Relationship management through social media influencers: Effects of followers’ awareness of paid endorsement

By Ganga Dhanesh, Gaelle Duthler. Public Relations Review, 2019

344 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This study aimed to examine the effects of awareness of paid endorsements by social media influencers on followers’ cognitive persuasion knowledge (ad recognition), attitudinal persuasion knowledge (relationships with the influencer), and behavioral intentions, specifically eWOM intention and purchase intention. Employing an online survey (N = 269), this study found that awareness of paid endorsement relates to ad recognition, which is correlated with purchase and eWOM intentions. We also found that awareness of paid endorsement is correlated with influencer-follower relationship, which is associated with purchase and eWOM intentions. However, ad recognition does not affect influencer-follower relationship. Implications for public relations theory, practice, and policy are discussed.

Subfields: Communication, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/81922c48e1698310cebe93e7eff3de4a5850837c

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Citations in the corpus

‘You really are a great big sister’ – parasocial relationships, credibility, and the moderating role of audience comments in influencer marketing (2020, background): “Although Instagram is currently the social media application where influencers are mostly followed (Dhanesh & Duthler, 2019), a YouTube vlog entry was chosen for this study to understand the possible effect of disabling comments on endorsement effectiveness.”
How social media influencers affect behavioural intentions towards recommended brands: the role of emotional attachment and information value (2021, background): “…(Lou & Kim, 2019), trustworthiness (Su et al., 2020) or brand recall (Boerman, 2020), and their influence on behavioural outcomes such as eWOM (Dhanesh & Duthler, 2019), purchase intention (e.g. Lou & Kim, 2019; Lou & Yuan, 2019; Su et al., 2020), social media engagement (Hughes et al.,…”
Social Media Influencers and Followers: Theorization of a Trans-Parasocial Relation and Explication of Its Implications for Influencer Advertising (2021, background): “…given that followers are largely tolerant and even appreciative of influencer-sponsored content, influencers should always ensure transparency with followers through clear sponsorship disclosures, which can bolster followers’ trust in and satisfaction with them (Dhanesh and Duthler 2019).”
Making and breaking relationships on social media: the impacts of brand and influencer betrayals (2021, background): “…active interaction with followers; professional and effective content production and distribution skills (Enke and Borchers, 2019); the ability to monetise their following through, for example, sponsored material within their content (Abidin, 2016) and personal branding (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019).”
Blind trust? The importance and interplay of parasocial relationships and advertising disclosures in explaining influencers’ persuasive effects on their followers (2021, background): “Therefore, macro-influencers (more than 500,000 followers) might not always be the best choice because micro-influencers (10,000 to 500,000 followers) are believed to have especially strong relations with their followers (Dhanesh and Duthler 2019; Kay, Mulcahy, and Parkinson 2020).”