Gender as an Influencer of Online Health Information-Seeking and Evaluation Behavior

This article contributes to the growing body of research that explores the significance of context in health information behavior. Specifically, through the lens of trust judgments, it demonstrates that gender is a determinant of the information evaluation process. A questionnaire-based survey collected data from adults regarding the factors that influence their judgment of the trustworthiness of online health information. Both men and women identified credibility, recommendation, ease of use, and brand as being of importance in their trust judgments. However, women also take into account style, while men eschew this for familiarity. In addition, men appear to be more concerned with the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the information, the ease with which they can access it, and its familiarity, whereas women demonstrate greater interest in cognition, such as the ease with which they can read and understand the information. These gender differences are consistent with the demographic data, which suggest that: women consult more types of sources than men; men are more likely to be searching with respect to a long-standing health complaint; and, women are more likely than men to use tablets in their health information seeking. Recommendations for further research to better inform practice are offered

Success factors of social influencers – multiple dimensions and contingencies of a prosperous campaign

Social Influencer haben sich zu einem mächtigen Mittel der Marketing-Kommunikation entwickelt. Gegenwärtig übersteigt die Höhe der Ausgaben für Social Influencer Marketing die der traditionellen Werbung (wie Fernsehspots, Print- oder Plakatwerbung). Angesichts des großen Einflusses, den Social Influencer auf Konsumenten haben können, stellt sich die Frage, wie man eine Influencer-Kampagne erfolgreich durchführt. Erste Ansätze haben Engagement-Variablen berücksichtigt - z. B. die Anzahl der Follower eines Influencers. Allerdings haben sich diese Ansätze oft genug als zu schlicht und eindimensional erwiesen. Tatsächlich beruht der Erfolg eines Influencer-Endorsements auf einem komplexen System von Erfolgsfaktoren, deren Bedeutung variieren kann. Dazu gehören unter anderem Faktoren, die in der Person des Influencers liegen, das Zusammenspiel zwischen Influencer und Zielgruppe, das Setup von Influencer und Marke/Produkt, der Kommunikationsstil des Influencers und die Vermeidung von Influencer-Fehlverhalten. Diese Elemente können miteinander verbunden sein und auch in gegenseitigem Konflikt stehen. Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich der Erforschung dieses komplexen Systems und der Schließung von Forschungslücken. Das erste Modul (1 Beitrag) legt ein Fundament, indem die drei Faktoren Attraktivität, Expertise und Vertrauenswürdigkeit untersucht werden. Im zweiten Modul, das zwei Forschungsarbeiten umfasst, wird das Zusammenspiel zwischen Influencer, Konsument und Marke/Produkt behandelt. Das erste Paper fokussiert die Persönlichkeit und untersucht die Übereinstimmung der Influencer-Persönlichkeit mit dem tatsächlichen und gewünschten Selbstkonzept des Konsumenten sowie mit der Markenpersönlichkeit. Dabei wird auch die moderierende Rolle des Produktinvolvements berücksichtigt. Im zweiten Beitrag wird das Zusammenspiel von Influencer- und Konsumentenattraktivität sowie Geschlecht untersucht. Das dritte Modul (4 Beiträge) konzentriert sich auf die Erfolgsfaktoren für verschiedene Produktarten bzw. Endorsement-Anlässe; dabei wird ein starker Bezug zur Kommunikation des Influencers hergestellt. Paper 1 und 2 ziehen eine grundsätzliche Grenze zwischen hedonischen und utilitaristischen Produkten und untersuchen die Bedeutung von Kommunikationsstil, Faktizität, Expertise und demographischer Ähnlichkeit. Der dritte Beitrag untersucht die Rolle der Attraktivität und Expertise von Influencern für attraktivitätsbezogene und nicht-attraktivitätsbezogene Produkte. Der vierte Beitrag schließlich diskutiert die Besonderheiten eines Influencer-Endorsements im Non-Profit-Kontext. Im letzten Modul werden die Schattenseiten des Influencer-Marketings, nämlich die schädliche Wirkung von Skandalen, in einem Beitrag beleuchtet. Diese Arbeit verdeutlicht die Vielfalt und Kontingenz der Faktoren, die ein erfolgreiches Influencer Endorsement ausmachen. Alle Faktoren müssen gegeneinander abgewogen und diskutiert werden; dabei spielen Unterschiede wie die angesprochene Zielgruppe oder das beworbene Produkt bzw. Anliegen eine große Rolle. Die Ergebnisse liefern wertvolle Implikationen für Praktiker vieler Branchen, um ihre Influencer-Kampagnen erfolgreich zu gestalten und umzusetzen. Ebenso eröffnen die Ergebnisse viele Perspektiven für zukünftige Forschung. Ein großes Forschungspotenzial kann in einer qualitativen Ergänzung der durchgeführten quantitativen Studien liegen. Auf diese Weise könnten die Gedanken, Gefühle und Handlungsabsichten von Influencern, Konsumenten und Praktikern, die die Grundlage der vorliegenden Ergebnisse bilden, aufgedeckt werden

