the rise of social media influencers research paper

Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends, and ways forward

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• Published: 25 June 2023

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• Yatish Joshi 1 ,
• Weng Marc Lim   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7196-1923 2 , 3 , 6 ,
• Khyati Jagani 4 &
• Satish Kumar 4 , 5  

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The increasing use and effectiveness of social media influencers in marketing have intrigued both academic scholars and industry professionals. To shed light on the foundations and trends of this contemporary phenomenon, this study undertakes a systematic literature review using a bibliometric-content analysis to map the extant literature where consumer behavior, social media, and influencer marketing are intertwined. Using 214 articles published in journals indexed by the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), and Web of Science (WOS) from 2008 to 2021, this study unpacks the articles, journals, methods, theories, themes, and constructs (antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences) in extant research on social media influencer marketing. Noteworthily, the review highlighted that the major research streams in social media influencer marketing research involve parasocial interactions and relationships, sponsorship, authenticity, and engagement and influence. The review also revealed the prominent role of audience-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-, social-, and technology-related factors in influencing how consumers react to social media influencer marketing. The insights derived from this one-stop, state-of-the-art review can help social media influencers and marketing scholars and professionals to recognize key characteristics and trends of social media influencer marketing, and thus, drive new research and social media marketing practices where social media influencers are employed and leveraged upon for marketing activities.

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1 Introduction

Social media influencers are increasingly popular and affecting consumers’ attitudes, perceptions, preferences, choices, and decisions. Social media influencers are regular everyday people who have created an online presence from the grassroots level through their social media channel or page and, in the process, have created an extensive network of followers (Bastrygina and Lim [ 10 ]. In that sense, social media influencers are different than traditional celebrities or public figures, who rely on their existing careers (e.g., actors, singers, politicians) to become popular and exert influence [ 88 ].

Influencers first appeared in the early 2000s, and have since progressed from a home-based hobby to a lucrative full-time career. Influencer marketing has become so attractive that with the growing industry, there is an ever-growing set of social media users that aim to become an influencer. Influencers are now capitalizing on their popularity and visibility to further their career in mainstream media such as the film and television industry [ 1 ]. The segmentation of influencers is on the number of followers they have, whereby influencers can be classified as micro-, meso- and macro-influencers [ 44 ]. According to Lou and Yan [ 88 ], posts by influencers have two essential purposes from a marketing perspective: the first purpose is to increase the purchase intention of their followers, and the second purpose is to enhance their followers’ attractiveness and product knowledge. Influencers often curate posts with information and testimonials about the features of the product that they are promoting, which results in increased information value and product knowledge. In the process, they leverage and relay their attractiveness and aesthetic value through the use of sex appeal and posing [ 104 ].

Social media influencers have been defined by many scholars in numerous ways. Freberg et al. [ 44 ] characterized social media influencers as a new type of independent third-party endorser who shapes audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media. Abidin [ 1 ] construed social media influencers as a form of microcelebrities who document their everyday lives from the trivial and mundane to the exciting snippets of the exclusive opportunities in their line of work, thereby shaping public opinion through the conscientious calibration of persona on social media. De Veirman et al. [ 28 ] defined social media influencers as people who built a large network of followers and are regarded as trusted tastemakers in one or several niches. Ge and Gretzel [ 45 ] denoted social media influencers as individuals who are in a consumer’s social graph and has a direct impact on the behavior of that consumer. More recently, Dhanesh and Duthler [ 30 ] described social media influencers as people who, through personal branding, build and maintain relationships with their followers on social media, and have the ability to inform, entertain, and influence their followers’ thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. When these definitions are taken collectively and espoused through a marketing lens, social media influencers are essentially people who develop and maintain a personal brand and a following on social media through posts that intertwin their personality and lifestyle with the products (e.g., goods, services, ideas, places, people) that they promote, which can influence the way their followers behave (e.g., attitudes, perceptions, preferences, choices, decisions), positively (e.g., purchase) or negatively (e.g., do not purchase) .

Social media influencers, as digital opinion leaders, participate in self-presentation on social media. They form an identity by creating an online image using a rich multimodal narrative of their everyday personal lives and using it to attract a large number of followers [ 59 ]. Most critical to their success is the influencer-follower relationship [ 1 ], which future follower behavior (e.g., interaction, purchase intention) is dependent upon [ 13 ], [ 37 ], [ 126 ]. Indeed, social media influencers are often perceived to be credible, personal, and easily relatable given their organic rise to fame [ 28 ], [ 31 ], [ 104 ].

In collaborations between brands and social media influencers, the role of a social media influencer is to act as a brand ambassador by designing sponsored content for the brand to convey and enhance its brand image and brand name [ 104 ], and to drive brand engagement and brand loyalty [ 72 ]. Such content is often curated by social media influencers, as independent third-party endorsers, by sharing their experiences and lives in relation to the brand through pictures, texts, stories, hashtags, and check-ins, among others [ 28 ]. Indeed, social media influencers are highly sought after by brands because they have established credibility with their followers as a result of their expertise, which allow them to exert influence on the decision-making of their followers [ 60 ]. Moreover, influencer marketing through social media can provide opportunities to influencers and their followers to contribute to the co-creation of the brand’s image on social media [ 88 ].

With the growing importance of influencer marketing and the popularity of social media influencers, various brands have started promoting their products with the help of social media influencers in an attempt to influence consumers to behave in desired ways (e.g., forming positive brand attitudes and encourage product brand purchases) [ 104 ]. However, consumer behavior is highly complex [ 81 ], and increasing inconsistency has been noted in the effectiveness of this medium [ 124 ]. Thus, it is essential to understand the factors (i.e., antecedents) underpinning consumer decision making (i.e., consequences or decisions) toward brands promoted by social media influencers, including the factors (i.e., mediators and moderators) responsible for the inconsistency in consumer responses. In this regard, attempts to consolidate extant knowledge in the field is arguably relevant to address the extant gap and needs of marketing scholars and professionals interested in social media influencer marketing.

In recognition of the growing influence of social media influencers and influencer marketing in consumer decision making, this study aims to provide a one-stop, state-of-the-art overview of the articles, journals, methods, theories, themes, and constructs (antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences) relating to social media influencer marketing using a systematic review of articles in the area from 2008 to 2021. Though a recent review on social media influencers was conducted by Vrontis et al. [ 124 ], the present review remains warranted because the existing review only considered a small sample of 68 articles published in journals indexed in the Chartered Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide, and thus, cannot holistically encapsulate the state of the field. Indeed, the insights and the integrative framework resulting from their review was relatively lean, which can be attributed to the sample limitations that the authors had imposed for their review. The same can be said about another recent review by Bastrygina and Lim [ 10 ], which considered only 45 articles in Scopus that narrowly focused only on the consumer engagement aspect of social media influencers. To overcome these limitations , the present review will consider a more inclusive search and inclusion criteria while upholding to the highest standards of academic quality by relying on a broader range of indexing sources. The motivation of the present review is also in line with the call by Lim et al. [ 86 ] and Paul et al. [ 98 ] for new reviews that address the shortcoming of existing reviews in order to redirect research in the area onto a clearer and more refined path for progress. In addition, the present review adopts a bibliometric-content analysis to consolidate current findings, uncover emerging trends and extant gaps, and curate a future agenda for social media influencer marketing. Noteworthily, the rigorous multi-method review technique (i.e., the combination of a bibliometric analysis and a content analysis) adopted for the present review is in line with the recommendation of Lim et al. [ 86 ] to facilitate a deeper dive into the literature, and thus, enabling the curation of a richer depiction of the nomological network characterizing the field [ 94 ], in this case, the field of social media influencer marketing. In doing so, this study contributes to answering the following research questions (RQs):

RQ1. What is the publication trend of social media influencer marketing research, and which are the key articles?

RQ2. Where is research on social media influencer marketing published?

RQ3. How has social media influencer marketing research been conducted?

RQ4. What are the theories that can be used to inform social media influencer marketing research?

RQ5. What are the major themes of social media influencer marketing research?

RQ6. What are the constructs (i.e., antecedents, mediators, moderators, and consequences) employed in social media influencer marketing research?

RQ7. Where should social media influencer marketing be heading towards in the future?

The rest of the paper is structured as follows. The next section provides an account of the methodology used in the research, followed by the findings and conclusions of the study in subsequent sections.

2 Methodology

This study conducts a multi-method systematic literature review on social media influencer marketing using a bibliometric-content analysis in line with the recommendation of Lim et al. [ 86 ] and recent systematic literature reviews (e.g., Kumar et al. [ 64 ]. The assembling, arranging, and assessing techniques stipulated in the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews ( SPAR-4-SLR ) protocol by Paul et al. [ 98 ] to carry out a systematic literature review are also adopted and explained in the next sections.

2.1 Assembling

Assembling relates to the identification (i.e., review domain, research questions, source type, and source quality) and acquisition (i.e., search mechanism and material acquisition, search period, search keywords) of articles for review. In terms of identification , the review domain relates to social media influencer marketing, but within the subject areas of business management, social sciences, hospitality, tourism, and economics due to their immediate relevance to the review domain, and thus, articles in other subject areas such as computer science, engineering, medical, and mathematics, which are peripheral to the review domain, were not considered. Next, the research questions underpinning the review pertain to the articles, journals, methods, theories, themes, and constructs in the field and were presented in the introduction section. Only journals were considered as part of source type as they are the main sources of academic literature that have been rigorously peer reviewed Nord & Nord, [ 96 ]. The source quality was inclusive yet high quality, whereby articles published in journals indexed in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), and Web of Science (WOS) were included. In terms of acquisition , the search mechanism and material acquisition relied on the WOS database, which is connected to myriad publishers such as Emerald, Sage, Springer, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley. The search period starts from 2008 and ends in 2021. The year 2008 was selected as the starting year because it was the year that the concept of influencer was first introduced by Kiss and Bichler [ 63 ], and thus, a review staring from 2008 can provide a more accurate and relevant account of the extant literature on influencer marketing, particularly from the lenses of consumers and social media influencers. The end year 2021 was selected because it is the most recent full year at the time of search—a practice in line with Lim et al. [ 83 ]. The search keywords—i.e., “consumer behavio*” (truncation technique), “social media,” “influencer,” and “marketing”—were curated through brainstorming and endorsed by disciplinary experts in marketing and methodological experts in review studies. In total, 320 articles were returned from the search, but 17 articles were removed as they were related to engineering, mathematics, and medicine, which resulted in only 303 articles that were retrieved for the arranging stage.

2.2 Arranging

Arranging relates to the organization (i.e., organizing codes) and purification (i.e., exclusion and inclusion criteria) of articles returned from the search. In terms of organization , the content of articles was coded based on the key focus of each research question: journal title, method, theory, and construct (antecedent, mediator, moderator, consequence). The bibliometric details of the articles were also retrieved and organized accordingly in this stage. In terms of purification , 89 articles were eliminated as they were not published in journals indexed by ABDC and CABS, with the rest of the 214 articles included for review.

2.3 Assessing

Assessing relates to the evaluation (i.e., analysis method, agenda proposal method) and reporting (i.e., reporting conventions, limitations, and sources of support) of articles under review. In terms of evaluation , a bibliometric analysis and a content analysis were conducted.

For the bibliometric analysis, the Bibliometrix package in R studio software [ 4 ] was used to conduct (1) a performance analysis to reveal the publication trend as well as the key articles and journals (RQ1 and RQ2), and (2) a science mapping to uncover the major themes in the field (RQ5) in line with the bibliometric guidelines by Donthu et al. [ 32 ]. With regards to science mapping, a triangulation technique was adopted in line with the recommendation of Lim et al. [ 86 ] using:

co-citation using PageRank , wherein the major themes are revealed through the clustering of articles that are most cited by highly-cited articles,

bibliographic coupling , wherein the major themes are revealed through the clustering of articles that cite similar references, and

keyword co-occurrence , wherein the major themes are revealed through the clustering of author specified keywords that commonly appear together [ 32 ], [ 64 ].

For the content analysis, the within-study and between-study literature analysis method by Ngai [ 95 ] was adopted (RQ3, RQ4, and RQ6). The within-study literature analysis evaluates the entire content of the article (e.g., theoretical foundation, methodology, constructs), whereas the between-study literature analysis consolidates, compares, and contrasts information between two or more articles. The future research agenda proposal method is predicated on the expert evaluation of a trend analysis by the authors (RQ7). In terms of reporting , the conventions for the outcomes reported include figures, tables, and words, whereas the limitations and sources of support are acknowledged at the end.

The findings of the review are organized based on the research questions (RQs) of the study: articles, journals, methods, theories, themes, and constructs.

3.1 Articles

The first research question (RQ1) deals with the publication trend and key articles of social media influencer marketing research.

Figure  1 indicates that research on social media influencer marketing began to flourish 10 years (i.e., 2018 onwards) after the concept of was introduced in 2008 [ 63 ]. This implies that interest in social media influencer marketing is fairly recent (i.e., within the last five years at the time of analysis), wherein its stratospheric growth appears to have coincided with that of highly interactive and visual content-focused social media such as Instagram (e.g., Instagram Stories feature launched in December 2017) [ 17 ] and TikTok (e.g., international launch in September 2017) [ 129 ]. The growth of triple-digit publications observed in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic is especially noteworthy as it signals the importance of social media influencer marketing in the new normal and reaffirms past observations of an acceleration in technology adoption [ 77 ], [ 79 ].

Publication trend of social media influencer marketing research

Table 1 presents the top articles on social media influencer marketing. The most cited article is De Veirman et al.’s [ 28 ] (464 citations), which focused on social media influencer marketing using Instagram and revealed the impact of the number of followers and product divergence on brand attitudes among the followers of social media influencers. The burgeoning interest on Instagram as seen through this most cited article despite its recency corroborates the earlier observation on the stratospheric growth in research interest on highly interactive and visual content-focused social media. The top-cited articles in recent years demonstrate increasing research interest in comparative studies (e.g., celebrity versus social media influencer endorsements, [ 104 ],Instagram versus YouTube; [ 108 ], as well as review studies (e.g., Hudders et al., [ 48 ], [ 124 ], albeit the latter being limited (e.g., small review corpus, niche review focus) and thus reaffirming the necessity and value of the present review.

3.2 Journals

The second research question (RQ2) deals with the outlets that publish social media influencer marketing research and the source type chosen according to the recommendation of Paul et al. [ 98 ] is journals on the basis of academic quality and rigor. In total, the 214 articles in the review corpus were published in 87 journal titles indexed in ABDC, CABS, and WOS. Out of the 87 journal titles, 80 (37.38%) articles are published by the top 10 journals with the most articles on social media influencer marketing, with Journal of Business Research , International Journal of Advertising , and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services emerging as the top three journals in terms of numbers of articles published in the area (Table 2 ).

3.3 Methods

The third research question (RQ3) focuses on the methods that can inform social media influencer marketing research and were identified and coded manually using the within-study technique and consolidated to portray the outcome of a between-study literature analysis suggested by Ngai [ 95 ]. In total, seven categories of methods were employed in 214 articles on social media influencer marketing research (Table 3 ). As a category, quantitative methods in the form of surveys were most prevalent ( n  = 64), followed by qualitative methods ( n  = 52), with individual interviews being the most popular method ( n  = 19). Experimental ( n  = 38) and machine learning ( n  = 33) methods were noteworthy too. Non-empirical methods ( n  = 19) such as conceptual ( n  = 9) and review ( n  = 10) methods were less prominent. Similarly, mix methods ( n  = 8) were the least popular. As a whole, the review indicates that extant research on social media influencer marketing were mostly empirical in nature albeit in silos (i.e., single rather than mixed methods).

