WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GHANA

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS ON CONSUMER

BEHAVIOR IN DIGITAL MARKETING IN GHANA

BY

BAKAYOKO LEILA SARAH MARYSE

10221537

A PROJECT WORK SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF RESEARCH AND

GRADUATE STUDIES, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEGREE
(MARKETING OPTION)

FEBRUARY 2023
 DECLARATION

I do hereby declare that this work is the result of my own research and has not been

presented by anyone for any academic award in this or any other university. All references

used in this work have been fully acknowledged.

I therefore bear responsibility for any shortcomings.

________________ ________________

Bakayoko Leila Sarah Maryse Date

(10221537)

ii
 CERTIFICATION

I hereby certify that this project work was supervised in accordance with procedures laid

down by the University.

________________ ________________
Dr. Eric Ansong Date
(Supervisor)

iii
 DEDICATION

Every challenging work requires self-efforts as well as guidance from the people who are

very close. My humble effort is devoted to my Parents.

For earning an honest living for us and for encouraging, loving and supporting me, most

importantly for teaching me to trust Allah and that so much could be done with little.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First and foremost, praises and thanks to God Almighty, for his showers of blessing

throughout the successful completion of my research work.

I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my research supervisor, Dr. Eric

Ansong for providing me with invaluable guidance throughout this research. His

dynamism, vision, sincerity and motivation have deeply inspired me. He has taught me the

methodology to carry out and to present the research works as clearly as possible. It was a

great privilege and honor to work and study under his guidance. I am extremely grateful

for what he has offered me. I would also like to thank him for his friendship, empathy, and

great sense of humor.

I am extremely grateful to my parents for their love, prayers, care and sacrifices. Also for

educating and preparing me for my future.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………..ii

CERTIFICATION………………………………………………………………………...iii

DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………….iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENT…………………………………………………………………...v

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………….vi

LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………...……....ix

LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………..…….x

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVATIONS………………………………………..xi

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………....xii

CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………..1

1.1 Research Background………………………………………………………………..1

1.2 Research Problem……………………………………………………………………3

1.3 Research Purpose……………………………………………………………………5

1.4 Research Objectives…………………………………………………………………5

1.5 Research Questions …………………………………………………………………5

1.5 Significance of study………………………………………………………………...6

1.6 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………………...7

1.7 Chapter outline………………………………………………………………………7

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CHAPTER TWO : LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………..9

2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….9

2.2 Conceptual Review………………………………………………………………….9

2.3 Theoretical Review………………………………………………………………...28

2.4 Conceptual Framework…………………………………………………………….30

2.5 Chapter Summary…………………………………………………………………..32

CHAPTER THREE : RESEARCH METHODS……….………………………………...33

3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………...33

3.2 Research Design……………………………………………………………………33

3.3 Measurement type………………………………………………………………….34

3.4 Time horizon and focal unit of the study…… …………………………………...34

3.5 Population…..…………………………………….………………………………..35

3.6 Sample size and Sampling technique………………………………………………35

3.7 Data collection method…………………………………………………………..…37

3.8 Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………....39

CHAPTER FOUR : FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS…………………………..……...40

4.1 Introduction…...……………………………………………………………….......40

4.2 Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Respondents……………..…………….....40

4.3 First Research Objective…………..……………….…………………..…......…..44

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 4.4 Second research Objective…….……………………………………………..…..48

4.5 Third research Objective………….…………………..…………………...…..…53

4.6 Conclusion…...…………………………………………………………………...55

CHAPTER FIVE : CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS………….……….56

5.1 Introduction………………...…………………………………………………....56

5.2 Summary of Research Findings…………………...…………………...………..56

5.3 Conclusions……...……………………………………………………………....60

5.4 Recommendation……………...………………………………………………....61

5.5 Suggestions……...…………..………………………..…………….....................61

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………...……….62

APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………….76

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.2.1 The Demographic Profile (Age)…………………….…………...……….40

Table 4.2.2 The Demographic Profile (Gender)………….…………………..……......41

Table 4.2.3 The Demographic Profile (Average Time Spent on Social Media

Platform)…………………………………………………………………………42

Table 4.2.4 The Demographic Profile (Social media influencers respondents

follow)………..………………………………………………………………..…43

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.3.1 Theoretical Framework…………………………………….…...…………..30

Figure 2.4.1 A Conceptual Framework ……….…………..…….………….…..………..31

Figure 4.3.3 Awareness of Social Media Influencers………… .……………..…………44

Figure 4.3.4 Preferred Social Media Influencers… ………....…………………………45

Figure 4.3.5 Perceived Roles of Social Media Influencers in Product Purchase Decision

Making…………………………………………………………………………...47

Figure 4.3.6 Perceived Roles of Social Media Influencers in Product Marketing...……..47

Figure 4.3.7 Social Media Influencer Strategies in Promoting Brands and Products…...49

Figure 4.3.8 Social Media Platforms Often used to Promote Products and Brands…….51

Figure 4.3.9 Perception on Effectiveness of Social Media Influencers in Consumer

Decisions Making…………..…………………………………………………….52

Figure 4.3.10 Trust towards Social Media Influencers in Ghana (Pie Chart)……...…...53

Figure 4.3.11 Respondents’ Trust levels towards Social Media Influencers in Ghana

(Bar Graph)……………………………………………………………………....54

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 LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ROI RETURN ON INVESTMENT

SNS SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
SMI SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS
SMIM SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER MARKETING
SMM SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
DM DIGITAL MARKETING

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 ABSTRACT

With the exponential growth of digital marketing and the increasing prominence

of social media platforms, influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for

brands to engage with their target audience. In Ghana, a rapidly developing economy

with a significant online presence, social media influencers have become pivotal players

in shaping consumer behavior and influencing purchase decisions. This research aims to

investigate the impact of social media influencers on consumer behavior in digital

marketing within the Ghanaian context. This study adopts a quantitative approach.

Quantitative data will be gathered through a formalized set of online questionnaires

distributed to a diverse sample of Ghanaian consumers to find out the impact of social

media influencers’ perceived credibility on consumer behavior. For the purposes of this

study the population comprises of masters students from the Wisconsin Internertional

University College, Ghana representing various demographic segments. The Sample size

for this study is 200 students.

The survey will explore consumers' exposure to social media influencers, their

engagement with influencer content, and its influence on their purchasing decisions. In

conjunction with the survey. The research aims to uncover key factors that contribute to

the success of influencer marketing campaigns in Ghana, including the alignment of

influencer content with consumer preferences, the perceived credibility and

trustworthiness of influencers, and the role of cultural and social norms in shaping

consumer attitudes. Additionally, the study seeks to identify any challenges or ethical

concerns associated with influencer marketing practices in the Ghanaian context

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

Influencer marketing has evolved from traditional marketing strategies such as

print ads, celebrity endorsement, and Digital Marketing (DM) (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner,

Walsh & Gremler, 2004). An influencer is regarded as a person who has built up a lot of

followers on a social media platform such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and

more. Companies are today widely using these people as a marketing tool to reach out to

their target audience in an effective way (Bullas, 2015). With the more prolific rise of

influencers on social media platforms (SMP), companies are taking advantage of the

influencer marketing strategy to advertise their products.

Influencer marketing, defined generally, is a form of social media marketing

(SMM) with the integration of product placement by people with large social followings

(Vinerean et al., 2013). As a result of the rise of influencer marketing, and the popularity

of social media use, this marketing strategy is beneficial when considering brand

communication and company revenue. Companies and corporations have elevated their

marketing strategies by integrating the use of social media influencer marketing (SMIM).

Companies are able to reach new target audiences and change their way of brand

communication with their customers using this marketing strategy (Solomon, Bamossy,

Askegaard & Hogg, 2010).

The concept of using influential personalities or opinion leaders for brand endorsement is

not new. A few years back, when social media platforms were not relatively popular,

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businesses used celebrities' social status, fame, and reputation as a marketing tool to

promote their brands (Ford, 2018). However, with the rise of social media influencers

(SMI) have taken over this role as brands are now reaching out them to promote their

products and services (Ki et al., 2020). Traditional celebrities such as actors, models,

sports players, etc. are experts in their profession. Whereas social media influencers

originate from social media platforms and often develop their personality on one or more

social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc. (Swant,

2016). These social media influencers are content creators with a large subscriber base

whose content must have a significant impact on their followers (De Veirman et al.,

2017). They influence followers’ behavior by providing feedback on different products

and offering information and recommendations to their followers (Jun & Yi, 2020). An

article written by Mohsin (2021) reveals that social media platforms had approximately

3.78 billion active users worldwide in 2020, and 54% of these users browse social media

to investigate products and services.

Brand marketers are increasingly incorporating social media influencer marketing

strategies into their overall marketing strategies (Rahal, 2020). According to the statistics,

marketers from the overall world were projected to spend $15 billion on social media

influencer marketing by 2022, however, this amount was only $8 billion in 2019 (Javed,

2020). In this regard, there is the need to explore the impact of social media influencers on

consumer behavior in digital marketing from a developing economy perspective.

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1.2 Research Problem

Corporations are making massive investments in influencer marketing as it has

emerged as a powerful marketing tool (Lou & Yuan, 2019). Compared to celebrities,

followers feel more similar to influencers and feel more confident about their content

(Schouten et al., 2020). The information shared by social media influencers is considered

more reliable by customers (Kapitan & Silvera, 2016). The concept of influencer

marketing is spreading widely in many industries. Fashion and style are some of such

industries that are widely dominated by social media influencers. Due to their incredible

flair for fashion and style, these influencers have the power to persuade and convince their

followers (Park & Kim, 2016).

