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Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement and brand

perception

Article in International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising · January 2021

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2021.10036969

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220 Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2021

Impact of social media influencers on customer

engagement and brand perception

Rahul Chander Jaitly

Ulncept Global Pvt Ltd,M3M Cosmopolitan,
10th Floor, Sector 66, Gurugram, Haryana 122001, India
Email: [email protected]

Omvir Gautam*
Faculty of Commerce and Management,
Vishwakarma University,
Survey No. 2, 3, 4, Kondhwa Road, Laxmi Nagar,
Betal Nagar, Kondhwa, Pune-411048, Maharashtra, India
Email: [email protected]
*Corresponding author

Abstract: The availability and widespread use of social media has made it the
preferred medium for companies wanting to spread product information, create
public opinion and gain followers. To this end, social media influencers act as a
dynamic third-party endorser to spread a brand’s message to vast audience
across the world. Consumers who exhibit a positive attitude towards the
social media credibility are attracted through social media advertisements.
The present study examines the perceptions of agencies for opting social media
influencers and their role in customer engagement and brand awareness.
For this purpose, the study also assesses different methods adopted by these
influencers for influencing customers using a systematic review. The findings
of the study indicate customer’s perception and attitude are much influenced
via these influencers since they are more capable of communicating to a
niche segment. As compared to traditional advertising strategies, this new
technological means of influencers pave way to new competitive strength to the
agencies in engaging customers and creating brand awareness.

Keywords: social media influencers; customer engagement; brand awareness;

advertising strategies; social media advertising.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Jaitly, R.C. and Gautam, O.
(2021) ‘Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement and brand
perception’, Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 15, No. 2,
pp.220–242.

Biographical notes: Rahul Chander Jaitly is a Research Scholar at the

Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India. He has more than seven years of
experience in teaching, research and management. His areas of interest in
research include internet marketing, influencer marketing, analytics,
entrepreneurship, etc. He is an experienced growth marketer with a
demonstrated history of working in start-up ecosystem. He is skilled in
performance marketing.

Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 221

Omvir Gautam is working as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of

Commerce and Management, Vishwakarma University, Maharashtra, India.
He has 11 years of experience in teaching, research and administration.
His areas of interest in research include, digital marketing, consumer research,
social media analytics, entrepreneurship, etc. He is a passionate researcher and
presented papers in various national and international conferences. He has fair
number of good publications in Scopus and ABDC indexed journals to his
credit.

1 Introduction

1.1 Rise of social media influencers in different platforms

Technology has opened new doors for digital communication and has also paved the path
for companies to connect with consumers. Historically, different companies have been
using celebrities for building their brand perception. This is done with the help of athletes
or other icons promoting products and services for the firm. With the rise of social media,
consumers also made the shift to social media for integrated marketing experience. Social
network sites apart from providing a communication platform for the companies also
enhance visibility for the brand (Tegler, 2009). Further the digital influence brought the
advent of social media influencers, i.e., people who can convey social proof and agencies
that strategise and create a launch for successful influencer marketing campaigns for the
companies. Agencies are marketing partners for firm design integrated channel for
end-to-end customer experiences. Solis (2016) in a study explains the growth of social
media influencers as a psychological phenomenon, in which an individual assumes the
actions of influencers to reflect correct behaviour for a given situation or a brand.
Social media influencers are thus seen as sources by brands as an individual who has
a loyal and sizeable network of people. Influencers engage with them using various social
networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and are able to make
recommendations on behalf of the brands as third parties to build trust towards the brand.
The loyalty of the audience is what provides the influencers with the ability to drive
traffic to a company’s website and increase its social media exposure to create the
brand’s perception. In a report published by Gallagher (2018), brand engagement as a
result of social media influencers has increased from 81% in 2017 to 90% in 2018.
Further, company spending on social media influencers is poised to grow at a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% amounting to more than USD7.5 billion by 2022.

1.1.1 Reasons behind the rising popularity of social media influencers

Among the reasons behind the rising popularity of social media are the influencers due to
their ability to market the products through integrated efforts of lifestyle and public
relations initiatives. This initiative has removal of communication barrier between the
brand, the consumer, and followers of the influencer through social media. Before the rise
of social media, customers’ method of communication was one-sided through television
222 R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

commercials, billboards, print advertisements, and radio ads. However, through social
media, consumers can easily interact with the brand and influencers encourage their
followers to be active consumer and not just passively watch the advertisement, but
actively display social media engagement to drive new content. Influencers use the
products and ensure that the consumers are making an informed decision when making a
particular brand purchase (Glucksman, 2017).
Further, Solis (2016) highlights that rising popularity of the social media influencer
comes from the consumers and the power they give to their influencers. That is the extent
to which they are predisposed by their influencers’ opinion about the brands. Abidin and
Ots (2015) further argues the popularity of social media influencers is based on intimacy
and trust between them and their followers. Influencers share their personal opinions
making the products or services trustworthy and more relatable than brand ambassadors’
one-way communication, contributing to the growth of the influencers. Furthermore,
social media influencers’ popularity rose as a result of topical search options that the
consumers have. With the influencers, consumers can choose appropriate information
according to their priority and even decide the flow of information they need. Lee and Ma
(2012), suggest that consumer’s information-seeking behaviour significantly affects their
intention to share information and the direct user approach opened by social media
influencers make them more relevant to the consumers than other mediums of
communication.
The present study examines the perceptions of agencies for opting social media
influencers and their role in customer engagement and brand awareness. Also, the study
assesses different methods adopted by these influencers for influencing customers.

