Influencer marketing
[1] Influencers are someone (or something) with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok or other online channels.
[4] The FTC started enforcing this on a large scale in 2016, sending letters to several companies and influencers who had failed to disclosed sponsored content.
[9] The two-step flow of communication model was introduced in The People's Choice (Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet's 1940 study of voters' decision-making processes), and developed in Personal Influence (Lazarsfeld, Elihu Katz 1955)[10] and The Effects of Mass Communication (Joseph Klapper, 1960).
[24][25] The modern referent of the term is commonly a paid role in which a business entity pays for the social media influence-for-hire activity to promote its products and services, known as influencer marketing.
[30][31][32] Online activity can play a central role in offline decision-making, allowing consumers to research products.
[41][44] Social media influencers establish themselves as opinion leaders with their followers and may have persuasive strengths such as attractiveness, likeability, niche expertise, and perceived good taste.
[44][41][45] The interactive and personal nature of social media allows parasocial relationships to form between influencers and their followers, which impacts purchase behavior.
[44] Critics of an online-intensive approach say that by researching exclusively online, consumers can overlook input from other influential individuals.
Countries like Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have been using these influencers to spread a positive image of them and distract from human rights criticisms.
[53] A report in October 2022 revealed that some influencers promoting Dubai engaged in prostitution, using their high-profile to find clients and charge higher rates.
[59] In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) treats influencer marketing as a form of paid endorsement.
[61][4][62] In 2017, the FTC sent more than 90 educational letters to celebrity and athlete influencers with the reminder of the obligation to clearly disclose business relationships while sponsoring and promoting products.
[63] The same year, in response to YouTubers Trevor Martin and Thomas Cassell deceptively endorsing an online gambling site they owned, the FTC took three separate actions to catch the attention of influencers.
YouTube and Google's ad policies require influencers to check a box titled paid promotion when publishing sponsored videos and provides instructions on how to set it up.
Third-party sites and apps sell services to individual accounts which include falsely increasing followers, likes, and comments.
[73] Twenty-four percent of influencers were found to have abnormal growth patterns in another study, indicating that they had manipulated their likes or followers.
[74] Influencer fraud (including fake followers) was estimated to cost businesses up to $1.3 billion, about 15 percent of global influencer–marketing spending.
[76] Lil Miquela was a realistic virtual influencer which prompted curiosity and speculation until it was learned that she was created by advertisers.
