IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zag/market/v32y2020isip67-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increasing Consumer Engagement on Social Networks: Social Media Influencer’s Followers ‘Like’ to See a Face in a Post

Author

Listed:
  • Matia Torbarina

    (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business)

  • Lara Jelenc

    (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business)

  • Ivana Brkljačić

    (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business)

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the study was to test whether Instagram influencers can affect followers’ engagement using a simple modification to an Instagram post content. Design/Methodology/Approach – The study focused on the posts sampled from Croatian Instagram SMIs with more than ten thousand followers. Ten posts from each SMI were analysed for both low engagement, i.e. the number of likes, and high engagement, i.e. the number of comments, along with information on whether a face and other features of an SMI features were shown in a post. Findings and implications – Human face in a post increases engagement, but only the lower type (i.e. the number of likes a post receives), even when the effect of the number of followers is statistically controlled for. A higher type of engagement (i.e. the number of comments) is not affected by the presence of a face in a post. Limitations – A lack of formal operationalization of SMIs leads to a more conservative sample of only those SMIs with more than ten thousand followers. The content of the posts preceding the analysed post, which could have influenced the followers’ behaviour, could not be measured due to the study design. Originality – Although previous research has shown that a face in an Instagram post leads to more likes and comments among friends, the relationship between SMIs and their followers lacks the exact reciprocity of like-for-like. Given that the followers’ gains are not straightforward in this kind of relationship, the finding that a face shown in a post can affect engagement is worth scientific attention.

Suggested Citation

  • Matia Torbarina & Lara Jelenc & Ivana Brkljačić, 2020. "Increasing Consumer Engagement on Social Networks: Social Media Influencer’s Followers ‘Like’ to See a Face in a Post," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 32(SI), pages 67-81.
    • Handle: RePEc:zag:market:v:32:y:2020:i:si:p:67-81
    DOI: 10.22598/mt/2020.32.spec-issue.67
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.22598/mt/2020.32.spec-issue.67
    Download Restriction: None
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22598/mt/2020.32.spec-issue.67?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pramono Hari Adi & Faizal Wihuda & Wiwiek Rabiatul Adawiyah, 2017. "The Role of Social Media Browsing Intention for Behavioral Outcomes of Young Consumers," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 29(1), pages 39-57.
    2. Rajagopal, 2014. "The Human Factors," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 9, pages 225-249, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Li Xiao & Min Ding, 2014. "Just the Faces: Exploring the Effects of Facial Features in Print Advertising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 338-352, May.
    4. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    5. Harrigan, Paul & Evers, Uwana & Miles, Morgan P. & Daly, Tim, 2018. "Customer engagement and the relationship between involvement, engagement, self-brand connection and brand usage intent," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 388-396.
    6. Arora, Anuja & Bansal, Shivam & Kandpal, Chandrashekhar & Aswani, Reema & Dwivedi, Yogesh, 2019. "Measuring social media influencer index- insights from facebook, Twitter and Instagram," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 86-101.
    7. Godey, Bruno & Manthiou, Aikaterini & Pederzoli, Daniele & Rokka, Joonas & Aiello, Gaetano & Donvito, Raffaele & Singh, Rahul, 2016. "Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5833-5841.
    8. Bruno Godey & Aikaterini Manthiou & Daniele Pederzoli & Joonas Rokka & Gaetano Aiello & Raffaele Donvito & Rahul Singh, 2016. "Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands : Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior," Post-Print hal-02313434, HAL.
    9. Zaichkowsky, Judith Lynne, 1985. "Measuring the Involvement Construct," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(3), pages 341-352, December.
    10. Safaa Adil & Sophie Lacoste-Badie & Olivier Droulers, 2018. "Face Presence and Gaze Direction In Print Advertisements," Post-Print halshs-01910205, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sharma, Manisha & Banerjee, Subhojit & Paul, Justin, 2022. "Role of social media on mobile banking adoption among consumers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Khoirina Kencana Ningrum & Ratna Roostika, 2021. "The influence of social media marketing activities on consumer engagement and brand knowledge in the culinary business in Indonesia," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(5), pages 34-45, July.
    3. Algharabat, Raed & Rana, Nripendra P. & Alalwan, Ali Abdallah & Baabdullah, Abdullah & Gupta, Ashish, 2020. "Investigating the antecedents of customer brand engagement and consumer-based brand equity in social media," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    4. Kumar, Vikas & Kaushik, Arun K., 2022. "Engaging customers through brand authenticity perceptions: The moderating role of self-congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 26-37.
    5. Bazi, Saleh & Filieri, Raffaele & Gorton, Matthew, 2020. "Customers’ motivation to engage with luxury brands on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 223-235.
    6. Nadeem, Waqar & Alimamy, Saifeddin & Ashraf, Abdul Rehman, 2023. "Navigating through difficult times with ethical marketing: Assessing consumers' willingness-to-pay in the sharing economy," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Banik, Shanta, 2021. "Exploring the involvement-patronage link in the phygital retail experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Faseeh Amin & Mohammad Furqan Khan, 2021. "Online Reputation and Stress: Discovering the Dark Side of Social Media," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 10(2), pages 181-192, June.
    9. Jascha-Alexander Koch & Michael Siering, 2019. "The recipe of successful crowdfunding campaigns," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(4), pages 661-679, December.
    10. Cho, Daegon & Hwang, Youngdeok & Park, Jongwon, 2018. "More buzz, more vibes: Impact of social media on concert distribution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 103-113.
    11. Bag, Sujoy & Tiwari, Manoj Kumar & Chan, Felix T.S., 2019. "Predicting the consumer's purchase intention of durable goods: An attribute-level analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 408-419.
    12. Zhang, Chu-Bing & Zhang, Zhuo-Ping & Chang, Ying & Li, Tian-Ge & Hou, Ru-Jing, 2022. "Effect of WeChat interaction on brand evaluation: A moderated mediation model of para-social interaction and affiliative tendency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Ho, Foo Nin & Wong, Jared & Brodowsky, Glen, 2023. "Does masstige offer the prestige of luxury without the social costs? Status and warmth perceptions from masstige and luxury signals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    14. Wang, Yajin, 2022. "A conceptual framework of contemporary luxury consumption," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 788-803.
    15. Reema Nofal & Pelin Bayram & Okechukwu Lawrence Emeagwali & Lu’ay Al-Mu’ani, 2022. "The Effect of eWOM Source on Purchase Intention: The Moderation Role of Weak-Tie eWOM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-20, August.
    16. Choi, Dayeon & Seo, Yuri & Septianto, Felix & Ko, Eunju, 2022. "Luxury customization and self-authenticity: Implications for consumer wellbeing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 243-252.
    17. Zheng Shen, 2023. "Mining sustainable fashion e-commerce: social media texts and consumer behaviors," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 949-971, June.
    18. Eun Ah Ryu & EunKyoung Han, 2021. "Social Media Influencer’s Reputation: Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Scale," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-18, January.
    19. Coderre, François & Sirieix, Lucie & Valette-Florence, Pierre, 2022. "The facets of consumer-based food label equity: Measurement, structure and managerial relevance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Barta, Sergio & Belanche, Daniel & Fernández, Ana & Flavián, Marta, 2023. "Influencer marketing on TikTok: The effectiveness of humor and followers’ hedonic experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zag:market:v:32:y:2020:i:si:p:67-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tanja Komarac (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fefzghr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.