2 Literature review and conceptual framework

2.1 Customer engagement

Customer engagement in the marketing term has been defined by Palmatier et al. (2017,
p.3) as an “engagement associated with the level of an active relationship that a customer
shares with a firm.” Further, Brodie et al. (2011, p.8) defined it as “a psychological state,
which occurs by virtue of interactive customer experiences with a focal agent/object
within specific service relationships.” Thus, customer engagement forms a behavioural
indicator that consumers have with a particular brand. This commitment goes beyond
purchase decision and acts as resultant of motivational drivers from antecedents, such as
word-of-mouth and co-creation (Kumar et al., 2010). Additionally, there are certain
factors that affect customer engagement, particularly with respect to social media
marketing. One of the factors is the scope of connections that social media allows.
It provides the consumers with a ubiquitous network that is both open and cost-effective
for professional interaction and sharing of ideas to influence consumers more easily
(Trusov et al., 2009). Further, social media is not dependent on physical proximity as in
the real world and allows free communication that does not limit the scope of dialogue
between the firms and their customers (Sawhney et al., 2005).
 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 223

Further, customer engagement has several impacts on the firms as consumer

behaviours are used as tools by companies to make suggestions to improve their
consumption experience. These also help and coach the service providers in process of
creating better consumption offerings through co-creating. Co-creation ensures
participation of consumers in conception of the products’ core offering itself.
Additionally, social media influencers can heighten digital engagement through the social
network sites, depending on elements, such as content of the message, the format of
posts. Interactivity and vividness drive customer engagement and influencer use their
knowledge to acquire and share their social needs to create utility for customers (Khalid
et al., 2018). Customer engagement additionally, leads to shared inventiveness between
consumers and brands. It further forms the part of discretionary behaviour in consumers
that allows a unique customer-to-brand experience that allows the consumers to go
beyond their predetermined selected options of products (Van Doorn et al., 2010).

2.2 Brand perception

The brand perception as defined by Van Gelder (2005, p.90) is, “the total impression that
consumers have of a brand, based on their exposure to the brand. This consists of both the
image that consumers form the brand and their experience with the brand.” Consumers’
perception of a brand holds a specific and significant meaning for them and is the starting
point for company’s as a need to address and formulate their branding strategies. Brand
perception frames consumer experiences that are accomplished through specific
behaviour of consumers.
Additionally, factors affecting brand perception, particularly with respect to social
media marketing include level of engagement and interaction that consumers have with
their brands. Social media enhance customer–brand interactions in a meaningful way
affecting the bottom line profits for the brands in a positive way (Hudson et al., 2015).
Additionally, brand perception is driven by ‘value equity’ of the brand, which is
dependent on factors of price, quality, and convenience. Social media provides
convenience of maintaining the relationship between the brand and its consumers (Kim
and Ko, 2012).
One of the impacts of brand perception of consumers on the companies includes user
interactions that in-turn influences their consumer’s purchase decision. Additionally,
social media is an influential communication channel that impacts the spread of positive
word of mouth for the brands and prevents the companies from facing information
overload leading to disturbance in the company’s message or value proposition (Divol
et al., 2012). Further, brand perception driven through social media campaigns
contributes to value-enhancing perception of a brand creating a positive influence for
brands and support consumers’ management of the purchase process (Hutter et al., 2013).

2.3 Social media influencers

With the social media influencers creating brand proposition and enhancing brand
offerings, the personality traits of these influencers play an important role. Wiedmann
et al. (2010) in a study identified the traits of influential narrative expert, and people with
invested involvement in a particular subject. Additionally, the author also highlights that
224 R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

the influencers show traits of being innovative, risk-averse, and show signs of
Machiavellianism, that is show manipulative personality for achievement of their goals.
While for cashing their social capital, the influencers display personality strength
gregariousness, takes into integrated behaviour and display empathy (Decety et al., 2016;
Lam, 2012; Sanecka, 2017).
With the discussion on the personality traits, the methods of ranking of the
influencers have also been discussed by academicians. Weng et al. (2010) suggested the
method of PageRank-like and topic-sensitive PageRank measures to quantify ranks of
influencers. Additionally, Cha et al. (2010) suggest the measure of node closeness by
measuring relative influence rank. Where, the influence depends on in degree,
reposting’s, and mentions. Other ranking methods include star rank and ranking based on
transfer of authority via fair-bets model (Budalakoti and Bekkerman, 2012; Khrabrov and
Cybenko, 2010).
Additionally, with the ranks, social media influencers strategically use certain
practices to increase customer engagement and influence brand perception. These include
measures of enhancing relationships with a brand’s key audiences to improve reputation
of the brand. Influencers also drive customers brand perception by creating awareness
about different products through their online activities, at the same time imploring
comments and feedback of customers’ as well (Booth and Matic, 2011).
Further, the role of social media influencers in driving brand perception is to ensure
that the brand is able to gain an influential image in consumers’ discernment (Khalid
et al., 2018). Influencers help the brand build direct relationships with a focused group
for consumers that in-turn makes way to encourage brand loyalty in them. Influencers
also become, the direct voice on behalf of the brands that consumers can trust and also
open a two-way conversation medium to drive brand loyalty further (Glucksman, 2017).
The social media influencers also create a competitive advantage for the firms by
creating a thread of customer-generated content containing customer’s insight for
co-creation. Co-creation enhances the core offering for the products and also leads to
shared insights. Companies can address these ideas to drive brand loyalty further
(He et al., 2013; Kumar et al., 2010; van Doorn et al., 2010). Additionally, the influencers
also act as a lead acquisition medium for the firm that enables them to gain a competitive
edge over the firms. Such that the users who show interest in the product offering of the
firms are potential customers that companies can reach out to (Singla and Durga, 2015).

