The Culture of Mass Following and Influencers

The aim of this study was two-fold and hoped to investigate the entire culture behind the rise of influencers and why terms such as following and mass following exist in our current lexicon. The research was conducted by both primary and secondary research methods where a questionnaire was handed out to participants to in order to collect information about whether social media influencers are capable enough of influencing purchasing decisions and whether they are the culprit behind people following them or is it due to social media applications being addictive in nature.

keywords:mass following, social media, influencers, primary research methods, social media applications

The Culture of Mass Following and Influencers

For our research, we choose to specifically shed light upon social media influencers and how they can at times — for varying time periods — attract a mass following. For the sake of this research, we clearly state a difference between celebrity influencers and social media influencers by how each attains their following. Celebrities may gain followers through music, movies and sport etc. whereas social media influencers gain followers through a specific niche or interest while simultaneously shaping attitudes through blogs, tweets, and other forms of social media (Freberg et al. 2011). An influencer can easily be defined as someone having power over a targeted audience which can affect their purchasing decisions because of their authority, appeal, charisma, knowledge, position, or relationship with the audience being catered towards.

Some of the quickest ways to receive information is through influencers conveying it to their audience whether it be political, social issues or of some other nature which wholly demonstrates how social media bridges any gaps in terms of job specificity. This allows influencers to branch away from their own niche at times and delve into other works as well of a different nature, which can establish themselves as a mass public figure.

“In turn, followers deliver the information from the SMI to non-followers as a two-step flow through word-of-mouth communication” (Liu et al. 2012).

For example, a footballer famous for his talents in the sporting world can also launch a skin care brand coupled with a separate blog showcasing his luxurious lifestyle, thus, attracting followers with varying interests and further extending his reach amongst followers. In addition this, they also utilize this reach to promote a product of their own or a partnering company.

Celebrities usually amass a following through traditional media channels having mass media publications thrust them into the limelight. Celebrities can find themselves in the capacity to categorise themselves as influencers but not all influencers find themselves capable to be titled as a celebrity. In order to benefit our work, we hope to gain an insight from consumers as to why they follow and keep up with influencers. The trend of keeping up with influencers is made rather accessible through various forms of social media. This allows both the influencer — the creator of content — and the follower — the consumer of content — to interact. Applications such as Instagram and Snapchat allow the influencer to post content as they will and even gain insights as to which of their content receives the most interactions and is the most sought after by their audience.

“However, several ex-employees of Apple, Google, and Facebook have warned that large tech companies deliberately design apps to be addictive.” (Schwar, 2021)

However, despite all this we wish to research whether it is not the influencers that are addictive in nature for consumers, but instead the applications on which they share media are the real addiction. Since the influencers are the only mainstream form of content, their mass following is fuelled further.

Literature Review

Since the start of the 2000s, social media have become an essential part of people’s lives (The Power Group, 2021). A social media influencer is someone who has a large number of followers on social media and has an impact on them. They have a loyal fan following on multiple social media platforms. Due to their involvement in a variety of activities, their fan base can be diversified. Their fan base can range in size from thousands to millions (Hazell, 2019). People idolize them and get inspired by them. the strongest asset of an influencer is relatability with the general public. They have the power to shape others’ opinions and influence their beliefs and actions. People get easily convinced by them and end up believing whatever they say.

As influencers have the power to manipulate people into buying whatever they want, this is the reason influencer marketing has become common. It was examined by Bennet (2014) that 74% of people are influenced by social media in their buying. The brand uses influencers who have a higher fan base to increase awareness of its products. Brands give freedom and liberty to the influencers to promote their product because they already have a bond with their audience. They are given the requirement of the brand and then they can carry out their work as they like. They are aware of the most effective strategy for promoting the product and attracting their audience (The Power Group, 2021). The purchasing decision of an individual is formed by the type of community they live in and the people they idolize or come in contact with. This is demonstrated in a study by Swant (2016), which stated that 51% of consumer purchase decisions were influenced by a friend’s recommendation, while 49% of consumers rely on influencers. The paper delves deeper into its analysis as to why people trust influencers more than any celebrity. The primary reason behind the rise of influencers as marketing juggernauts is because people can relate to them more than a celebrity. Celebrities are often seen as different from the rest of the society as they are not considered “normal” people rather they are the very defintion6of beauty standards and prestige which a normal person can not relate to or think of achieving because of the aura of a celebrity. But influencers are seen as people just like every other person in the society hence they are more relatable to an average consumer hence their endorsements have more authenticity rather than just an attempt to get a paycheck. Another vital reason why influencer marketing works is that because of social media the followers can actually see the people who endorse the products use them in their daily lives via Instagram stories or posts whereas in conventional marketing all we saw was someone saying this product is great and consumers never knew if they used it in actuality.

