14

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This literature review aims to build a greater and much comprehensive

understanding of the current knowledge relating to the key areas of the research question,

the impact of social media influencers in the several aspects of a student’s behavior and

lifestyle. The context will be provided first by building an understanding of the

relationship between students and social media influencers, and of how the latter reaches,

and therefore becomes a significant part of the former’s behavior and lifestyle. This is

followed by a substantial overview of the different aspects of a student’s behavior and

lifestyle, and the identified ways of how these aspects are then driven by these influential

powerhouses.

Social Media Influencers

Social Media Influencers (SMIs) are an independent third party endorser, who

through postson blogs, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media, express their

experience and opinions,shaping the public attitude towards brands, causes and such

other matters (Freberg et al, 2011; Muntinga et al., 2011).

Influencers are considered to be a particular type of active social media user, and

are defined as “opinion leaders who can use their online platforms to diffuse information

and affect the attitudes and behaviours of their audiences” (Moreno et al., 2015).

De Veirman et al (2017) proposed that if an influencer has a large following, they

can be perceived as opinion leaders. The concept of someone being a perceived opinion

leader leads to the topic of credibility.

 15

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

The concept of influencers is

not new. Its origin can be traced to traditional media and the presence of opinion leaders

who for the purpose of persuasion lead discussions on specific topics related to their

expertise (Zhao et al., 2018). Extending this definition to social media, users who started

as a regular person or are famous in a field and who have accumulated a large number of

followers on one or more of the online media platforms (e.g., Instagram, TikTok,

YouTube) and often persuade followers through their authentic messages are considered

as social media influencers (Lou and Yuan, 2019). Social media influencers often have

gained popularity on these media for their expertise or interest in some areas, such as

food, fashion, or lifestyle (Lou and Yuan, 2019). The influencers can have followers from

anywhere in the tens of thousands (micro-influencers) to the millions (celebrity

influencers).

The power and reach of a consumers’ opinion or reviews online means they have

the ability to automatically influence thousands of other consumers, thus giving a reason

for the growth of influencer marketing (Yusuf et al. 2018). Social media influencers are

now an influential powerhouse of “somebodies” who hold “immense growth and

increasing power” (Booth and Matic 2011: 184/190).

Barnes (2015) explained that Millennials’ filtering of digital advertisements could

be because they view themselves as proactive agents. They have well-developed

approaches to assessing advertising, basing judgements not just on standard advertising

of a brand, but the wider peer review of that brand. This provides insight into the

Millennial obsession with social media influencers.

 16

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY “Influencers”

are so called because they impact learning and, thus, cognitions and behaviors via

“modeling, reinforcement, and social interaction” (Folkvord et al., 2019; p. 79). Social

media, such as Facebook and Instagram, encourage users to engage via liking and/or

commenting on people’s posts. Such interactions tend to build social bonds among the

users and increase their attachment and emotional belongingness to the community.

Adolescents often build strong relationships with the influencers, and one “with whom

you have strong relationships are usually not expected to have ulterior motives”(Zeng et

al., 2017).

Moreover, many times, because of the influencers’ initial roots as regular users,

followers tend to relate to them easily and find them credible (Swant, 2016) to the extent

that many users consider social media influencers as their peers (van Dam and van

Reijmersdal, 2019).

Children are suggested to find influencers more relatable and credible, often

aspiring to achieve their lifestyles (De Jans et al., 2018). These influencer messages are

also considered by children to be more trustworthy and honest than other commercial

messages (Paek et al., 2011; De Jans et al., 2018).

Time Management

The popularization of Social Media networks such as YouTube and Google Video

are responsible for the reaching power of consumer-generated production. Most of the

studies suggest that Gen Y actively contributes to Social Media content, either creating it

or mashing it and that they are always looking for social media platforms where they can

contribute and be part of it (Bolton et al, 2013). In counterpoint, Bolton (2013) also
 17

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

points out to studies that suggest that

Millennials spend a considerable amount of time just consuming content like any other

generation. However, as many studies suggest that Millennials would rather create

advertisements instead of watching them, organizations can exploit their willingness to

write reviews to leverage their businesses.

Social network site (SNS) has become the most dynamic Web 2.0 application

which enables students not only to socialize with friends but also interact with lecturers.

The growing popularity of the sites is further influenced by the free access for whomever

that desire to interact with friends and lecturers with a view to generating collective

knowledge. (Hamat et al., 2012) According to Camus (2017), in the digital shift, the

Philippines has taken the global lead in at least one measure: time spent on social media.

The report, called Digital in 2017, showed that Filipinos spent an average of 4 hours and

17 minutes per day on social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter.