Recognizing the growing need for influencer marketing, several studies have been

carried out on different research streams. Some researchers examined the impacts of social

media influencer marketing on consumer behavior (Belanche et al., 2021; Jin et al., 2019;

Teng et al., 2014). Some researchers attempted to explore the traits and attributes that help

individuals to become social media influencers (Casaló et al., 2020; Govindan & Alotaibi,

2021). Some have studied the impacts of advertisement disclosures, that is, followers'

attitude towards the sponsorship disclosure by social media influencers (Han et al., 2020;

Boerman, 2020). Some authors investigated the impact of source credibility on consumer

behavior (AlFarraj et al., 2021; Chetioui et al., 2019; Wiedmann & Mettenheim, 2020).

Some studies have been conducted to investigate the importance of the product-endorser

fit, i.e., how important is it for an influencer to promote products that match their

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personality and lifestyle (Schouten et al., 2020). Some researchers examined the number

of followers as the social media influencers’ effectiveness (De Veirman, et al., 2017).

However, despite the studies conducted, the topic seems to still lack scientific knowledge,

and questions are raised concerning what matters when it comes to the effectiveness of

influencers and their overall impact on consumer attitudes (Jiménez-Castillo & Sánchez-

Fernández, 2019). It has become a struggle for marketers to select the best-fit social media

influencer for their advertising campaigns (De Veirman et al., 2017). The greater

popularity of an influencer or number of followers, influencers parasocial relationship

with their followers, or a charismatic personality of an influencer are not the only

measures of effectiveness; therefore, further research is required to investigate the factors

that impact the effectiveness of influencers (Jiménez-Castillo & Sánchez Fernandez, 2019;

Boerman, 2020; Vrontis et al., 2021).

To bridge this gap, the study aims to contribute to the existing literature by

investigating in depth the credibility aspect of influencers and their impact on consumer

behavior while assessing the mediating effects of followers’ loyalty to the influencer. To

the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the mediating role

of “loyalty to the influencer” in between the relationship of influencer’s credibility

(attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness) and consumer behavior in terms of followers’

purchase intention and attitude towards the brand with reference to the fashion industry.

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1.3 Research Purpose

The purpose of the study is to explore the effects of social media influencers'

credibility dimensions on consumer behavior while considering the followers' loyalty as

the mediating variable in the fashion industry. The purpose is also to evaluate how

influencer marketing affects purchase intention through social media.

1.4 Research Objectives

This study seeks to:

1. Examine the impact of social media influencers’ perceived credibility dimensions

on the followers’ purchase intention and attitude towards the brand.

2. Explore the impact of social media influencers’ perceived credibility dimensions

on the followers’ loyalty toward social media influencers

3. Determine how the followers’ loyalty towards social media influencers impact the

followers’ purchase intention and attitude towards the brand.

1.5 Research Questions

The following main questions are formulated to achieve the objectives of this study:

1. What is the impact of social media influencers’ perceived credibility dimensions

on the followers’ purchase intention and attitude towards the brand?

2. What is the impact of social media influencers’ perceived credibility dimensions

on the followers’ loyalty toward social media influencers?

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 3. How does the followers’ loyalty towards social media influencers impact the

followers’ purchase intention and attitude towards the brand?

1.6 Significance of study

Considering the high growth of social media influencer marketing and the need for

research in this sector, this study seeks to examine the mediating effect of followers’

loyalty to understand the relationship between the credibility dimensions of the fashion

influencers and consumer behavior. The prior studies were conducted to examine the

effects of other mediating variables such as the para-social relationship between followers

and social media influencers (Aw & Chuah, 2021), self-congruency with the influencer

(Belanche et al., 2021), attitude towards the endorsements (Bergkvist et al., 2016), online

engagement (AlFarraj et al., 2021), and sponsorship disclosure (Jans et al., 2019;

Weismueller et al., 2020). However, the present study employs a different perspective

examining the mediating role of followers’ loyalty in between the relationship of

influencer credibility and consumer behavior. The findings of the study will provide

important theoretical contributions to the existing literature.

Also, the study will help marketers or businesses to understand how the credibility of

influencers is important when selecting influencers to promote their products and brands.

The study would provide marketers with practical implications to formulate marketing

strategies and to obtain effective results.

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In addition to this, the study findings would help the influencers in understanding the

importance of followers’ loyalty, and how their followers’ loyalty can help them to build

and grow their careers as professional influencers.

1.7 Limitations of the study

Although the present study explores several interesting theoretical and managerial

implications, the study still has some limitations. First of all, this study has a limitation of

depending on only quantitative data gathered from different cities of Ghana. The results

could differ if the research design consisted of qualitative methods, such as interviewing

the respondents or a combination of both methods. Secondly, the data collection method

was based on a non-probability sampling technique, that is, convenience sampling because

it was practically impossible to adopt probability sampling in this case due to time

constraints and procedural limitations.

Lastly, the results obtained are limited to data collected in a single country, Ghana. The

results could be more reliable if data were gathered from respondents of two or more

countries to gain a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena in different social

contexts.

1.8 Chapter outline

To obtain concrete results from this research work, I have deemed it appropriate to

divide this work into five chapters:

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Chapter one covers the introductory part with the study background, problem statement,

research purpose, research objectives, research questions, significance and limitation of

the study, justification and methodology overview. Literature will be reviewed in chapter

two, where there would be theoretical foundations for the study. Chapter three covers the

population, sample size and methodology that highlights the methods of data collection

used. Chapter four will be the findings and discussion of the results. Finally Chapter five

will be the summary of the results followed by the conclusion and recommendations

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This literature review aims to develop a deeper understanding of the existing body

of literature related to the study. The study discusses social media platforms such as

Instagram, blogs, YouTube, and Facebook. In addition, social media influencers and

influencer marketing were discussed as well. Furthermore, Ghanaians, which are also

known as Generation Y, were examined too. This chapter explains the themes of the

study, such as social media influencers, source credibility, influencer’s physical

attractiveness, influencer’s product match-up etc. Other related studies, were adequately

reviewed.

2.2 Conceptual Review

Types of Social Media

When it comes to customer purchase behavior, it is affected by different cyber

communities (Solomon, et al, 2010).

Five different types of social media platforms according to (Patel, 2015) will be discussed;

• Social networking sites

• Social news

• Media sharing

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• Blogs

• Micro-blogging

The various types of social media platforms (of which the above is just part) have different

functions, features and uses that give different users specific satisfaction or experiences,

for example customer and retailers, users and reviewers.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter and Telegram are examples of social

network websites that people use as medium for connecting with others. Weinberg (2009)

says that, the general terminology for websites that use data from individuals and users

with common backgrounds (education, training, credentials), experience and interests to

connect those individuals are social network sites (SNS).

Mostly platforms like these have some general characteristics:

• They are made customizable so the individuals or users can create personal

accounts that are interactive and also confide in the networking system

• The grouping of users-connections or contacts based on common information or

mutual interests

• Ability to go through other people’s profiles and also access the list of friends of

their other connections on the platform (Boyd and Ellison 2007).

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Users and consumers see this as a medium where they can build relationships with

persons, groups or brands by various means like social media shops, pages and other

affiliated applications

Social News and Bookmarking Sites

Both Social Bookmarking sites and Social News sites are fast-growing in online

communities; examples are Flipboard, Reddit, and Telegraph. With Social News, users

can easily be in charge of their streams and news feed, and also the users or viewers have

the chance of sharing and voting on content on the internet. The main reason for voting

content is to bookmark some exciting stories to read later. (Zarrella, 2010).

It allows personalization since readers can curate the kind of new stream they want to

have; this wonderful feature allows the user to create personal important values from the

service. The content is rather personal and mostly news is focused on user-interest which

allows the user to freely participate in discussions (Zarrella, 2010).

Media-Sharing Sites

When it comes to media-sharing, websites like YouTube, Sound cloud, Flickr and

the like are outlets where users or consumers can upload, keep, and share their multimedia

files like music, photos and videos, with the general public.

The websites open many doors to a lot of opportunities, the reason being some of the

outlets as part of the online networking sector have dependably been a fortress to online

groups, as they provide individuals the ability to create their own podcasts channels and

inspire audience followership by having subscribers.

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The media sharing sites have one fascinating feature that helps in engaging other users

called ‘tag’. According to Zarrella (2010), a word that is assigned to a particular kind of

content to help easily depict it is a tag; which is then to say that on search engines,

businesses must know the relevance of such words.

Facebook

Nowadays, when thinking about a social network, it seems almost impossible not

to think about Facebook. Individuals can communicate and share information instantly

and independently from their geographical location (Zarrella, 2010).

In addition, people can now tell the world what they think and do easily from online

communities based on affinities, interests, political and religious views, and common

causes. Among these social networking websites, Facebook indeed stands as the most

popular and influential social networking website (Safko & Brake, 2009). On Facebook

most individuals or users are fishing for friends, or trading information, opinions, and

experiences on their mutual interest and common interests (Ridings & Gefen, 2004).

A factor determining people’s use of Facebook is social influence. Teo, Seng &

Fu. (2009) carried out a study and hypothesized that the user’s willingness to join and use

Facebook is directly related to the following: the number of associates using the social

network, the belief that Facebook has the most active users globally, and finally the belief

that Facebook is the most used networking site among an individual’s peers.