The following paper analyses the psychological reasons people tend to gravitate towards social media influencers. According to the research there are three influencer characteristics which make an influencer famous. The first characteristic is physical attractiveness which refers to genetic features of a human being which are considered pleasant in a society. The second characteristic is social attractiveness which refers to how followers are attracted to these influencers because of the manner in which they communicate with their followers. According to the research physical attractiveness is the most important factor in the following of an influencer. The research also shows the other side of the coin and explains why the culture of mass following has increased over the years. There are two primary reasons for the increase and they are para-social relationships and a sense of belonging. Parasocial relationships refer to the one sided relationship people have with an influencer. Followers often feel they have a connection with the influencer and they can often develop feelings for the influencer which cab lead to catastrophic mental problems for that follower. Following an influencer also gives people a sense of belonging as they feel part of the influencers community and they feel they are a part of the society.

One of the most prominent court case of this century was the Depp-Heard trial in which famous actor Johnny Depp sued his wife Amber Heard for wrongly accusing him of domestic abuse. The entire was not about money rather it was about the public perception. Both of the parties wanted the society to believe their version of the story so they could clear their name. In reality the entire perception of the public was controlled by the influencers. In the research it’s shown how swiftly the opinion of the public changed when the influencers changed their options. At the start of the trial all of the influencers were supporting Amber Heard hence public sentiment was with her but as the trial progressed influencers started supporting Johnny Depp and as expected the entire society soon followed. It is scary to see how much control these influencers had on the lives of two human beings and how much control they have on the publics opinions and choices.

Methodology Review

In this portion of the paper, we will detail exactly how we carried out the research through primary methods by creating our own questionnaire, and later on using secondary research methods where we have made use of already published case studies.

It was decided that participants were to be selected through the use of snowball sampling; we approached one individual and asked them to further pass on the survey. Our sample will include anywhere from 25 to 35 responders, with ages ranging from an estimated demographic of 15–29. Despite there being no limit placed on the ages of the responders nor them being recorded and collected, we adhered to the age range stated by the software of the social media application on which the influencer was present. This provided us with answers from able-minded adults providing their own perspectives.

The survey was passed onto nearly 200 potential participants, out of whom we received 30 fully filled out surveys that were incorporated into our research.

The names and any personal information of participants was not collected and they were kept anonymous, mainly for the purpose that they may feel more comfortable knowing that they can answer the questions anonymously, and not have their personal views and opinions be shared. During the process of creating the survey, our best efforts went towards avoiding any biased language that could mislead the participants into answering in a manner that would deviate from their own personal opinions.

The questions contained all forms of close-ended short answering methods, such as: multiple choice answers and ranges — wherein the participants could state their answer on a scale of how much they either agree or disagree with the answer, as well as the option of remaining neutral and not providing a clear answer. Since the survey was passed out from a participant, there was no room for researcher bias, and unlike interviews and other forms of questioning wherein the researcher and participant would interact, our form of passing out the surveys digitally had no direct or indirect interaction with the participant, thus, eliminating any and all researcher bias that could have crept into the study and distorted results.

Case Studies

Case Study 1

This study by Christiana Silva et al., 2022 aims to try and uncover the ‘science’ — (both biological and societal driven reason) behind why we follow influencers. Linking documents by The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files to aid the study, numerous individuals report feeling “worse” upon viewing content from influencers on social media applications as they end up comparing their own-selves to the influencers.

One study in particular from Sideqik reported that a staggering 66 percent of social media users say purchase decisions are often driven by influencers and 64 percent say that influencers help them discover new brands.