3.4 Theories

The fourth research question (RQ4) pertains to the theories that can inform social media influencer marketing research and were identified, coded, and reported using the same Ngai [ 95 ] informed within- and between-study literature analysis as reported for the methods in the preceding section. In total, 46 different theories employed in 94 (43.93%) articles on social media influencer marketing research were revealed (Table 4 ). Persuasion knowledge theory emerged as the most popular theory with eight articles, whereas social learning theory, social comparison theory, social cognitive theory, social exchange theory, social identity theory, social influence theory, source credibility theory, reactance theory, theory of para-social interaction, theory of planned behavior, and uses and gratifications theory were among the other popular theories ( n  ≥ 3). The broad range of theories indicate that social media influencer marketing is an area of research with multi-faceted aspects worthy of exploration and investigation. The sociological theories manifested in the most ways—namely Bourdieu’s theory, Graph theory, network theory, observational learning theory, optimal distinctiveness theory, social cognitive theory, social comparison theory, social exchange theory, social identity theory, social influence theory, social learning theory, structural hole theory, system justification theory, and theory of para-social interaction—whereas media theories were not far behind—namely advertising literacy theory, media dependency theory, megaphone effect theory, source credibility theory, transfer theory, two-step flow theory, uses and gratifications theory, and visual framing theory. The manifestation of theories that infused “media” and “sociology” together , such as social media influencer value model and social-mediated crisis communication theory, were observed as well. Psychological theories , such as associative learning theory, attachment theory, attribution theory, consistency theory, construal level theory, dissonance theory, dual process theory, elaboration likelihood model, halo effect theory, reactance theory, similarity-attraction model, theory of planned behavior, and theory of reasoned action, and marketing theories , such as Doppelganger effect theory, human brand theory, relationship management theory, and source effect theory, were also noteworthy. Management theories , such as charismatic and transformational leadership theory and resource dependency theory, were also observed. Interestingly, only one economic (i.e., cost-signaling theory) and one technology (i.e., technology acceptance model) theory were observed, which may indicate that the economic and technology aspects are underexplored as compared to the media, psychological, management, marketing, and social aspects of social media influencer marketing.

The fifth research question (RQ5) involves the mapping of extant research on social media influencer marketing. To do so, three science mapping techniques that rely on different sources of bibliographic data were relied upon—namely (1) a co-citation analysis using PageRank to identify clusters of articles that are most cited by highly-cited articles, (2) a bibliographic coupling to locate clusters of articles that share common references, and (3) a keyword co-occurrence analysis to uncover clusters of author specified keywords that commonly co-appear [ 32 ], [ 65 ].

3.5.1 Foundational themes (or foundational knowledge)

The foundational themes and the top articles for each foundational theme in social media influencer marketing research are depicted in Table 5 . In essence, foundational themes exemplify the perspectives that a field’s research relies upon, and thus, these themes may encompass articles inside and outside that field [ 32 ]. In the case of social media influencer marketing, four foundational themes were revealed by the co-citation analysis using PageRank. Noteworthily, the PageRank scores indicate article prestige, wherein a higher score indicates that the article is cited more by highly-cited articles in the field, whereas the betweenness and closeness centrality scores reflect the article’s relevance across and within themes, wherein a higher score indicates greater relevance across and within themes, respectively [ 32 ].

The first foundational theme depicts the foundations and models for social media influencer marketing . The articles in this foundational theme signify the key characteristics of concepts associated to social media influencer marketing, such as the concept of engagement [ 49 ], “Instafamous” [ 55 ], influencer marketing [ 88 ], and social media influencers [ 44 ], including the difference between traditional celebrities and contemporary social media influencers [ 104 ].

The second foundational theme denotes the influence and impact perspectives for social media influencer marketing . The articles in this foundational theme represent a collection of insights in relation to influence and impact. For example, the most prestigious article under this theme examines the impact of the number of followers of Instagram influencers and the divergence of the products promoted by these influencers on the brand attitudes of their followers [ 28 ]. Other examples of influence and impact outcomes include attitudes and behavioral intentions [ 37 ], engagement [ 120 ], perceptions Lee & Watkins, [ 67 ], and purchase decisions [ 31 ].

The third foundational theme highlights the importance of endorsement and resonance perspectives for social media influencer marketing . The articles in this theme, which are widely cited by highly cited articles on social media influencer marketing, emphasize the importance of endorsement and resonance literature in grounding the reasons for and outcome of social media influencer marketing. This can be seen by the prominence of celebrity endorsement (e.g., [ 34 ], Mccracken, [ 93 ], Silvera & Austad, [ 107 ]) and congruence (e.g., Till & Busler, [ 116 ]; [[ 128 ]] literature that make up the most prestigious articles under this theme.

The fourth foundational theme relates to the profiling and measurement perspectives for social media influencer marketing research . This theme signifies and reaffirms the value of personal characteristics (e.g., personalities, profiles; [ 31 ], Ferchaud et al., [ 40 ]), measurement scales (e.g., expertise trustworthiness and attractiveness; Ohanian, [ 97 ]), and evaluation methods (e.g., structural models; Fornell & Larcker, [ 43 ]) in guiding and informing social media influencer marketing research, and thus, they form a considerable part of the knowledge relied upon by research in the field.

3.5.2 Major themes (or major research streams)

The major themes build upon the foundational themes to curate new knowledge and understanding on social media influencer marketing [ 32 ]. To uncover the major themes, a keyword co-occurrence analysis was initially conducted to gain a sense of the nomological network for the major themes [ 94 ], followed by a bibliographic coupling to gain an in-depth understanding of the content under each major theme in the field [ 32 ].

The keyword co-occurrence analysis indicates that four major themes characterize the knowledge curated by extant research focusing specifically on social media influencer marketing (Fig.  2 and Table 6 ), which is triangulated by the six major themes revealed through bibliographic coupling, in which four bibliographic coupling clusters corresponds to two keyword clusters (Table 7 ). The key peculiarities of these themes are presented as follows.

Nomological network of research streams in social media influencer marketing research

Parasocial interactions and relationships in social media influencer marketing . This major theme is most prominent (eight keywords) and relatively recent (2020.1429–2020.7499). This theme highlights the importance of the “credibility” ( n  = 6), “persuasion knowledge” ( n  = 7), and “source credibility” ( n  = 7) of social media influencers as essential “persuasion” ( n  = 5) factors that influence the “parasocial interactions” ( n  = 8) and “parasocial relationships” ( n  = 12) in social media influencer marketing. Most research in this area is conducted in the context of “Instagram” ( n  = 27), wherein “purchase intention” ( n  = 13) is a common outcome expected and examined. Noteworthily, extant research concentrating on influencing parasocial interactions have highlighted the importance of self-influencer congruence (Shan et al., [ 105 ]; [ 128 ] and the value of message value [ 88 ] and credibility [ 108 ], including the moderating role of audience comments [ 102 ], in fostering consumer trust and purchase intention toward branded content [ 88 ], [ 102 ], Shan et al., [ 105 ], [ 108 ], [ 128 ], whereas those focusing on developing and managing parasocial relationships emphasized the importance of being entrepreneurial (Fink et al., [ 41 ]) and personal branding (Ki et al., [ 61 ]) in the pursuit of becoming famous and garnering brand equity and loyalty among followers [ 18 ], [ 55 ], [ 57 ].

Sponsorship in social media influencer marketing . This major theme is fairly prominent (six keywords) and recent (2019.8–2021). This theme highlights the importance of “sponsorship disclosure” ( n  = 6) in “celebrity endorsement” ( n  = 5) and among “social media influencers” ( n  = 60) engaged for “native advertising” ( n  = 7) in “influencer marketing” ( n  = 63), with “YouTube” ( n  = 9) featuring prominently in this space. Noteworthily, extant research on this theme is divided into two notable streams, wherein the first stream sheds light on the commercialization and value of social media influencer marketing (Britt et al., [ 16 ]; Harrigan et al., [ 47 ]; Hudders et al., [ 48 ]; [ 124 ],), which highlights the importance of the second stream pertaining to the impact of disclosure (i.e., macro, micro—e.g., declaring sponsorship to establish and reaffirm the credibility of social media influencers and the brands they represent) on the behavioral responses of social media followers [ 13 ], [ 30 ], [ 58 ], [ 104 ], [ 110 ].

Authenticity of marketing and public relations in social media influencer marketing . This major theme is fairly prominent (five keywords) but with a longer history (2017.4286–2021) than the other major themes. This theme highlights the continuing importance of “authenticity” ( n  = 7) in the “marketing” ( n  = 5) and “public relations” ( n  = 7) endeavors of “influencers” ( n  = 29) on “social media” ( n  = 56). Thus, it is no surprise that extant research in this theme have focused on traditional marketing concepts such as advertorial campaigns [ 1 ], personal branding [ 59 ], rhetoric [ 45 ], strategic communication [ 33 ], and self-presentation [ 6 ].

Engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing . This major theme is fairly prominent (five keywords) and recent (2019.4–2020.6). This theme encapsulates “social media marketing” ( n  = 16) research that concentrates on the “social influence” ( n  = 5) of “opinion leadership” ( n  = 5) and the equivalent outcome of “brand engagement” ( n  = 5), with “Twitter” ( n  = 7) featuring prominently in this space. Noteworthily, the prominent studies under this theme concentrate on the power of social networks of social media influencers, including examining the influence of the number of followers [ 28 ], measuring the influence of customer networks [ 63 ] and social media influencers [ 5 ], and the value of opinion leaders [ 87 ] and sponsored campaigns [ 49 ] across these networks.

Taken collectively, these themes, which were triangulated across two bibliographic sources of data (i.e., keywords and references) and analytical techniques (i.e., keyword co-occurrence analysis and bibliographic coupling), suggests that social media influencer marketing has tremendous commercial value, which justify the sponsorship that brands are willing to provide to social media influencers in return for marketing and public relation campaigns for their brands and products. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the power of social media influencers resides in their authenticity, which is a crucial reason as to why social media influencers are followed and relied upon by their followers. The management of parasocial interactions and relationships are also highly important as they are essential to foster desired engagement among followers and influence their behaviors in ways desired by social media influencers and the brands that they represent. The next section provides a deeper dive into the mechanisms (constructs) that transpire in social media influencer marketing.

3.6 Constructs

The sixth research question (RQ6) involves the unpacking of constructs that relevantly explain consumer behavior toward social media influencer marketing, which were revealed through the same within- and between-study literature analysis as reported in the methods and theories sections previously [ 95 ]. The constructs (Fig.  3 ) were arranged according to testable categories in the form of antecedents (Table 8 ), mediators (Table 9 ), moderators (Table 10 ), and consequences (Table 11 ), with each category having sub-categories that encapsulate relevant constructs that fall under the theme of that sub-category. The thematic naming of sub-categories are mostly self-explanatory (i.e., audience-, brand-, content-, influencer-, social-, and technology-related), with only one sub-category being uncommon yet sensible due to the unique nature of the context under study—that is, the comparative-related sub-category, which captures the essence of constructs where comparison exist between two or more sub-categories (e.g., influencer-follower relationship is a construct that accounts for the comparison transcending the audience- and influencer-related sub-categories, whereas product-endorser fit is a construct that reflects the comparison between the brand- and influencer-related sub-categories).

Consumer behavior toward social media influencer marketing

In terms of antecedents , four sub-categories emerged, namely comparative-, content-, influencer-, and social-related antecedents (Table 8 ). The comparative-related antecedents (six counts) comprise of influencer-follower relationship (two counts) and perceived similarity (four counts). The content-related antecedents (36 counts) consist of authenticity (four counts), disclosure (14 counts), informativeness (nine counts), message construal (one count), perceived quality (two counts), perceived quantity (two counts), perceived originality (one count), and post credibility (three counts). The influencer-related antecedents (34 counts) consist of engagement and interaction (two counts), influencer attractiveness (10 counts), influencer credibility (six counts), influencer expertise (nine counts), influencer likeability (one count), perceived trustworthiness (five counts), and perceived uniqueness (one count). The social-related antecedent (four count) contains parasocial relationship (four count) only. In total, 18 antecedents emerged across four sub-categories. Content-related antecedents appear to be the most researched (36 counts), followed by influencer-related antecedents (34 counts), with few studies examining comparative- (six counts) and social- (four count) related antecedents. Disclosure (14 counts) is the antecedent that has been studied the most, followed by influencer attractiveness with 10 counts. As a whole, there is good breadth and depth for antecedents as a category, but is mixed for its sub-categories.

In terms of mediators , seven sub-categories were revealed, namely audience-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-, social-, and technology-related mediators (Table 9 ). The audience-related mediators (13 counts) comprise of attachment (one count), attitude (five counts), interest (one count), psychological ownership (one count), and trust (five counts). The brand-related mediators (eight counts) consist of brand recognition (five counts), product attractiveness (one count), and sponsorship transparency (two counts). The comparative-related mediator (four counts) contains self-influencer connection (four counts) only. The content-related mediators (seven counts) encapsulate disclosure (two counts), message appeal (one count), message credibility (one count), message process involvement (one count), and source credibility (two counts). The influencer-related mediators (15 counts) encompass engagement and interaction (two counts), expertise (two counts), influencer credibility (five counts), opinion knowledge leadership (five counts), and perceived popularity (one count). The social-related mediators (three counts) include electronic word of mouth (one count) and parasocial interaction (two counts). The technology-related mediators (two counts) incorporate perceived ease of use (one count) and perceived usefulness (one count). In total, 22 mediators were revealed across seven sub-categories. Influencer- and audience-related mediators appear to be the most researched with 15 and 13 counts respectively, followed by brand- (eight counts) and content- (seven counts) related mediators. Attitude, brand recognition, influencer credibility, opinion leadership knowledge, and trust are the mediators studied the most with five counts each. Overall, there is reasonable breadth and depth for mediators as a category, but is mixed for its sub-categories.

In terms of moderators , six sub-categories were unpacked, namely audience-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-, and social-related moderators (Table 10 ). The audience-related moderators (10 counts) comprise of advertisement literacy (one count), audience engagement (two counts), domains of interest (one count), envy identification (one count), interaction propensity (one count), purchase intention (one count), self-discrepancy (two counts), and social identification with social commerce (one count). The brand-related moderator (one count) consists of brand attitude (one count) only. The comparative-related moderators (three counts) contain perceived closeness (one count), perceived fit (one count), and product-endorser fit (one count). The content-related moderators (nine counts) encapsulate audience comments (one count), disclosure (one count), download volume (one count), message process involvement (one count), message valence (one count), number of hashtags (one count), online ratings (one count), structural assurance (one count), and visionary insights (one count). The influencer-related moderators (four counts) encompass influencer socio-economic status (one count), number of followers (one count), perceived self-serving motive (one count), and type of influencer (one count). The social-related moderators (two counts) include parasocial relationship (one count) and parental mediation (one count). In total, 27 moderators were unpacked across six sub-categories. Audience-related moderators (10 counts) appear to be the most researched, followed by content-related moderators (nine counts). All moderators had only one count except audience engagement and self-discrepancy, which have two counts, and thus indicating its breadth but not depth.

In terms of consequences , three sub-categories were unveiled, namely brand-, influencer-, and social-related consequences (Table 11 ). The brand-related consequences (73 counts) comprise of brand attitude (17 counts), brand awareness (one count), brand involvement (two counts), brand purchase or patronage (46 counts), brand recall (two counts), and brand trust (five counts). The influencer-related consequences (19 counts) consist of engagement and interaction (11 counts), following influencer (five counts), and influence (three counts). The social-related consequences (12 counts) contain recommendation and referral propensity (nine counts) and social sharing (three counts). In total, 11 consequences were unveiled across three sub-categories. Brand-related consequences (73 counts) appear to be the most researched, followed by influencer- (19 counts) and social- (12 counts) related consequences. Brand purchase or patronage (46 counts) represent the most studied consequence, followed by brand attitude (17 counts) and engagement and interaction (11 counts). Taken collectively, the consequences unveiled indicate its depth but not breadth.

