Marketers commonly seed information about products and brands through individuals believed to be influential on social media, which often involves enlisting micro influencers, users who have accumulated thousands as opposed to millions of followers (i.e., other users who have subscribed to see that individual’s posts). Given an abundance of micro influencers to choose from, cues that help distinguish more versus less effective influencers on social media are of increasing interest to marketers. The authors identify one such cue: the number of users the prospective influencer is following. Using a combination of real-world data analysis and controlled lab experiments, they show that following fewer others, conditional on having a substantial number of followers, has a positive effect on a social media user’s perceived influence. Further, the authors find greater perceived influence impacts engagement with the content shared in terms of other users exhibiting more favorable attitudes toward it (i.e., likes) and a greater propensity to spread it (i.e., retweets). They identify a theoretically important mechanism underlying the effect: following fewer others conveys greater autonomy, a signal of influence in the eyes of others.
AralSinan (2011), “Identifying Social Influence: A Comment on Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion,” Marketing Science, 30 (2), 217–23.
2.
AralSinanWalkerDylan (2012), “Identifying Influential and Susceptible Members of Social Networks,” Science, 337 (6092), 337–41.
3.
BaerRobertHinckleSteveSmithKarenFentonMarsha (1980), “Reactance as a Function of Actual versus Projected Autonomy,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38 (3), 416–22.
BellezzaSilviaGinoFrancescaKeinanAnat (2014), “The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence from Signals of Nonconformity,” Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (1), 35–54.
6.
BergerJonahBaraschAlixandra, (2018), “A Candid Advantage? The Social Benefits of Candid Photos,” Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9 (8), 1010–16.
7.
BergerJonahMilkmanKatherine L. (2012), “What Makes Online Content Viral?” Journal of Marketing Research, 49 (2), 192–205.
8.
BrehmJack W. (1993), Control Motivation and Social Cognition. New York: Springer.
9.
BrownDuncanHayesNick (2008), Influencer Marketing: Who Really Influences Your Customers. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.
10.
ChildersTerry L, (1986), “Assessment of the Psychometric Properties of an Opinion Leadership Scale,” Journal of Marketing Research, 23 (2), 184–88.
11.
DeciEdward L.RyanRichard M. (1985), Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum.
12.
DeciEdward L.RyanRichard M. (2000), “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being,” American Psychologist, 55 (1), 68–78.
DworkinGerald (1988), The Theory and Practice of Autonomy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
15.
EngelJames F.KollatDavid T.BlackwellRoger D. (1968), Consumer Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc, 391–93.
16.
FlynnLeisa ReineckeGoldsmithRonald E.EastmanJacqueline K. (1996), “Opinion Leaders and Opinion Seekers: Two New Measurement Scales,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 24 (2), 137–47.
GoldsmithRonald E.HofackerCharles F. (1991), “Measuring Consumer Innovativeness,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 19 (3), 209–21.
19.
GrewalLaurenStephenAndrew T. (2019), “In Mobile We Trust: The Effects of Mobile Versus Nonmobile Reviews on Consumer Purchase Intentions,” Journal of Marketing Research56 (5), 791–808. doi: 10.1177/0022243719834514.
20.
GrewalRajdeepMehtaRajKardesFrank R. (2000), “The Role of the Social-Identity Function of Attitudes in Consumer Innovativeness and Opinion Leadership,” Journal of Economic Psychology, 21 (3), 233–52.
21.
HayesAndrew F. (2013), Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. New York: Guilford Press.
HinzOliverSkieraBerndBarrotChristianBeckerJan U. (2011), “Seeding Strategies for Viral Marketing: An Empirical Comparison,” Journal of Marketing, 75 (6), 55–71.
24.
HuberJoelMcCannJohn (1982) “The impact of inferential beliefs on product evaluations,”Journal of Marketing Research, 19 (3), 324–33.
25.
IyengarRaghuramBulteChristophe Van denValenteThomas W. (2011), “Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion,” Marketing Science, 30 (2), 195–212.
26.
JaccardJamesWanChoi C.TurrisiRobert (1990), “The Detection and Interpretation of Interaction Effects Between Continuous Variables in Multiple Regression,” Multivariate Behavioral Research, 25 (4), 467–78.
27.
JacobyJacob (1974), “The Construct Validity of Opinion Leadership,” The Public Opinion Quarterly, 38 (1), 81–89.
28.
JangJin YeaHanKyungsikLeeDongwon (2015), “No Reciprocity in Liking Photos: Analyzing Like Activities in Instagram,” in Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext & Social Media, New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 273–82.
29.
JettenJolandaHornseyMatthew J.Adarves-YornoInmaculada (2006), “When Group Members Admit to Being Conformist: The Role of Relative Intragroup Status in Conformity Self-Reports,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32 (2), 162–73.
30.
KatzElihuLazarsfeldPaul F. (1955), Personal Influence. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
31.
KellerEdwardBerryJonathan (2003), The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy. New York: Simon and Schuster.