2.4 Empirical review

Hutter et al. (2013) conducted case study analysis for the car brand MINI Facebook brand
page on all German-speaking respondents. With 311 respondents, the authors highlight
that fan page engagement creates a positive effect on consumers’ brand awareness.
Findings further suggest that influencers use word of mouth and other activities that
guide purchase intention of the consumers. The findings further indicate that social media
favours influencers to form a relationship and have direct involvement with the daily life
of consumers. Thus they have potential to increase marketing efforts for the brands.
Findings further suggest that influencer’s engagement has a positive impact on
consumers’ brand awareness that is further translated into purchase intention in
consumers.
 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 225

Lee and Watkins (2016), empirically examined video blogs influencers and their
impact on consumer perceptions of luxury brands. Findings of the study indicate that
social attractiveness and attitude of friendships between those who are alike in designated
respect impact luxury brand perceptions among customers and their brand purchase
intentions. Findings of the study further suggest that consumer perceptions are
significantly affected by association with the video loggers in comparison to respondents
who did not watch the influencers.
Additionally, Forbes (2016), using case study analysis method, studied the impact of
influencers in the beauty industry. Findings of the study suggest that influencers have a
strong role in forming consumers’ opinions on products and services. Influencers impact
brand perception by using electronic word-of-mouth to guide consumer purchase
behaviour. Additionally, the study also highlights that word-of-mouth of influencers have
proven to be effective for the company to create consumer engagement. Findings of the
study highlight that consumers hold influencer review accurate and stronger the belief of
consumer’s that product has the mentioned attributes more are the trust and credibility on
the brand.
Further, Khalid et al. (2018) in a study analysed five top social media influencers on
Instagram in Malaysia. The study highlighted that inputs of social media influencer,
facilitate customer engagement and interaction on social media. The study also highlights
that customer engagement is more responsive to posts that have more visual content than
textual. Similarly, using the combination of both visual and textual content facilitate
customer engagement further. Other parameters influencing customer engagement is the
message’s packaging that is interactivity and vividness of the post as well as posting
time.
The results of Khalid et al. (2018) is also aligned with the findings of Nandagiri and
Philip (2018). Authors analysed respondents of age group 18–21 years to suggest that
influencer’s contents are more preferred than advertisements. Influencer content is
preferred to create customer engagement and brand perception as the respondents were of
the opinion that this engagement is unbiased and elaborate in nature. Findings of the
study further suggest that the product showcased by influencers receive positive
consumer behaviour that further impacts consumers’ purchases.

3 Conceptual framework of the qualitative study

The conceptual framework for the current study is a causal-chain framework developed
using the antecedents-influencer – personal outcome – and organisation outcome model.
The framework illustrates the causality between personal attributes of the consumers that
lead them to follow a specific social media influencer. As social media is a widely
researched topic, the perception of influencers acts on a niche of consumers that in-turn
frames their perception about a brand and lead to engagement. The organisations benefit
in the process by using the influencers to form brand perception and build customer
relations that can later to target moulding consumer’s buying behaviour.
226 R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

Figure 1 Conceptual framework constructed by author on literature (see online version

for colours)

Antecedents Influencers
 Social factors  Choice of social media platform
 User attributes  Impact of social influencer
 Marketing and customer  User perceptions and behaviour
orientation

Personal outcome Organisational outcome

 Consumer perception  Customer relationship
 Consumer engagement  Brand perception

4 Methodology

4.1 Study design

The goal of this section is to provide a critical review of previous studies highlighting the
impact of social media influencers on customer engagement and brand perception. For
analysis of literary findings of previously conducted studies and presenting a systematic
review, a meta-ethnography method for combining data from qualitative assessment and
research is used in the current study. It allows translating concepts across studies and
synthesises findings in stages-based reporting of the studies reviewed (France et al.,
2016).

4.2 Inclusion criteria

The following criteria were used in this research for selecting studies:
 the studies need to be published between 2010 and 2019 in order to include recent
studies
 the studies need to be an original study comprising of survey method, systematic
review, meta analysis and empirical review only
 the studies need to include the search words which have been mentioned in Table 2
 the studies which were published in English only were included.
 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 227

4.3 Exclusion criteria

The following criteria were used to exclude studies for the purpose of this research:
 editorial discussion was excluded in this study
 newspaper articles were excluded from this study
 those studies which lacked supporting evidence were excluded in this study
 studies on the topic of social media in marketing studies which did not involve
influencers were excluded.

4.4 Systematic review

The review focused on academic databases to search for studies using the search terms:
social media influencer, customer engagement, brand perception, described further in
Table 2. These keywords or search terms are initially narrowed down from previous
studies by author consensus. Additionally, these search terms are further extended
through qualitative systematic review to terms related to social media influencers and
mechanism of measuring their impact on customer engagement and brand perception.

4.5 Identification of studies

In process of identification of studies, an initial review of literature was conducted based
on the title and abstract of the studies. In the initial screening the studies are classified
into three primary categories of meeting criteria of the current study, may meet inclusion
criteria, or do not meet the standards.

4.6 Data extraction and analysis

Only for the studies meeting the inclusion criteria, they were fully analysed whether the
studies meet criteria for inclusion or not. Also, a database on selected studies meeting the
criteria was extracted and databank on parameters of author, country, year of publication,
impact of social influence on customer engagement, brand perception, and measurement
mechanisms for evaluating impact of social media influencers, data analysis, and
findings.