4 Trend analysis and future research directions

Agendas for future research are a hallmark of systematic literature reviews [ 84 ]. While there are many approaches to develop future research agendas, the present study adopts an approach that the authors found to be most objective and pragmatic—that is, a trend analysis from thematic and topical perspectives. The suggestions for future research based on the analysis from these perspectives are presented in the next sections.

4.1 Thematic perspective

The thematic perspective comprises a trend analysis of bibliographic clusters representing the major themes of social media influencer marketing research. The choice of focusing on bibliographic clusters as opposed to keyword clusters was a deliberate decision taken in light of the finer-grained research streams in the former (six clusters) over the latter (four clusters), as well as the availability of the alternative perspective (i.e., the topical perspective) that will use keywords to shed light on the topical trend in the field.

The productivity of the six major themes (research streams) in social media influencer marketing research has generally improved in recent years, particularly in 2021, with the exception of research on parasocial relationships in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 6), which experience a slight decline (i.e., seven in 2020 to six in 2021). Though closely-related research on parasocial interactions has proliferated (Cluster 5), the difference between the two research streams and their relatively lower number of studies as compared to other research streams suggest that new research in both streams is very much required. Similarly, the research stream on disclosures (Cluster 4) is highly important, yet it remains relatively low as compared to its more popular counterpart, that is, the research stream on commercialization and value of social media influencer marketing (Cluster 3), both of which are important research streams to the larger umbrella research stream on sponsorship revealed by the keyword co-occurrence analysis. While the research streams on authenticity (Cluster 2) and engagement and influence (Cluster 1) in social media influencer marketing are highly popular, further research remains necessary in light of the evolving changes in the social media landscape. Notwithstanding the productivity of the research streams, several promising avenues avail for advancing knowledge across all research streams.

In terms of engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 1), the emergence of augmented, virtual, and mixed realities, including the metaverse, signals the need for new research that unpacks the opportunities for engagement in these new social avenues along with the effectiveness of these avenues as compared to existing avenues for social media influencer marketing. In addition, the nature of engagement will benefit from finer-grained examination to account for the differences between its varied cognitive, affective, and behavioral manifestations [ 80 ], [ 85 ], which remains underexplored in social media influencer marketing.

In terms of authenticity in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 2), the key markers of authenticity and the strategies to communicate and strengthen a sense of authenticity are potential avenues to enrich understanding of this area. Noteworthily, future research on authenticity will need to go beyond traditional measures (e.g., scales; Ohanian, [ 97 ]) and engage in purposeful exploration to uncover the attributes and actions that if available and taken will enhance followers’ perceptions of the authenticity of social media influencers. In this regard, future qualitative and experimental research in this research stream is encouraged, wherein the former will lead to the discovery of new authenticity markers that the latter can test for cause and effect. Such research should lead to meaningful extensions on the understanding of authenticity that goes beyond treating the concept as a singular construct in the field.

In terms of commercialization and value of social media influencer marketing (Cluster 3), the potential of non-economic returns of social media influencer marketing could be explored in future research. With the advent of corporate social responsibility and environmental social governance (Lim et al., [ 83 ], it is imperative that the expectations and evaluations of returns goes beyond those that are economic in nature (e.g., sales) [ 78 ]. The advocacy and support of socio-environmental causes (e.g., hashtags of actions and statements) could be explored, which can be subsequently useful to develop sustainability ratings beneficial for illustrating the impact of both social media influencers and the brands that they represent.

In terms of disclosure in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 4), future research could explore the different ways in which explicit and implicit disclosures could be curated and signaled by social media influencers to their followers. Such research should be potentially useful as not all social media platforms provide options of explicit labels (e.g., sponsor ad) to social media users, especially when such social media posts are not paid to extend its reach and thus relies on social media users themselves to self-disclose. Moreover, the effectiveness of these forms of disclosure, including their combination, have not been adequately studied and thus should be worthwhile exploring. The negative connotation that may be attached to such disclosures should also be addressed in ways that make such disclosures an asset rather than a liability.

In terms of parasocial interactions in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 5), the multitude ways in which parasocial interactions could be curated represent a potentially fruitful avenue for future exploration. At present, the general focus has been on the influence of social media influencer credibility and the congruence of such interactions to follower expectations and perceptions [ 108 ]. In this regard, future research is encouraged to explore the different ways in which parasocial interactions could be curated, and in the midst of doing so, theorizing the entry points and sustaining factors that make such interactions parasocial between social media influencers and their followers. Given the complex nature of parasocial interactions, future research in this space could benefit from employing neuroscientific tools (e.g., eye tracker, wearable biosensors, [ 73 ], [ 74 ] to gain nuanced insights into biological responses that can be used to supplement self-reported responses in order to better ascertain the parasocial nature of interactions among social media influencers and their followers.

In terms of parasocial relationships in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 6), deeper insights on what makes parasocial relationships gratifying and lasting should be developed in future research. Such research should provide a better understanding on the constitution of parasocial relationships and how social media influencers can foster and maintain them over time. Nevertheless, errors or mistakes are bound to happen (e.g., slip of inappropriate word, unintentional non-disclosure of sponsorship). Thus, the repair and recovery of negatively-affected parasocial relationships among social media influencers and their followers could also be given scholarly attention in future research.

Taken collectively, these suggestions for future research should enrich research across all research streams in social media influencer marketing. The next section builds on the insights from this section and takes a closer look on topical trends in the field (Fig. 4 ).

Productivity trend of major themes in social media influencer marketing research. Note: Cluster 1 = Engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing. Cluster 2 = Authenticity in social media influencer marketing. Cluster 3 = Commercialization and value of social media influencer marketing. Cluster 4 = Disclosure in social media influencer marketing. Cluster 5 = Parasocial interactions in social media influencer marketing. Cluster 6 = Parasocial relationships in social media influencer marketing

4.2 Topical perspective

The productivity of topical research in social media influencer marketing has evolved over the years (Fig.  5 ). Noteworthily, the extant literature on social media influencer marketing has been largely predicated on “communication management”, “centrality”, and “viral marketing” up to 2018. Newer research has nonetheless made a stronger and more explicit connection to “influencer marketing” and “social media”, with “Instagram” emerging as the most prominent social media in the field. The transmission of “eWOM” or “electronic word-of-mouth” and how this translates into “parasocial interaction” or “immersion” between “social media influencers” and “followers” has taken center stage alongside “online marketing” and “social media marketing” considerations such as “advertising”, “brands”, “brand awareness”, and “purchase intention” from a “neoliberalism” perspective.

Productivity trend of major topics in social media influencer marketing research

Notwithstanding the trending topics in social media influencer marketing revealed by the trend analysis, it is clear that new research focusing on new phenomena is very much required. For example, new social media platforms such as Clubhouse and TikTok have been extremely popular platforms for social media influencers in recent years, and thus, future research should also consider exploring social platforms other than Instagram. Furthermore, the proliferation of augmented and virtual realities remains underexplored for social media influencer marketing. The rebranding of Facebook to Meta is a signal of the future rise of the metaverse . New research in this direction focusing on new-age technologies for social media influencer marketing should provide new knowledge-advancing and practice-relevant insights into contemporary trends and realities that remain underrepresented in the literature. Similarly, the diversity and evolution of social media followers also deserve further attention in light of accelerated technology adoption by societies worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal [ 77 ], as well as the changing nature of generational cohorts in the society [ 79 ].

5 Conclusion

The importance of consumerism for business survival and growth albeit in a more authentic, meaningful, and sustainable way [ 76 ] along with the increasing use of digital media such as social media [ 82 ] have led to the proliferation of social media influencer marketing and its burgeoning interest among academics and professionals [ 10 ], [ 124 ]. This was evident in the present study, wherein the consumer behavior perspective of social media influencer marketing took center stage. Using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol as a guide, a bibliometric-content analysis as a multi-method review technique, and a collection of 214 articles published in 87 journals indexed in ABDC, CABS, and WOS as relevant documents for review, this study provides, to date, the most comprehensive one-stop state-of-the-art overview of social media influencer marketing. Through this review, this study provides several key takeaways for theory and practice and additional noteworthy suggestions for future research.

5.1 Theoretical contributions and implications

From a theoretical perspective, this study provides two major takeaways for academics.

First, the review indicates that most articles on social media influencer marketing published in journals indexed in ABDC, CABS, and WOS were not guided by an established theory, as only 94 (43.93%) out of the 214 articles reviewed were informed by theories (e.g., persuasion knowledge theory, social learning theory, source credibility theory, theory of planned behavior). This implies that most articles relied on prior literature only to explain their study’s theoretical foundation, which may be attributed to a lack of awareness on the possible theories that may be relevant to their study. In fact, a similar review on the topic albeit with a relatively smaller sample of articles (i.e., 68 articles only) due to protocol limitations (i.e., CABS-indexed journals only) had acknowledged the issue but unfortunately failed to deliver a collection of theories informed by prior research [ 124 ]. In this vein, this study hopes to address this issue as it has revealed 46 different theories that were employed in prior social media influencer marketing research, which can be used to ground future research in the area. Furthermore, the list of theories can be used to justify the novelty of future research where a new theory is applied. In addition, future studies can take inspiration from the manifestation of theories emerging from multiple theoretical perspectives, such as the social influencer value model and the social-mediated crisis communication theory informed by the media and sociological theoretical perspectives, to develop new theories in the field, which may be challenging but certainly possible [ 81 ]. Alternatively, future studies can consider theoretical integration by using two or more theories in a single investigation, which can reveal richer insights on the phenomenon (e.g., which theoretical perspective is more prominent or which factors from which theoretical perspective yield strong impacts and therefore warrant investment prioritization).

Second, the review shows that social media influencer marketing research does not have to be limited to a simple direct antecedent-consequence relationship or the multiply of such relationships. Instead, research in the area can benefit from testing the mediating and moderating effects of various factors to enrich the insights derived from their study. Interestingly, the review reveals that antecedents can also play the role of mediators (e.g., engagement and interaction) and moderators (e.g., parasocial relationship) and vice versa, which implies that the conditions in research design setup are fundamental to the conclusions made about the consequences of social media influencer marketing [ 75 ], which can take the form of consumer responses to the brand (e.g., brand purchase or patronage), the influencer (e.g., following influencer), and the community (e.g., recommendation, social sharing). In total, seven categories in the form of audience-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-, social-, and technology-related factors that could manifest as antecedents, mediators, and moderators were revealed. Noteworthily, the comparative-related factors such as perceived closeness, perceived fit, perceived similarity, self-influencer connection, and product-endorser fit transcended across multiple categories (e.g., audience and influencer, brand and influencer), which indicate the promise of social media influencer marketing as a research context suitable for the development of new factors to describe consumer behavior of a comparative nature. Indeed, comparative-related factors is, to the best knowledge of the authors, a new categorization that has not been revealed by prior systematic literature reviews, and thus, represent a key contribution to the literature that should be noted in future research and reviews. Moreover, the mapping of constructs in Fig.  3 and their counts in Tables 8 , 9 , 10 , and 11 provide useful starting points to identify the extant gaps in prior research (e.g., brand-related factors remain underexplored as moderators, comparative-related factors remain underexplored as mediators) and to inform the direction of future research accordingly. Finally, the constructs and their associated categories revealed can also be compared and contrasted in future investigations to delineate the difference in impact between constructs of different categories, and when paired with appropriate theories, can provide stronger grounds for managerial recommendations to brands and influencers interested to leverage off the benefits of social media influencer marketing to attract and persuade desired consumer behavior.

5.2 Managerial contributions and implications

From a managerial perspective, this study provides two major takeaways for brands and influencers.

First, the review indicates that brands indirectly influence consumers through influencers—that is to say, the strategy of brands engaging in influencer marketing on social media places influencers at the forefront, with brands taking a backseat in that strategy. This was evident from the literature review, where brand-related antecedents were absent; instead, the influence of brands manifests in the form of mediators (e.g., brand recognition, product attractiveness, sponsorship transparency) and moderators (e.g., brand attitude). In that sense, it is important that brands identify and engage with influencers strategically, particularly those who are perceived to be attractive, credible, engaging and interactive, experts, a good fit for their products, likeable, opinion leaders, popular, trustworthy, unique, and without overly self-serving motives in order to encourage desired consumer behavior toward their brands (e.g., brand purchase and patronage, brand trust), as revealed by the review herein.

Second, the review reveals that social media influencers directly influence consumer behavior toward the brands they promote (e.g., brand attitude, brand awareness, brand involvement, brand recall, brand trust), the influencers themselves (e.g., follower, influence), and the social media community at large (e.g., recommendation, social sharing). In particular, the content that influencers curate on social media can affect how consumers respond to these stakeholders. The review indicates that such content should be authentic, credible, informative, original, and transparent (disclosure). The message appeal and message process involvement are also important mediators to strengthen the influencer’s ability to encourage desired consumer behavior among their followers (e.g., positive audience, brand, influencer, and social behavior), whereas audience comments, assurance, hashtags, insights, and volume of posts can moderate or nullify the potential desired impact that influencers could elicit from their followers on social media. Indeed, the importance of electronic word of mouth, parasocial interaction, and perceptions of closeness and fit have also been highlighted through the review. Importantly, when promoting to kids and youth, it is essential that influencers consider what parents would think about their posts, as parental mediation was observed to occur in the review.

5.3 Review limitations and future review directions

From a review perspective, this study acknowledges three major limitations that can inform the curation of future reviews.

First, the systematic literature review herein does not capture article performance (i.e., citations) because it was mainly interested in unpacking the articles, journals, theories, methods, and content (themes, constructs) underpinning existing research on social media influencer marketing, and it kept in mind the space limitation of the journal. Notwithstanding the comprehensive and rigorous insights revealed using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, future reviews may wish to pursue an impact analysis, which can lead to rich insights pertaining to article performance (e.g., difference in citations [e.g., total citations, average citations per year, h -index, g -index] between papers with and without theory, using empirical and non-empirical methods, or across different methods and thematic categories).

Second, the systematic literature review herein encapsulates only a qualitative evaluation of the constructs in existing social media influencer marketing research. To build on the insights herein, future reviews may wish to pursue a meta-analytical review, where a meta-analysis involving the antecedents, mediators, moderators, and consequences revealed in Tables 8 , 9 , 10 , and 11 in this review (in the short run) or unveiled in future reviews (in the long run) is performed. Such an endeavor should also provide finer-grained insights on conflicting findings and provide a resolution to such findings in the same study.

Third, the systematic literature review herein focuses only on the consumer behavior perspective of social media influencer marketing, which is mainly due to the maturity of research from this perspective [ 98 ], as seen through the number of articles available for review (i.e., 214 articles) under a rigorous protocol (i.e., the SPAR-4-SLR protocol). Moving forward, future reviews may wish to pursue a systematic review of social media influencer marketing from the business and industrial perspective, wherein the impact of influencer marketing on social media for business and industrial brands in general and across different industries are reviewed and reported.