Social media use has become especially habitual among adolescents, which also

means that they are exposed to many native advertisements on a daily basis (Lou and

Yuan, 2019). Influencer posts are a form of native advertising because the intent of

commercial persuasion is masked by personal message curated by the social media

influencer (van Dam and van Reijmersdal, 2019).

An argument can be made that the time spent using social media is not beneficial

to the users, especially in the long term. Popular news outlets frequently report on stories

involving negative outcomes of social media usage. For example, though people with low

self-esteem consider Facebook an appealing venue for self- disclosure, the low
 18

positivity/high COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY negativity of

their disclosures elicited generally negative feedback from

others (Forest & Wood, 2012). This cycle can lower users’ happiness from not receiving

the encouragement and positive feedback that they were hoping for. Also, extended use

of a technology can lead to greater stresses. These technostresses can lower an

individual’s well-being.

There has been consistent evidence demonstrating that people who spend more

time on social media platforms, specifically Facebook, report higher addictive tendencies

(Hong, Huang, Lin, & Chiu, 2014; Koc&Gulyagci, 2013; Pornsakulvanich, 2018). A few

studies have examined the problematic use of social media more generally (Bányai et al.,

2017; Wu, Cheung, Ku, & Hung, 2013), and reported similar findings.

Millennials use technology and the internet not only to deal with their daily

activities but also for commercial purposes. Although they use traditional means to

access the internet, like laptops and desktops, Millennials tend to connect on social

networks from their mobile phone, which makes them have it strongly intersected with

their day-by-day activities (Moore, 2012).

The habit of using the Internet constantly changes the way by how this generation

interacts with media. This generation was born into a world of two-way communication

interactivity.With information circulating freely online, Millennials reject one-way

marketing and advertising (Serazio, 2015; Kotler, 2017). This generation is often

enthusiastic to give their feedback about the brands orproducts they use (eMarketer,

2011). They are more likely to value others opinions in social media (eMarketer, 2011;
 19

Smith, 2011), so it COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY is natural that

they believe that their opinion is also important. Smith (2011) argues that Millennials

usually feel comfortable giving their opinion about

products, for instance writing reviews and helping the consumer-generated product to be

shaped.

Personal Dialogue

Bandura, the social-science theorist responsible for much of our understanding of

how people reactin social situations, wrote, “In the social learning system, new patterns

of behavior can be acquired through direct experience or by observing the behaviors of

others (Bandura, 3). This explanation can help one understand why influencers are so

“influential.” Bandura explained, “On the basis of informative feedback, they

(consumers) develop thoughts or hypotheses about the types of behavior most likely to

succeed. These hypotheses then serve as guides for future actions”. To put this into

simpler terms, people learn from example, and influencers lead by example for those who

“follow” them. By observing examples through social media, people are more likely to

adopt the behaviors exhibited by the influencer (Forbes, 2016). Companies are using their

resources via social media influencers in hopes that the experience that a consumer has

withan influencer allows the behavior of the influencer to be adopted, that is, copied by

the consumer (Forbes, 2016).

It has been found that when a consumer is highly involved, they are less likely to

notice the persuasive attempt, yet their subconscious allows the attempt to impact their

attitudes, even if they do not necessarily remember (Matthes et al. 2007).

 20

One of the COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY reasons

influencers have such outstanding rapport with their followers is because they establish

expertise in niches that appeal to a hyper-targeted audience. Influencers drive the

language of the niche–the jargon used regularly, the hashtags

favored, the critical conversations, and the overall trends. Followers recognize

influencers’ expertise within the niche and follow their social media updates with avid

interest. In turn, influencers aim to cater to the fervid interests of their followers and

tailor their posts accordingly, while sticking to that which represents their own values and

personality (Mediakix, 2019)

Social media networks allow us the opportunity to share opinions with a far wider

audience. Another big change that has occurred is that there is now no filter on the way

we speak. In the past, unless you spoke to people directly, you had no way to get your

message across regardless of your freedom of speech. Now we can use social media to

get our messages out to thousands or even millions of people uncensored. Figure 3: A

Picture Really Does Paint 1000 Words. Photo Courtesy istockphoto.com

It can also be argued that social networks have affected our communication by the

way we converse and in our writing techniques. The social web has changed the written

word in a couple of crucial ways: Writing is more summarized: However, this has

allowed for shorter sentences or paragraphs and made way for neglecting correct

grammar use. Abbreviations are more prevalent: People who communicate via social

media or text message aren’t necessarily spelling things incorrectly; they are speaking a

new language entirely. “TTYL” (Talk to You Later) is commonly used to let someone
 21

know you will talk COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY to them later.