“The current research identified unique consumer motivations for following [social media influencers] on Instagram and examined its association with important consumer behavior outcomes (i.e. trust towards [social media influencers] brand-related posts and frequency of purchasing [social media influencer]-recommended brands) as well as materialism,” the study read. “Based on survey data, findings revealed four motivations for following influencers on Instagram — authenticity, consumerism, creative inspiration, and envy — which had varying effects on trust and purchase frequency.” (Forbes, 2020)

Another study from 2020 determined that quality content plays an important role on if users will continue to follow influencers online and if users will trust influencers. “When you don’t have these religious structures, which are guiding you and defining who you ought to be, what ends up happening is people still seek meaning,”

“You still need somebody to give them this sense of purpose. And so this is where you often find a lot of celebrities or influencers filling this void.” (Stephanie Alice, 2022)

The study focused on an unnamed teen from Luton, England wherein he was chosen for the following reasons that he was raised in a “rough” neighborhood by a single parent. The subject also described himself as someone who did not particularly have any role models present to influence their values and morals during their upbringing. The teen claimed and was documented to have an excess dependence on social media influencers, in particular influencers who posted video content that was either humorous or charitable in nature. The average daily usage for any electronic devices was in-between 9 to 12 hours with 65% of that time being spent on consuming content from their preferred influencers and later on being documented instilling certain predominant behaviors and characteristics from those influencers in their own behavior.

Case Study 2

The second case study that we are incorporating into out research tends to draw a focus towards “celebrity worship” and how it tends to be a pathological phenomenon between young individuals and is fairly common. The premise of the study laid an emphasis on how influencers managed to remain and increase relevancy during the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. During the lockdown they have been bombarded by a barrage of posts by celebrities, given that celebs are locked in their homes too.

A total of 5 individuals were experimented on, with the sample including 3 males and 2 females. The males were all aged 17, 18, and 21 respectively — whilst the females were aged 21 and 18 respectively. The subjects had all reported living in lockdown conditions for nearly a year and quarantining for a minimum of once but with some having had to have quarantined up to three times. They were all made to answer a scale that “identified individuals who are overly absorbed or addicted to their interest in a celebrity”.

Providing further information as to what the Attitude Scale is: the measure has a format, ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly dis-agree).

The scale detects three domains — these are: The entertainment-social subscale, The intense-personal subscale, and The borderline-pathological subscale. The entertainment-social subscale includes 10 questions indicating if the influener is viewed as entertaining. The intense-personal subscale includes nine questions about how the subject may intense and obsessive attitudes toward an influencer. The borderline-pathological subscale comprises three items and indicates that the respondent exhibits pathological attitudes and behaviours.

The end result that they concluded from their analysis was that the Covid-19 pandemic had only spurred on the growth of mass following and influencers as people had now begun to consume more content due to having more hours dedicated towards leisure and had more content being uploaded which only increased their usual consumption frequencies. Influencers had now also begun uploading more relatable content as they were trying to appeal towards audiences, also capitalizing on the opportunity wherein a mass majority of the population was navigating through the same tumultuous times and events further causing a sense of familiarity. An increased sense of relatability coupled with influencers seeming to guide people with “lockdown routines” replaced the innate need for a role model.

Case study 3

Businesses now frequently employ influencers to market their products and services. Nike is one of the leading users of this strategy. To promote their product, Air Vapormax, they worked with a YouTube channel “What’s Inside?”. This channel is run by a father-son duo, they cut objects open to see inside. Nike hired them because they had six million subscribers and were known for their influence on people. They made seven videos for Nike over their two channels, and one of them gained more than 3.6 million views and 32000 likes. This campaign made people aware of the product and after watching the material inside the shoes they were curious to try them feel their comfort level. As this channel uses objects that are trending in fashion, their followers were driven to buy them. The more the people were inspired by them, the more they bought the product.

Case study 4

“Warby Parker” a brand of prescription glasses and sunglasses, increased its brand recognition through influencers. It employed seven micro-influencers for its promotion. The influencers chosen did have a connection with their audience and they were relatable to them. Moreover, people idolized them and follow their steps as they used to see them everyday. Warby Parker used influencers who already were a customer of them and had some affection for them. Since, their target market already knew that they regularly used and were satisfied with the products, their trust in them was strong and they bought the product. Influencers were promoting this product in their love, and money was a bonus for them. Additionally, this contributed to establishing the product’s image as a part of daily life, increasing the demand for it. This campaign produced a positive result as more people got influenced and adhered to fashion.

Results and analysis

As the global population increases and we dive further into the digital era, the number of social media users increases day by day. In October 2022, it was reported that there are 4.74 billion users of social media, which equates to 59.3% of the overall population (Global Social Media Statistics, n.d.). With such an immense number of active users, it can be deemed as an easy task for influencers to gain followers. In fact, the term ‘influencers’ has gained popularity only in the last decade or so. The main question that arose was that how dependent are influencers on social media. Through this research we determined whether people follow influencers solely because of their availability and accessibility on social media, or would they be willing to follow their content elsewhere as well. If social media as a platform did not exist, influencers would have limited platforms to post their contents on, for example blogs or weekly newsletters. Another aspect we studied was how much power these influencers hold to alter consumer behavior. Digital marketing includes brands promoting their products via famous personalities, and it is no surprise that influencers are often the target of these companies to advertise their product on social media.