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Joshi, Y., Lim, W.M., Jagani, K. et al. Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends, and ways forward. Electron Commer Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-023-09719-z

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Rise of Social Media Influencers as a New Marketing Channel: Focusing on the Roles of Psychological Well-Being and Perceived Social Responsibility among Consumers

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• 1 Department of Integrated Strategic Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
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This empirical research investigated the structural relationships between social media influencer attributes, perceived friendship, psychological well-being, loyalty, and perceived social responsibility of influencers, focusing on the perspective of social media users. More specifically, this study conceptually identified social media influencer attributes such as language similarity, interest similarity, interaction frequency, and self-disclosure and examined the respective effects of each dimension on perceived friendship and psychological well-being, consequently resulting in loyalty toward social media influencers. The authors collected and analyzed data from 388 social media users in the United States via Amazon's Mechanical Turk with multivariate analyses to test the hypothesized associations among the variables in this study. The findings indicated that perceived friendship was significantly influenced by language similarity, interest similarity, and self-disclosure, but did not have a significant impact on psychological well-being. Additionally, perceived friendship significantly affected psychological well-being and loyalty, and psychological well-being significantly influenced loyalty. Lastly, social media influencers' social responsibility moderated the path from psychological well-being to loyalty. Based on these findings, this study proposes theoretical and managerial implications for the social media influencer marketing context.

Keywords: digital attributes; friendship; loyalty; parasocial interaction; psychological well-being; social media; social media influencer; social responsibility.

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The Rise of Influencer Culture: Marketing, Monetization, and Authenticity in the Social Sphere

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Influencer marketing has become a transformative force in modern marketing, altering brand engagement with consumers and redefining media consumption. The chapter examines the evolution from traditional celebrity endorsements to the emergence of digital influencers, facilitated through social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Key insights include the classification of influencers into micro-, macro-, and mega influencers, each serving distinct roles and engagement levels. Micro-influencers, with niche followings, often achieve higher engagement rates and closer connections with their audience. Macro-influencers extend their reach to broader audiences, while mega influencers, similar to traditional celebrities, command significant social media presence. Influencers act as trendsetters and cultural icons, shaping public discourse and societal norms through authentic content that builds trust and loyalty among followers. A crucial aspect discussed is the importance of authenticity in influencer marketing. As consumers become more skeptical of traditional advertising, they value genuine, relatable content from influencers. The role of social media algorithms in determining content visibility and engagement emphasizes the strategic importance for influencers and brands to understand these mechanisms. Readers will gain comprehensive understanding about influencer marketing, the strategic categorization of influencers, and the significance of authenticity in building consumer trust.

• influencer culture
• monetization
• social media
• authenticity
• modern society

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Zohaib riaz pitafi *.

• Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan

Tahir Mumtaz Awan

• School of Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
• The Center of Ethnology and Anthropology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha City, Hunan Province, Peoples Republic of China

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

The phenomenon of influencer marketing has become a dominant force in contemporary marketing, transforming the brands interact with consumers and reshaping the dynamics of media consumption. This shift marks a departure from traditional celebrity endorsements, which historically relied on the star power of film actors, musicians, and athletes to promote products [ 1 ]. The advent of digital influencers has ushered in a new era characterized by the democratization of influence, where individuals from various backgrounds can amass significant followings and wield substantial impact on public opinion and consumer behavior. The rise of the internet and social media platforms has catalyzed a fundamental shift in the information that is consumed and shared. Social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have emerged as central hubs for content creation and distribution, enabling influencers to build and engage with their audiences directly. In defining influencer roles, it is crucial to delineate the impact of different types of influencers [ 2 ]. Influencers can be categorized based on their reach and engagement levels, commonly referred to as micro-, macro-, and mega influencers. Micro-influencers typically have smaller, more niche followings but often enjoy higher engagement rates and stronger connections with their audience. Macro-influencers have larger followings and can reach broader audiences, while mega influencers, often celebrities in their own right, command substantial social media presence and widespread recognition. Each category of influencers plays a distinct role within the social media sphere, contributing uniquely to the ecosystem [ 3 ].

The influence exerted by these individuals extends beyond mere product promotion. Influencers serve as trendsetters, thought leaders, and cultural icons, shaping public discourse and influencing societal norms. Their ability to craft relatable and authentic content allows them to build trust and loyalty among their followers, a quality that is increasingly valued by brands seeking to connect with consumers on a more personal level. This shift in marketing dynamics underscores the growing importance of authenticity in influencer marketing, as consumers become more discerning and skeptical of traditional advertising techniques [ 4 , 5 ]. The rise of digital influencers has also been facilitated by significant changes in media consumption patterns. The decline of traditional media has been paralleled by the exponential growth of social media platforms, which offer a more interactive and immersive experience for users. These platforms are designed to foster engagement and community-building, providing influencers with the tools to create compelling content and interact with their audience in real-time. Algorithms play a critical role in this ecosystem, determining the visibility and reach of content based on various metrics such as engagement rates, relevance, and user preferences. Understanding the mechanics of these algorithms is essential for influencers and brands alike, as it directly impacts their ability to reach and engage their target audience. Influencers can be categorized into micro-, macro-, and mega influencers based on the size of their audience. Micro-influencers, typically with a following of 1000 to 100,000, engage closely with their audience, often seen as more relatable and authentic [ 6 ]. Macro-influencers, with followers ranging from 100,000 to a million, bridge the gap between niche and mainstream appeal. Mega influencers, boasting over a million followers, are akin to traditional celebrities with a broad and far-reaching impact ( Table 1 ).

Key definitions.

1.1 The evolution of influence: from celebrities to social media stars

The key to this shift lies in the interactive nature of social media. Unlike traditional media, which operates on a one-to-many communication model, social media facilitates many-to-many interactions. This interactivity allows influencers to engage directly with their audience, fostering a sense of community and authenticity that is often absent in traditional celebrity endorsements. Followers can comment, share, and react to content in real-time, creating a feedback loop that strengthens the bond between influencers and their audience. Another critical factor in the evolution of influence is the changing nature of content creation [ 12 , 13 ]. Traditional celebrities are often associated with highly produced, polished content, whereas social media influencers thrive on relatability and authenticity. Influencers create content that resonates with their audience’s everyday experiences, aspirations, and challenges. This authenticity engenders trust and loyalty, key components of effective influence in the digital age. Influencers are seen not just as endorsers, but as relatable figures who share a genuine connection with their followers.

The rise of niche influencers has further diversified the landscape of influence. While traditional celebrities appeal to broad demographics, social media influencers often cater to specific niches or communities. This specialization allows brands to target their marketing efforts more precisely, reaching audiences that are highly engaged and relevant. Micro-influencers, for example, may have smaller followings but enjoy higher engagement rates and deeper connections with their audience, making them valuable partners for brands seeking authentic engagement [ 14 ]. The evolution from celebrities to social media stars also reflects broader societal changes. Consumers today are more skeptical of overt advertising and prefer recommendations from trusted sources. Social media influencers, who often appear more genuine and approachable, fulfill this need for authenticity. Their success underscores a shift toward more decentralized and democratized forms of influence, where the power to shape public opinion and drive consumer behavior is distributed across a broader spectrum of individuals.

2. The mechanics of influencer marketing

In recent years, influencer marketing has emerged as a pivotal strategy in the digital marketing landscape. It leverages the reach and trust of social media personalities to promote products and services to targeted audiences [ 15 ]. The effectiveness of this marketing approach lies in its ability to connect with consumers in a more authentic and relatable manner compared to traditional advertising.

2.1 Understanding the influencer marketing ecosystem

Influencer marketing represents a multifaceted ecosystem involving various stakeholders, components, and strategies. This ecosystem primarily includes brands, influencers, audiences, and social media platforms, each playing a critical role in the success of marketing campaigns. The cornerstone of influencer marketing lies in the relationship between brands and influencers. Brands seek to leverage influencers’ reach and authenticity to promote their products or services, while influencers benefit through monetary compensation or free products. This relationship is often managed through influencer marketing agencies or platforms that facilitate connections and ensure both parties’ interests are met. Influencers, categorized by their reach into micro-, macro-, and mega influencers, bring different levels of engagement and audience specificity. Micro-influencers, with their niche but highly engaged audiences, offer authenticity and personal connections, making them valuable for targeted campaigns [ 16 ]. Macro-influencers, with larger but slightly less engaged audiences, provide broader reach, suitable for campaigns aiming for wider exposure. Mega-influencers, often celebrities, offer extensive reach but at a higher cost and potentially lower engagement rates. Audiences play a crucial role in this ecosystem, as their engagement and perception determine the campaign’s success. The trust and connection between influencers and their followers are pivotal, often surpassing the effectiveness of traditional advertising methods. This dynamic relationship is fostered through consistent, authentic content that resonates with the audience’s interests and values [ 17 ]. Social media platforms act as the stage where influencer marketing unfolds. Each platform offers unique features and algorithms that influence content visibility and engagement. Understanding these platforms’ nuances is essential for crafting effective strategies. For instance, Instagram’s visually driven environment favors esthetically pleasing content, while TikTok’s algorithm promotes virality through short, engaging videos.

2.2 The role of social media platforms: algorithms and affordances

Social media platforms are instrumental in shaping the influencer marketing landscape, primarily through their algorithms and affordances. Algorithms, the set of rules and calculations determining content visibility, significantly influence the reach and engagement of influencer content. Understanding these algorithms is critical for both influencers and brands to optimize their strategies [ 18 ]. Each platform employs unique algorithms that prioritize certain types of content and user interactions. For instance, Instagram’s algorithm favors posts with high engagement rates, such as likes, comments, and shares, often promoting visually appealing and interactive content. This necessitates influencers to produce high-quality, engaging visuals to enhance their visibility. Conversely, TikTok’s algorithm is designed to promote viral content by highlighting videos that quickly gain traction, regardless of the creator’s follower count. This allows for rapid content dissemination and offers opportunities for new influencers to gain prominence [ 19 ].

Affordances, or the inherent properties of social media platforms that enable certain actions, also play a vital role. Instagram’s affordances include features like Stories, IGTV, and Shopping, each providing different avenues for influencer marketing. Stories, with their ephemeral nature, create a sense of urgency and intimacy, fostering direct engagement. IGTV allows for longer-form content, suitable for detailed reviews or tutorials, while Shopping integrates e-commerce, enabling direct product purchases from posts. TikTok, with its emphasis on short, engaging videos, offers features such as Duets and Challenges, encouraging user participation and content creation. These affordances facilitate viral trends, enhancing brand visibility through creative, user-generated content. YouTube, another dominant platform, supports long-form video content, making it ideal for in-depth product reviews, vlogs, and tutorials. YouTube’s monetization options, such as ad revenue and membership features, further incentivize influencers to produce high-quality content.

2.3 Successful influencer campaigns and their impact

Analyzing successful influencer marketing campaigns provides valuable insights into the strategies and elements that contribute to their effectiveness. Several case studies from diverse industries illustrate the impact and best practices of influencer marketing. One notable example is Daniel Wellington, a watch brand that leveraged Instagram influencers to build its brand. By partnering with a wide range of influencers, from micro to mega, and providing them with customized discount codes, Daniel Wellington created a sense of exclusivity and urgency. The campaign’s success lay in the influencers’ authentic endorsements, which resonated with their followers, resulting in substantial sales growth and brand awareness [ 20 ].

Another impactful campaign was conducted by Fenty Beauty, a cosmetics brand founded by Rihanna. Fenty Beauty’s strategy involved collaborating with beauty influencers across various social media platforms to promote its inclusive range of products [ 21 ]. The brand’s emphasis on diversity and inclusion, reflected through its influencer partnerships, garnered significant attention and positive reception. This campaign’s success was evident in the extensive social media buzz, high engagement rates, and impressive sales figures, solidifying Fenty Beauty’s position in the competitive beauty industry. In the tech industry, the collaboration between YouTube influencer Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and smartphone brand OnePlus serves as an exemplary case. MKBHD’s in-depth, honest reviews of OnePlus products provided credible and comprehensive insights into his tech-savvy audience [ 22 ]. This partnership not only boosted OnePlus’s brand credibility but also drove significant interest and sales among tech enthusiasts. The campaign’s success highlights the importance of selecting influencers whose expertise and audience align with the brand’s product offerings. The travel industry also presents a compelling case with the “Follow Me To” campaign by Murad and Nataly Osmann. This visually stunning campaign, featuring iconic locations worldwide, captivated Instagram users and promoted travel destinations and brands [ 4 , 15 ]. The unique and creative content generated high engagement and inspired numerous user-generated imitations, amplifying the campaign’s reach and impact.

3. Monetization strategies in the influencer world

Influencers employ various tactics to monetize their content and leverage their online presence. The most common revenue streams include sponsored content, affiliate marketing, ad revenue, and product collaborations. Sponsored content is a prevalent monetization strategy where brands pay influencers to promote their products or services through posts, stories, or videos. The effectiveness of sponsored content lies in its seamless integration into the influencer’s regular content, maintaining authenticity while delivering the brand’s message [ 23 ]. Influencers often disclose these collaborations to comply with legal requirements and maintain transparency with their audience. Affiliate marketing involves influencers promoting products or services through unique affiliate links. When followers purchase through these links, influencers earn a commission. This performance-based model incentivizes influencers to generate sales and allows brands to track the effectiveness of their campaigns. The success of affiliate marketing depends on the influencer’s ability to create compelling content that drives their audience to take action ( Figure 1 ) [ 16 , 24 ].

Global influencer marketing industry value (in billions). Source: Statistic 2024.

Ad revenue is primarily associated with platforms like YouTube, where influencers earn money through advertisements displayed on their videos. Influencers receive a portion of the ad revenue based on the number of views and engagement their content generates. This model provides a steady income stream for influencers who consistently produce high-quality, engaging videos. Product collaborations involve influencers partnering with brands to create co-branded products [ 25 , 26 ]. This strategy allows influencers to leverage their creativity and personal brand to develop unique offerings, ranging from clothing lines to beauty products. Product collaborations can be highly lucrative and enhance the influencer’s brand identity and credibility.

3.1 Brand partnerships

Brand partnerships are a cornerstone of influencer monetization, encompassing various collaboration types that require careful navigation of sponsorship complexities. Influencers engage in several forms of brand collaborations, including one-off sponsored posts, long-term partnerships, and ambassadorships. One-off posts provide immediate exposure but may lack the depth of engagement seen in long-term partnerships [ 27 ]. Long-term collaborations allow influencers to develop a deeper connection with the brand, resulting in more authentic endorsements. Ambassadorships represent a higher level of commitment, where influencers consistently promote a brand over an extended period, often participating in product development and exclusive events.

Sponsorships involve negotiating contracts, setting clear expectations, and aligning brand values with the influencer’s personal brand. Contracts typically outline deliverables, timelines, compensation, and disclosure requirements. Clear communication is essential to ensure both parties understand the campaign’s objectives and expected outcomes. Influencers must also balance sponsored content with organic posts to maintain authenticity and audience trust. The success of brand partnerships hinges on the alignment between the influencer’s audience and the brand’s target market. Authenticity is crucial, as followers are more likely to engage with content that genuinely resonates with the influencer’s personal brand and values. Influencers often select partnerships with brands they already use and trust, enhancing the credibility of their endorsements [ 28 ].

3.2 Diversifying income

To achieve long-term financial sustainability, influencers must diversify their income streams beyond traditional monetization methods. This section explores merchandising, digital products, subscription models, and the importance of financial planning. Merchandising involves influencers creating and selling branded products, such as clothing, accessories, and merchandise [ 4 , 21 , 24 ]. This strategy allows influencers to leverage their creativity and personal brand to develop products that resonate with their audience. Successful merchandising campaigns often involve limited edition drops or collaborations with established brands, generating excitement and driving sales.

