The effect of social media influencers’ credibility on consumer’s purchase intentions through attitude toward advertisement

Abstract

People incorporate and use the internet in their lives in line with the development of technology. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, which are especially defined as social media (SM) tools, are among the daily routines of people. Thus, a great transformation has occurred in the SM advertising industry. Social media influencers (SMI) emerged as a result of facilitating communication on SM. Unlike other studies mostly evaluated over celebrities and no detailed on how SMI affects consumers purchasing behavior through advertisement, this study shows how the SMI affects consumer purchasing behavior by considering the sample size and for the first time conducted with a survey to fill the gap in the field. This study was an attempt to explore the effects of the influencers used as product supplements in advertisements in SM tools on consumers' advertisements and purchasing intentions. Stimulatingly, this study explore how SMI’s credibility effects customer purchase intention through advertisements. In line with this, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to clarify the model and to test hypotheses. Results show that the trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness of the influencer have a positive effect on the attitude towards the advertisement, while the attitude towards the advertisement had no effect on the purchase intention. These results might be guideway for businesses to pay more attention to the SMI attracting the consumer's attention, having sufficient equipment about the subject and how gaining the trust of the consumer through SMI.