5 Result and discussion

5.1 Searches
The search yielded 1,882 citations, of which 50 were fully reviewed after applying
criteria of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of these studies, 25 met all inclusion criteria
and were reviewed.
228 R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

5.2 Criteria for including studies

Figure 2 Process of article selection (see online version for colours)

5.2.1 Study characteristic

Of the previous studies analysed, five were an overview, ten studies reported original
research, and seven were reviews of social media applications. All studies reviewed were
between 2010 and 2019.

5.2.2 Search term

Table 1 Search terms for inclusion of studies

Social media influencers

Using any of the following terms:
Brand loyalty, brand image, brand relationship, brand association, customer satisfaction,
Brand orientation, and perceived quality.
Social media influencer AND
Using any of the following terms:
Social media, twitter, Facebook, influencer intended associations, consumer realised
associations.
 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 229

Table 2 Journals and number of papers from each journal scanned and selected

Sr. no. Journal Studies

1 International Journal of Management Chinakidzwa et al. (2016)
and Business Studies
2 Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research Glucksman (2017)
in Communications
3 International Journal of Nandagiri and Philip (2018)
Multidisciplinary Research and
Modern Education
4 Journal of Media Business Studies Xiao et al. (2018)
5 Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences Enginkaya and Yilmaz (2014)
6 Proc. of Hawaii International Conference Jaakonmaki et al. (2017)
on System Sciences
7 Journal of Interactive Advertising Daniel et al. (2018)
8 Lou and Yuan (2019)
9 Evans et al. (2017)
10 Journal of Marketing Management Maslowska et al. (2016)
11 Ge and Gretzel (2018)
12 Corporate Communications: Booth and Matic (2011)
An International Journal
13 The Review of Marketing De Veirman et al. (2017)
Communications
14 Alexander Technological Institute of Chatzigeorgiou (2017)
Thessaloniki
15 Asian Journal of Business Research Lim et al. (2017)
16 Marketing Intelligence and Planning Jin et al. (2019)
17 Journal of Internet Commerce Cooley and Parks-Yancy (2019)
18 Journal of Advertising Wojdynski and Evans (2016)
19 Journal of Current Issues and Research Childers et al. (2019)
in Advertising
20 Association for the Advancement of Cha et al. (2010)
Artificial Intelligence
21 Journal of Asuynchronous Learning Yang and Tang (2012)
Network
22 Proc. of International Conference on Reilly et al. (2014)
Computational Science and
Computational Intelligence
23 Proc. of the 41st International ACM Segev et al. (2018)
SIGIR Conference on Research &
Development in Information Retrieval
24 Proceedings of the 11th International Anger and Kittl (2011)
Conference on Knowledge Management
and Knowledge Technologies
25 International Conference on Advances in Li and Gillet (2013)
Social Networks Analysis and Mining
230 R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

5.2.3 Exclusion and inclusion of studies

Studies were excluded because they did not involve any social media or focus on
consumer engagement and brand perception (n = 25). With a balance specificity and
sensitivity, the searches are aimed at identifying relevant papers, comprehensive in terms
of studies related to social media influencer, customer engagement, and brand perception.
For current review, studies published between 2010 and 2019 are considered, based on
inclusion and exclusion criteria. Lastly, in the systematic review, the bibliographies of
studies selected are further reviewed to recognise relevant references and help to analyse
measurement of stimulus, social media influencers have on customer engagement and
brand perception.

6 Critical appraisal

6.1 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement

Chinakidzwa et al. (2016), in a study, suggested brand preference is a potential that forms
the basis for competitive advantage and getting brand engagement right is imperative to
the process of getting social media working for the company. The author also highlights
that companies that are looking to become market winner use customer engagement via
social media influencers to provide them with a more rich feedback tool than traditional
media. Additionally, Glucksman (2017) highlighted that influencers can benefit the
overall image of the brand. While the influencers help in building direct relationships,
social media engagement with a brand’s key consumers encourages brand loyalty. In this
study, the author highlight that a brand has little control over conversations that takes
place online. Whereas, influencer act as a direct voice that customers and brands can trust
to build a two-way conversation. Influencers on Instagram use quick and easy authentic
content to streamline brand conversation by method of tagging, which ensures interested
consumers go directly to the brand and engagement among the customer are higher
(Nandagiri and Philip, 2018). While on YouTube influencers’ through shared videos
develop customer engagement by methods of advice and how-to videos. Viewers value
influencer opinions and then get engaged by watching these videos (Xiao et al., 2018).
Further, Enginkaya and Yilmaz (2014), are suggestive that influencers have the
capacity to bring together people who share the same interests, lifestyles opinions, and
activities. Influencers act as active respondent developing a voice for the brand on social
media. This enables brands to keep in touch with target customer pool and also reach
them at correct time and place. Authors in the study also highlight that, social media
influencers cater to motivational needs of consumers of joining a brand community for
self-related social motivation. Additionally, Jaakonmaki et al. (2017) highlight that a
company has to choose the right influencer, who is able to affect the level of user
engagement. There are creator related factors such as usage of content and context,
number of followers, creator’s age, and gender that are imperative to the role of an
influencer in driving user engagement. Also, influencers can increase user engagement
through content-creation strategies on social media. Such that influencers using pictures
of people, emojis, and sceneries increase consumer engagement through positive
emotions of relief, joy, and love. However, timing of such posts is also of essence here,
if every brand posts pictures with positive emotions on Fridays at 8:00 PM in evening,
 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 231

it would set off a fatigue effect in users. Social influencers place in augmenting customer
perception becomes the key here. They understand the predictors of engagement for
different customers and even use varied context in brands, products, or industries to reach
consumers at minimal costs and monitor their development in near real-time (Daniel
et al., 2018; Maslowska et al., 2016).

