Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran
2 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Ira
Abstract
Objectives: Influencer marketing refers to the engagement of influential users who have the credibility, following, and motivation to spread positive word-of-mouth advertising on blogs and social media and is a key component of digital marketing strategies for businesses. Through their posts on social networks, influencers are online opinion leaders who influence the behavior and decision-making process of the masses. Their followers feel close to them because they believe they know a lot about them and are in touch with them. This proximity allows influencers to influence others. Influencers gain a large following, in particular, because they have specific knowledge/skills. Influencers have significant groups of followers and act as experts in their content. The term "social media influencers" refers to those users who have the potential to create interaction, dialogue and/or sell products/services with the target audience. An influencer can be anyone, from a fashion blogger on Instagram to a wedding photographer on Pinterest, to a cyber security expert tweeting on Twitter. Influencers create identities by communicating personal experiences that combine photos, videos, and activities. Similarly, it should be noted that followers actively participate in the construction and legitimization of influencers' identities because they follow them, interact with them, defend and support them. According to the mentioned research results, although businesses have recognized the value of attracting influencers as a distinct marketing communication tool, the insight on how to select and participate with these influencers and integrate the campaign into their marketing communication program is still limited. In recent years, academic research on influencer marketing has been growing rapidly, and in the past decade, significant efforts have been made to improve knowledge about influencer marketing, but little attention has been paid to systematizing and synthesizing the current body of knowledge. In order to fill this gap, this article aims to conduct a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature and review the current status of influencer marketing research. The current research tries to answer the question that what are the determinants of marketing value creation through influential people for businesses and how are they prioritized? The purpose of this research is to identify the determining components of the value of influencer marketing for businesses.
Methods: This study was done with a qualitative approach and the method of thematic analysis of past studies. Before presenting the results of foreign and domestic studies in the field of the studied concept, i.e. "Influencer marketing", to identify the current trend and status of this issue, the results of the bibliometric analysis are presented in a scientific and research way. Bibliometric analysis enables a detailed understanding of the body of knowledge and its various aspects such as joint citations, co-occurrence, etc. It also helps to describe the data in the form of major contributions between authors and countries, the most cited countries, the most prolific authors, and the most influential journals in the field of study are identified.
Results Based on the results, since 2008, the writing of articles in the field of "Influencer marketing" has been started, and until 2016, only one article has been published in this field every year, and since 2016, this issue has gradually received the attention of researchers. and the trend of publishing articles has increased. The review of research literature in the field of "Influencer marketing" has been mainly focused on the fields of business and management and then social sciences. Theme analysis is one of the appropriate analytical methods in qualitative research. Thematic analysis can be used well to compile and analyze the network of themes. Thematic analysis can create a suitable bridge between researchers of different disciplines. This method helps researchers easily convey their observations, findings, and interpretations to others. If a researcher wants to present the results of his work in ways that are comprehensible to other researchers in different fields and with different orientations, thematic analysis can establish a good relationship between different philosophical approaches and between theorists and practitioners. In the theme analysis stage, the data were collected and analyzed with the help of open and axial coding in MAXQDA software. The components have been prioritized by using the importance-function matrix and gathering experts' opinions through a questionnaire. The determining components of the value of influencer marketing have been identified in 8 categories of organizing themes and 59 basic themes and include the components of audience characteristics, characteristics of influencers, content characteristics, platform characteristics, industry characteristics, time horizon, ethical concerns, and collaborative networking.
Conclusions: The results of this research can be used to develop marketing strategies through influencer marketing according to business conditions. Among other things, business marketing managers and planners are suggested to rely on content-based criteria, such as the relevance of topics, and content quality, to attract audiences.
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