Influencers and their dependence on social media

The first part of our survey included questions regarding people’s take on following influencers, why they follow them, and if they would be willing to do the same if they were not available on social media.

Figure 1

Figure 2

These days it is a rare sight to see someone not following an influencer. One way or another, a user ends up following one, be it on Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook or Twitter etc. Our results showed that the vast majority of the respondents indeed follow an influencer, with 71.9% of them agreeing with the question and 56.7% admitting that they follow multiple influencers. Addressing the 18.8% (in Figure 1) who voted ‘maybe’ in the first question, we can see that many people might be uncertain whether they do follow an influencer or not. The confusion is understandable because many people run their digital accounts under the label of influencer, even if their content is that of a regular person. Meanwhile, there are actual influencers who do not highlight this aspect of their identity. These people are mostly trying to raise awareness over important issues or are trying to help a specific field of interest. Moreover, there are accounts which do not truly unveil their identity, but hold a lot power in influencing people. The most prominent example of this statement are meme pages. In recent times, these pages have not only focused on providing humor to users, but have also began posting content related to worldly news, viral material and awareness posts as well. Prime examples of largely followed meme pages are “@daquan” and “@epicfunnypage”, who have accumulated 16.5 million and 15.9 million followers respectively (Geyser, 2022).

Furthermore, respondents were also asked how often they engage with an influencer’s content. Shown below are the results:

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 3 depicts that only about half of the people feel the need to engage with an influencer’s content, which might include, but is not limited to, liking, commenting, and sharing posts, answering polls, or participating in Q/A sessions. The rest of them either ignore these things, or are unwilling to answer. Reasons for this will be discussed along with another question from the survey. Figure 4 states a somewhat controversial question, which resulted in 50% answering no and 28.1% choosing maybe. Addiction is a rather serious matter, and social media addiction has a stigma attached to it, resulting in majority people not admitting to it. Instagram recently came up with a feature of auto-refresh, which means that a user’s feed will refresh by itself in order to show him/her the latest posts. This can be linked with following hundreds of pages which post multiple times a day. In fact, popular research shows that influencers are encouraged to post as least 14 times a week in order to grow their audience (Warren, 2021). These posts eventually end up on the ‘Explore’ pages of social media apps, according to a user’s interests, thus gathering followers with each new post.

In addition to this, our survey asked the reasons why people take interest in an influencer’s content. Figure 5 displays the results in a bar-chart form.

Figure 5

With the first glimpse, we can see that 71.9% of the respondents follow influencers because they find the content entertaining. Going back to the question which discussed why people don’t engage with influencers’ posts, we can see that these users are follow influencers mostly for entertainment purposes, be it humor, fashion, or any interest they might have. Hence, they do not feel the need to engage with their content. 65.6% follow influential pages because they keep them updated with happenings and awareness on any specific topic they excel in. It was noted that most of the respondents who chose the second option in Figure 5 also chose the ‘others around me follow them’ option. It can be inferred as word of mouth influence, and perhaps this is how pages who post content for awareness accumulate such a large following over time. Half of the respondents feel as if they sense a connection between them and the influencers. An article published in Forbes affirms to this scenario. “Influencers regularly address their audience directly and, with this glimpse of direct interactions with the influencer, a follower can feel a deep sense of connection to the influencer” (Hoos, 2019). More so, followers feel prioritized and develop a trustworthy one-sided relationship with the influencers.

Our primary data helped us answer the main question: are influencers really dependent on social media? Below are the two questions we asked regarding this matter.