The Creator Economy: A guide for impact investors

The "creator economy" is the online ecosystem of platforms, products and services that enable independent content creators to make their work, build their audiences, monetize their ideas, and manage their careers. Technology is transforming how creative work is produced, distributed, compensated, and enjoyed — while simultaneously expanding who gets to tell their stories and who sees their own experiences represented online. Upstart Co-Lab believes impact investors can play a role to ensure the values of diversity, equity, inclusion and access are prioritized in this rapidly growing sector.The latest in a series of deep dives into key creative industries, this report looks at a fast-growing segment of Upstart Co-Lab's pipeline of impact investment opportunities in the U.S. creative economy

THE DRIVERS AND IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS: THE ROLE OF MIMICRY

Despite the growing trend of influencer marketing, little effort has been made to understanding the comprehensive mechanism as to how social media influencers (SMIs) influence their target audiences. Although previous SMI literature identified possible drivers and effects of SMIs, much of former research has focused on the peripheral traits of SMIs: identifying the effect of a SMI’s number of followers on a target’s influencer likability. Not much investigation has been undertaken to understand the principal traits of SMIs that allow them to amass audience in the first place and gain influence over their audiences. The dissertation filled this void in the literature. Drawing upon Influence Framework and Consumer’s Doppelganger Effect theory, the study developed an overarching, structural framework that explains the influence mechanism of a SMI over her target audience as a whole in which (i) a target’s perceptions toward a SMI’s influence attempts (attractiveness, prestige, expertise, information, and interaction) affect the target’s attitudes toward the SMI, believing that the SMI exercises taste leadership and opinion leadership (H1 to H6), (ii) the target’s positive attitudes toward the SMI trigger her conscious mimicry desire toward the SMI (H7 and H8), and (iii) the target’s mimicry desire directs her performance outcomes of social media WOM and purchase intention (H9 and H10). The study included both a qualitative method approach (focus group (n = 11)) and quantitative approaches (pre-test (n = 48), pilot test (n = 155), and main-test (n = 395) surveys via Mechanical Turk) to attest its conceptual model. The main-test results, using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis via AMOS 23, confirmed that the conceptual model and all the hypothesized relationships were statistically significant. Further, the bootstrap results demonstrated that a target’s mimicry desire indeed served as a significant mediator linking the target’s attitudinal beliefs to behavioral decisions. The study’s findings provide insightful contributions to the SMI literature and practical implications for brand marketers in developing successful influencer marketing strategies

CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS’ COMSUMER BEHAVIOUR: ONLINE SHOPPPING AND SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE FOLLOWING THE COVID-19 ERA

Digital technologies and the Internet constitute an indispensable part of children and adolescents’ daily life. In this context, the influence of digital devices and Internet usage on children and adolescents has emerged as a broad research field. Particularly, the impact of social networks has surfaced as a prominent research question, focusing also on how social media and influencer marketing influence children and adolescents’ consumer behaviour. Contributing to this literature, in this paper we present the qualitative research we conducted in Greece within the scope of the European Research Project DIGYMATEX. More specifically, we discuss the findings we collected through qualitative research concerning the online consumer behaviour of children and adolescences, especially in relation to the use of the Internet for market research and online shopping, and the impact that social media and influencers exert on the consumer behaviour. The data was collected through six focus groups with the participation of 23 children and adolescents, aged 9-18. Apart from contributing to the existing literature with findings from Greece, our study highlights the need for further research on the relationship between advertising literacy and self-regulatory mechanisms, considering also the element of gender, and the potential connection between digital maturity and advertising literacy

an application of the theory of planned behaviour

Instagram has taken a substantial role in social media advertising, as it has gained popularity amongst advertisers and influencers, and both parties are looking for higher engagement rates. However, little is known about what drives these rates. This study aims to apply the Theory of Planned Behaviour on engagement with two types of Instagram advertising (traditional and influencer). A survey with 180 participants was conducted, analysing attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. Regression analyses partially support the theory and show that it is a better fit with influencers’ advertisement. As attitude was found to have a greater influence on traditional advertisement, several strategies to improve it are proposed

