A new social media programme for brands? A study of the relationship between virtual influencers and brand followers

The use of virtual influencers has become a crucial component of brand marketing strategies on social media platforms. This approach offers a novel form of marketing that enables deep engagement, high controllability, and cost-efficiency. Nevertheless, the phenomenon has not been sufficiently studied by researchers. To further examine the relationship between a brand's virtual influencers and its followers, we created a comprehensive dataset comprising 30,090 pieces of content posted by brands using virtual influencers on TikTok between September 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. The findings of our study yield several important insights into the ways in which brands utilize virtual influencers. Firstly, previous studies have concentrated on the potential positive or negative effects of virtual influencers on their follower numbers. Our findings indicate that the impact of a brand's utilization of virtual influencers on its social media follower count does not adhere to a straightforward, linear trajectory. Instead, it exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship. Secondly, user behavior acts as a mediator between brand virtual influencers and brand followers. Specifically, affected U-shaped relationship exists between brand virtual influencers and social media user engagement behaviors and user repost behaviors, which in turn affect the number of brand followers. Furthermore, it was determined that virtual influencer interaction behaviors moderated the inverted U-shaped relationship between virtual influencers and user engagement behaviors and user repost behaviors. This study innovatively incorporates the perspective of ‘the uncanny valley effect’ to reveal the complexities of the relationship between virtual influencers and brand followers and provides a comprehensive framework for brands to develop effective strategies utilizing virtual influencers.