Also, Teo et al. (2009) projected that the use of the website grows with the size of a

person’s social network and with the usefulness of the functions and applications on the

12
website. The findings confirmed these hypotheses and the researchers concluded that peer

effect has indeed a role in an individual’s choice to use Facebook.

Microblogging

A different form of blogging that functions as a broadcast medium is

microblogging; unlike traditional blogging, microblogging has its content small in real or

aggregated size, in terms of file (Wikipedia, 2016). Microblogging is an online tool that

permits the user to send short messages to different users. Micro posts can be made open

on a site or circulated to a private gathering of other users.

It is almost like blogging, a real-time data content social network; but here

character-count (maximum words per post) is limited. Microblogging permits users to post

their short-content messages through texts, cell telephones or the web. One of microblog

pioneers, for example Twitter, that started in 2006, had over 332 million users as of

January 2016 and handles more than 1.6 billion search queries on a daily basis (Twitter,

2016). Twitter provides businesses with influence and advantage through traffic online by

creating a thrill on cybernetic communities, as users get the essence and concise

information through short-texted posts. Weinberg (2009) makes it known that

organizations have been using Twitter to tap into the business prospects, promoters, and

customers; meeting both online and offline marketing goals, and building product or

service brand among others (Weinberg, 2009).

One powerful function in microblogging to marketers is the Retweet, which makes

individuals or businesses repost the content other users have posted onto their Twitter

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stream. This makes that particular tweet spread virally in a furious speed (Instagram,

2012).

Three social media networks, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are common

platforms that are mostly patronized by consumers for diverse reasons (Miller, 2010).

Parson (2013) made a research that showed that as many as 60% of users/customers on

Facebook said that after following a brand on social media they could easily endorse to

their friends the brand, product or service. 79% of Twitter clients according to Parson

(2013) were more ready to prescribe an item or brand on Social Media to their friends and

followers after following the brand. Twitter’s open, ongoing and conveyed platform

empowers clients to discover and draw in first-hand with brands. In that case, it's just

normal that Twitter is the platform users/clients use when they need customer service

attention about matters concerning brand, product or service (Lesser, 2015).

According to Lesser (2015), some businesses that have decided to participate in

Twitter customer service have a chance of jeopardizing their public relations, however the

brands that want to be successful use Twitter to strengthen the relationships they have

with their customers. Masri et al. (2015) points out, users below 35 years use right around

four hours for each day of their time on online networking, and a greater amount of that

time is they keep interacting with brands. On Twitter, 72% of users and customers who

‘open dispute’ or make a report to a brand are expecting a response in just an hour.

Businesses must therefore have strategies in place for a response action in case of any

complaints (Masri et al., 2015).

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Since 2011, Instagram has been growing rapidly due to its active users posting various

images (Kreiger, 2010). A study by Lazezzera (2014) shows that 13% of individuals on

the internet own an account on Instagram, also above 50% of top hundred brands can be

found on Instagram. When users follow a competitor on Instagram, businesses should be

able to offer those users relatively better products or services; since the users that are

following the competitors have demonstrated they are interested in the company’s

product, the company should engage with them to make users customers (Lazazzera,

2014).

Social media influencers

The popularity of social media sites has resulted in a considerable increase in the

number of social media users around the world. According to the report published on

Datareportal (2021), by October 2021, social media users have reached 4.55 billion, an

increase of 9.9% social media users in just one year or an average addition of 13 new

social media users per second. The Datareportal (2021) report also claimed that the

average time spent by social media users on different social media platforms is 2 hours 24

minutes.

The emergence of social media platforms has altered the way people live, interact

with others, perceive and gather information about everything. It has become inevitable to

live in this digital world without having social media accounts. The purpose of using

social media sites is not limited to fun and entertainment, but 40% of social media users

use social media platforms for work purposes (Dean, 2021).

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Sin and Kim (2013) concluded that social media sites are a good source to gather

information. Consumers collect information through social media platforms and make

purchase decisions based on the gathered information (Casalóa, et al., 2020) The

admiration of social media sites has helped many people to become famous through

generating content on social media platforms and attracting a large fan following, thus

resulted in a new term, “social media influencers”. Social media influencers have emerged

as independent third-party endorsers who shape the behavior of social media users via

tweets, blogs, or any other social media platforms (Freberga, et al., 2011).

The internet and the popularity of social media platforms have brought a paradigm

shift to the world of marketing. Social networking sites have opened up new opportunities

for influencers marketing (Swant, 2016). Previously, brands used to consider only

renowned people such as film stars, sports players, social activists, journalists, etc. for

endorsement and advertising purposes (Silvera & Austad, 2004). But now, regular

customers who have an enormous influence on public opinion are taking charge of this

role (Scott, 2015; De Veirman, et al., 2017). These influential regular customers are

known as social media influencers (Lou & Yuan, 2019). Social media influencers are

neither celebrities nor general people (Odell, 2016). These influencers are people with a

large fan-following via different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram,

YouTube, etc. (De Veirman, et al., 2017). Social media users are often influenced by these

social media influencers as they continuously generate valuable content for their followers

about different issues related to their expertise such as fitness, makeup, fashion and style,

health, etc. or just about their normal life routine such as grocery shopping (Lou & Yuan,

16
2019; Freberga, et al., 2011). Social media followers are inspired by their personalities

and lifestyle, and thus admire the recommendations, tips, and advice made by them (Jans,

et al., 2019).

Increasing internet accessibility has made it easier to use social media applications,

almost everyone on the social media platforms creates and share content, however, some

of them easily attract a mass audience because of their natural charismatic personality,

thus developing an extensively large followers base, and inadvertently becoming social

media influencers (Makrides, et al., 2020). For instance, in 2019, a well-known blogger,

Chiara Ferragni created her blogs just for enjoyment but over time she has not only gained

an extensive fan base of more than 20 million followers on Instagram but has launched her

brand that is spreading internationally as well (O’Connor, 2017). Whereas some people

from the beginning enter into the world of social media influencers to pursue it as their

profession and career (Makrides, et al., 2020). Based on different platforms, different titles

have been developed for social media influential personalities, such as Instagrammer or

Instafamous, YouTuber or Vloggers, and bloggers (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017;

Govindan & Alotaibi, 2021; Yea, et al., 2021). Instagrammer or Instafamous are

influential content creators on the Instagram platform (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017;

Govindan & Alotaibi, 2021). YouTubers or Vloggers are the influencers generating

content in the form of videos on the YouTube platform (Govindan & Alotaibi, 2021; Jans,

et al., 2019). Bloggers are the blog owners who generate content about their hobbies,

lifestyles, profession, etc. (Govindan & Alotaibi, 2021). These social media influencers

based on the number of followers are divided into sub-categories, such as mega-

17
influencers (more than 1 million followers and are also called social media superstars),

macro-influencers (100,000 to 1 million followers), micro-influencers (1,000 to 100,000

followers), and Nano influencers are influencers who have a huge impact on a specific

community and have less than 1,000 followers (Govindan & Alotaibi, 2021).

Traditional celebrities are known for possessing extraordinary skills and expertise

in their profession such as comedians for exceptional comedy, movie stars for their acting,

sports players for their outstanding performance, etc. (Govindan & Alotaibi, 2021;

Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017). Whereas social media influencers often develop their

personalities on different social media platforms and are known for generating content for

their followers, acquiring a large fan base, and then turning their social media presence

into their profession (Govindan & Alotaibi, 2021; Vrontis, et al., 2021). These social

media influencers are sometimes referred to as self-made “micro-celebrities” (Senft,

2008). Unlike traditional celebrities, social media influencers are not nationwide popular

for their services but they centered their activities around a more segmented audience

sharing similar interests (Senft, 2008; Kapitan & Silvera, 2016). For instance, social media

influencers having extraordinary makeup sense and expertise would concentrate on

acquiring a fan base with makeup interests to attain effective outcomes of popularity, etc.

Likewise, influencers with great cooking skills would be in search of followers

having an interest in cooking and always in search of new recipes. Since social media

influencers focus on a more specific audience with similar interests, therefore, their

recommendations are likely to be considered more credible and reliable than endorsements

from traditional celebrities (Lou & Yuan, 2019; Schouten, et al., 2020). Furthermore,

18
endorsements that come from social media influencers tend to be perceived as more

sincere by the audience as compared to conventional celebrities (Kapitan & Silvera,

2016).

Customers Behavior

Online behavior is defined as individual behaviors towards online products and

services provided by the companies while making purchases. Buyer behavior refers to the

buyer’s perspective regarding a product while purchasing from an online source and this

behavior can either be positive or negative. Research has identified behavior as a multi-

dimensional entity that may be conceptualized in some ways (Li & Zhang, 2002).

Different researchers and academics use different parameters to adjudge the behavior of

the consumer. According to Gozukara et al. (2014), the first aspect of consumer behavior

relates to the user's perception of a practical incentive, the incentives could include but are

not limited to the quality of the product, marginal convenience, variety seeking, the

comparative benefit of costs, time and effectiveness (Gozukara et al., 2014). The second

aspect of consumer behavior is a hedonic motive related to happiness, fulfillment of

fantasy, and enjoyment. The third is perceived ease of use and utility, according to Baber

et al. (2014). Another aspect related to consumers’ perception is perceived risk while

shopping online.

