ADAMSON UNIVERSITY

Social Media Influencing as a Marketer’s Career Option

in the 21st Century

A THESIS

Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Adamson University Manila

In partial fulfilment of the requirements

For the degree

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

MAJOR IN MARKETING MANAGEMENT

GROUP 6

Leader: Permentilla, Chiara May T.

Members:

Janice De Asis
Michaela Marie L. Dela Cueva
Raziebel F. Fabellon

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CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTINGS

Introduction

Social Media has been a vital part of people’s daily lives and routine. Over

the past decade, we have seen it grew swiftly in importance. As a matter of fact,

3.484 billion people actively use social media and that is 45% of the world’s

population, according to We Are Social report (January, 2019) and is still growing

every day.

An innovative application of social media as a means of promoting

businesses and its product and services has been rampant since the pandemic

happened and one trend of it is influencer-generated content. Although not a new

idea, it will continue to be a leading force in social media marketing. StarNgage

stated that the study shows that 78% of consumers prefer brands and companies

who deliver custom content as opposed to outright advertising and interactive

content will increase in popularity as the year progresses. Apparently, many

people not only want and appreciate contents but a majority of social media

consumers actually want to be social media influencers.

Social Media Influencer is a user of social media who has established

credibility in a specific industry and has access to a large audience and can

persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach (Pixlee). This study aims

to explore how social media influencing can be considered as a marketer’s

career option in the 21st century.

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Background of the Study

Research done by Global Web Index in January of 2021 shows that

53.6% of the world’s population are social media users. The total number of

population is 7.83 billion wherein 5.22 billion people use a mobile phone. It

means that more than half the percentage of our total population uses a mobile

device. Global internet penetration now stands at 59.5 % and the number of

social media users is now equivalent to more than 53% of the world’s total

population. These statistics show that the internet, with the use of social media,

is our biggest platform in communicating across the world. Marketers are now

faced with many options on how to penetrate the business world. The latest trend

is by working with social media influencers to promote and advertise a company

or product. Social Media Influencers are popular and loved by consumers around

the world that it is believed they have the power to influence decision-making as

well.

According to the survey of Global Web Index in 2011, the Philippines has

a total of 94 million population with 29.7 million Internet Users. The social

network penetration is at 28%, while the mobile penetration is at 94%. While in

the 2021 survey conducted, the total population is at a whopping 110.3 million in

which 73.91 million are Internet Users. Mobile penetration is now at 138.2% and

80.7% was the equivalent for the social media users. This is proof that the

Philippines is highly engaged in the digital world and that numbers will continue

to grow over the next decades. Marketers use this phenomenon to their
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advantage; by incorporating social media influencers to further increase

engagement with brands and products with the people (Any Mind Group).

Statement of the Purpose

This study will determine how Influencer Marketing can be considered as

a Career Option in the 21st Century.

Specifically, this study will answer the following questions:

1. To identify the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Gender

1.2 Age

1.3 Influencer category

1.4 Number of followers

2. To identify and describe the factors that marketers should consider in

pursuing social media influencing as a career option in terms of:

2.1. Credibility

2.2. Expertise

2.3. Competency in using Social Media Platforms

2.4. Networks

3. To know the benefits and risks of social media influencing in the career of

marketers;

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4. To explore the valuable insights that can be obtained in the study for the

enhancement of marketers’ career strategy.

Significance of the Study

The main focus of this study is to know how Influencer Marketing can be

considered as a Career Option in the 21st Century. The information that will be

gathered in this study will enable institutions of higher learning to consider the

factors that will motivate the use of social media among to all of the influencers.

To the researchers and future researchers, The study can be useful to

understand how social media systems affect the way people work, learn, and live

requires examination of the ways in which social media use is affected by and

affects relationships. With the invention of social media, knowledge sharing

process has been more effective and easy. No matter what the underlying

technology, the power of social media systems arises from the impact they have

on relationships. Whether in friendship and dating relationships or professional

and work relationships, social media use shapes and is shaped by how

individuals see their relationships, who they have relationships with, and how

those relationships are formed, maintained, and ended.