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 6 shows that almost half of the respondents would not be interested in following an influencer’s content if it was not available on social media, while 37.5% of them were uncertain. Figure 7 was more of a general question, and the ‘followers’ in this context were considered people who follow influential personalities outside of social media as well. For example, a fan of Lionel Messi watching all of his matches, and keeping a record of his performances as well, or someone reading a celebrity’s autobiography and not just following them on social media. There is no doubt that social media has indeed made it easier for influencers, and just pages in general, to gain followers. A staggering 78.1% of the respondents believe so. This can be credited to the easy accessibility and availability of an influencer’s account, all in one app. In addition to this, we observed that whenever an individual makes a new social media account, the app suggests them to follow accounts which have already generated a mass following. For example, when making a new Twitter account, you might be suggested to follow Lady Gaga, who already has 84.9 million followers as of November 2022 (Smith, 2022). However, it can also be debated that some influential people might not need social media after all. In fact, it is what they do as a profession which has given them the power to majorly impact people at a large scale, and sometimes even brands. Let’s take a well-known example which occurred in recent times. “One off-field move from the star footballer took the fizz out of the cola brand” (Panache, 2021). Cristiano Ronaldo, a Portugese football player, removed a coca-cola bottle from the camera’s view and replaced it with a water bottle during a press conference. This subtle move alone caused Coke’s market value to fall by a massive $4 billion (Quiroz-Gutierrez, 2021). This can be considered as a case where a celebrity did not need social media to influence a large number of people, though in most cases social media does play a big hand in doing so. This act of shifting consumer preferences overnight paves way for our second aspect of the primary data.

Influencers and their ability to alter Consumer Behavior

During recent times, especially in the Covid-19 era, firms and their advertising agencies suffered hardships. Advertisements were running at a less frequent pace, and not many celebrities were willing to go and actually model for products. Brands quickly maneuvered around this obstacle, and found a solution: influencer marketing. Social media marketing is basically a brand expanding their voice while making use of digital platforms, using their own official accounts to market products. Influencer marketing, on the other hand, involves brands putting their trust on an influencers, who give shout-outs to their products and/or share their personal experiences. Influencers sometimes also promote giveaways for small-scale brands in order give them much needed exposure. But of course, all that comes with a price. Perhaps this is why major celebrities are seen only promoting pioneers of their specific fields. Famous photographer Liz Eswein, whose Instagram handle is “@newyorkcity” earns around $15,000 for each shot she takes, and charges brands for $1 per like she receives (Stoshevski, 2022).

Our main focus was to see how easy it is for influencers to alter an individual’s preference.

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 8 shows that more than half of the respondents were persuaded by influencers to purchase a product. If compared to Figure 9, the latter shows that 65.6% of the people are currently using a product that was marketed by an influencer. This goes on to show that even if you purchased a product solely because of personal choice, there are high chances that it was advertised by a famous personality. We observed that consumers are not that willing to go to actual stores, and they prefer shopping online. This is where influencers come into play. When they promote a product, their followers automatically assume that this is best item in its respective field. “Influencers we initially see as credible in one area eventually become credible in other areas through a phenomenon known as the halo effect” (Hoos, 2019). Taking an example of a celebrity promoting a hair oil brand on their social media. It is not very probable that they excel in hair-care products, however, their followers have put their trust in them. They will see the influencer’s experience as a gateway to purchase the product for themselves.

A research carried by Mediakix revealed that 80% marketers consider influencer marketing to be very impactful for their brands, with 17% of them spending more than half of their marketing budget on influencers (Smart Insights, 2019). In our research, as shown in Figure 8, the 18.8% who have not purchased a product because of influencers might be due to the fact that people are still not thoroughly trustworthy of “online products”. However, influencer marketing does not necessarily have to be for online stores. Figure 10 shows that 40.6% respondents had purchased a product they would not ordinarily purchase, while 31.3% believed that they would purchase it without any third-party influence. We inferred from this that many celebrities advertise everyday products such as shampoos, snack items, or fragrances etc. In addition to this, food bloggers have recently taken social media by storm. They truly have the ability to determine a restaurant or café’s performances. One bad review from a well-known influencer can reduce the inflow of customers in a café, and vice versa, a good review can build up on the hype.

Overall, social media has given influencers a platform to polish their skills and expand on their own specific niche. The culture of mass following has since then diversified, with celebrities and influencers of all kinds holding digital responsibility to enlighten their followers regarding whatever matters they excel in. More so, they now hold the power to impact major brands as well, which our primary and secondary research have helped confirm.

Limitations

· Firstly, because of our resources and position we could not interview a real influencer to better understand how they connect with their followers and why they have such a hold over their choices. We were only 2nd year students writing a report for our sociology course which will not be published hence not many influencers were willing to give us their valuable time.

· Another hurdle we faced was regarding primary research. The idea that our choices are not our own rather they are heavily influenced by certain figures is so disturbing to everyone that no one actually agreed that they were influenced by these influencers and most of the people claimed to not be affected by the views of certain famous people on social media.

