The Power of a Social Media Influencer: An Analysis on Published Research

YouTube and Instagram are the leading platforms for influencers. Many teenagers and young adults trust influencers more than celebrities (Kim Kardashian never responds to my comments)! It is not surprise that YouTube videos are perceived as more entertaining, funny, and motivating but also more opinionated and manipulating than traditional news. Thus, are social media influencers trusted more than local news personalities? We compare quantitative and qualitative analysis to understand the power of social media influencers.

A quantitative study was done on how young people look to YouTube influencers for their perceptions on political and societal issues compared to TV news personalities. The research was approached through a survey given at school and through Facebook online. The questions were forced choice and the 562 participants were divided up into 3 groups based on age. The following were the 5 research questions:

RQ1: How intensively young people watch YouTube videos about political and societal topics?

RQ2: How young people evaluate YouTube creators and the content of their videos?

RQ3: How young people perceive their influenceability by YouTube political and societal topics on videos?

RQ4: With whom and by which channels they communicate on the content of YouTube political and societal topics on videos?

RQ5: How these aspects are affected by young people’s age and gender?

Through analysis, the researchers found that those over the age of 20 viewed YouTubers less credible than the younger age groups. Credibility is positively correlated with viewing frequency for those over 20. Ultimately there is higher trust in traditional news media yet further research is needed to consider possible personality traits.

Graph courtesy: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-020-01164-7

My two cents: there were way too many research questions to stay focused. It appeared that one question led to another without giving proper time to dive into a single hypothesis. The ages studied are odd. Those under 16 are not the target audience for traditional news, so they appear too young to be questioned on this topic. Age ranges studied should more accurately be between 18–54.

Male vs Female social media influencers, who has more impact on emerging adults? A qualitative analysis was done on this very topic! Researchers realized that men used social media for making new friends, finding dates and playing online games. Men also preferred straight forward ads and made them aware of pros and cons of a product. Whereas women used social media for relationship support, posting public messages and creating a positive image. Thus 2 research questions formed:

RQ1: Do emerging adults trust the recommendations made by social media influencer and its effect on their intention to purchase?

RQ2: What are the styles of promotion used by social media influencers as perceived by emerging adults?

A small sample of 8 participants ages 18 to 21 were split up male and female for a focus group. Each group watched two product reviews and two advertisements, followed by semi-structured questions.

Researchers concluded that male respondents, follow female influencers that are attractive to admire them and male influencers for fashion and those that stream or post videos of them playing video games entertainment. Female respondents, meanwhile, follow female influencers to get information on the latest beauty and fashion trends. In addition, instead of video gamers, female respondents are more likely to follow male influencers who post funny sketches for entertainment. Men are more likely to finish a video if the content is entertaining while product information is shown at the end. Women watch a video if at first it is entertaining, but information is woven throughout the video.

My 2 cents: the sample size is ridiculously small. More people are needed to actually make this study reasonable and with small error intervals. The videos being shown the sample were not necessarily of influencers they follow. The research should start with finding a common influencer among the sample, and then picking videos from that common influencer to show to the sample. (I love influencer EmilyAnnGemma, but not my neighbor. Thus her videos will have a different affect on us.)

In conclusion, influencers are stars for the companies they represent because they provide entertainment. Research shows women prefer information along with entertainment and men prefer entertainment. A women news anchor may be more credible on YouTube than traditional news if they can make a more entertaining video than just sitting behind a news desk.