6.2 Impact of social media influencers on brand perception

Booth and Matic (2011) is suggestive of impact of social media influencers on brand
perception. Authentic relationship between the influencer and his followers allows them
to utilise marketing, public relations, advertising, and social media consistently and in
balance to reinforce a brand to create a particular perception. Authors are suggestive that
influencers through engaging conversations are capable of diagnosing expectations,
bringing clarity to the dialogue and thereby alter brand perception in consumers.
Conversely, De Veirman et al. (2017) in a study are suggestive that influencers who have
a large number of followers diverge the positive effect of perceived uniqueness of the
product the minds of the consumer. To build brand perception, size of the audience reach
of an influencer is a secondary criterion. This, in turn, decreases customer perception of
exclusivity or perceived uniqueness towards the brand. Thus instead of focusing on
influencer’s number of followers authors are suggestive that influencers’ audience reach
in terms of activities and interests and activities is more important to take into account to
create positive brand perception.
Also, the impact of negative reviews by influencers on social media has a damaging
effect on brand perception. On the other hand, if an influencer highlights the positive side
of a brand, the perception of service quality from the company goes up, thereby, creating
a positive impact on customer loyalty and repurchases intentions. Social media
influencers further have the ability to meditate customer attitude. They use tools of social
media posts, pictures, and videos to develop a positive association with the brand. These
tools attract customer and shape their buying decisions (Chatzigeorgiou, 2017).
Additionally, Lou and Yuan (2019) highlights in a study that impact of social media
influencers on brand perception are created through perceived value of information by the
users and entertainment value of generated content by influencers. Influencer’s impacts
on brand perception are capable of generating credibility through unique content.
This credibility is derived from four dimensions of peer endorsement including
trustworthiness, expertise, perceived likeness, and attractiveness.
These findings are in line with another study conducted by Lim et al. (2017) where,
the authors reveal that influencers who lack expertise to advocate a particular product,
impair brand perception for the consumers, which then translates into negative purchase
intentions. Findings in the study further highlight that impact of social media influencers
on brand perception includes their power to stimulate positive attitude and brand
perception. Also, a high positive impact customer’s brand perception and purchase
intention can be brought by the firms by using congruency between the image of social
media influencer and their brand. That is, brand perception in customers is more
impacted by influencers they admire or with whom they perceived resemblance.
Further, Jin et al. (2019) suggest that impact of influencers on brand perception are
brought through building of brand image beliefs and culture association. Authors
highlight that in transfer model of information between consumers and a brand, symbolic
232 R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

value of the influencer creates credibility. Influencers positively impact product

placement that in turn influences consumer’s buying behaviour as well as referral buying
(Cooley and Parks-Yancy, 2019).

6.3 Strategies used by social media influencers to increase customer

engagement and brand perception
Among various strategies used by social media influencers, De Veirman et al. (2017)
highlights the process of material connection to between brand and the messages.
This can be created by using e-word of mouth on social media. Through social media,
influencers, recommend brands through their social media profiles. This helps shape
opinions of the followers and create a particular perception for the brand. The authors
also highlight the strategy of using sponsored posts by the firms to build consumer
engagement and positively influence brand perception. Sponsored posts are a form of
advertisement that is paid for and is dedicated a specific form in editorial content with an
appearance from the influencer. On social media platforms such as Instagram, influencers
use the strategy of not displaying their commercial relationship with brands they are
sponsoring. This helps the user associated with an influencer to reduce resistance on part
of the consumers and influencers create increase/persuasion translating to customer
engagement and brand perception (Wojdynski and Evans, 2016).
Additionally, Childers et al. (2019) highlight that influencers use the strategy of
amplifying their brand message using social media. They use natural content to heighten
authenticity of content created. This unlike traditional advertising creates a snowball
effect. The effect is explained by an influencer, who can get the ball rolling in terms of
enhancing message reach to members of social media at large. Influencers use engaged
audience, to create and circulate post advertising the product. Consumer engagement and
brand perception can further be enhanced by an influencer as they have captivated
followers and extended reach. The follower base views their influencer as someone who
has specialised knowledge of a product, and someone they already trust and follow. Since
the consumer has made a conscious decision to follow the influencer, to drive customer
engagement and develop brand perception, the influencer strategises to highlight the use
of products or services in real-time. The strategy to build consumer engagement is to
keep the message authentic and build brand perception with their credibility.
Further, Evans et al. (2017) suggested persuasion knowledge strategy that influencers
use to create customer engagement and brand perception. Authors highlight that
influencers spend time with the followers are aware of various persuasive messages they
can use to develop an awareness and understanding of the product. Persuasion knowledge
is awareness and familiarity that allows influencer to select and execute tactics of coping
used by consumer in the buying process. Authors highlight that influencers’ usage
strategies such as heightened scepticism, counter-argument, and resistance
communication have a negative effect on consumer engagement. These negative
communication techniques adversely impact the behavioural intent of consumers also
leading to a detrimental effect on brand perception the influencer markets.
Additionally, Ge and Gretzel (2018) indicate that influencers have the capability to
use rhetoric to effectively create and translate marketing messages of the firm and
broadcast it to required audience. They successfully use speech making power and
proficient social media language skills to assert and persuade their followers and
positively impact consumer engagement as well as brand perception. The rhetoric
 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 233

strategy works for influencers as it allows not only for them to understand needs and
wants of consumers, but also resonate with customers by speaking their language. These
languages include the use of emojis, animated stickers, emoticons, and graphics
interchange format (GIF), among others.