Digital products, such as e-books, online courses, and exclusive content, offer influencers an additional revenue stream while providing value to their audience. These products capitalize on the influencer’s expertise and can be sold through their website or platforms like Patreon. Digital products also allow influencers to scale their income by reaching a broader audience without the constraints of physical inventory. Subscription models provide influencers with a recurring revenue stream by offering exclusive content or perks to subscribers. Platforms like Patreon, OnlyFans, and YouTube Memberships enable influencers to monetize their most dedicated followers through monthly subscriptions. Subscribers often receive benefits such as early access to content, behind-the-scenes footage, or personalized interactions. This model fosters a sense of community and loyalty among followers while ensuring a steady income for the influencer [ 29 , 30 ].

Achieving long-term financial sustainability requires influencers to adopt sound financial practices and diversify their income. Influencers should invest in financial planning, including budgeting, saving, and investing, to ensure stability and growth. Building a diverse portfolio of income streams mitigates the risk associated with relying on a single source of revenue. Additionally, influencers should continuously explore new monetization opportunities and adapt to changes in the digital landscape to maintain their relevance and financial success ( Table 2 ).

Ad revenue by major social platforms (in Billions USD).

Source: Statistic 2024.

3.3 Challenges in the monetization

While monetization strategies offer significant opportunities, influencers face challenges and considerations that impact their success. Maintaining a balance between sponsored and organic content is crucial for preserving authenticity and audience trust. Overloading followers with sponsored posts can lead to disengagement and skepticism. Influencers must strategically integrate sponsored content into their regular posting schedule and ensure that it aligns with their personal brand and values [ 20 ]. Influencers must navigate various legal and ethical considerations, including disclosure requirements and compliance with advertising regulations. Transparency is essential to maintaining trust with the audience and avoiding legal repercussions. Influencers should familiarize themselves with guidelines set by regulatory bodies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and ensure that sponsored content is clearly disclosed. Audience expectations can vary, and influencers must manage these expectations to maintain engagement and satisfaction.

Providing consistent, high-quality content is essential, but influencers should also communicate openly with their audience about sponsored collaborations and changes in their content strategy. Engaging with followers and soliciting feedback can help influencers better understand and meet their audience’s needs. Social media platforms continually evolve, introducing new features, algorithms, and monetization options [ 31 ]. Influencers must stay informed about these changes and adapt their strategies accordingly. Flexibility and innovation are key to capitalizing on new opportunities and maintaining a competitive edge in the ever-changing digital landscape.

4. Authenticity in digital sphere

The concept of authenticity is central to the success of influencers in the digital sphere. Authenticity refers to the perception that influencers are genuine, transparent, and relatable. This perceived authenticity fosters trust and loyalty among followers, making influencer endorsements more effective. However, the growing commercial nature of influencer marketing presents a paradox: influencers must balance their desire to monetize their content with the need to maintain authenticity.

4.1 The authenticity paradox

As influencers gain popularity, they receive numerous offers from brands seeking to collaborate. While these partnerships can be financially rewarding, they also risk compromising the influencer’s authenticity. Followers may become skeptical if they perceive that influencers are promoting products solely for monetary gain, rather than out of genuine belief in the product’s value. This skepticism can erode the trust that influencers have worked hard to build, ultimately impacting their credibility and influence [ 32 ].

4.2 Strategies for authenticity

Maintaining authenticity in the digital sphere requires deliberate strategies that prioritize transparency and genuine engagement with followers. One effective strategy is clear communication about sponsored content. Influencers should explicitly disclose paid partnerships, ensuring that their audience is aware of the commercial nature of certain posts. This transparency can help mitigate skepticism and maintain trust. Another strategy involves selecting brand partnerships carefully. Influencers should collaborate with brands that align with their personal values and the interests of their audience. By promoting products and services that they genuinely believe in, influencers can maintain authenticity and strengthen their connection with followers. Engaging with followers in a meaningful way is also crucial for maintaining authenticity. Influencers should interact with their audience through comments, direct messages, and live sessions, fostering a sense of community and personal connection [ 33 ]. This engagement demonstrates that influencers value their followers’ opinions and are not solely focused on commercial gains. Creating a balance between sponsored content and organic posts is another important strategy. Influencers should ensure that their content remains diverse and not overly commercial. By sharing personal stories, insights, and content that reflects their genuine interests, influencers can maintain the authenticity that their followers appreciate.

4.3 Challenges to authenticity

Despite best efforts, influencers face several challenges in maintaining authenticity. Negative feedback is a common challenge, particularly when followers perceive that an influencer has compromised their authenticity. Negative comments and backlash can be damaging to an influencer’s reputation, necessitating careful management of their online presence. The pressure to maintain a perfect image is another significant challenge. Influencers often feel compelled to present an idealized version of their lives, which can lead to unrealistic portrayals and inauthentic content. This pressure can result in mental health issues and burnout, as influencers struggle to meet the expectations of their followers while staying true to themselves. Balancing personal and professional boundaries is also a challenge. Influencers often share personal aspects of their lives to build authenticity, but this can blur the lines between their private and public personas. Maintaining a healthy balance between personal privacy and public engagement is essential for sustaining long-term authenticity [ 16 , 34 , 35 , 36 ].

The following tables provides an overview of the key strategies and challenges related to maintaining authenticity for influencers ( Tables 3 and 4 ):

Key strategies to maintaining authenticity for influencers [ 37 ].

Key challenges to maintaining authenticity for influencers [ 38 ].

Effective strategies for preserving authenticity include transparency in sponsored content, careful selection of brand partnerships, genuine engagement with followers, and maintaining content diversity. However, influencers also face significant challenges such as negative feedback, the pressure for perfection, balancing personal and professional boundaries, and navigating algorithm changes. By understanding and addressing these challenges, influencers can sustain their authenticity, thereby enhancing their credibility and influence in the digital world [ 29 ].

5. Audience engagement and community building

Engagement is a critical factor in influencer marketing, determining the effectiveness of an influencer’s content and their overall influence. Several techniques can be employed to foster engagement, ensuring that audiences remain actively involved and invested in the content. Strategies to grow an engaged community revolve around consistency, interaction, and value-added content. Consistency involves regularly posting high-quality content that resonates with the audience. It is essential to maintain a content calendar to plan and schedule posts, ensuring a steady flow of content that keeps the audience engaged [ 39 ]. Interaction is equally important; responding to comments, messages, and engaging in conversations fosters a sense of community and strengthens the relationship between the influencer and their followers. Value-added content provides meaningful and beneficial information, entertainment, or inspiration to the audience, enhancing their overall experience and encouraging continued engagement.

5.1 Importance of consistency and quality

Consistency and quality are foundational to building a strong, engaged community. Consistency ensures that the audience knows when to expect new content, which can increase anticipation and regular engagement. Maintaining a content calendar helps influencers plan their posts in advance, allowing them to balance different types of content and avoid periods of inactivity [ 31 , 39 , 40 ]. Quality, on the other hand, ensures that the content meets the audience’s expectations and standards. High-quality content is more likely to be shared, liked, and commented on, increasing its reach and impact. Maintaining high quality involves several elements, including visual esthetics, relevance, and originality. High-resolution images, well-edited videos, and clear, concise text contribute to a professional appearance that attracts and retains followers. Relevance ensures that the content aligns with the audience’s interests, preferences, and needs. Originality differentiates the influencer from others, providing unique value that encourages followers to engage and stay loyal.

5.2 The role of interactive content

Interactive content plays a significant role in audience engagement, providing opportunities for direct interaction between influencers and their followers. Live streaming, Q&A sessions, and interactive stories are particularly effective in fostering engagement. Live streaming allows real-time interaction, creating a sense of immediacy and personal connection. Followers can ask questions, make comments, and receive instant feedback, enhancing their involvement and investment in the content. Q&A sessions provide a structured format for addressing follower questions and concerns, fostering transparency and trust [ 41 ]. Interactive stories, such as polls, quizzes, and challenges, encourage followers to participate actively, increasing engagement and providing valuable insights into their preferences and opinions.

5.3 Community as currency

Building and maintaining loyalty is essential for long-term success in influencer marketing. A strong sense of community and belonging can significantly enhance audience loyalty, leading to tangible and intangible benefits. Creating a sense of community involves fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment where followers feel connected to the influencer and each other. This can be achieved through regular interaction, personalized responses, and creating opportunities for followers to connect and engage with each other. For example, influencer Emma Chamberlain often shares personal stories and experiences, creating a sense of intimacy and relatability that resonates with her followers. The tangible benefits of a dedicated community include brand loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing [ 42 ]. Loyal followers are more likely to support the influencer’s brand partnerships, purchase recommended products, and share content with their networks, amplifying its reach and impact. Intangible benefits include personal satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment from creating meaningful connections and positively impacting followers’ lives.

6. The influence of technology on influencer culture

Emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are significantly transforming content creation in the influencer space. These technologies offer innovative ways to engage audiences and enhance the overall content experience. AR allows influencers to overlay digital elements onto the real world, creating interactive and immersive experiences. For example, beauty influencers use AR filters to demonstrate makeup products, allowing followers to see the different products look on their own faces. This interactive approach enhances engagement and provides a unique value proposition that traditional content cannot offer [ 43 ].

VR takes immersion to another level by transporting followers into entirely virtual environments. Influencers in the travel and lifestyle sectors use VR to offer virtual tours and experiences, providing a sense of presence and adventure. This technology allows followers to explore new destinations and experiences from the comfort of their homes, increasing engagement and interest. AI is revolutionizing content creation by enabling personalized content recommendations, automated editing, and even virtual influencers [ 44 ]. AI-driven algorithms analyze follower data to provide personalized content suggestions, enhancing relevance and engagement. Automated editing tools powered by AI streamline the content creation process, allowing influencers to produce high-quality content more efficiently. Virtual influencers, created using AI, offer new possibilities for brand partnerships and audience engagement, although they also raise questions about authenticity and connection.

6.1 Future technologies

Future technologies hold the potential to further reshape the influencer industry. Developments such as advanced machine learning, blockchain, and 5G connectivity will likely play significant roles. Advanced machine learning will enhance content personalization and predictive analytics, enabling influencers to tailor their content to individual follower preferences with greater accuracy. This will improve engagement and relevance, fostering deeper connections with audiences. Blockchain technology could revolutionize influencer marketing by introducing decentralized platforms that enhance transparency and trust. Blockchain-based systems can verify influencer authenticity, track engagement metrics, and ensure fair compensation through smart contracts [ 19 ]. This transparency will benefit both influencers and brands, fostering a more equitable and trustworthy ecosystem. 5G connectivity will enable faster data transfer and lower latency, enhancing the quality of live streaming and interactive content. Influencers will be able to deliver high-resolution, real-time content experiences, increasing engagement and satisfaction.

6.2 The future of social platforms

The future of social platforms will be shaped by emerging trends and new features designed to enhance user engagement and content creation. Predictions for evolution include the rise of niche platforms, increased focus on video content, and the integration of e-commerce. Niche platforms catering to specific interests and communities will gain prominence, offering influencers opportunities to connect with highly targeted audiences. These platforms will provide specialized features and tools tailored to the needs of their user base, enhancing engagement and relevance. Video content will continue to dominate, with platforms investing in new video formats and features. Short-form videos, live streaming, and interactive video content will become increasingly popular, driven by platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts [ 36 ]. The integration of e-commerce features will transform social platforms into comprehensive shopping destinations. Influencers will be able to showcase products, host live shopping events, and provide seamless purchasing experiences, driving sales and enhancing their monetization opportunities. Decentralized platforms powered by blockchain will offer new models for content creation and monetization. These platforms will enable influencers to maintain ownership of their content, receive direct compensation from followers, and operate with greater transparency and fairness.

6.3 Analyzing trends

The role of data analytics in influencer marketing is crucial for understanding audience behavior, optimizing content strategy, and maximizing impact. Influencers use data analytics tools to track engagement metrics, identify trends, and refine their content approach. Insights derived from data analytics enable influencers to tailor their content to the preferences and interests of their audience. By analyzing metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and views, influencers can determine which types of content resonate most with their followers [ 14 , 40 ]. This data-driven approach enhances relevance and engagement, leading to greater success. Tools and techniques for maximizing impact include social media analytics platforms, audience segmentation, and A/B testing. Social media analytics platforms provide comprehensive insights into follower behavior, content performance, and engagement trends. Audience segmentation allows influencers to categorize their followers based on demographics, interests, and engagement levels, enabling more targeted content strategies. A/B testing involves experimenting with different content variations to determine which performs best, allowing influencers to optimize their approach based on data ( Figure 2 ).

Estimated earnings from YouTube monetization by category. Source: Statistic 2024.

7. The global landscape of influencer culture

Influencer culture varies significantly across different regions, shaped by local customs, societal norms, and market dynamics. These variations influence the strategies employed by influencers and the impact they have on their audiences. Understanding these regional differences is crucial for brands and influencers aiming to operate effectively on a global scale [ 32 ].

7.1 Regional variations in influencer impact and strategies

In Western countries, particularly the United States and Europe, influencer marketing is a well-established industry characterized by a high degree of professionalization. Influencers often operate as businesses, with professional teams managing their branding, partnerships, and content creation. The content tends to be polished and produced with significant resources, reflecting the competitive nature of the market. Influencers in these regions frequently engage in diverse monetization strategies, including sponsored content, affiliate marketing, and product collaborations [ 29 ,  32 ]. In contrast, influencer culture in Asia, particularly in countries like China, South Korea, and Japan, is deeply integrated with local platforms and cultural practices. For example, in China, platforms like Weibo, Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), and WeChat dominate the social media landscape. Influencers, known locally as “KOLs” (Key Opinion Leaders), often have a significant impact on consumer behavior [ 28 ].

The content here tends to be more localized, with influencers frequently engaging in live streaming and direct interactions with their followers. The use of social commerce, where influencers sell products directly through their content, is particularly prevalent. In Latin America, influencer culture is growing rapidly, with a strong emphasis on community and relatability. Influencers in this region often engage with their audiences in a more informal and personal manner, reflecting the social dynamics of the region [ 22 ]. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook are popular, and influencers frequently address social and political issues, leveraging their platforms to engage in advocacy and community building. Africa presents a unique landscape where influencer culture is burgeoning, driven by increasing internet penetration and the growing popularity of social media. Influencers in countries like Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya are gaining traction, often focusing on local content that resonates with regional audiences. These influencers frequently use platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and there is a growing trend of leveraging mobile technology to reach a wider audience [ 17 ].

7.2 Case study: influencer dynamics in different cultures

In the United States, influencers like Kylie Jenner exemplify the Western approach to influencer marketing. Jenner’s influence extends beyond social media into various business ventures, including her cosmetics line, Kylie Cosmetics. Her content is highly curated, featuring professional photography, high-production-value videos, and strategic brand partnerships. Jenner’s approach leverages her celebrity status, combining personal branding with extensive product marketing to create a powerful influencer persona [ 3 ].

In South Korea, influencers like PONY (Park Hye-min), a beauty and makeup artist, showcase a different dynamic. South Korean influencers often focus on creating detailed, informative content, particularly in the beauty and skincare industries. PONY’s content includes elaborate makeup tutorials, product reviews, and live streaming sessions, which resonate deeply with her audience. The Korean market places a high value on authenticity and expertise, and PONY’s detailed, educational approach aligns well with these cultural expectations [ 32 ]. Additionally, South Korean influencers often collaborate closely with brands to develop and promote products specifically tailored to local preferences.

7.3 Globalization vs. localization in influencer marketing

The tension between globalization and localization in influencer marketing presents both challenges and opportunities for brands seeking to operate across diverse markets. Globalization involves leveraging universal themes and strategies that can be applied broadly across different regions. In contrast, localization focuses on tailoring content and strategies to fit the specific cultural, social, and economic contexts of each market. Global brands often adopt a hybrid approach, balancing global consistency with local relevance. For instance, global campaigns might feature universally appealing themes, such as empowerment or sustainability, while allowing for local adaptations in terms of language, imagery, and cultural references. This approach enables brands to maintain a cohesive global identity while resonating more deeply with local audiences.