In the previous research, it is stated that trust is critical in building firm

relationships among business-to-business and business-to-customers (Roseau et al., 1998;

Dony et al., 2015). Further previous research states that social media influencers are vital

19
for impacting consumers' behavior. Confidence also helps brands to establish deep-rooted

relationships with end-user and build their faithfulness (Selnes, 1998). A recent report on

social media trends indicated that they were found to be effective by 94 percent of

marketers who used social media celebrities in their marketing campaigns and comparing

it with the conventional way of advertising, marketing through influencers provides 11

times the return on investment (ROI) (Ahmad, 2018). With the advent of the latest e-

commerce technologies, the communication between the brands and the consumers is

being narrowed which facilitates the acquisition of more credible information about the

brand's products and helps in making quick and right buying decisions (Telen, 2004). In

2009, research conducted by Lee stated that the information on social media which comes

from a more credible source having expertise regarding specific products is more likely to

impact the purchase intentions of customers (Lee, 2009).

Purchase Intentions

Purchasing intention is an important term and has been a core focus of numerous

previous studies (Chandon et al., 2005; Dholokia et al., 2002; Morwitz, 2001). Purchasing

intention is the probability of an individual’s future decision to purchase a particular item

at some particular time (Howard, 1963). Rather than considering purchase intention from

a likelihood perspective, purchase intention is a consistent procedure according to some

authors. Purchase intention is a consumer's mental state as he/she determines and chooses

the number of things to buy at a particular time (Lankford et al., 1993).

20
Purchase intention is narrated as a person's probability of engaging in a specific behavior

(Fishbein et al., 1975). Therefore, it is the chances of the willingness of the customer to

make a purchase. Some authors described it as the chances of a customer to purchase

goods (Dodds et al., 1991; Zeithaml, 1988).

So, after examining many different definitions of researchers, purchase intention can be

defined as either a buyer's probability of purchasing a product or the decision-making

involved when buying an item. Predicting the future actions of buyers, particularly

purchasing manners, is a basic part of prophecy and planning.

Furthermore, knowing purchase intention is a crucial consideration for

organizations trying to acquire and maintain customers and improve the organization's

chances for success and development, thereby boosting the interest of investors (Thang,

2008). As research showed that brands depend on consumers' desires pertaining to

selecting a new product or replicating purchasing of existing items (Cornwell et al., 2005;

Ngoc, 2009). One researcher conducted huge-scale research based on the connection

between buying intention of customers and sales of grocery products, automobiles, and

computer-related items. The research findings indicated that the intent of purchasing and

sales related to food items, vehicles, and computer stocks have a positive relationship

(Chandon et al., 2005).

Customers Attitude

Attitude is the behavior of an individual towards a specific object, and that attitude

develops based on different experiences. Attitude is based on three components which are

21
beliefs, an individual’s feelings, and the intention of a person toward anything (Peter,

2018). From a marketing perspective, customer attitude refers to the idea of consumers

having an opinion about the production values and how products help in satisfying the

needs and demands of customers. Another research that was presented in 2012 states that

the consumer’s attitude is based on three components A, B, and C. A stands for the effect

that shows what are the feelings of a customer about a product, and B stands for the

behavior that defines how consumers use a product or how consumers react towards a

product. In the last, comes C which defines what customers believe to be true about a

specific product. All these components collectively define the customer's attitude toward a

product (Madichie, 2012).

Consumer attitude is also defined as the combination of several processes that runs

in the consumer’s mind during the selection of a particular product while purchasing it,

and the functionality of that product whether it satisfies the needs and the required

demands of the customer (Solomon, 2010). Attitude is an internal state of an individual

that changes with the change of surroundings, objects, or the people he/she is living with.

According to another author, attitude is defined as an intrinsic property of an individual

that changes with changing circumstances. An evaluation of the community or

advertisement by a person is called an attitude (Solomon, 2010). These are the basic

definitions of consumer attitude. Consumers' attitude is used as the first independent

variable of the study. From the literature, it is also noticed that attitude is a vast concept,

and from every definition, it is concluded that the customer attitude is the difference in the

behavior of an individual in different circumstances.

22
Consumers' attitudes are preferred by marketers and practitioners to understand behaviors.

(Solomon et al., 2010). To influence the purchase intention of the customer the marketers

must explore the attitudes of the customers about specific products. Consumers’

perception is changing with the surrounding in which they are living (the world)

(Schiffman et al., 2012). The research which was presented in 2004 by Webster and Keller

stated that the consumption behavior of the customer is highly dependent on their attitude

and that is why marketers need to analyze the customer attitude (Webster and Keller,

2004).

The customer makes their buying decision based on the brand image and the

product value. Marketers need to create awareness amongst the consumers about the

products, functionalities, and how their products can fulfill their needs and desires as it

will change the attitude of the customer toward the brand's image and positively affect

their purchase intentions (Iglesias et al., 2011). Consumers who are having needs and

demands aligned with the brand’s products are more loyal and build long-term relations,

which result in repeated purchasing. So, from the literature mentioned above, we can

conclude that it is important for marketing practitioners to understand the consumer’s

attitude before designing a product and a sensitization campaign in order to effectively

influence purchase behavior.

Customers' attitudes are based on their perceptions regarding products and services

provided by the companies. Word “perception” mean the experience that an individual

gains through their senses. Perception is the experience that is gained from vision (Cherry,

2020). Consumer perception is the opinion of the customer about a brand, either negative

23
or positive. In marketing, consumer perception is defined as the awareness of specific

products among the customers, and awareness of the business. The term perception is

more often used in psychology in which it is defined as the opinion-building process that

depends on factors like interaction with the surroundings, and visual and taste experiences

that one faces (Sheetz, 2014). According to another author, perception is defined as the

result of the learning process of an individual (Evans et al., 2009). Our knowledge about

people and our surroundings shapes our perceptions. Consumer perception is the opinion

of consumers about a brand, and its products (Oliver, 1999).

When a customer experiences a brand it contributes toward defining the

perception. Consumers' perception is formed based on interpretation of the products in the

market (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990). The perception of a customer is affected by the

marketing and the advertisement techniques that are adopted by the marketers.

Advertisements that provide credible information to their customer and have a fun element

in their marketing strategy form a good perception amongst customers about the brands

that positively affect their buying intentions (Brakus et al., 2009).

Marketers need to design such strategies that positively affect the consumers’

perceptions as the consumers’ perceptions are directly related to the consumers’ intentions

to purchase from the company. Information provided in advertisements needs to be

accurate and credible as it will create trust between the organization and customer

relationship. Credible information helps in building a positive perception amongst the

customers (Agrawal, 2016). With the advent of technologies, customers prefer to buy the

product from online platforms and that’s why it is needed for the organization to provide

24
such an online platform so that it became easy for the customers to buy the product of

their choice (Hasan, 2016). In 2019 it was reported that around 4.13 billion people are

using social media platforms all across the world, that is why most organizations are using

online platforms to share their product information to engage customers and to create

awareness among customers. Information shared by the company on such platforms

creates awareness among the customers and the credibility of the information affects the

perception of the customers. In today’s world where competition is intensive in the

market, customers’ needs and demands are changing exponentially and with the advent of

technologies, they prefer to buy products that are easily accessible. A product that is easily

accessible influences the customers’ perception positively (Liu, 2007). Keeping in view

the above discussion, it can be concluded that the consumers’ perception regarding a

particular brand highly contributes toward building the brand image and intention to

purchase something from a particular brand.

Digital marketing

According to Smith (2011) digital marketing is the practice of promoting products

and services using digital distribution. Since the advent of the World Wide Web, the

development of marketing technology and digital media has made it much easier for

businesses to communicate with their customers (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). In

today's digital marketing environment, businesses need to manage several digital

marketing interactions in order to reach out to customers.

These interactions require the use of:

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- Digital devices: By using smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktop computers, TVs,

gaming devices or virtual assistants, customers can interact with businesses.

- Digital platforms: Mainly, these interactions made on these devices are through

various platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Google.

- Digital media: Digital marketing offers a variety of channels to communicate and

engage their customers.

In practice, these interactions usually merge. For instance, platforms (Facebook,

Instagram, YouTube etc.) are mainly consumed on various devices such as smartphones,

laptops, TVs, or gaming devices (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). It could be said that

from a marketer’s perspective, digital media has impacted the reach of consumers in a

positive way (Smith, 2011). According to Smith (2011), advertisers spend hundreds of

millions of dollars to get their ads on websites that contain high traffic. The escalation of

digital marketing is a direct response to the development of using the internet as a tool to

buy and sell goods and services (Smith, 2011).

Due to digital marketing the internet has become a pull medium, as consumers can

determine the content in the field of view. This is a major shift as the consumer is now

pulling desired information from a plethora of available information. (Smith, 2011).

Current research on digital marketing with a focus on mobile devices has shown that it can

be an effective marketing tool based on five characteristics (Wang, Malthouse, &

Krishnamurthi, 2015):

1. Portability

26
2. Personal relationships with owners

3. Networked, immediate information

4. Textual and visual content

5. Convergence of functions and services

According to Wang et al., (2015), these five characteristics give customers the

opportunity to create a “life on the screen” and interact with brands anywhere and

anytime. Based on this mobile lifestyle that has been adopted by today's society,

consumers may provide additional opportunities for brands to build relationships and

interact with them, on a more frequent basis (Wang et al., 2015).