6.4 Measurement mechanisms for evaluating impact of social media influencers

Directed links or number of followers for influencers on social media could represent
intimate friendships or even shared common interests between influencers and their
followers. However, what is required to measure the impact of social media influencers.
Li and Gillet (2013) highlight that there are some seed user attributes that can be used to
measure impact of influencers. These include a number of followers, friends, tweets, and
date of joining. As well as past influence of seed users that is average, minimum, and
maximum of total and local impact of influencers. Cha et al. (2012) in a study suggests
that for social media platforms such as Twitter, there are three measures for evaluating
their impact. These include the parameters of, mentions or name value of a user, in
degree or popularity of influencer, and retweets based on the content value of tweets.
A high in degree between users and influencers do not necessarily convert into mentions
or retweets. In degree requires more than spontaneity or accident, influencers rather have
to develop concerted efforts to enhance their impact. Also, Reilly et al. (2014) add to the
findings, highlighting that influencers are more probable to create higher influence on
their followers if they have a high ratio of forwarded messages to the total number of
messages posted.
Additionally, Segev et al. (2018) suggested that visual content sharing online social
network (OSN) such as Instagram, influence ranking can be measured by an algorithm
that is based on intuitive score resultant of network-oblivious statistics. These include
regression analysis based on views by followers, views per follower, and views per like.
Authors in the study highlight that customer engagement is measured in terms of
comments per like and test variance focus that is the ratio and difference between most
and least engaging posts of the influencer.
Conversely, Li and Gillet (2013) highlight that measures of influence on academic
social media platforms are different than those of social media. On academic platforms,
impact of influencer is measured in terms of total number of readers, maximum number
of readers per paper, and R-index. It measures a number of published papers that has an
equal number of readers to shed a light on both productivity and impact of a scholar.
While, on social media, Anger and Kittl (2011) point at Klout measure to identify the
impact of influencers. It measures the online influence of a user based on 1 to 100 scale.
Klout analyses are based on more than 25 variables, those based on complex algorithm
are used to calculate influencers’ impact and their ability to drive customers to action.
The author also highlights the tool of Twitter grader that scores influencers out of 100
and is based on an algorithm designed to consider factors of followers, update recency,
engagement in mention and retweet rate and follower/following ratio.
Other measures of gauging impact of influencers include their message propagation
speed, coverage of a marketing message, lead management, and rate of dynamic
diffusion. Dynamic diffusion assesses the impact of each influencer on the growth of a
particular conversation within a stipulated time frame. Furthermore, Yang and Tang
(2012) suggests the impact measure based on replying relationship of the influencer in
234 R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

form of forum threads that each influencer is able to generate. The next step is to measure
response immediacy with which the information is posted, with similar content the
influencer is considered more impactful. The authors also suggest the weighted in-degree
measure of influencer’s impact. In this method, each head of the node is assigned a
weight based on degree to which the influencers impact the decision of their followers
and influencers score is the sum of weights of all in-link edges of the network.

7 Conclusions

With the new technology opening new avenues for digital communication, social media
influencers are now a significant voice for the brands. They connect the consumers to
their audience and form brand perception. With the rise of social media, influencers are a
part of integrated marketing experience using the sites as a communication platform to
build visibility for the brand profiles. Impact of the social influencers has increased due
to their intimacy with their followers and trust between them. The rise in influencers can
also be added to the guided topic search option provided by them. Consumers can choose
needful information based on their priority making the flow of information need-based
and relatable. Conclusively, the study will highlight the impact of consumer engagement
and brand perception as a result of influencer engaging with them on social media.
The literature review in the study highlight that consumer engagement is driven by
commitments that allow users to get impacted by influencers. The factors affecting
consumer engagement include the scope of connections allowed by social media as both
open and cost-effective option for sharing ideas and influence consumers more easily.
Further, with social media overcoming physical proximity influencers positively impact
the scope of dialogue between the firms and their customers. The impact of social media
influencer on customer engagement includes coaching the users and elaborating the use
of product.
Additionally, influencers impact brand perception with enhanced customer-brand
interactions impacting the bottom line profits for the brands in a positive way. With the
ubiquitous presence of social media, influencers spread positive word of mouth for the
brands and prevent the companies from facing information overload.
Empirical analysis of the studies conducted in the past has also been highlighted to
suggest the relationship between impact of influencers on consumer engagement and
brand perception, further to develop a conceptual framework for the study. The
framework highlight a causal-chain framework developed using the antecedents –
influencer – personal outcome and organisation outcome model. Through critical analysis
of previous studies highlight the impact of social media influencers on customer
engagement and brand perception. By analysing 25 studies that meet inclusion criteria of
original studies, research, survey, review, and systematic review, findings of the study
highlight impact of social media influencers on customer engagement. These include a
source of rich feedback medium, two-way conversation tool, and engagement of
customers through video tools among others. Additionally, impact of influencer on brand
perception includes their ability to diagnose user expectation and alter customer
perception through dialogue. By enhancing brand perception for a firm, social media
influencers impact customer loyalty and repurchase intentions.
 Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement 235

8 Future scope of work

Additionally, the critical analysis also points the strategies used by social media
influencers, including the practices of e-word of mouth, sponsored posts, real-time
messaging, and snowballing effects. These enable the influencers to keep the message
authentic and build brand perception with their credibility among followers. Finally,
critical analysis highlights some measurement mechanism to calculate the impact that
influencers have. These include the parameters of mentions, in degree, and reposting’s.
Analysis also revealed measurement ratios such as ratio of forwarded messages to the
total number of messages posted, ratio and difference between most and least engaging
posts of the influencer, and retweet ratio, and follower/following ratio. These concepts
would facilitate social media agencies in order to enhance the reach and coverage among
users. Moreover, Industry could harness all of these discussed pivotal ratios for maintain
the demand of the mavens (users).There are also other dedicated indicators that can point
a firm towards impact of influencers including Klout measure, Twitter grader, and
weight-in degree. The future study will, further analyse the model based on responses
gathered from one to one interview of 15 agency representatives and 15 influencers as
well. Conclusively, the study will attempt to highlight why agencies opt for social media
influencers and how they help to drive brand perception and customer engagement.