Nike’s marketing strategy exemplifies this balance. The global sportswear giant often launches campaigns with universal themes, such as the “Just Do It” slogan, which emphasizes motivation and perseverance [ 36 ]. However, Nike also collaborates with local influencers and athletes to create region-specific content that reflects local cultures and values. For example, Nike’s campaigns in China feature local athletes and influencers, integrating traditional Chinese cultural elements and addressing region-specific social issues. On the other hand, some brands prioritize a more localized approach, particularly when entering new or culturally distinct markets. This strategy involves extensive market research to understand local consumer behavior, preferences, and cultural nuances. Brands then collaborate with local influencers who have a deep understanding of the market and can create content that resonates authentically with the audience [ 43 ]. A prime example of effective localization is Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy in India. Coca-Cola collaborates with local influencers and celebrities to create content that aligns with Indian cultural themes and festivities. The brand’s campaigns often feature popular Bollywood stars and incorporate traditional Indian music, dance, and festivals, creating a strong local connection while maintaining the brand’s global identity.

8. Challenges and critiques of influencer culture

The influencer marketing landscape has seen exponential growth over the past decade, leading to a saturation of influencers across various social media platforms. This saturation presents significant challenges for both influencers and brands as they vie for consumer attention in an increasingly crowded market [ 14 , 36 ]. The proliferation of influencers has led to a diluted impact, where the sheer volume of content makes it difficult for individual influencers to stand out and for brands to identify the most effective partners.

8.1 Saturation and the battle for attention

One of the primary consequences of market saturation is content fatigue among consumers. With an overwhelming amount of content being produced daily, users are bombarded with promotional messages, leading to desensitization and reduced engagement. This scenario forces influencers to continuously innovate and find unique ways to capture and maintain their audience’s attention. Creativity and originality become paramount as influencers strive to produce content that is not only engaging but also distinguishes them from the competition. Brands also face challenges in this saturated environment [ 32 ]. The abundance of influencers makes it difficult for brands to select the right partners who align with their values and can authentically promote their products. The need for thorough vetting processes, including evaluating an influencer’s engagement metrics, audience demographics, and content quality, becomes essential to ensure effective partnerships. Additionally, the return on investment (ROI) for influencer campaigns is harder to predict and measure due to the variability in influencers’ effectiveness. To combat these challenges, both influencers and brands must adopt more sophisticated strategies. Influencers need to focus on niche markets where they can build a dedicated and engaged audience rather than attempting to appeal to the masses. Specializing in specific content areas allows influencers to become authorities in their fields, thereby increasing their value to both their audience and potential brand partners.

8.2 The psychological impact of influencer culture on society

Influencer culture exerts a profound psychological impact on society, affecting individual self-esteem, societal norms, and consumer behavior [ 14 ]. The pervasive nature of social media allows influencers to shape public perceptions and aspirations, often setting unattainable standards of beauty, success, and lifestyle. One significant psychological effect is the phenomenon of social comparison. Constant exposure to idealized representations of life on social media can lead individuals to compare themselves unfavorably to influencers, resulting in feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. This is particularly concerning among younger audiences, who are more impressionable and likely to be influenced by what they see online. Studies have shown that excessive social media use correlates with increased anxiety, depression, and body dissatisfaction, highlighting the potential negative mental health implications of influencer culture. Moreover, the emphasis on materialism and consumerism propagated by many influencers can foster unrealistic expectations and pressure to conform to certain lifestyles [ 22 ]. Influencers often promote a facade of perfection, showcasing luxury goods, travel, and experiences that may not be accessible to the average person. This can create a sense of exclusion and inferiority among followers who cannot attain these standards, further exacerbating mental health issues.

8.3 Legal and regulatory challenges facing influencers and brands

The rapid growth of influencer marketing has outpaced the development of comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks, leading to a landscape fraught with challenges for both influencers and brands. These challenges revolve around transparency, disclosure, intellectual property, and advertising standards. Transparency and disclosure are paramount issues. Regulatory bodies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States mandate that influencers must clearly disclose when their content is sponsored [ 29 ]. This is intended to ensure that consumers are aware of the commercial intent behind the content they consume. However, compliance with these regulations is inconsistent, with many influencers either unaware of the requirements or deliberately obscuring their disclosures to maintain authenticity. The lack of clear, enforceable guidelines across different regions further complicates the issue, creating a patchwork of regulations that can be difficult to navigate for international brands and influencers. Intellectual property rights also present significant challenges. Influencers frequently use third-party content, such as music, images, and videos, in their posts. Without proper licensing, this practice can lead to legal disputes over copyright infringement. Brands and influencers must be diligent in ensuring that all content used in their campaigns complies with intellectual property laws to avoid costly litigation and damage to their reputations.

Advertising standards and the potential for deceptive practices are additional concerns. The rise of influencer marketing has prompted scrutiny over the authenticity and truthfulness of the claims made in sponsored content [ 16 ]. Influencers promoting products without adequate knowledge or experience can mislead consumers, resulting in negative consequences for both the influencer and the brand. Regulatory bodies are increasingly vigilant about enforcing advertising standards to protect consumers from deceptive practices, imposing fines and sanctions on those who violate these standards. Brands and influencers must navigate these legal and regulatory challenges by adopting robust compliance practices. This includes educating influencers about disclosure requirements, implementing clear contractual agreements that outline legal obligations, and conducting regular audits to ensure adherence to relevant laws and regulations. By prioritizing transparency, ethical practices, and legal compliance, brands and influencers can build trust with their audiences and avoid the pitfalls associated with regulatory breaches.

9. The future of influencer culture

The evolution of influencer culture continues to progress at a rapid pace, driven by emerging trends and technologies that shape its future trajectory. As the digital landscape evolves, new forms of influence and novel methods of engagement are expected to redefine the influencer industry [ 13 , 29 , 39 ]. This section explores key trends and predictions for the future of influencer culture, providing insight into its potential long-term impact on marketing and society.

9.1 Emerging trends and technologies

9.1.1 virtual influencers.

Virtual influencers, computer-generated characters that mimic human influencers, are becoming increasingly prevalent. These digital personas can engage with audiences, promote products, and participate in brand campaigns just like their human counterparts. Examples such as Lil Miquela and Shudu have demonstrated the potential of virtual influencers to captivate audiences and generate substantial engagement [ 45 ]. As technology advances, the sophistication and realism of virtual influencers are expected to improve, leading to wider adoption and more innovative uses.

9.1.2 The rise of niche influencers

Niche influencers, who cater to specific interests and subcultures, are gaining prominence. These influencers possess deep knowledge and passion for their particular niche, whether it be veganism, sustainable fashion, or vintage technology. Their highly targeted content resonates strongly with dedicated audiences, offering brands an opportunity to reach consumers with specific interests [ 46 ]. The rise of niche influencers represents a shift towards more personalized and specialized forms of influence, which can drive higher engagement and loyalty.

9.1.3 Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)

AR and VR technologies are transforming the influencers create and share content. AR filters and effects are already popular on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, enhancing the interactive experience for users. VR offers immersive experiences that can transport followers into virtual environments, making content more engaging and memorable [ 47 ]. These technologies enable influencers to create unique and innovative content, offering new ways for brands to connect with consumers.

9.1.4 Artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation

AI is playing an increasingly significant role in content creation and personalization. AI-driven tools can assist influencers in generating content ideas, editing videos, and analyzing audience data to optimize engagement [ 48 ]. AI can also help in creating personalized content experiences for followers, tailoring messages and recommendations based on individual preferences. The integration of AI in influencer marketing is expected to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, allowing influencers to produce high-quality content more consistently.

9.1.5 E-commerce integration

The integration of e-commerce features within social media platforms is streamlining the purchasing process for consumers. Features like Instagram Shopping, YouTube’s merch shelf, and TikTok’s shoppable ads enable influencers to directly sell products to their followers. This seamless integration of content and commerce simplifies the consumer journey, making it easier for followers to purchase endorsed products [ 49 ]. The trend towards social commerce is likely to grow, further blurring the lines between content consumption and online shopping.

9.2 Predictions for the future

9.2.1 increased regulation and transparency.

As influencer marketing matures, increased regulation and transparency are expected to become more prominent. Governments and regulatory bodies are likely to introduce stricter guidelines to ensure transparency in sponsored content and protect consumers from misleading advertisements. Influencers and brands will need to adapt to these regulations by clearly disclosing partnerships and adhering to ethical standards [ 42 ]. This shift towards greater accountability will help maintain trust and credibility in the influencer industry.

9.2.2 Diversification of influencer platforms

While platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok currently dominate the influencer landscape, diversification is anticipated as new platforms emerge. These new platforms may offer unique features or cater to specific audiences, providing influencers with additional avenues to reach and engage followers [ 50 ]. The diversification of influencer platforms will encourage innovation and competition, driving the development of more advanced and user-friendly tools for content creation and audience interaction.

9.2.3 Emphasis on authenticity and social responsibility

The demand for authenticity and social responsibility is expected to grow, with audiences seeking influencers who genuinely align with their values. Influencers who prioritize transparency, ethical practices, and social impact will likely gain more traction. This emphasis on authenticity will drive influencers to be more selective in their brand partnerships, ensuring that their endorsements reflect their true beliefs and values [ 51 ]. Brands will also need to align with these values to resonate with socially conscious consumers.

9.2.4 Expansion of influencer roles

The role of influencers is expected to expand beyond product promotion. Influencers are likely to take on more diverse roles, such as brand consultants, product developers, and social advocates. Their deep understanding of audience preferences and trends positions them as valuable partners for brands looking to innovate and connect with consumers on a deeper level [ 25 ]. This expansion of roles will elevate the status of influencers as integral players in the marketing ecosystem.

9.2.5 Long-term impact on marketing and society

The long-term impact of influencer culture on marketing and society will be profound. Influencer marketing will continue to evolve as a core strategy for brands, offering a powerful way to reach and engage with target audiences. The personalized and relatable nature of influencer content will drive higher levels of consumer trust and loyalty, challenging traditional advertising methods. In society, the influence of social media personalities will shape cultural norms, values, and behaviors. Influencers will play a key role in promoting social causes, driving positive change, and fostering a sense of community among their followers [ 44 ]. However, the ongoing challenge will be to balance commercial interests with authenticity and ethical considerations.

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The effect of social media influencers' on teenagers Behavior: an empirical study using cognitive map technique

Karima lajnef.

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This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.

The increase in the use of social media in recent years has enabled users to obtain vast amounts of information from different sources. Unprecedented technological developments are currently enabling social media influencers to build powerful interactivity with their followers. These interactions have, in one way or another, influenced young people's behaviors, attitudes, and choices. Thus, this study contributes to the psychological literature by proposing a new approach for constructing collective cognitive maps to explain the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on teenagers' behavior. More in depth, this work is an attempt to use cognitive methods to identify adolescents' mental models in the Tunisian context. The findings reveal that the influencers' distinctive features are interconnected. As a result, the influencer's distinctive features are confirmed in one way or another, to the teenagers' behavior. These findings provide important insights and recommendations for different users, including psychologists and academics.

Keywords: Social media influencers, Teenagers' behavior, Cognitive approach, Tunisia

Introduction

The number of social media users has increased rapidly in the last few years. According to the global ‘State of Digital’ report (2021), the number of social media users reached 4.20 billion, which represents 53% of the world’s total population. This number has risen by more than 13% compared to the last year (2020). In Tunisia, until January 2021 the number of social media users has increased to 8.20 million, which represents 69 percent of the total population, while 97%, are accessed via mobile phones. According to the ALEXA report ( 2021 ), Google.com, Facebook are the most used networks by Tunisian people. Most importantly, 18, 5% of Facebook users are under 13 years old.

In fact, the emphasis on social media has created a consensus among tech companies, leading to the creation of more platforms. Today, the diversity of such platforms has created a new horizon of social media in terms of usage and ideas.

Many people whose careers’ are largely reliant on social media are known as "influencers". More than a profession, for some people, it is even considered as a way of life. Influencers use social media every day to express their opinions and critiques on many topics (like lifestyle, health, beauty) and objects (e.g. brands, services, and products). Accordingly, one of the most important marketing strategies in the market is relying on influencers, which has known as influencer marketing (Audrezet et al., 2020 ; Boerman, 2020 ; Lou & Yuan, 2019 ). In 2017, influencer marketing was considered as the most widespread and trendiest’ communication strategy used by the companies. Therefore, influencers have been considered by many marketing experts as opinion leaders because of their important role in persuading and influencing their followers (De Veirman et al., 2017 ). According to the two-step flow of communication theory, the influencer, as a representative of an organization, is inviting to filter, decode and create messages to match with his particular follower base (Lazarsfeld et al., 1944 ). An influencer is a mediator between consumers and organizations. According to Tarsakoo and Charoensukmongkol ( 2019 ), social media marketing implementation capabilities have a positive effect on customer relationship sustainability. In line with the premise of observational learning theory, influence occurs when the consumers use precedent information and observations shared with them gradually to extend their decision-making by evolving their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, (Bandura & Adams, 1977 ). In fact, the consumers are sizeable social networks of followers. In their turn, consumers, especially youth and adolescents, consider influencers as a source of transparency, credibility, and source of personal information from what helps the offered brands to be enlarged through the large social media network (e.g. Jin and Phua, 2014).

Social media influencers play a greater role in controlling and influencing the behavior of the consumer especially young people and teenagers (e.g. Marwick, 2015 ; Sokolova & Kefi, 2020 ). Actually, the use of Smartphone's has become an integral part of the lives of both young people and adolescents. According to Anderson ( 2018 ), 95% of teenagers aged between 13 and 17 own a Smartphone. For young people, the pre-social media era has become something of a blur. This generation has known as Generation Z where its members were born between the nineties and the 2000s. What distinguishes this generation is its extensive use of the Internet at an early age. For them, the social media presents an important part of their social life and since then many thinkers set out to explore the effects of using social media platforms at an early age on adolescents' lives. The excessive use of social media may have an effect on teens' mental health. In fact, adolescence is the interval period between childhood and adulthood. A teenager is not a child to act arbitrarily and is not an adult to make critical decisions. Therefore, young people and teenagers have considered as the most sensitive class of consumers. Teenagers' brain creates many changes that make them more sensitive to the impressions of others, especially the view of their peers (e.g. Elkind, 1967 ; Dacey & Kenny, 1994 ; Arnett, 2000 ). Adolescents' mental changes cause many psychological and cognitive problems. According to Social identity theory, teens appreciate the positive reinforcement they get by being included in a group and dislike the feeling of social rejection (Tajfel, 1972 ). To reinforce their sense of belonging, teens are following influencers on social media (e.g., Loureiro & Sarmento, 2019 ). In line with psychological theories, the attachment theory helps to clarify interpersonal relationships between humans. This theory provides the framework to explain the relationship between adolescents and influencers. Several studies have confirmed that the distinctive feature of social media influencers, including relatedness, autonomy and competence affects the behavior, the psychological situation and the emotional side of the consumers (Deci & Ryan, 2000 ). Does the distinctive feature of social media influencers affect teens' behavior? This kind of questions have become among the most controversial ones (e.g. Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017 ). This problem is still inconclusive, even not addressed in some developing countries like Tunisia. Indeed, it is clear that there are considerable gaps in terms of the academic understanding of what characteristics of social media influencers and their effect on teen behaviors. This problem still arises because the lack of empirical works is investigating in this area.