In today’s world, abbreviations are now so common that we do not even have to think

twice about what they stand for.

Pattern of Consumption

Social media is connecting individuals all over the world, where the power of

interaction and information sharing has shifted from companies to consumers. Since

companies now have a harder time reaching out to consumers, social media influencers

have been used as a solution to influence the purchase decisions of consumers and

thereby drive purchases.

Richard Sedley’s definition of engagement through social media, which he gave

during an interview with David Chaffey, was "Repeated interactions that strengthen the

emotional, psychological or physical investment a customer has in a brand.” High levels

of engagement for an influencer can indicate how devoted their followers are and hence,

indicate how influential they are as a source of advertising (Hurst 2016). Pansari and

Kumar (2017) present the idea that “when a relationship is satisfied and has emotional

bonding, it then progresses to the stage of engagement” (p.295). This suggests that

consumers' engagement on influencers' posts indicate that not only has a relationship

been initiated between influencer and consumer, but also that the influencer is potentially

a powerful source of advertising.

 22

Engagement COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY has been found

to impact future sales (Guesalaga 2016) and brand usage intent by consumers (Bolton et

al. 2013), but most importantly for this study, engagement with other customers has been

found to impact purchase intention (Husnain and Toor 2017). The intention to purchase

by aconsumer can be used to predict their actual buying behaviour (Sethi et al. 2018).

Bruns (2018) has proposed a model to explain how Trust and Perceived

authenticity are connected to the purchasing intention of Generation Z. The Bruns-

Siddiqui Intention to by model concept is that Social Media Influencer Marketing driven

leads to purchasing intention when consumers perceive an Influencer as authentic. The

model also explains how trust is only built when consumers perceive an Influencer as

authentic, and trust as well leads to intention to buy.

Trust, a dimension of credibility, was found to impact consumers’ long-term sales

and brand relationships (Sudha& Sheena, 2017) while expertise impacts the influencers’

reputation (De Veirman et al. 2017).

Bruns-Siddiqui intention to buy model (2018) connects perceived authenticity of

Influencer marketing driven to Intention to buy a product. It is natural that more authentic

are commendation feels, more the public get motivated to buy it. The perceived

authenticity of a recommendation through the public perception of good intention and

truth at the moment of reviewing a product is found in previous literature to enhance

purchase intention (Chen et al, 2015).

 23

Social COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY media has

grown dramatically over the past decade with estimates of more than 32% of the global

population using social media platforms in 2016 (Emarketer, 2016). The advent of

targeted advertising on social media platforms such Facebook and Twitter, has spawned

more interest, yet many industries continue to suffer from a lack of knowledge regarding

the marketing purpose of social media, and many flounder in fear of adoption (Kacker

and Perrigot, 2016).

The rapid rise of social media channels has attracted interest from both academe

and industry, keen to understand its nuances and how to strategically adopt, implement

and manage for desired results. The emergence of social media platforms and increasing

customer adoption of these platforms has significantly altered the way customers

communicate and interact with each other and with businesses. Technological

developments have introduced significant changes to the way in which organisations

interact with existing, and prospective customers (Siamagka et al., 2015). The interactive

properties of social media have transformed consumers from passive observers of content

to active participants who create vast quantities of user-generated content through their

conversations, interactions and behaviours online.

Personal Choice

Consumers have been relying on opinion leader recommendations to make

choices about product quality and purchases for a long time. It is even more prominent

now with the prevalence of influencers on social media platforms. The problem is, when
 24

there is a wide COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY variety of the

same product, consumers question if a positive recommendation is based on quality or

personal preferences. Nearly 50% of consumers rely on digital influencers and 40% make

purchases because of them, but it is important to note opinion leaders' recommendations

are influenced by both product quality and their individual preferences (Sciencedaily,

2019).

The study, "Opinion Leaders and Product Variety," conducted by Dmitri Kuksov

of the University of Texas at Dallas and Chenxi Liao of The Chinese University of Hong

Kong, found that consumers discount a positive influencer recommendation more when it

is about a product that has a large variety. Researchers say increasing product variety

does two things: it increases the likelihood of a positive expert opinion, but it also

decreases the consumer certainty that the quality of the product is good based solely on

the expert opinion. "When many types of a product are available, consumers may expect

an expert to find a better fit, and this consideration would then reduce consumer

expectations of the product quality” (Sciencedaily, 2019).