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 Table A1
Appendix

Author(s) Aims/objectives of the study Methods Results and conclusions

Chinakidzwa et al. This article aimed to found tools of social media Survey method was used, alienated into two This study found that most of the companies were active on at least one
(2016) and platforms which are being used customer and groups: survey for firms and survey for users. social media platform with the most popular platform being Facebook.
organisational behaviour and understand level of Response was received from 43 firms and 103 The companies were found to be attempting to push their posts and not
customer engagement. consumers. generating customer engagement and struggled to generate sufficient
online traffic.
Glucksman (2017) This study analysed the perceptions of emerging A pentadic analysis was done of posts by social The study found that female participants were influenced mainly by
adults in the different between style of social media influencers to examine their strategies. those who promoted beauty products while male respondents are drawn
media influencers between male and female for Also, content analysis of YouTube videos to more towards technology and gaming products. The significant factors
brand promotion. understand consumer engagement. regarding the effect of the posts of social media influencers are
performing factor along with the level of informativeness.
Nandagiri and To understand the role of social media Analysis of responses obtained from respondents The study found that influencers using Instagram made use of authentic
Aims and conclusive outcomes

Philip (2018) influencers as a voice of brand in order to build of age group 18–21 years. The influencers were content for streamlining brand conversation by using different methods
two way communication. also interviewed also to understand their work. in order to increase the level of customer engagement with the brand.
Xiao et al. (2018) To understand the role of video influencers in An online survey was done using Amazon’s The study showed that YouTube influencers’ helped in developing
building consumer engagement. mechanical Turk platform. Consumers who had customer engagement by sharing videos of different content. It was also
watched Youtube videos posted by influencer at found that viewers valued the opinions of the influencers and therefore
least once a week in the past were chosen for the were impacted by watching these videos.
survey.
Enginkaya and The aim of this study is to investigate consumer Four unstructured depth interviews and two semi- The study found that influencers had the ability to increase
Yilmaz (2014) motivations and attitudes of brand pages in social structured focus groups were conducted to communication between people who had similar interests, lifestyles
media. analyse consumer inspirations and attitudes of opinions, as well as actions. Influencers helped in developing a voice
brand pages. using social media for the brand enabling them to interact with their
target audience and help in reaching them.
Jaakonmaki et al. To understand the matching of the influencer Quantitative approach was used by exploiting an The study found that the company had to choose the correct influencer
(2017) with the level of consumer engagement. Instagram dataset from an unknown German in order to be able to have an impact on customer engagement. The
Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement

marketing and advertising firm. factors included usage of content and context, number of followers, age
of influencer, and gender. Also, they are able to increase customer
engagement by deploying content-creation strategies on social media.
239
 240

Table A1
Author(s) Aims/objectives of the study Methods Results and conclusions
Daniel et al. (2018) The aim of this investigation is to understand Systematic analysis of 360 studies was done The study concluded that younger viewers developed PSIs/para-social
Taylor’s six-segment strategy wheel (SSSW) by related to interactions of consumers with social relationships (PSRs) for the purpose of being similar to their social
understanding how message strategy is successful media influencers. interactions/relationships.
for social media influencers by making
commenter’s’ parasocial interactions (PSIs).
Maslowska et al. This study seeks to suggest a new theoretical Extensive literature review was done of 23 The pivotal customer ecosystem being studied to propagate a theoretical
(2016) model of consumer engagement, recognising role studies to understand consumer engagement. model that comprehends brand actions, customer brand experience,
of consumer in non-purchase engagement and spending behaviours, brand consumption and brand-dialog behaviours.
rationalising and categorising non-purchase Further, it postulates that interfaces between these elements are
behaviours. nonlinear and reactive; implicating that every action origins a reaction of
not only the envisioned recipient of the message, but the entire
ecosystem.
R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

Booth and Matic The purpose of this paper is to present a means of A customisable valuation algorithm was created This study helps the brands in understanding the influence of
(2011) identifying a segment of customers called and used to measure a cross-section of variables. ‘somebodies’ in target audiences and helping the communication
‘somebodies’ which seek continuous engagement professionals in establishing effective outreach strategies.
with the customers.
De Veirman et al. This study aimed to study perceptions of Extensive literature review of 26 studies and The study highlights the process of material connection to between
(2017) popularity of influencers measured by the number comparison of two experimental studies were brand and the messages which can be created by using e-word of mouth
of followers. used. on social media. Through social media, influencers, recommend brands
Aims and conclusive outcomes (continued)

through their social media profiles.

