Influencer Marketing: How Social Presence Affects Followers’ Intentions

The emergence and adoption of new technologies are deeply changing society, providing new forms of communication. This development has allowed the growth of different social networks such as Instagram, YouTube or Twitter. The rise of these social networks, particularly Instagram, has led to the emergence of influential figures in their follower’s opinion, commonly called influencers. To date, scarce research analyses the role of the context’s particularities where the communication takes place, and fewer studies have examined the differences between traditional social networks and virtual environments. To analyse the differences in perceptions and behavioural intentions of the followers, an experimental design was proposed between two scenarios (live on Instagram vs. live in a virtual room). The results show that the greater social presence provided by virtual rooms encourages influencer’s trustworthiness. The research highlights the opportunities that new technologies provide for communication between people.