There are at least 2.3 billion registered users for the ten most popular social

networking websites worldwide combined (Socialnomics.net., 2011). Given this

enormous population of users, it comes as no surprise that Facebook.com and

YouTube.com are the two most-visited sites on the web, as of August 2014, and that

social media usage has become the most common activity on the web (Socialnomics.net.,

2012). Due to its ease of use, speed, and reach, social media is fast changing the public

discourse in society and setting trends and agendas in topics that range from the
 25

environment and COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY politics, to

technology and the entertainment industry (Asur& Huberman, 2010).

Social media sites are frequently accessed both at home and at work. Though

individuals can maintain a cognitive difference between personal life and professional

life, these two aspects are both a part of the whole that is the individual. Understanding

effects to both sides of a person’s life is important for gaining a holistic picture of the

individual. Sharing media content can profoundly impact attitudes and behaviors in large

groups (Kim, 2015, Lee, 2018, Bae, 2017, Berger, 2014, Meng, 2018). For sharing

decisions, behavioral research has shown that social influences affect the interpretation

and perceived importance of media content and vice versa (Bae, 2017).

However, social commerce assists the individuals in decision making and buying

activities within online communities and market place because it involves social media

and web 2.0 which facilitate the social interaction with user-generated content (Huang

and Benyoucef, 2013, Zhang et al., 2014).

Furthermore, Social media has become a huge motivator for people and their

career choices. As social media platforms of social interaction, communication, and

marketing are growing (Dwivedi, Kapoor, & Chen, 2015), increasing number of

businesses including educational firms are now starting to look into social media

platforms for interacting more with the customers (Alalwan, Rana, Dwivedi,

&Algharabat, 2017).

Attitude and Perception

 26

Researchers COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY have used

Attitude as a way to measure the effectiveness of Social MediaInfluencers (SMIs) in past

studies (De Veirman et al, 2017; Korotina and Jargalsaikhan,2016; Lu et al, 2014; Jatto,

2014). In the Bruns-Siddiqui intention to buy model Attitude is related to Intention to buy

a product (Bruns, 2018). Previous studies have also connected positive attitude towards a

person/brand/product to Authenticity (Lu et al, 2014), Expertise (Guadagno and Cialdini,

2005) and Popularity (De veirman et al, 2017). The reason for attitude being a good way

to measure purchase intention is that attitude towards a brand or product influences the

buyer decision-making (Fill, 2009).

Social media influencers, also known as micro-celebrities, are notorious for

creating a perfect image of themselves online and using that image to attract attention

(Chae, 2017). Defined as “individuals who are in a consumer’s social graph and have a

direct impact on the behaviour of that consumer” (Brown & Hayes, 2008), micro-

celebrities have a unique role being so close to consumers and their job description

relying so heavily on disseminating marketing messages (Ge &Gretzel, 2017). ‘The

development of micro-celebrities is mostly evident through Instagram, but they also exist

on YouTube, Twitter and other social platforms’ (Djafarova&Trofimenko, 2018), and

seem to exercise the kind of luxurious lifestyle ordinary women could only aspire to

(Chae, 2017). Instagram is a breeding ground where this comparison between social

media influencers and adolescents thrive. Because Instagram is ‘currently one of the most

dominant social media platforms for influencer marketing with more than 600 million
 27

active users’ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY (Evans, Phua,

Lim, & Jun; 2017), the photo and video-sharing site is a strong medium for young people

to strive for social media fame and become fixated on images at the expense of substance,

leading to the development of a self-absorbed youth culture” (Djafarova & Trofimenko,

2018).

According to French and Raven’s (1960) framework of power bases, one of the

key elements to perceived power lies in expertise. A blogger that focuses on one

particular subject, let’s say cooking, will be perceived to have more authority when it

comes to a particular brand of food (as opposed to a technology or sport blogger). This

authoritative position is further strengthened by a game of sheer numbers: a large number

of followers, shares, and likes will provide viewers with a form of social proof. The

notion that others value the opinion of an influencer, and adhere to their judgments,

assures viewers that doing so is okay. If the majority is doing something, they must be

right.

Then there’s the matter of attractiveness. This is a strategy that marketers have

already been using for ages — I’m sure you can think of numerous examples of

advertisements featuring some handsome Hollywood actor recommending a certain

luxury product. As humans are susceptible to attractiveness bias, we subconsciously

attribute attractive or charismatic people with many other qualities simply because they

are good looking. Furthermore, this could lead to positive associations between the

person and the brand as well. These opinions influence the subconscious of the viewer,
 28

potentially priming COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY them when

faced with a product-related decision (Djafarova&Trofimenko, 2018),

But, what really sets social media influencers apart from other types of endorsers

is their relatability. Despite having a large popularity and internet following, influencers

are still perceived as mostly normal, down-to-earth people. They post about their

everyday life, stay connected with their followers, and are able to interact directly with

them. Plus, they often share the same age group, demographics, interests, and behaviours

of their target audience (Djafarova&Trofimenko, 2018),

This ties in closely to social identity theory, the part of psychology that deals with

how people view themselves as belonging to a group of similar individuals, and basing

part of their personal identity on their membership to said group. Naturally, the opinions

of members of the same group are worth more to people than those of a different group.