Influencer marketing

According to the textbook Understanding digital marketing by Ryan “influencer is

an individual with above average ability to affect others with their thoughts and opinion”

(2016, p. 136). Through their social platform they have managed to create a social profile

endorsed by an audience. Influencers have created those social platforms by creating

content to amuse their audience. By creating a social platform with numerous followers,

they have the ability to reach out to a large number of potential customers. This creates an

opportunity for brands to entice their audience into developing relationship to brands

(Ryan, 2016).

The explanation of influence can be described in a simple way. The core

competence of influence is the effect of an individual or entity, creating a reaction in

27
another (Brown & Fiorella, 2013). When it comes to specific influence marketing, it is a

marketing framework developed by studies and practices. Instead of targeting the whole

market, influencer marketing focuses on key individuals who may influence potential

customers. The marketing actions then circulate around these influencers (Brown &

Fiorella, 2013). The purpose of the strategy is to create brand awareness among

consumers and influence their purchasing decision (Lou & Yuan, 2019). Influencer

marketing is not a new concept. Celebrities have often been used by advertisers to increase

brand awareness, since people have the ability to trust admired celebrities and aspire to be

like them (Sammis, Lincoln & Pomponi, 2015). Since the rise in popularity of social

media, the definition of celebrity has expanded further beyond musicians, movie and TV

stars and athletes. Through social media, individuals have the capability to build audiences

on a large scale, through platforms such as Instagram, and become celebrities (Sammis et

al., 2015).

2.3 Theoretical Review

Brown, Kozinets and Sherry, overstated that social media influencer’s concepts

and ideas used in their post in promoting their products on the internet is very essential

and the most important approach in marketing nowadays.

In addition, the rapid development of commercialization in the world affects every

business and company, also, the way that the consumers change their buying decision

depends on the promotion and the person who will promote the product in the market.

Social media influencers are more focused on the content of the product they are

promoting on the internet, especially on how they create their unique captions that will

28
attract their followers to the products as well as the reviews they make that will give hints

to the audience about the products. Consumers think that social media influencers gather

more audience than the celebrities in terms of advertising products and goods because

they are engaging with their consumers. Consumers thinks that social media influencers

are more credible and have expertise in advertising product than the celebrities while the

advantage of celebrities is, they are being paid in promoting brands on the internet and

other social media platforms unlike the majority of the influencers and bloggers.

“Authenticity forms the uniqueness of the influencer, as consumers seek authenticity in

both companies and brands”.

The fast development of technology and internet advancement affects the channels

that firms and businesses online use in reaching their consumers and potential buyers that

cause the opening of new research to know the behavior of consumers in their purchasing

decision when browsing and buying through the internet. “The internet affects the

customer decision-making behavior in all the stages of their purchase- the prepurchase,

purchase and post purchase. When buying a product through face to face or through

internet, Consumers have their preference and there are many things they consider first

before they acquire the product such as the information of the product, the content of the

product and the quality of the product during the purchasing stage. In the post-purchasing

stage, when a consumer has a concern about the product or any issue about it, the after

service is the most thing to consider in order to cater to the problems or issues that arise

concerning the product that the consumer acquires from the sellers.

29
Figure 2.3.1. Theoretical Framework: Consumers’ online purchase intent toward online

retailers and the role of influencers (Source: Lisichkova and Othman, 2017).

According to the research study on “The impact of influencers on online purchase

intent” it was discovered that there are many factors that need to be considered when

determining the impact of social media influencers on the buying decisions of the

consumers. The theory also tells that the modern marketers or simply put, the social

media influencers have a big impact on the buying decisions of the consumers as well as

their preference.

2.4 Conceptual Framework

A Conceptual Framework presents a diagram that the researchers want to study. It

captures what researchers see and how they will make sense to what they are studying.

The concept of this study focuses on “the Impact of Social Media’s Influencer on the

Consumer Purchase Involvement”.

30
Figure 2.4.1. A Conceptual Framework of the Impact of Social Media Influencers on the

Purchasing Decisions.

Social Media Influencers have a big impact on the marketing strategy of the new

marketing system in the business world. There are lots of things that need to be

considered in collaborating and partnering with social media influencers, these include,

the perception of consumers towards social media influencers in terms of familiarity,

social media appearance, following range to social media influencer, and discount code

promos. Some of the factors that influence the impact social media’s influencers have on

consumer purchase involvement of college students are trust, looks, personality, fame and

promos. Knowing the factors and perceptions of the consumers towards the impact of

social media influencers in their buying decision, will help our research to understand the

phenomenon.

31
2.5 Chapter Summary

An exceptional and outstanding knowledge has been established in this study, and

it was generally derived from the objectives of this dissertation.

As mentioned earlier, Ghanaians demands for brands to have a two-way, co-created

interaction with them, perhaps because marketing is generally advancing digitally. Also,

with the progression of the internet and the advancement of marketing communications,

social media has grown massively. As stated before also, the purchase intention of the

Ghanaian is driven or strongly influenced by the social media influencer. This is because

they tend to spend most of their time on the social media platforms, but have no intention

to make a purchase online. Therefore, for Ghanaians to attract or be influenced to

purchase online, excellent communication needs to be adopted by brands to be able to win

their attention and impact them positively. In addition to that, this study recommends that

brands collaborate intensively with social media influencers to achieve this strategy.

However, the next section will present with the main objective and the methodology

adopted for the progress of this significant research.

32
 CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODS

3.1 Introduction

This part of the research outlines the methodology used for the study. It explores

the research design, the sample and sampling techniques, data collection instruments,

population of the study, among others. Emphasis is laid on the various techniques adopted

to collect data for the research. In so doing, critical attention is given to the nature of data

sought, carefully also considering the purpose of the research.

3.2 Research Design

This is explanatory research as this study investigates the causal relationship

between the social media influencers’ perceived credibility dimensions and consumer

behavior. Causal research investigates the cause-and-effect relationship among the study

variables (Saunders, et al., 2019).

The quantitative analysis method is adopted for the present study to collect data from

respondents, test the formulated hypotheses and explore the relationship between

dependent and independent variables. The considered variables in our research are

perceived attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness of social media influencers,

followers’ loyalty to the social media influencer, and the social media users’ purchase

intention and attitude towards the endorsed brand.

The overall design of the research is causal design made of quantitative and qualitative

methods based on current literature, and the establishment of the relationships between

33
social media, customer purchasing behavior and customer service. For where qualitative

methods are not appropriate, quantitative methods have been made. The qualitative

approaches are suitable for interpreting the effects social media has on customer

patronage behavior as well as customer service, whereas the quantitative examination

with facts and figures assists in making a relationship between behavior with the delivery

of the services and the promotional tool.

The study is exploratory research, and according to Malhotra (2010), it is the

preliminary study into a hypothetical or theoretical idea. This is where a researcher has an

idea about something and seeks to understand more about it. From Malhotra (2010), an

exploratory study is an attempt to determine if what is being observed might be explained

by a currently existing literature. Exploratory research can come in either a new topic or a

new angle.

3.3 Measurement type

A well-structured self-reported questionnaire was developed for the study after

having a detailed insight into the previously available literature to collect the primary

data. A formalized set of online questionnaires was made to reach respondents to find out

the impact of social media influencers’ perceived credibility on consumer behavior.

3.4 Time horizon and focal unit of the study

Time horizon represents the given period of the data collection of a research

study. This is a cross-sectional study- a study in which data is collected at a specified

time (Saunders, et al., 2019). The data was collected in November 2022. Individuals are

the unit of the analysis of the present study.

34
3.5 Population

The population of the study consists of individuals who have internet access, are

aware of using social media platforms, are active social media users, and must follow any

social media influencers.

Population is known as the whole accumulation of individuals from which we may gather

information. It is the whole group of interest, which we wish to portray or make

conclusions about. As such it is all the individuals about whom the study is intended to be

summed up (Jackson, 2008). For this study, the population consists of students at

Wisconsin International University College, Accra, Ghana. These students have been

used for this research due to the convenience in data collection that it offers and the time-

bound nature of the research.

Respondents in the study were asked for their permission before being involved in

the research. They were assured of confidentiality of information provided, as well as

guaranteed anonymity. Respondents were also given the option to opt out of the research

at any point in the process if they felt they were no more interested in answering

questions. Finally, respondents were assured that a copy of final research will be made

available to them upon their request.

3.6 Sample size and Sampling technique

According to Jackson (2008), sample is a group of individuals who form part of a

study.

In this study, a subset of 200 master’s students were selected out of the entire population

to take part in the research. This process of selecting a portion of the population to

35
represent the entire population is known as sampling (Mapp, 2006). Both simple random

sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used to achieve a good sample.

Purposive sampling technique was used to select master’s students. This sampling

procedure was employed to limit the sampling size to only a specific group of students

(masters students) because they are likely to be more knowledgeable about the research

topic under consideration. After this, a simple random sampling was further used to select

200 students to respond to questions. Simple random sampling according to Easton and

McColl (2005) is the type of sampling procedure in which respondents are selected from a

larger group by chance. In this way, every member of the group or population had equal

chances of getting selected to partake in the research. This removes bias and increases the

likelihood that the responses that are obtained are genuine and not influenced by the

researcher (Alchemer, n.d).