Chatzigeorgiou This study sought to understand the impact of A sample of 36 Facebook users was selected The study found that social media influencers had the ability to meditate
(2017) reviews by social media influencers on brand from Thessaloniki in Greece who use social customer attitude my using social media posts, pictures, and videos to
perception. media for the purposes of travel. develop a positive association with the brand as these tools helped in
attracting customer and shaping their buying decisions.
Lou and Yuan To study the impact of influencers on brand Preliminary research was done understand the The impact of social media influencers on brand perception are created
(2019) perception in generating credibility through mechanism of impact of influencer marketing on through perceived value of information by the users and entertainment
generating unique content. consumers through social media. value of generated content by influencers. Influencer’s impacts on brand
perception are capable of generating credibility through unique content.
This credibility is derived from four dimensions of peer endorsement
including trustworthiness, expertise, perceived likeness, and
attractiveness. The study found that impact of social media influencers
on brand perception can be created by studying the perceived value of
information by the users and entertainment factor of generated content
by influencers and the impact is affected by trustworthiness, expertise,
perceived likeness, and attractiveness.
 Table A1

Author(s) Aims/objectives of the study Methods Results and conclusions

Lim et al. (2017) The aim of this study is to understand the impact Data was collected using purposive sampling Influencers, who lack expertise to advocate a particular product, impair
of social media influencers on customer attitude method using a dataset of 200 respondents and brand perception for the consumers, which then translates into negative
and perception towards the brand. analysed using PLS-SEM technique. purchase intentions. Findings in the study further highlight that impact
of social media influencers on brand perception includes their power to
stimulate positive attitude and brand perception. The study found that
influencers were required to have expertise in advocating a particular
product to improve brand perception for the consumers leading to
positive purchase intentions. It was also found that social media
influencers have a positive impact on brand perception including their
power to stimulate positive attitude and brand perception.
Jin et al. (2019) Authors highlight that in transfer model of A randomised two group comparison was done That impact of influencers on brand perception is brought through
information between consumers and a brand, between 104 studies on the topic Instagram building of brand image beliefs and culture association. The study found
symbolic value of the influencer creates celebrity vs. traditional celebrity. that impact of influencers on brand perception are brought through
credibility. building of brand image beliefs and culture association.
Cooley and Parks- This study examined the perspectives from the Data was collected from 109 junior and senior It was found that social media influencers have a positive impact on
Yancy (2019) point of view of employers of applicants’ college students at a US university. product placement which influences the purchase behaviour of
employability with respect to traditional methods consumers along with referral buying.
and untraditional methods including social media.
Aims and conclusive outcomes (continued)

Wojdynski and This study aimed to examine the effects of 242 participants were chosen using Amazon Social media influencers used the different strategies on social media
Evans (2016) language and positioning with recognition of the Mechanical Turk between 19 and 73 years to platforms such as Instagram, these strategies help the user associated
content with respect to brand and publisher collected data using seven-point Likert scale. with them to decrease resistance on part of the consumers and
evaluations, and whether disclosure position influencers.
affects visual attention.
Childers et al. This study aimed to understand the impact of Systematic review was done in which finally, 213 This study found that influencers use the strategy of amplifying their
(2019) influencers on their follower base. studies were selected out of an search result of brand message by making use of social media. They use natural content
2,613 words. to improve authenticity of content created.
Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement

Evans et al. (2017) This study analysed persuasion knowledge A sample of 237 students were examined to This study found that influencers spend time with the followers are
strategy which influencers employ to generate collect data regarding their purchase intention. conscious of a variety of persuasive messages they can use to expand
customer engagement and brand perception. responsiveness and understanding of the product. It was found that
influencers help in selecting and executing tactics of coping used by
consumer in their buying process.
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Table A1

Author(s) Aims/objectives of the study Methods Results and conclusions

Ge and Gretzel To employ rhetoric for effectively creating and A total 56 studies were reviewed to understand The study found that speech making power and proficient social media
(2018) translating marketing messages of the company the impact of social media on tourism. language skills can be used effectively to assert and persuade their
as well as broadcasting it to required audience. followers and positively impact consumer engagement as well as brand
perception.
Li and Gillet (2013) This study aimed to identify the metrics required A survey was conducted of 28 undergraduate The study found that there are various seed user attributes that can be
to measure the impact of social media influencers students and word clouds were formed to analyse used to measure impact of influencers including number of followers,
on their followers. their responses. friends, tweets, and date of joining.
Cha et al. (2010) The aim of this study is to investigate the Twitter API was used to collect information This study found that along with number of followers, friends, tweets,
R.C. Jaitly and O. Gautam

dynamics of user influence across topics and regarding social links and tweets about the users the other metrics include past influence of seed users involving average,
time. investigation on dynamics of users elements. minimum, and maximum of total and local impact of influencers.
Reilly et al. (2014) This paper aims to do preliminary work in order Users were ranked by influence using Twitter This study found that influencers were more probable to create higher
to rank users in a directional social network by API to gather information about Twitter activity influence on their followers if they had a high ratio of forwarded
their influence during a particular time period. and analysed. messages as compared to the total number of messages posted.
Segev et al. (2018) This paper aims to explore the problem of scoring A set of Instagram data was prepared in April This paper suggested that in visual content sharing online social network
and ranking influential users of Instagram which 2017, including posts published during 2015– such as Instagram, influence ranking is measured by using an algorithm
Aims and conclusive outcomes (continued)

is a visual content sharing online social network 2016 but prior to September 2016. which is based on intuitive score resultant of network-oblivious statistics
(OSN). including regression analysis based on views by followers, views per
follower, and views per like.
Anger and Kittl This study evaluates Klout measure to identify A list of top 10 twitterers in Austria ranked by the The author evaluated Twitter grader which scores influencers out of 100
(2011) the impact of influencers on a scale of 1 to 100. number of their Austrian followers were collected and is based on an algorithm made to consider factors of followers,
and analysed. update recency, engagement in mention and retweet ratio and
follower/following ratio.
Yang and Tang This study aims to measure response immediacy A self-made questionnaire was administered to a This study found that the impact measure based on replying relationship
(2012) with which the information is posted, with similar sample of 100 under graduate 2nd year students of the influencer in form of forum threads which each influencer is able
content as the influencer is considered as pursuing BA degree with honours in English in to create.
impactful. Howrah and Kolkata using purposive sampling
method.