More importantly, most influencers belong to the younger age group of

millennials, a demographic that is notoriously difficult to reach for marketers. They’re a

group that places strong value on forming their own identity, one of the most important

parts of growing up. To do so, teens often look up to role models to shape their own

behaviour. Having a role model that is relatable and easy to identify with makes it all the

more likely that teens will copy their behaviour (Djafarova&Trofimenko, 2018),

Social Connections

Social Media Influencers (SMIs) play a key role in affecting the way users

interact on social media, and organizations have learnt to leverage on this group when

they prepare their communication and public relations plans (Freberg et al., 2011;
 29

Moreno et al., 2015; COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY Li, 2016; Ge

and Gretzel, 2018; Ong and Ito, 2019).

In the available studies, an influencer is defined as someone who has been

empowered by their network, is extremely active on social media and so makes a

significant impact (Li, 2016).

There is the widespread recognition that social media users play different roles

within social media platforms based upon their level of engagement with the production

and consumption of information (Shao, 2009; Muntinga et al., 2011; Austin et al., 2012;

Li, 2016; Ge and Gretzel, 2018).

Messages proclaimed by social media influencers are often perceived as

more reliable and compelling to consumers, and have been substantiated by 82%

of followers' polls, in which consumers are reported to be more likely to follow

their favorite influences' recommendations (Talaverna 2015).

The life of their favourite influencers is a lot different than what it is portrayed-

they too have their struggles, weaknesses and days when they do not look their best but

their social media is structured in a way to portray only the brighter side. The problem

begins when there is a failure to recognize this truth and teenagers start comparing the

highlights and the ‘picture perfect’ moment of such people to their everyday life which

might not seem as glamorous in comparison. This life of constantly feeling ‘not good

enough’ or ‘not content’ with yourself leads to various other problems that highlight the

third issue is revolving around the overuse of social media. Teens addicted to social

media are found to be more susceptible to grave issues such as depression and others
 30

such as body COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY dysmorphia and

a complete lack of communication skills due to a cut off from the real world (Gordon,

2018).

Social media has also changed the way that we interact, mainly the way we have

lost some of our social skills. Some people are completely incapable of carrying on a

normal conversation or interacting with people in person because of the dependency of

social media. Social networks are becoming one of the dominant ways we communicate.

People are more obsessed with checking their smart phone every 2 minutes than engaging

in meaningful conversation with their child or spouse. Social media and technology are

double-edged swords. It’s awesome to have and can really help us, but it also distracts us

to the point of being blind and deaf to everything else going on (Sabramanian, 2017).

Before social media, we were extremely limited in our means to interact with

others and we were limited largely to the people that we knew in-person. There were

things we (those my age and older) had to deal with that millennials do not have to , your

significant other’s parent answering the phone when you called, waiting for a letter in the

mail, waiting a week to get your pictures that you sent off to be developed, and so on.

The internet and social media has drastically changed the way people all over the world

interact and communicate. One of the biggest positive changes in the way that we

interact, due to social media networks, is the sheer number of people that we can interact

with. Because of social media networks, we are now able to interact with thousands of

people all over the world – this is why we see people who have thousands of Face book

friends or tens of thousands of Twitter followers. Without social media, that would be
 31

impossible COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY (Sabramanian,

2017).

Literature Conclusion

The literature review contextualized the framework of the study and presented the

key concepts and ideas underlying the study that will be further tested and analyzed as

the researchers continue to delve deeper to find answers for the research question, how

social media influencers affect several aspects of student’s behaviour and lifestyle. It was

shown that though substantial amount of previous literatures exist to provide adequate

information about social media influencers and their relation to consumers, little is

known and is capable of providing a clear and comprehensive understanding of the

effects of social media influencers when it comes to the different aspects of a student’s

behaviour and lifestyle. And, although secondary data in consideration to social media

and its impact on users are derived from previous literatures, it can only provide a certain

amount of information in relation to the topic. To achieve more profound understanding,

it is therefore necessary to go further in the study.

The following references are provided for the convenience of the readers and

authentication purposes. By reviewing these previous literatures, it is clearly evident that

there is great interest and effort exerted in finding out more details about Social Media

Influencers (SMI’s).
 32

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

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