In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the research limited the scope of

social media influencers. Four social media influencers were selected to be studied for this

research. They include Ameyaw Debrah, Abena Manokekame, Kwadwo Sheldon and

Teacher Kwadwo. These social media influencers were selected for diverse reasons

relative to their activities on social media and their influence on marketing. Ameyaw was

selected because he owns a media and marketing firm and is often engaged in social

media marketing. Furthermore, the celebrity blogger is currently one of Ghana’s most

followed influencers on Instagram with 631,000 followers. Hence it is perceived that

respondents selected for this study often come into contact with him while engaged in

product information search on social media. Kwadwo Sheldon was also selected due to his

36
following on twitter (154,000 followers). He is also widely followed on other social media

platforms such as YouTube (291, 000 subscribers) and Instagram (659,000 followers).

He also owns a media and marketing organization known as “House of Content” which is

actively engaged in social media marketing. Teacher Kwadwo, with a following of

367,000 and Abena Manokekame, with a following of 287,812 (as of November 2021)

were also selected based on their following on Facebook as well as their average likes per

posts on the platform.

3.7 Data collection method

The research was made as an interviewer-administered questionnaire which had

closed end questions and rating (Saunders et al., 2009). The survey method of data

collection was used in this study. Survey is defined as the process of conducting research

using questions that researchers send to respondents (Creswell, 1999). The data collected

from surveys is then statistically analyzed to draw meaningful research conclusions.

Survey helps because it allows researchers to get data that is quantifiable from

respondents. The goal of data collection is to provide strong evidence about the research

problem and ensure that findings of the research are credible. The instrument used for

collecting data in this research was the survey questionnaire. Students were questioned

using questionnaires. The questions were aimed at identifying the relevant issues and

objectives of the study and structured in a way to ensure that objectives stated were

fulfilled through the response provided. The questionnaires were divided into two

sections. The first section dealt with respondents’ demographic data such as gender and

age. The second section was made up of both open –ended and closed-ended questions.

37
Open-ended questions are questions that ask respondents to provide unstructured or

spontaneous answers or to discuss an identified topic (Simmons, 2017). The open-ended

questions enabled respondents to give reasons for their choices of answers while, closed-

ended questions (sometimes called forced choice) asked respondents to choose from a

fixed set of alternatives or to give a single numerical value (Simmons, 2017). The

combination of both types of questions enabled the researcher to solicit adequate

information from the respondents.

38
3.8 Data Analysis

Data for this study was obtained from primary and secondary sources. Primary

sources of data were obtained using survey questionnaires which provided the researcher

with first-hand information about the influence of social media influencers on their

purchase decisions.

Secondary data was obtained from previous studies conducted on the topic under

consideration. The data was analyzed using literature review strategies, which afforded the

researcher the opportunity to use the ideas of other researchers in support of the present

studies.

Data analysis according to Srivastava and Thomson (2009) involves examining,

categorizing, tabulating, or otherwise recombining the data. This means data analysis can

also be said to be an expansion of data to make meaning using different methods, whether

quantitative strategies or qualitative representations. Famili et al. (1997) also argues that

analysis is a systematic method for analyzing textual information in a standardized way

that allows evaluators to make inferences about the information. Data from the surveys

were analyzed manually using statistical methods such as graphs, tables, and charts that

show the distribution and frequency results of respondents. This allowed the researcher to

present graphic images of responses in numerical formats that can easily be read and

interpreted. The use of statistical tools also allowed the researcher to generalize findings

on the general population of respondents

39
 CHAPTER FOUR

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on presenting analysis of the data that were gathered through

the survey method. The chapter presents analysis of 200 respondents who responded to

questionnaires administered by the researcher. It is essential to note that to clearly present

findings made from the study, the researcher employed the use of simple tables and

graphical charts such as pie charts, bar charts etc. The analysis of data has been presented

in line with the research questions of the study.

4.2 Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

The following categories are the quantitative analysis of the demographic profile

of the respondents of this study.

Table 4.2.1 The Demographic Profile (Age).

Age Frequency Percentage

18 to 23 32 16%

24 to 29 162 81%

29 and above 6 3%

Total: 200 100%

Table 4.2.1 shows the demographic profile of the respondents’ shows that majority of

the respondents are 24 years while 18 years old and 29 years old being the least.

40
 Singh [40] overstated that most of the youth generation and youngsters between ages 18

to 25 are more interested in shopping and acquiring products online because they are

more knowledgeable in using the internet and it is easier to purchase products through

online stores.

According to Hal M. Bundrick, the old rules of marketing just won’t work on

today’s young-adult consumer. In the past, you could lean on celebrity endorsements,

dramatic campaigns and splashy graphics to woo a young consumer, but 25 to 34 year

olds just won’t buy it. And simply having an outstanding product or service isn’t enough

either. According to Forbes.com, about 70 percent of the demographic favor “cool

experiences over great products." When it comes to pursuing the purchasing power of this

tech-savvy target age, the data suggest marketers should emphasize the company’s values

and tap into this tech-savvy demographics’ desire for “enriching experiences” that make

them “feel important.”

Table 4.2.2 The Demographic Profile (Gender).

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 76 38%

Female 120 60%

Neutral Gender 4 2%

Total: 200 100%

Table 4.2.2 shows the demographic profile of the respondents with regards to their

gender. The above table shows that majority of the respondents are female and the other

neutral gender being the least.

41
 According to Quellette, as of 2018, online shopping penetrated more in the market

worldwide with 47.3%. Comparing the statistics in terms of gender, the percentage were

not too far apart. 72% of the women are more into buying online than men with 68%. The

main factors are men are always straight thinking about the product they will buy than

women who are picky and more meticulous. Men usually buy heavy duty products and

computers while women usually shop for things like clothes, accessories and groceries.

Table 4.2.3 The Demographic Profile (Average Time Spent on Social Media Platform).

Average Time Spent on

Frequency Percentage
Social Media Platform

1 to 3 Hours 38 19%

3 to 5 Hours 52 26%

5 to 7 Hours 58 29%

7 to 9 Hours 38 19%

10 Hours and above 14 7%

Total: 200 100%

Table 4.2.3 shows that majority of the respondents spends 5 to 7 hours on social media

and 10 hours and above being the least.

According to Llamas [30] 4.54 billion people are now using the internet to interact

with people and do their errands, however, roughly 3.2 billion people around the world

are still not connected to the internet. The average internet users spent their time browsing

online for about 6 hours and 43 minutes per day in 2020. People from the Philippines top

42
the daily usage chart, they spend most of their time online with an average of nine hours

and 45 minutes per day. Thailand is next with an average of nine hours and 1 min,

Indonesia with an average of seven hours and 59 minutes and Malaysia with seven hours

and 57 minutes. The most visited websites online are Google and YouTube.

Table 4.2.4 The Demographic Profile (How many social media influencers do you

follow).

How many social media influencers do you

Frequency Percentage
follow

Between 1-10 102 51%

Between 11-20 68 34%

Between 21 and above 30 15%

Total: 200 100%

Table 4.2.4 shows that in terms on how many social media influencers they follow on

their accounts, majority of them follow 1 to 10 influencers on their accounts and 21 and

above being the least.

The study shows that 70% of the teens have more trust in social media influencers

than the traditional celebrities. Social media influencers have the power to attract

customers to acquire products which as part of the business promotes their products

through their marketing team. That is why many companies hire social media influencers

to promote and advertise their products to build strong brands in the market. 4 out of 10

teens stated that social media influencers that they followed on their social media

43
accounts understood their feelings and preference than their friends (“20 surprising

influencer marketing statistics,” 2018).

4.3 First Research Objective

RQ1: What is the role of social media influencers in consumer decision process?

Respondents’ Awareness of Social Media Influencers

Awareness of the Exi stence o f So cial Med ia Infl uencers

Yes No

Figure 4.3.3 Pie Chart indicating respondents’ awareness of the existence of social
media influencers (Source: Field Data, 2021)

The study sought to investigate respondents’ awareness of the existence of social

media influencers. The data gathered illustrates that all of the respondents sampled for

the study were aware of social media influencers as indicated in Figure 1 above. This

indicates that the sampled respondents are aware of the idea of social media influencing

and who social media influencers are.

44
Respondents’ Preferred Social Media Influencers

PREFERRED SOCIAL MEDIA I N F LU E N C E R S

32.5 23.5 30

12

AMEYAW KWADWO ABENA TEACHER NONE

MANOKEKAM KWADWO
DEBRAH SHELDON
E

Figure 4.3.4 Bar Chart Illustrating Respondents' Preferred Social Media Influencer
(Source: Field Survey, 2021)

The findings of the study indicate that most (32.5%) of the respondents identified

Ameyaw Debrah as their favorite social media influencer. This is closely followed by

30% of respondents who perceived Teacher Kwadwo as their preferred social media

influencer. 23% of respondents identified Kwadwo Sheldon as their favorite social media

influencer while just 12% of the sampled respondents preferred Abena Manokekame. It

is essential to note that all the respondents had at least one preferred social media

influencer and hence none of them did not identify with none of the influencers. The

findings thus imply that majority of the respondents believed that Ameyaw Debrah

influenced their perceptions, attitudes and behaviors towards products and services. This

is followed by Teacher Kwadwo, Kwadwo Sheldon and Abena Manokekame

respectively.

45
Respondents’ Perceived Roles of Social Media Influencers

The study was interested in investigating the roles of social media influencers in

consumer purchase behavior. Thus, the first objective of the study was to ascertain the

roles respondents believed social media play regarding their attitudes and behaviors

towards product and service purchase.