32.
KingCharles W.SummersJohn O. (1970), “Overlap of Opinion Leadership Across Consumer Product Categories,” Journal of Marketing Research, 7 (1), 43–50.
33.
KopllerKarlfritz (1984), Opinion Leaders. Hamburg: Heinrich Bauer Verlag.
34.
LiXueniChanKimmy WaKimSara (2018), “Service with Emoticons: How Customers Interpret Employee Use of Emoticons in Online Service Encounters,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (5), 973–87.
35.
LibaiBarakMullerEitanPeresRenana (2013), “Decomposing the Value of Word-of-Mouth Seeding Programs: Acceleration Versus Expansion,” Journal of Marketing Research, 50 (2), 161–76.
MarcusAlan S.BauerRaymond A. (1964), “Yes: There Are Generalized Opinion Leaders,” The Public Opinion Quarterly, 28 (4), 628–32.
38.
MarkusHazel RoseSchwartzBarry (2010), “Does Choice Mean Freedom and Well-Being?” Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (2), 344–55.
39.
Merton RobertK. (1968), “Patterns of Influence: Local and Cosmopolitan Influentials,” in Social Theory and Social Structure, MertonRobert K., ed. New York: Free Press, 441–74.
40.
MomtazNiyoosha JafariAghaieAbdollahAlizadehSomayeh (2011), “Identifying Opinion Leaders for Marketing by Analyzing Online Social Networks,” International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking, 3 (1), 43–59.
41.
MullerEitanPeresRenana (2019), “The Effect of Social Networks Structure on Innovation Performance: A Review and Directions for Research,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36 (1), 3–19.
42.
MyersJames H.RobertsonThomas S. (1972), “Dimensions of Opinion Leadership,” Journal of Marketing Research, 9 (1), 41–46.
43.
NejadMohammad G.SherrellDaniel L.BabkusEmin (2014), “Influential and Influence Mechanisms in New Product Diffusion: An Integrative Review,” Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 22 (2), 185–208.
44.
NgSik Hung (1980), The Social Psychology of Power, Vol. 21. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
45.
OhanianRoobina (1990), “Construction and Validation of a Scale to Measure Celebrity Endorsers’ Perceived Expertise, Trustworthiness, and Attractiveness,” Journal of Advertising, 19 (3), 39–52.
46.
PennebakerJames W.BoydRyan L.JordanKaylaBlackburnKate (2015), The Development and Psychometric Properties of LIWC2015. Austin: University of Texas at Austin.
47.
ProbstFlorianGrosswieleLauraPflegerRegina (2013), “Who Will Lead and Who Will Follow: Identifying Influential Users in Online Social Networks: A Critical Review and Future Research Directions,” Business & Information Systems Engineering, 5 (3), 179–93.
48.
RanganathanC. (2012). “The Role of Extrinsic Cues in Consumer Decision Process in Online Shopping Environments,” Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 10 (1), 52–71.
49.
RogersEverett M. (1962), Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press of Glencoe.
50.
RogersEverett M.CartanoDavid G. (1962), “Methods of Measuring Opinion Leadership,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 26 (3), 435–41.
51.
RogersEverett M.Floyd ShoemakerF. (1971), Communication of Innovations: A Cross-Cultural Approach. New York: Free Press.
52.
RuvioAyallaShohamAviv (2007), “Innovativeness, Exploratory Behavior, Market Mavenship, and Opinion Leadership: An Empirical Examination in the Asian Context,” Psychology and Marketing, 24 (8), 703–22.
53.
RyanRichard M.ConnellJames P. (1989), “Perceived Locus of Causality and Internalization: Examining Reasons for Acting in Two Domains,” Attitudes and Social Cognition, 57 (5) 749–61.
54.
SalganikMatthew J.DoddsPeter SheridanWattsDuncan J. (2006), “Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market,” Science, 311 (5762), 854–56.
55.
SchwartzShalom H. (1992), “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65.
56.
ShahAnuj K.OppenheimerDaniel M. (2008), “Heuristics Made Easy: An Effort-Reduction Framework,” Psychological Bulletin, 134 (2), 207.
Van den BulteChristophe (2010), “Opportunities and Challenges in Studying Consumer Networks,” in The Connected Customer, WuytsS.DekimpeM.G.GijsbrechtsE.PietersR., eds. London: Routledge, 7–35.
59.
WarrenCalebCampbellMargaret C. (2014), “What Makes Things Cool? How Autonomy Influences Perceptions of Coolness,” Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (2), 543–63.
60.
WarrinerAmy BethKupermanVictorBrysbaertMarc (2013), “Norms of Valence, Arousal, and Dominance for 13,915 English Lemmas,” Behavior Research Methods, 45 (4), 1191–207.
61.
WeimannGabrielTustinDeonVuurenDaan vanJoubertPierre (2007), “Looking for Opinion Leaders: Traditional vs. Modern Measures in Traditional Societies,” Journal of Public Opinion Research, 19 (2), 173–90.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