The Role of Regulatory Foci and Information Seeking Behavior on Self-Disclosure on Social Media

This paper aims to explore the role of Regulatory Foci and Information Seeking Behavior on Self-Disclosure on social media platforms. This research used quantitative research methodology, a self -administrated survey was conducted among generation Y college students. Participants answers were recorded using Google forms and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The Results showed that there was a significant relationship between the Regularity Foci and the Self disclosure. Moreover, the results showed that there was a mediating effect of the Information seeking behavior between Regularity Foci and Self disclosure. The limitation of this study is the sample size (150) and generalizability of the results

The Influencer Effect: Exploring the Persuasive Communication Tactics of Social Media Influencers in the Health and Wellness Industry

With the emergence of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, social media influencers (SMIs) have been a growing source of information in the health and wellness industry. Through their creative, informative, and appealing content, SMIs have the innate ability to reach and attain a large following on social media platforms. The purpose of this study is to ascertain an understanding of the persuasive tactics employed by SMIs in the creation and dissemination of information in the health and wellness industry. Using the theoretical framework of Aristotle’s Rhetorical Appeals and Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm, this qualitative study seeks to examine the key persuasive tactics used by SMIs in the health and wellness industry. Using content analysis, the social media content of SMIs was collected and analyzed to find emerging themes related to the rhetorical appeals and narration. In addition, a comparative analysis of the persuasive tactics used by SMIs and subject-matter experts (SMEs) was conducted. Findings showed that SMIs rely heavily on the appeals that allowed them to present themselves as credible, relatable, and similar to their followers; SMEs rely strongly on the logos appeal using technical language, memes, and textual graphics to educate the audience. Through this study, using the findings of the content and comparative analysis, a list of best practices of key persuasive tactics has been established to enable SMEs to be more effective in encouraging online users to adopt health information

How are Digital Micro-Influencers Driving the Social Commerce?

Digital micro-influencers (DMIs) seem to drive social commerce as they connect with customers in tier-II towns better than others. The extant literature on the efforts and work processes of DMIs is limited. The present study fills the gap through a qualitative study in India. Using the persuasion knowledge model as a guiding framework, nineteen qualitative in-depth interviews with the DMIs were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. The study finds that understanding the target (target knowledge) helps DMIs in selecting appropriate brands (topic knowledge) and creating compelling content (persuasion knowledge), leading to social commerce. Also, topic knowledge assists persuasion knowledge. The study further offers insights into the nature of the motivators on the DMIs in the light of organismic integration theory. Theoretical and managerial implications for future research are provided

Effects of TikTok Influencers on the Purchase Intention of Gen-Z: Cosmetic Industry

This study investigates how TikTok influencers affect Generation Z's purchase intention toward the cosmetic industry in HCMC. The research issue is a lack of knowledge on how TikTok influencers affect Generation Z's buying intentions for cosmetics. The research objective is to investigate the relationships among influencers' credibility, physical attractiveness, expertise, social advocacy, customers' trust, gender, and purchase intention. The literature study emphasizes the significance of customer trust and influencer characteristics in influencing consumer intention. A questionnaire survey is used as a data gathering technique in this research employing a quantitative methodology. To analyze the data, SPSS will be used as the statistical program. Descriptive statistics will be computed to summarize the data. Multiple regression analysis will examine the relationship between influencers' characteristics and customer trust toward their purchase intention. According to the findings, all influencers' characteristics, including credibility, physical attractiveness, expertise, and social advocacy, have favorable effects on Gen Z's purchasing intention. Surprisingly, customer trust has the most influence on Gen Z behavior. It indicates that there is a difference in purchase intention for different genders. The outcomes will offer valuable insights to cosmetic industry marketers at HCMC to develop effective influencer marketing strategies for Generation Z consumers