The data presented in Figure 5 indicates that more than half (56.5%) of the respondents

perceived that the role of social media influencers in consumer purchase behavior is to

inform consumers about new products. 23% of the respondents also perceived that social

media influencers inform consumers about product benefits while 19.5% of the

respondents perceived that the role of social media influencers is to persuade consumers to

try out new products. Lim et al. (2017) identifies that one of the core roles of social media

influencers in marketing today is informational. Thus, influencers’ basic roles within

marketing today are to keep consumers aware of products, services and brands as well as

their benefits. The data however indicates that 1% of the respondents believed that social

media influencers do not play any significant role in their decision making of purchasing

products.

46
 Percieved Roles of Social Media Influencers

They do not play Significant Roles 1

T hey Pers uade on New P roduct T rial 19.5

They I nf orm About P rodu ct Ben efits 23

T hey Inform About New P ro ducts 56.5

Figure 4.3.5 Bar chart illustrating respondents perceived roles of social media
influencers in product purchase decisions making (Source: Field Survey, 2021)

Perceived Roles of Social Media Influencers in Product Marketing

Do So ci al Media I nflu encers he lp Bran ds in Marketi ng

Produc ts
1%

Ye s
No

99%

Figure 4.3.6 Pie chart illustrating respondents view on social media influencers' role in
marketing products (Source: Field Survey, 2021)

47
 The findings of the study presented in Figure 6 point out that majority of the

respondents (99%) believed that social media influencers aid brands in marketing their

products to consumers. The findings indicate that just 1% of the respondents perceived

social media influencers did not play any significant role in marketing products and

services to consumers. This implies that respondents perceived social media influencers as

crucial parts of product marketing of most brands. This finding syncs partly with Jarrar’s

2020 findings when he investigated a similar phenomenon. Jarrar (2020) found however

that just a little over half of social media users he sampled perceived that influencers play

crucial roles in their purchasing decision making processes.

4.4 Second research Objective

RQ2: How do social media influencers promote brands and products in Ghana?

The second research question of the study was focused on ascertaining how social

media influencers promote brands and products in Ghana. The objective of this was to

investigate the strategies and set of activities respondents perceived social media

influencers to engage in while promoting brands and products in Ghana. The objective

was hence focused on understanding certain crucial strategies such as the various tactics

employed by social media influencers in influencing consumer perceptions on brands and

products. The objective was also interested in investigating the social media platforms

influencers often used to promote brands and products.

48
Social Media Influencer Strategies in Promoting Brands and Products

Figure 4.3.7 Bar chart illustrating strategies Social Media Influencers employ in

Promoting Brands and Products Online (Source: Field Survey, 2021)

The study found that to promote brands and products to consumers, social media

influencers adopt diverse strategies to influence the perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of

consumers towards products and services.

The findings of the study indicates that most of the respondents (45.5%) perceived those

strategies that social media influencers employed in promoting brands and products to

followers largely involved, posting products on social media platforms to inform their

large following about the products. According to Talevena (2015) up to 82% of social

media followers of social media influencers are likely to be aware of a brand or product

because of the influencer sharing information of products or a brand on their social media

platforms. Talevena states that simply posting products on social media or sharing

49
information about a product or brand on social media increases brand awareness of such

products or brands.

23% of the respondents believed that social media influencers make videos and

take pictures of themselves using products and product souvenirs and post them on social

media platforms to influence their followers to also purchase such products. Lim et al.

(2017) who states that a critical characteristic in the way that social media influencers

operate is to develop videos and other media contents of themselves using products they

want to promote in order to trigger some urgency of need amongst their large following.

The study also found that 19% of the respondents perceived that as a brands and product

promotion strategy, social media influencers actively engage in online interactions with

their followers concerning the products and brands. Furthermore, 12.5% of the

respondents believed that social media influencers engage in ‘giveaways’ to promote some

brands and products. Thus, social media influencers give away some products they are

seeking to promote to some of the followers for trial use and to also activate word-of-

mouth promotions from their followers.

50
Social Media Platforms Often used to Promote Products and Brands

Social Media Used for Product Promotion

35

30
29
28
25 27

20

15

13

0
Facebook Twitter Instagram T ikTo k

Figure 4.3.8 Bar chart showing social media platforms social media influencers often
operate (Source: Field Survey, 2021)
The data indicates that most of the respondents perceived that, social media

influencers operate and promote brands and products mostly on Instagram. This is

represented by 29% of the sampled respondents. Furthermore, the findings point that 28%

of respondents believed Facebook to be a viable social media platform where influencers

promote products and brands. Meanwhile 27% of the respondents indicated that social

media influencers use twitter often while just 13% pointed out that influencers use TikTok

often. Freberg et al (2011) as well as Lim et al (2012) assert that Facebook, Twitter and

Instagram are among the popular social media platforms that social media influencers

often operate on. They posit that this is largely as a result of the interactive nature of these

platforms as well as their tendencies to carry multiple media contents other than other

social media platforms.

51
Respondents’ Perception on Effectiveness of Social Media Influencers in Consumer

Decisions Making

The study tried to investigate respondents’ perceptions on the effectiveness of

social media influencers on consumer purchase decision making processes. The findings

indicate that about two-thirds (74%) of the respondents perceived social media influencers

are effective in promoting brands and products. 22% of the respondents indicated that

social media influencers were not so effective in promoting brands and products while 4%

could not determine whether social media influencers are effective or not. This implies

however that majority of the respondents believed that social media influencing is crucial

in influencing how consumers perceive products and brands. It therefore suffices to state

that social media influencers are crucial in influencing consumer behaviors towards

products and brands. Forbes reports that one of the most potent online strategies for

stimulating brand awareness and subsequent brand and product purchase is social media

influencing. The report indicates, in line with the findings of this study that.

Perception on Ef fectiveness of Social Med ia I nflu encers

Y es No C an no t tell

4%

22%

74%

Figure 4.3.9 Pie chart indicating respondents' perception on the effectiveness of social
media influencers in consumer purchase decision making (Source: Field Survey, 2021)

52
4.5 Third research Objective

RQ3: Do consumers trust social media influencers in Ghana?

The study further investigated trust levels among consumers towards social media

influencers in Ghana. The study thus tried to investigate whether or not consumers trust

social media influencers and the trust levels among respondents.

Respondents’ Trust towards Social Media Influencers in Ghana

Res pond ents Tru st To wards So ci al Media I nflu encers

4%

29%

Alway s
So metimes
Never

67%

Figure 4.3.10 Pie chart showing respondents trust towards social media influencers
(Source: Field Survey, 2021)
The findings of the study point that, more than half of the respondents (67%)

indicated that they always trust social media influencers. Furthermore, the data shows that

29% of the sampled respondents sometimes trust social media in products decision

making while just 4 % noted they did not trust social media influencers at all. The findings

imply therefore that a significant majority of the respondents always trusted social media

influencers on the products and brands they advertised or marketed on social media

platforms while some maintained some levels of skepticism towards social media

53
influencers. It is also essential to mention that regardless of the seeming high levels of

trust towards social media influencers some respondents maintained that they did not trust

social media influencers at all when it comes to making decisions on buying products or

patronizing some brands.

Trust Levels towards Social Media Influencers in Ghana

60

51
50

40

30

22
20
20

10
5
2
0
Strongly T rust Fairly Trust Ne utral Fair ly D isturst Strongly D istrust

Figure 4.3.11. Bar chart showing trust levels of respondents towards Social Media

Influencers (Source: Field Survey, 2021)

The findings indicate that a little over half of the respondents strongly trusted

social media influencers in terms of product and brand quality. 22% of the respondents

also fairly trusted social media influencers while 20% of them were neutral to the

question. Furthermore, 5% of the respondents held fair levels of distrust towards social

54
media influencers while 2% of the respondents had very high levels of distrust towards

influencers.

4.6 Conclusion

The findings of the study point that, social media influencers play crucial roles in

affecting consumer perceptions towards products and brands. This is largely because

consumers have high levels of trust for some identified social media influencers. Hence,

while performing their functions as social media influencers such as promoting product

information and creating awareness on new products, consumers perceived they felt strong

levels of influence to either believe the information or act on the information being given

them by these influencers regarding products and brands.

55
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.0 Introduction

This part of the research presents a summary of the study, the conclusion and

recommendations based on the findings of this research. The conclusions are made with

the hope that this research would serve as a guide to future researchers and relevant

stakeholders.

5.1 Summary of Research Findings

Social media has become an increasingly ubiquitous feature in human endeavors.

The essence of social media and its numerous benefits have perhaps been felt more

within the enclave of business and marketing. As a result of the advent of social media,

owing to the rise of digital technologies, marketing strategies and principles have seen a

great revolution. This revolution has become the bane of modern marketing and

advertising for most businesses.

The benefits of social media as facilitated by digital technologies that enable fast

paced information sharing and interactivity cannot be understated. Within the world of

business, social media has become that crucial spine that holds together promotion,

advertising, and marketing strategies. Literature concerning social media marketing

highlights the crucial features of social media that marketers cannot forego in marketing

strategies. Such features as high-level interactivity with consumers, instantaneous

feedback, low-cost levels of operation, and comfortability amongst others have been

56
touted with social media marketing as some of the core features of social media that has

made the concept essential in marketing today.