· Studying case studies was tough for this research because there are not many case studies that exist, especially on how influencers have an effect on their audiences’ opinions on matters other than marketing, hence the majority of research on this specific area was done via primary research which include questionnaires primarily.

· There is not a sufficient amount of research carried out on social media influencers especially in-depth longitudinal case studies as the concept of influencers is relatively newer as opposed to celebrities.

· The last serious hurdle we faced was the seriousness with how people fill google questionnaires. Since they are done online and we can’t oversee if they are being filled properly and with enough contemplating many people fill them out without proper care.

· Additionally we can not help each individual out if they have any questions regarding the questionnaires they might not fully understand a question and because of these reasons we can’t be fully confident on the results from the said questionnaires.

Recommendations

· It is not advisable to blindly copy influencers without considering the repercussions.

· People should be able to identify whether an influencer is conveying right message or not.

· More time should be devoted to focusing on work and less time should be spent on social media.

· People should be more concerned and concentrate about themselves rather than wasting their time in watching any influencer.

· People can offer their opinion about the influencers, but they should refrain from insulting them or making any hateful comment.

· Influencers should understand the audience they are dealing with and what type of content they should produce.

· Influencers should avoid promoting any product that is harmful for people.

· Power of an influencer should not be used to manipulate others.

· Influencers should be cautious when sharing their opinions about social and religious matters because people can be sensitive about these.

· Only a limited amount of time should be devoted to social media.

References

Anon. n.d.-a. “8 Insane (But True) Influencer Marketing Case Studies.” Trend.Io. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://www.trend.io/blog/influencer-marketing-case-studies).

Anon. n.d.-b. “Global Social Media Statistics — DataReportal — Global Digital Insights.” DataReportal — Global Digital Insights. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://datareportal.com/social-media-users).

Anon. n.d.-c. “Social Media Influencers Impact.” Brandmentions.com. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://brandmentions.com/wiki/Social_Media_Influencers_Impact).

Anon. n.d.-d. “The 20 Most Followed Accounts on Twitter.” Brandwatch. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/most-twitter-followers/).

Expert commentator. 2019. “80% of Marketers Find Influencer Marketing Effective.” Smart Insights. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://www.smartinsights.com/online-pr/influencer-marketing-effectiveness/).

Geyser, Werner. 2018. “8 Influencer Marketing Case Studies with Incredible Results.” Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-case-studies/).

Geyser, Werner. 2019. “10 of the Best Instagram Meme Accounts to Check out in 2023.” Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://influencermarketinghub.com/instagram-meme-accounts/).

Hazell, Chris. 2019. “The Rise of the Social Media Influencer.” Viewpoint. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://viewpoint.pointloma.edu/the-rise-of-the-social-media-influencer/).

Hoos, Bradley. 2019. “The Psychology of Influencer Marketing.” Forbes. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/08/22/the-psychology-of-influencer-marketing/).

Miller, Chase. 2022. “Social Media Influencers’ Impact on Youth.” Young Entertainment. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://youngentertainmentmag.com/social-media-influencers-impact-youth/).

Online, E. T. 2021. “How Cristiano Ronaldo’s Euro Snub Made Coca-Cola Lose Billions of Dollars.” Economic Times. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/how-cristiano-ronaldos-one-gesture-pushed-coca-cola-to-lose-billions-of-dollars/articleshow/83569858.cms).

(PhD), Chris Drew. 2020. “21 Advantages & Disadvantages of New Media (College Essay Ideas).” Helpful Professor. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://helpfulprofessor.com/new-media-advantages-and-disadvantages/).

Quiroz-Gutierrez, Marco. 2021. “Coca-Cola Loses $4 Billion in Market Value after Cristiano Ronaldo Shuns Coke.” Fortune. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://fortune.com/2021/06/16/cristiano-ronaldo-coca-cola-market-value-coke/).

Stoshevski, Ivana. 2016. “Top 10 Instagram Celebrities and How Much They Get Paid.” FinanceBuzz. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://financebuzz.com/top-10-instagram-celebrities-and-how-much-they-get-paid).

Swaminathan, Shakti. 2020. “The Show Must Go on: A Study on Celebrity Worship during COVID19.” Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Studies 2(4):110–22.

The Power Group. 2021. “The Growth of Influencer Culture.” The Power Group. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://thepowergroup.com/the-growth-of-influencer-culture/).

Warren, Jillian. 2021. “How Often Should You Post on Instagram in 2022?” Later.com. Retrieved December 7, 2022 (https://later.com/blog/how-often-post-to-instagram/).