucial
for influencers to build a strong relationship with their audience to increase advertising
effectiveness. The effects of social presence also corroborate findings from previous studies,
suggesting that influencers are highly self-disclosing in their posts, which in turn help
generate content engagement (Feng, Chen, and Kong 2020; Ferchaud et al. 2018).
Note that the popularity of the posts (number of hits), interactivity cues (the influ-
encer’s response to followers), and sponsorship disclosure were strictly controlled in
this study to focus solely on the effect of social presence. Though a brand name was
mentioned in the form of a hashtag and product placement sponsorship was not
disclosed in order to model average user-generated content in the stimuli, participants
still perceived the post as some kind of promotional content. Apparently, brand men-
tions in posts activate advertising recognition, which negatively affects purchase intent,
as evidenced by the persuasion knowledge model (Wright, Friestad, and Boush 2005;
Friestad and Wright 1994; Evans et al. 2017; Wojdynski et al. 2017). More importantly,
advertising recognition moderates the effect of parasocial interaction and weakens the
effects of it by negatively influencing purchase intent, such that in the heightened
social presence posts, participants are less likely to perceive it as advertising, leading
to less negative purchase intent. Therefore, influencers broadcasting and sharing their
mundane day-to-day life and personal news on their own Instagram accounts in addi-
tion to sponsored content may blur the line between paid content and mere status
updates, causing individuals to develop a less negative perception of the advertised
16 H. KIM

brand overall. In other words, from consumers standpoint, consumers are more likely
to psychologically connect with influencers and may view sponsored content more
favorably and perceive them as lifestyle they wish to emulate. The findings of this
study therefore suggest that a heightened social presence in Instagram posts strength-
ens parasocial interaction and makes sponsored content seem less promotional and
more native. This may be good news for industry and marketing professionals but may
also raise another concern over covert advertising as it may cloud consumers’ judgement.
In addition, vicarious learning experiences earned from influencers through role-
model effects appear to benefit followers and help enhance their feelings of self-ef-
ficacy. In many studies, Bandura’s social cognitive theory showed how role-modeling
stimulates self-efficacy, leading viewers to take action for prosocial behavior and
adopt a healthy lifestyle (Armitage and Conner 1999; Bandura 1997). The present
study supports this idea, suggesting that fitness Instagram influencers can help indi-
viduals adopt a healthy lifestyle by acting as role models.
Therefore, the present study contributes to influencer marketing research by uncov-
ering the role of social presence on Instagram specifically. Numerous studies in influ-
encer marketing scholarship discussed how influencer marketing works based on
source credibility and the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing. This study is the
first to explore how influencers’ life-sharing and documenting mundane daily events
on Instagram can increase advertising effectiveness while influencers serve as role
model for consumers. These findings also provide marketers with some tips on how
to better utilize the Instagram platform as an advertising channel.

Theoretical and managerial implications

The current study contributes to theory building in a two-fold way. First, this study
expands our understanding of the issue of cover advertising and persuasion knowl-
edge in influencer marketing context, suggesting that social presence can reduce
advertising recognition; that is, apart from sponsorship disclosure, influencers’ life-shar-
ing posts on their personal Instagram pages makes sponsored posts seem less pro-
motional and more native. Thus, marketers can benefit from influencers’ social presence,
just as we can see in celebrities’ reality TV shows, and leverage product placement
effects (Russell et al. 2016). However, policy makers should consider the pitfalls and
possible regulatory concerns over social presence effects to protect consumers from
misleading promotional marketing activities. Second, this study contributes to under-
standing the role of influencers by uncovering the role-model effect of influencers
through the lens of social cognitive theory (Bandura 1989), suggesting that the influ-
encer’s role goes beyond just being a relatable figure and serving as a mere media
vehicle to carry marketing messages; rather, they serve as effective spokespeople
whom audiences will role-model. Thus, marketers of sports brands or healthcare
products, where inspirational advertising claims are effectively used, can benefit from
partnering with influencers to utilize influencers’ role-model effects.

Limitations and directions for future research

Though the present study successfully discovered meaningful findings on how
influencer marketing works by focusing on the mediating role of parasocial inter-
actions, the study’s limitations should be noted. First, due to the nature of the
 International Journal of Advertising 17

experimental conditions, participants’ interaction with the influencer may have been
quite different from how people usually interact with influencers on Instagram. In
real life, people self-select influencers on Instagram based on their own interests
and communicate with them in a dyad relationship; however, participants in the
study were asked to rate posts, which may have caused participants to view the
posts from a third-person perspective. Second, this study created posts from only
a female influencer. A study showed that close fit between an influencer and the
individual’s ideal image resulted in positive endorsement effects (Shan, Chen, and
Lin 2020). Similarly, individuals might feel a stronger connection with an influencer
of the same gender, as evidenced by social identity theory (Tajfel 1982), so gen-
der-matching warrants further investigation. Third, as noted earlier, popularity and
sponsorship have an effect on the evaluation of posts (De Veirman, Cauberghe, and
Hudders 2017; Evans et al. 2017), although they are controlled for in this study.
Therefore, future studies can explore these variables and factor them into the
equation to better understand how influencer marketing works. Despite these lim-
itations, this study contributes to theory building in influencer marketing scholarship
as well as advances our knowledge of how influencer marketing works on Instagram
to provide practical implications to marketing professionals.

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Appendix