This study has argued that in recent times a new wave of social media marketing

strategy has emerged and with it are enormous benefits that marketers are beginning to

pay attention to. Social media Influencer marketing concerns the strategic use of

prominent persons on social media with large following to activate brand awareness and

influence consumer behaviors and attitudes towards product. Literature suggests that this

new wave of marketing has become more essential than other forms of social media

marketing as they have the tendencies to directly influence the purchase behaviors and

attitudes of consumers. Thus, the use of social media influencers has become a potent

strategy for activating some behaviors from the large following of social media

influencers.

The core of this study was built on the need to investigate how social media

influencers influence the purchase decisions and behaviors of consumers. Hence, the

study was interested in investigating how social media influencers influence the purchase

decisions and behaviors of consumers towards brands and products.

The study found that, respondents were aware of the existence and operations of

social media influencers on various social media platforms. Thus, respondents asserted to

understanding who a social media influencer is and what they do. Furthermore, when

respondents were presented with a list of popular social media influencers which

included Ameyaw Debrah, Abena Manokekame, Teacher Kwadwo and Kwadwo

Sheldon, the results indicated varying levels of preferences for the identified influencers.

57
The study found that, respondents identified celebrity blogger, Ameyaw Debrah as their

most preferred social media influencer. The preference is followed by a relatively strong

preference for other social media influencers such as Teacher Kwadwo, Kwadwo

Sheldon and Abena Manokekame respectively. This indicates indirectly that respondents

held different preferences when it comes to social media influencers.

The findings further indicate that respondents perceived social media influencers to play

very diverse roles in marketing and advertising products on social media platforms.

These roles are expressed in informational and persuasive roles. Thus, the findings

illustrate that social media influencers inform on new products as well as inform on

product benefits and use. They are therefore crucial in brand and product awareness

creation. They also play persuasive roles where they help persuade consumers to use or

try products and brands.

As have been gathered in empirical literature, this study also finds that social

media influencers are significant players in current marketing and promotions landscape.

The findings point out that respondents perceived that social media are essential in

marketing and promoting products and brands to them. Thus, in informing consumers

about new products, product benefits, among other things, the use of social media is

considered as crucial for most respondents.

The study also tried to investigate the strategies that social media influencers employ

while promoting products and brands on social media platforms. The findings indicate

that social media influencers employ strategies such as posting media contents of

products and brands on their social media platforms to reach large audiences; using

58
products and products souvenirs on social media; actively engaging their followers in

online conversations about products and brands and; gifting some followers, products to

try out. The findings identified that most of the strategies adopted by social media

influencers concerned mostly, posting media contents of products such as images of

products, videos and audios on social media platforms. The findings identified, as

gathered from from literature that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are among the top

social media platforms social media influencers often operated on while promoting

products and brands.

Additionally, the study found that respondents held very high levels of trust

towards social media influencers. The study found that more than half of the respondents

always trusted brands and products that social media influencers informed them about.

Notwithstanding, the study also found that some sections of respondents fairly trusted

social media influencers in the products they advertised while some others did not trust

influencers at all. The findings suggest that there are very strong levels of trust amongst

majority of respondents although some respondents did not trust social media influencers

at all.

The general findings of this study typify the Social Learning theory, which

provided theoretical foundation for this study. The findings of the study, in line with the

core arguments of its theoretical framework, suggest that consumers learn purchasing

behaviors from social media influencers. The Social Learning theory suggests that

individual members of a particular society learn behaviors and attitudes from other social

member who they often perceive as role models (Lim et al, 2017). As Sherry and Zane

59
 argue the Social Learning theory is premised on the assumption that individuals learn

behaviors from studying actions of role models and their associated punishments and

rewards. Similarly, the findings of this study point that by consumers’ model their

purchasing behavior is affected after seeing these social media influencers exhibit these

products on social media. The findings of the study hence sync with the core arguments

of the Social Learning theory.

5.3 Conclusion

Social media influencer marketing has become a crucial marketing strategy for

many businesses in recent times. As literature suggests, social media influencer marketing

has become more potent in marketing than other strategic forms of marketing such as

celebrity endorsement marketing. This study argues in line with empirical literature that

social media influencer marketing holds immense benefits to marketers in recent times.

This is largely because social media influencers have the potential to influence the

perceptions, behaviors and attitudes consumers hold towards products and brands.

This finding of this study suggests that indeed, social media influencers have the tendency

of affecting the way consumers perceived products and services. They are essential in

brand awareness strategies as they inform consumers on products and services, their use

and benefits while playing crucial roles in influencing purchase or buyer decisions. The

findings indicate that the nature of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram

and Twitter enable social media influencers to adopt certain strategies in order to reach

large followers with product and brand information.

60
 This study concludes therefore that social media influencer marketing is crucial in

influencing the perceptions and attitudes of consumers towards brands and products.

Furthermore, it is conclusive that social media influencer marketing is essential because

majority of social media influencers have very large followings who hold very high

levels of trust in the information they disseminate about products and product benefits.

5.4 Recommendations

The researcher suggests the following recommendations based on the findings of

this study

 Marketers should devise proper mechanisms for sharing products and brands

information to consumers through social media influencers as such influencers hold

and manipulate the attention, attitudes and behaviors of a lot of consumers.

 Marketers should identify and train social media influencers on the rudiments of

marketing as well as the negatives and positives. This is in order as social media

influencers need to understand the basics of marketing to maximize their marketing

efforts and in the long run efficiency for organizations.

5.5 Suggestions for Future Research

 Other researchers should consider investigating the roles of social media

influencers in brands and product promotion from the perspective of social media

influencers and marketing organizations themselves and not from the perspectives

of consumers as this study did. This will help generate data from a different

perspective from this study

61
 Other researcher who intends to conduct similar studies should consider an

increased number of participants as well as the adoption of a different research

approach (preferably mixed methods approach). This will enable the researcher

develop pragmatic means to collect data using different diverse approaches to

enrich data regarding the phenomenon.

 Future research should consider researching in a younger sampling frame with a

diverse demographic background other than what this study considered. This will

make way for the possibility of making diverse findings other than what this study

has revealed.

62
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 APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear student, my name is Bakayoko Leila Sarah Maryse, a student of Wisconsin

International University College, Accra, Ghana. I am conducting research on social

media influencers and how they affect consumer purchase decision and will kindly

request your views to help me complete the research. This research is entirely for

academic purposes, and your responses will be strictly kept anonymous and will not be

shared with any third party, except for academic use. Thank you for your time. (This

survey takes approximately 5mins)

Bio ………………………………………...

1. Age

a. 18-23

b. 24-29

c. 30-34

d. 34-39

2. Course ……………………………………

3. Sex ……………………………………….

Objective 1. Examine the role played by social media influencers in the customer

decision making process

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4. Are you aware of the existence of any social media influencer or influencers?

 Yes

 No

5. Which of these social media influencers do you know? Please choose only one among the

following influencers

a. Ameyaw Debrah

b. Kwadwo Sheldon

c. Abena Manokekame

d. Teacher Kodwo

e. None of the above

6. Please select (only one) which of the following statements best describe the role of social

media influencers. Please select (tick) the best that apply to you.

Statement Please tick

a. social media influencers

inform me about new products

b. social media influencers tell me

about product benefits

c. social media influencers

persuade me to try new products

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 d. social media influencers do not

play any role in my view. I decide

what I want to buy

e. None of the above

7. In your view, do social media influencers help brands in marketing their products?

a. Yes

b. No

8. If your answer to question 7 is yes, how do they do this in your view? Please select

only the best that applies to you.

a. By posting products on social media

b. By posting product information, promotions, and discounts on social media

c. Post product location

d. Change my view on which product to buy by giving me information

e. Others, please specify…………………………………………….

Objective 2. Find out the various ways by which social media influencers promote

brands and products.

9. In your view, in what ways are brands and products promoted by social media

influencers. Please select the best that applies to you

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 a. They post new products and reach a lot of followers

b. They wear the branded souvenirs of brands, and this makes them visible to social

media users

c. They actively engage in talking about products and brands on their social media

space through posts and videos

d. Others, please specify………………………….

10. Which social media platform do you most see influencers promoting products and

brands? Please select the best that applies to you.

a. Facebook

b. Twitter

c. Instagram

d. TikTok

e. Others, please specify…………………………….

11. Do you think social media influencers change your mind on what brands and

products to buy?

a. Yes, always

b. Yes sometimes

c. Never

d. I don’t know

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 12. In your view, is it a good marketing strategy to use social media influencers?

a. Yes

b. No

c. I don’t know

Objective 3. To find out if consumers trust influencers or not.

13. Do you trust social media influencers as credible information sources?

a. Yes, always

b. Yes, sometimes

c. Never

d. I don’t know

14. On a scale of 1-5, were

1 is strongly Trust

2 is Trust

3 is Neutral

4 is Distrust

5 is Strongly distrust

Please rate your level of trust in social media influencers in promoting brands and

products

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15. I trust social media influencers in promoting the right brands and products to me.

a. Strongly trust

b. Trust

c. Neutral

d. Distrust

e. Strongly Distrust

16. Between a celebrity and a social media influencer, who are you likely to trust more

when they advertise products and brands to you?

a. Social media influencer

b. Celebrity

c. None of them

17. In your view, are social media and celebrities the same or they are different?

a. Social media influencers are different from celebrities

b. Social media influencers are not different from celebrities

c. I don’t know

18. Do you have anything else to say regarding social media influencers and their roles?

Please feel free to write it here.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………

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