Therefore, this study contributes to the literature by different ways. First, this paper presents a review of the social media influencers' distinctive features in Tunisian context. This is important because social influencers have been considered as credible and trustworthy sources of information (e.g. Sokolova & Kefi, 2020 ). On the others hand, this study identifies the motivations that teens have for following social influencers. MICS6 Survey (2020) shows a gradual increase in suicide rates among Tunisian children (0–19 years). According to the general delegate for child protection, the phenomenon is in part linked to the intensive use of online games. Understanding the main drivers of social media influence among young Tunisians can help professionals and families guide them. Empirically, this study provides the first investigation of teens’ mental models using the cognitive approach.

The rest of this paper is organized as the following: The second part presents thetheoretical background and research hypotheses. The third part introduces the research methodology. The forth part is reserved to application and results. In the last part, both the conclusion and recommendations are highlighted.

Theoretical background and research hypotheses

Social media influencers' distinctive features.

"Informational social influence" is a concept that has been used in literature by Deutsch & Gerard, 1955 ), and defined as the change in behavior or opinions that happened when people (consumers) are conformed to other people (influencers) because they believe that they have precise and true information (e.g. Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017 , Alotaibi et al., 2019 ). According to (Chahal, 2016 ), there are two kinds of "influencers". The classic ones are the scientists, reporters, lawyers, and all others examples of people who have expert-level knowledge and the new ones are the Social media influencers. Accordingly, social media influencers have many followers that trust them especially on the topics related to their domain of knowledge (e.g. Moore et al., 2018 ). According to the Psychology of Influence perspective, people, often, do not realize that they are influenced because the effect occurs mainly in their subconscious (Pligt & Vliek, 2016 ). When influencers advocate an idea, a service, or a product, they can make a psychological conformity effect on followers through their distinctive features (Colliander, 2019 ; Jahoda, 1959 ).

Vollenbroek et al. ( 2014 ) investigated a study about social media influencers and the impact of these actors on the corporate reputation. To create their model, the authors use the Delphi method. The experts have exposed to a questionnaire that included the characteristics of influential actors, interactions, and networks. The first round of research indicates that a bulk of experts has highlighted the importance of intrinsic characteristics of influencers such as knowledge, commitment, and trust etcetera. While others believe that, the size of the network or the reach of a message determines the influence. The results of the second round indicate that the most agreed-upon distinctive characteristics to be a great influencer are being an active mind, being credible, having expertise, being authoritative, being a trendsetter, and having a substantive influence in discussions and conversations. According to previous literature, among the characteristics that distinguish the influencers is the ability to be creative, original, and unique. Recently, Casaló et al. ( 2020 ) indicated that originality and uniqueness positively influence opinion leadership on Instagram. For the rest of this section, we are going to base on the last two studies to draw on the most important distinctive features of social media influencers.

Credibility (expertise and trustworthiness)

According to Lou and Yuan ( 2019 ), one of the most distinctive characteristics that attract the audience is the influencer's credibility specifically the expertise and trustworthiness. In fact, source credibility is a good way of persuasion because it has related to many conceptualizations. Following Hovland et al. ( 1953 ), credibility has subdivided into expertise and trustworthiness. The expertise has reflected the knowledge and competence of the source (influencer) in a specific area (Ki & Kim, 2019 ; McCroskey, 1966 ). While trustworthiness is represented in influencer honesty and sincerity (Giffin, 1967 ). Such characteristics help the source (influencer) to be more convincing. According to the source credibility theory, consumers (social media audience) give more importance to the source of information to take advantage of the expertise and knowledge of influencers (e.g. Ohanian, 1990 ; Teng et al., 2014 ). Spry et al., ( 2011 ) pointed out that a trusted influencer's positive perception of a product and/or service positively affects consumers' attitudes towards recommended brandsHowever, if the product does not meet the required specifications, consumers lose trust in the product and the influencer (Cheung et al., 2009 ). Based on source credibility theory, this work tested one of the research goals: the effect of expertise and credibility on adolescent behavior.

Originality and creativity

Originality in social media represents the ability of an influencer to provide periodically new and differentiate content that attracts the attention of the audience. The content has perceived as innovative, sophisticated, and unusual. Social media influencers look for creating an authentic image in order to construct their own online identity. Marwick ( 2013 ) defined authenticity as "the way in which individuals distinguish themselves, not only from each other but from other types of media". Most of the time, an authentic and different content attracts attention, and sometimes the unusual topics make surprising (Derbaix & Vanhamme, 2003 ). According to Khamis et al. ( 2017 ), social media influencers attract the consumers' attention by posting authentic content. In fact, the audience often appreciates the originality and the creativity of the ideas (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017 ).The originality of the content posted by an influencer has considered as a way to resonate with their public (Hashoff, 2017 ). When a company seeks to promote its products and services through social media, it is looking for an influential representative who excels at presenting original and different content. The brand needs to be presented by credible and believable influencers that create authentic content (Sireni, 2020 ). One of the aims of this work is to identify the effect of the authentic content on teen’s behaviors.

Trendsetter and uniqueness

According to Maslach et al. ( 1985 ), uniqueness is the case in which the individual feels distinguished compared to others. Tian et al. ( 2001 ) admitted that individuals attempt to be radically different from others to enhance their selves and social images. The uniqueness in content represents the ability of the influencer to provide an uncirculated content specific to him. Gentina et al. ( 2014 ) proved that male adolescents take into account the uniqueness of the content when they evaluated the influencer role particularly in evaluating the role of an opinion leader. Casaló et al. ( 2020 ) indicated that uniqueness positively influences the leadership opinion. Thus, the uniqueness of influencers’ contents may affect audiences’ attitude. Therefore, we aim to test the effect of the influencers’ contents uniqueness and trendsetter on teenagers’ behaviors.

Persuasion has a substantive influence in discussions and conversations. According to the Psychology of Persuasion, the psychological tactic that revolves around harnessing the principles of persuasion supports in one way or another the influencer’s marketing. The objective is to persuade people to make purchase decisions. Persuasion aims commonly to change others attitudes and behavior in a context of relative freedom (e.g. Perloff, 2008 ; Crano & Prislin, 2011 ; Shen & Bigsb, 2013 ). According to Scheer and Stern ( 1992 ), the dynamic effect of marketing occurs when an influencer persuades consumers to participate in a specific business. Influencers' goal is to convince the audiences of their own ideas, products, or services. There are six principles of persuasion, which are consensus, consistency, scarcity, reciprocity, authority, and liking. Thus, among the objectives of this study is to set the effect of influencers' persuasion on teens' behavior.

To sum up, our hypothesis is as the following:

H1: Social media influencers' distinctive features affect teenagers’ behavior.

Social media influencers' and teenagers’ behavior

Young people and adolescents are increasingly using social media, consequently, they receive a lot of information from different sources that may influence in one way or another their behavior and decisions. Accordingly, the Digital report (2021) (published in partnership with Hootsuite and we Are Social) indicated that connected technologies became an integral part of people's lives, and it has seen great development in the last twelve months especially with regard to social media, e-commerce, video games, and streaming content. According to the statistics raised in the global State of Digital (2021), the number of social media users has increased by 490 million users around the world compared to last year to attain 4.20 billion. In Tunisia, until January 2021 the number of social media users has increased to attain 8.20 million, which represents 69 percent of the total population while 97% accessing via mobile phone. According to the ALEXA report ( 2021 ), Google.com, Facebook and YouTube are the networks most used by Tunisian people. In addition, 18, 5% of Facebook users are under 13 years old.The use of social media by young people has recently increased, which led us to ask about the influence of such an alternative on their psychological and mental conditions, their identity formation, and their self-estimation. One of this study aims is also to answer the question: why teens follow Social media influencers?

Identity formation

Identity formation relates to the complex way in which human beings institute a continued unique view of the self (Erikson, 1950 ). Consequently, this concept has largely attached to terms like self-concept, personality development, and value. Identity, in a simplified way, is an aggregation of the “self-concept, who we are” and “self-awareness” (Aronson et al., 2005 ). In line with communication theory, Scott ( 1987 ) indicated that interpersonal connection is a key factor in identity formation. Most importantly, the individual's identity formation is the cornerstone of building a personality. A stream of research indicates that consumers accept influence from others they identify with and refuse influence when they desire to disconnect (Berger & Heath, 2007 ; White & Dahl, 2006 ).

Adolescence is a transitional stage in individuals' lives that represents the interval between childhood and adulthood (e.g. Hogan & Astone, 1986 ; Sawyer et al., 2018 ). From here begins teens' psychological conflicts that call into question-related to themselves and about their role in society (e.g. Hill et al., 2018 ). In fact, teens go through many experiences because of the physical and psychological changes during the self-establishment phase, which influences not only their identity formation but also their own personality. At this stage, radical changes occur in their lives, which may affect the course of their future life. The family (precisely parents' behaviors) represents the first influencer on their kids' view of themselves, but this is not the main side. In the era of globalization and technological development, social media has become an important role in shaping the identity of adolescents (see Gajaria et al., 2011 ). In the adolescent stage, individuals start to use the flood of information received from various sources (especially from social media) to find out a sense of self and personal identity. Davis ( 2013 ) affirmed that students who communicated online with their peers express better visibility of self-concept. In its turn, self-concept visibility has related to friendship quality. According to Arnett and Hughes ( 2014 ), identity formation is the result of "thinking about the type of person you want to be” (p. 340). Due to the intense appearance of social media in the lives of teenagers, identity formation is highly affected by social media influencers' personalities. Kunkel et al. ( 2004 ) affirmed that targeted advertisements in social media affect the identity molding of teens by encouraging them to espouse new habits of appearance and consumption. Identification is easier when there is a previous model to mimic.

This work aims to explore the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on the healthy identity development of teens.

Mimetic bias

Investigating mimicry in the psychological literature is not a recent subject. Kendon ( 1970 ) and LaFrance ( 1982 ) were the first researchers that introduce the mimicry concept in literature. Nevertheless, exploring mimicry effect on peoples’ behavior presents a new area of research. Many researchers like Chartrand and Dalton ( 2009 ) and Stel & Vonk ( 2010 ) presented mimicry as the interaction of an individual with others through observing and mirroring their behaviors, attitudes, expressions, and postures. Chartrand and Dalton ( 2009 ) indicated that social surroundings are easily contagious and confirmed the high ability of individuals to mimic what they see in their social environment. Individuals resort to mimicry to fulfill their desire to belong to a group and be active members of society. Therefore, Lakin et al. ( 2003 ) affirmed that mimicry could be used to enhance social links with others. Such behavior aims to bring people closer to each other and create intimacy. White and Argo ( 2011 ) classified mimicry as conscious and unconscious. According to the Neuroscience literature, unconscious mimicry occurs due to the activation of individual mirror neurons that lead to mimic others (e.g. Hatfield et al., 1994 ). Thus, mimickers “automatically” imitate others in many situations like facial expressions (e.g., smiling), behavioral expressions (e.g., laughing), and postural expressions (e.g., hand positioning) (Meltzoff & Moore, 1983 ; LaFrance & Broadbent, 1976 ; Simner, 1971 ). On the other hand, a recent stream of research has advocated conscious mimicry (White & Argo, 2011 ; Ruvio et al., 2013 ). Ruvio et al. ( 2013 ) have presented the "Consumer’s Doppelganger Effect" theory. According to the authors, when consumers have the intention to look like their role models, they imitate them.

One of the paradoxical challenges in the adolescence period is the teens' simultaneous need for "mimic" and "differentiation ".Among the most common questions asked between adolescents is "Who we are?”. The identification of themselves based commonly on a comparison between them and members of the group to which they aim to belong. The feeling of being normal is an obsession that haunts the majority of teenagers. Their sense of being within the norm and not being alienated or disagreed with others prompts teenagers to do anything even if this poses a danger to them just to be accepted by others. Today, with the development of social media, family, peers and friends are no longer the only influencers that teens mimic, but this environment has expanded to include social media influencers. Teens give more attention to their online image and mimic social media influencers to achieve a sense of belonging. According to Cabourg and Manenti ( 2017 ), the content shared by adolescents with each other about their lives on their own social networks helps them understand and discover each other, and create their identity away from their parents. This phenomenon turns into a problem when adolescents mimic each other only not to be excluded or rejected, even if these actions do not represent them.

Another important aim of this study is to explore the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on teen’s mimicry behavior.

Confirmation bias

Cabourg and Manenti ( 2017 ) pointed out that it is a necessity for a teenager to be a part of a peer group. Belonging to the group for a teenager reinforces his/her sense of existence away from family restrictions. As we have mentioned before and in line with Hernandez et al. ( 2014 ), teens need to create peer relationships, whether to contribute positively or negatively to their psychosocial side and undoubtedly play a crucial role in the development of identity. Araman and Brambilla ( 2016 ) argued that: "Teenage is an important stage in life, full of physical and psychological transformation, awakening in love and professional concerns. Identifying yourself with a group makes you feel stronger, to say that you exist, and even to distinguish yourself from society”. The development of social media platforms promotes the desire of teens to a group belonging. Social media platforms, such as tick-tock, Facebook, and Instagram, motivate their users to interact with likes and comments on others people’s posts. In fact, according to Davis ( 2012 ), casual communication between teens through social networking using text and instant messages enhances their sense of belonging. Furthermore, the author indicates that social media helps teens to compare their ideas and experiences with their peers, which support their sense of belonging. According to Zeng et al. ( 2017 ), social media interactions aim to create strong social bonds and raise emotional belonging to a community. Confirmation bias occurs when an individual cannot think and create outside the herd. Equally important, due to the confirmation bias, teens cannot identify themselves, except by flying inside the swarm. Teens may identify themselves as fans of a famous influencer just to feel the sense of belonging. This work tests the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on teens’ sense of belonging.

Self-esteem

Psychological literature defines Self-esteem as the individual’s evaluation of himself or herself that can be positive or negative (Smith et al., 2014 ). Coopersmith ( 1965 ) affirmed that the self-esteem is the extent to which an individual views his self as competent and worthwhile. A stream of past works highlighted the effects of social media on self-esteem (Błachnio et al., 2016 ; Denti et al., 2012 ; Gonzales & Hancock, 2011 ). The majority of them found that audiences with low self-esteem use more social networks’ to reinforce their self-esteem. Due to technological developments, social media networks offer a self-comparison between users. According to Festinger ( 1954 ), social media users focus more on self-evaluations by making social comparisons with others concerning many issues like beauty, popularity, social classes or roles, wealth accumulation, etc. Social comparison is a part of building a teen's personal identity (Weinstein, 2017 ). Among adolescents, there are two types of comparisons on social media, which are upward comparison, and downward comparison (Steers et al., 2014 ). The first one has related to weakened levels of self-esteem and high depressive symptoms. The second one is characterized by expanding levels of self-esteem and low levels of anxiety (Burrow & Rainone, 2017 ). According to Wright et al. ( 2018 ), self-presentation on social media is related to the extent to which others accept and the determined level of belonging that based on the number of likes and comments.

This study aims to test the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on teens’ self-esteem.

Digital distraction

Social media has taken over most of the spare time. It has displaced the time spent on other activities like reading, watching TV, make sports etc.… (Twenge et al., 2019 ). Consequently, the phenomenon of digital distraction has widely spread, especially with the rise of smartphones use. The results of a study established by Luna ( 2018 ) indicated that the use of smartphones during a meal leads to minimize the levels of connectedness and enjoyment and increase the levels of distraction comparing to those who set devices off. Martiz ( 2015 ) found that students with Internet addiction often feel lonely and depressed. Recently, Emerick et al. ( 2019 ) affirmed that the students themselves agree that spending a lot of time using social media leads to distraction. Many studies have proven that most teens spend a lot of time online (e.g., Anderson & Jiang, 2018 ; Twenge et al., 2018 ). Thus, they are the most vulnerable to digital distraction. We believe that whenever distinctive features of influencers are good, the most important impact they have on young people, leads to distraction.

At this level, our second hypothesis is as the following:

H2. The behavior and cognitive biases of teens are affected by social media influence.

Research methods

The cognitive maps.

The cognitive map is relatively an old technique (Huff, 1990 ). However, the use of cognitive maps in scientific research has increased in recent years. According to Axelrod ( 1976 ), a cognitive map is a mathematical model that reflects a belief system of a person. In another words, a cognitive map is a representation of causal assertion way of a person on a limited area. At the beginning of the 1970s, it was intellectually popular amongst behavioral geographers to investigate the significance of cognitive maps, and their impacts on people’s spatial behavior. A cognitive map is a type of mental representation, which serves an individual to acquire, store, recall, code, and decode information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in their everyday or metaphorical spatial environment. It is usually defined as the graphical representation of a person belief about a particular field. A map is not a scientific model based on objective reality, but a graphical representation of an individual's specific beliefs and ideas about complex local situations and issues. It is relatively easy for humans to look at maps (cognitive maps in our case) and understand connections, between different concepts. Cognitive maps can therefore also be thought of as graphs. Graphs can be used to represent many interesting things about our world. It can also be used to solve various problems. According to Bueno & Salmeron ( 2009 ), Cognitive Maps are a powerful technique that helps to study human cognitive phenomena and specific topics in the world. This study uses cognitive maps as a tool to investigate the mental schema of teenagers in Tunisian Scouts. In fact, cognitive mapping helps to explore the impact of social media on teenage behavior in the Tunisian context. In other words, we focus on the effect of influencers' distinctive features on teen behavior.

Data collection and sample selection

The aim of this work is to explore the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on teenagers' behavior in Tunisian context. On the other hand, this work investigates if the psychological health of teens is affected by social media influence. To analyze mentally processing multifactor-interdependencies by the human mind or a scenario with highly complex problems, we need more complex analysis methods like the cognitive map technique.

The questionnaire is one of the appropriate methods used to construct a collective cognitive map (Özesmi & Özesmi, 2004 ). Following Eden and Ackermann ( 1998 ), this study uses face-to-face interviews because it is the most flexible method for data collection and it is the appropriate way to minimize the questionnaire mistiness. The questionnaire contains two parts: the first part is reserved to identify the interviewees. The second part provides the list of concepts for each approach via cross-matrix. The questionnaire takes the form of an adjacency matrix (see Table 1 ). The data collection technique appropriate to build a cognitive map is the adjacent matrix. The adjacency matrix of a graph is an (n × n) matrix:

The adjacency matrix

The variables used in the matrix can be pre-defined (by the interviewer using the previous literature) or it can be identified in the interview by the interviewees. This paper uses the first method to restrict the large number of variables related to both influencers’ distinctive features and teenagers' behavioral biases (see Table 2 ). This work identified two types of social media influencers that are Facebook bloggers and Instagrammers for two reasons. Facebook is the most coveted social network for Tunisians. It has more than 6.9 million active users in 2020 or 75% of the population (+ 13 years) of which 44.9% were female users and 55.1% male. On the other hand, Instagram is the second popular social media platform. It has more than 1.9 million, namely 21% of the Tunisian population (+ 13 years).

Variables definition

In this work, we deal with (10 × 10) adjacency matrix.

Experts (psychologists, academics, etc.) often analyze the relationships between social media and young people’s behavior. The contribution of this work is that we rely on the adolescents' point of view in order to test this problem using the cognitive maps method. To our knowledge, no similar research has been done before.

This work is in parallel to the framework of the Tunisian State project "Strengthening the partnership between the university and the economic and social environment". It aims to merge the scientific track with the association work. We have organized an intellectual symposium in conjunction with the Citizen Journalism Club of youth home and the Mohamed-Jlaiel Scouts Group of Mahres entitled "Social Influencers and Their Role in Changing Youth Behaviors”.This conference took place on April 3, 2021, in the hall of the municipality, under the supervision of an inspector of youth and childhood”. In fact, Scouts is a voluntary educational movement that aims to contribute to the development of young people to reach the full benefit of their physical and social capabilities to make them responsible individuals. Scouts offer children and adolescents an educational space complementary to that of the family and the school. The association emphasizes community life, taking responsibility, and learning resourcefulness.Scouting contributes to enhancing the individual's self-confidence and sense of belonging and keeps them away from digital distraction. Therefore, our sample has based on a questionnaire answered by young people belonging to the Tunisian Scoutsaged between 14 and 17 and, who belong to the Mohamed-Jlaiel Scouts Group of Mahres. In fact, scouting strengthens the willpower of young people and allows them to expand their possibilities for self-discipline. In addition, Scout youth are integrated into the community and spend more time in physical and mental activities than their peers who spend most of their free time on social media. Unfortunately, because of the epidemiological situation that Tunisia experienced during this period due to the spread of the Coronavirus, we could not summon more than 35 people, and the first sample was limited only to 25 young people. Thus, a second study with another data collection is needed. Over two successive months (November and December 2021), we make a few small workshops (due to the pandemic situation) with scouts’ young people. The second sample contains 38 teens. Therefore, our total data hold 63young people (26 female and 37 male). It should be noted that the surveys were carried out after parental consent.

We start our interviews with presenting the pros and cons of social mediaand its effect on audiences’ behavior. After forming an idea with the topic, we asked young people to answer the questionnaire presented to them after we defined and explained all the variables. We have directly supervised the questionnaire. Teens are invited to fulfill the questionnaire (in the form of a matrix) using four possibilities:

If variable i has no influence on variable j, the index (i, j) takes a value of zero

1 if variable I has a weak influence on variable j.

2 if variable I has a strong influence on variable j.

3 if variable I has a very strong influence on variable j.

To sumup, the final data contains 63 individual matrices. The aim of the questionnaire is then to build the perception maps (Lajnef et al., 2017 ).

Collective cognitive map method

This work is of qualitative investigation. The research instrument used in this study is the cognitive approach. This work aims to create a collective cognitive map using an interviewing process. Young peopleare invited to fill the adjacencymatrices by giving their opinion about the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on teenagers' behavior. To draw up an overall view, individual maps (creating based on adjacency matrices) aggregated to create a collective cognitive map. Since individual maps denote individual thinking, collective map is used to understand the group thinking. The aggregation map aimed to show the point of similarities and differences between individuals (Lajnef et al., 2017 ). The cognitive map has formed essentially by two elements: concepts (variables) and links (relations between variables). The importance of a concept is mainly related to its link with other variables.

This technique helps to better understand the individual and collective cognitive universe. A cognitive map became a mathematical model that reflects a belief system of individuals since the pioneering work of Tolman ( 1948 ). Axelrod ( 1976 ) investigated the political and economic field and considered "cognitive maps" as graphs, reflecting a mental model to predict, understand and improve people's decisions. Recently, Garoui & Jarboui ( 2012 ) have defined the cognitive map as a tool aimed to view certain ideas and beliefs of an individual in a complex area. This work aims to explore a collective cognitive map to set the complex relationships between teenagers and social media influencers. For this reason, we investigate the effect of social media influencers' distinctive features on teenagers' behavior using an aggregated cognitive map.

Results and discussion

In this study, we report all measures, manipulations and exclusions.

Structural analysis and collective cognitive map

This paper uses the structural analysis method to test the relationship between the concepts and to construct a collective cognitive map. According to Godet et al. ( 2008 ), the structural analysis is “A systematic, matrix form, analysis of relations between the constituent variables of the studied system and those of its explanatory environment”. The structural analysis purpose is aimed to distinguish the key factors that identify the evolution of the system based on a matrix that determines the relationships among them (Villacorta et al., 2012 ). To deal with our problem, Micmac software allows us to treat the collected information in the form of plans and graphs in order to configure the mental representation of interviewees.

The influence × dependence chart

This work uses the factor analysis of the influence-dependence chart in which factors have categorized due to their clustered position. The influence × dependence plan depends on four categories of factors, which are the determinants variables, the result variables the relay variables, and the excluded variables. The chart has formed by four zones presented as the following (Fig.  1 ):

Influence-dependence chart, according to MICMAC method

Zone 1: Influent or determinant variables

Influent variables are located in the top left of the chart. According to Arcade et al. ( 1999 ) this category of variables represents a high influence and low dependence. These kinds of variables play and affect the dynamics of the whole system, depending on how much we can control them as key factors. The obtained results identify uniqueness, trustworthiness, and Mimetic as determinant variables. The ability of influencers’ is to provide personalized and unique content that influence Tunisian teens’ behavior. This finding is in line with Casaló et al. ( 2020 ) work. On the other hand, the results indicate that teens mimic social media influencers to feel their belonging. Such an act allows them to discover each other, and create their identity away from their parents (Cabourg & Manenti, 2017 ). The most Influential variable of the system is trustworthiness.The more trustworthiness influencers via social media are, the higher their influence on young people will be. This finding is conformed to previous studies (Giffin, 1967 ; Spry et al., 2011 ).

Zone 2: Relay variables

The intermediate or relay variables are situated at the top right of the chart. These concepts have characterized by high influence and sensitivity. They are also named “stake factors” because they are unstable. Relay variables influence the system depending on the other variables. Any effect of these factors will influence themselves and other external factors to adjust the system. In this study, most of influencers' distinctive features (persuasion, originality, and expertise) play the role of relay variables. The results indicate that the influence of persuasion affects young people's convictions, depending on other variables. The results are in line with previous studies (e.g. Perloff, 2008 ; Shen et al., 2013 ). Furthermore, the findings indicate that the more expertise social media influencers' are, the higher their influence on young people will be. The study of Ki and Kim ( 2019 ) supported our findings. Additionally, the originality of the content presented on social media attracts the audience more than the standard content. The results are in line with those of Khamis et al., ( 2017 ) and Djafarova & Rushworth ( 2017 ).

Based on the results of zone 1 and zone 2, we can sum up that Social media influencers' distinctive features tested on this work affect teenagers’ behavior. Therefore, H1 is accepted.

Zone 3: Excluded or autonomous variables

The excluded variables are positioned in the bottom left of the chart. This category of variables is characterized by a low level of influence and dependence. Such variables have no impact on the overall dynamic changes of the system because their distribution is very close to the origin. This work did not obtain this class of variables.

Zone 4: Dependent variables

The dependent variables are located at the bottom right of the chart. These variables have characterized by a low degree of influence and a high degree of dependence. These variables are less influential and highly sensitive to the rest of variables (influential and relay variables). According to our results, the dependent variables are those related to teens' behavior and cognitive biases. Social media influencers affect the identity development of teens. These findings are in line with those of Kunkel et al. ( 2004 ).The results show also that young people often identify themselves as fans of a famous influencer just to feel the belonging. These results are in line with previous studies like those of Davis ( 2012 ) and Zeng et al. ( 2017 ). Furthermore, the findings indicate that young people use more social networks’ to reinforce their self-esteem.The results confirm with those of Denti et al. ( 2012 ) and Błachnio et al. ( 2016 ).Influencers via social media play a role in digital distraction. Thus, the result found by Emerick et al. ( 2019 ) supports our findings.

Based on the results of zone 3, we can sum up that the behavior and cognitive biases of teens are affected by social media influencers. Therefore, H2 is accepted.

Collective cognitive maps

During this study, we have gathered the individuals’ matrices to create a collective cognitive mind map. The direct influence graph (Figs.  2 and 3 ) present many interesting findings. First, the high experience of influencers via social media enhances the production of original content. Furthermore, the more expertise the influencers' are, the higher their degree of persuasion on young people will be. As similar to this work, Kirmani et al. ( 2004 ) found that the influencers' experience with persuasion emerges as factors that affect customers. Beside the experience, the more an influencer provides unique and uncirculated content specific to him, the higher the originality of the content will be. Previous studies hypothesized that unique ideas are the most stringent method for producing original ideas (e.g., Wallach & Kogan,  1965 ; Wallach & Wing, 1969 ).Generally; influencers that produce different contents have a great popularity because they produce new trends. Therefore, our results indicate that young people want to be one of their fans just to feel their belonging. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the originality of content can be a source of digital distraction. Teenagers spend a lot of time on social media to keep up with new trends (e.g. Chassiakos & Stager, 2020 ).

The collective cognitive maps (25% of links)

The collective cognitive map (100% of links)

The influencers' experience and their degree of trustworthiness, besides the originality of the content, enhance their abilities to persuade adolescents. During adolescence, young people look for a model to follow. According to our results, it can be a social media influencer with a great ability to persuade.

In recent years, the increasing use of social media has enabled users to obtain a large amount of information from different sources. This evolution has affected in one way or another audience's behavior, attitudes, and decisions, especially the young people. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature in many ways. On the first hand, this paper presents the most distinctive features of social media influencers' and tests their effect on teenagers' behavior using a non-clinical sample of young Tunisians. On the other hand, this paper identifies teens' motivations for following social media influencers. This study exercises a new methodology. In fact, it uses the cognitive approach based on structural analysis. According to Benjumea-Arias et al. ( 2016 ), the aim of structural analysis is to determine the key factors of a system by identifying their dependency or influence, thus playing a role in decreasing system complexity. The present study successfully provides a collective cognitive map for a sample of Tunisian young people. This map helps to understand the impact of Facebook bloggers and Instagrammers on Tunisian teen behavior.

This study presents many important findings. First, the results find that influencers' distinctive features tested on this work affect teenagers’ behavior. In fact, influencers with a high level of honesty and sincerity prove trustworthiness among teens. This result is in line with those of Giffin ( 1967 ). Furthermore, the influencer’s ability to provide original and unique content affects the behavior of teens. These findings confirm those of Casaló et al. ( 2020 ). In addition, the ability to influence is related with the ability to persuade and expertise.

The findings related to the direct influence graph reveal that the influencers' distinctive features are interconnected. The experience, the degree of trustworthiness, and the originality of the submitted content influence the ability of an influencer to persuade among adolescents. In return, the high degree of persuasion impresses the behavior, attitudes, and decisions of teens with influences in their identity formation. The high experience and uniqueness help the influencer to make content that is more original. Young people spend more time watching original content (e.g. Chassiakos & Stager, 2020 ). Thus, the originality of content can be a source of digital distraction.

The rise in psychological problems among adolescents in Tunisia carries troubling risks. According to MICS6 Survey (2020), 18.7% of children aged 15–17 years suffer from anxiety, and 5.2% are depressed. The incidence of suicide among children (0–19 years old) was 2.07 cases per 100,000 in 2016, against 1.4 per 100,000 in 2015. Most child suicides concern 15–19-year-olds. They are in part linked to intensive use of online games, according to the general delegate of child protection. However, scientific studies rarely test the link between social media use and psychological disorders for young people in the Tunisian context. In fact, our result emphasized the important role of influencers' distinctive features and their effect on teens' behavior.

Thus, it is necessary and critical to go deeper into those factors that influence the psychological health of teens. We promote researchers to explore further this topic. They can uncover ways to help teens avoid various psychological and cognitive problems, or at least realize them and know the danger they can cause to themselves and others.

These results have many implications for different actors like researchers and experts who were interested in the psychological field.

This work suffers from some methodological and contextual limitations that call recommendations for future research. Fist, the sample size used is relatively small because of the epidemiological situation that Tunisia experienced at the time of completing this work. On the other hand, this work was limited only to study the direct relationship between variables. Therefore, we suggest expanding the questionnaire circle. We can develop this research by interviewing specialists in the psychological field. From an empirical point of view, we can go deeper into this topic by testing the indirect relationship among variables.

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