Therefore, this study is directed to explore other niche area on knowledge

sharing environment where it will focused on the effects of social media on

knowledge sharing among academic purposes.

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This research is focused on how social media influencing can be

considered as a marketer’s career option in the 21st century. This qualitative

study was conducted to identify whether the given factors really affect the

marketers career option. As marketing trends indicate the rise of influencers as

an extension of word of mouth campaigns, marketers are realizing the power of

influencers in affecting a purchase decision.

Social Media Influencing is one way to develop the strategy of how itself

an effective way as career option. To provide a better understanding on how will

identify and describe the factors that marketers should consider in pursuing

Social Media Influencing as Marketer’s a career option to us. This thesis will

consider the concept of influencers and how business can optimize working with

an influencer to know the benefits and risks of social media influencing in the

career of marketers.

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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This literature review covered the identification of social media influencers,

their importance and impact on brands, and the strategic planning they employed

while communicating with consumers. This review what strategies have made

influencer marketing such a successful public relations tool and how the use of

social media has allowed brands and consumers to connect on a more personal

level.

Over the last decade, we have seen social media grow rapidly in

importance. According to the January 2019 We Are Social report 3.484 billion

people actively use social media - that's 45% of the world’s population.

A decade ago, the influencer marketing arena was limited only to

celebrities and a few dedicated bloggers. Now, it seems like we’ve seen social

media influencers rising, saturate the market and even get caught up in fraud. If

you’ve started researched on influencer marketing before, you may have found

conflicting information, with recommendations that range from you should

absolutely be using social influencers or that they’re not necessary for growth.

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Who Are Social Media Influencers?

Social media influencers represent a new type of independent, third-party

endorsers who shape an audience’s attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use

of other social media channels (Fredberg, 3). Through sites like Instagram,

YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, social media influencers create content

promoting certain brands with the goal of obtaining a following and brand

recognition. According to Fredberg, the success of social media influencers is

vitally important to brands; therefore, technology has been developed to identify

and track influencers’ relevance to a brand or organization. This technology

tracks the number of hits on a blog, times a blog is shared, likes and comments,

and followers. All of these points are pivotal aspects of a social media

influencer’s success (Fredberg, 3). Influencer marketing on social media opens

up a new channel for brands to connect with consumers more directly,

organically, and at scale to their everyday lives (Adweek). Social media

influencers promote brands through their personal lives, making them relatable to

the average consumer. According to Ledbetter, “When a party attempts to

influence another to take specific actions, a dynamic ensues that can change the

course and content of their relationship” (Ledbetter, 3). Influencers truly serve as

the ultimate connection between a brand and a consumer. Through their

candidness and openness with consumers, influencers have high social clout

and credibility (Buyer, 2016), which is what makes the phenomenon so

successful. Where traditional marketing targeted mostly mass audiences,

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influencers have the unique ability to target niche audiences that have until now

been unreachable (Ledbetter).

TechTarget contributor stated that social media influence is a marketing

term that describes an individual’s ability to affect other people's thinking in a

social online community. The more influence a person has, the more appeal that

individual has to companies or other individuals who want to promote an idea or

sell a product.

According to them, the types of social media influencers include:

Consumer Influencers – the “everyday” people that have gained a

following due to their personality and relatability. They are typically active on their

social media through text posting, blogging or photo sharing. For the reason that

their audience considers them “real” or “relatable” they tend to take their advice

or influence seriously, such as when they give your word for a service.

Content Creators - these include professional bloggers, vloggers and

photographers. Their role includes developing new content that readers are

interested in keeping up with regularly. Part of a company’s marketing strategy

could be to send products to a content creator in the hopes they will review and

speak positively about it to their followers.

As per Conick (2016), social influencers are the people who are closer

and known to their followers and they comment or reply to their followers unlike

the celebrity endorsers. Thus, it is authentic and real. However, it is difficult to Page | 9

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conclude on whether influencer marketing really generates purchase intention.

Thus, companies cannot be guaranteed, if their investments will pay off in the

end or if they do not increase their purchases. On the contrary, influencers do not

know the best manner to promote their ads to generate purchase intentions,

which is essential to optimize the efficiency of influencer marketing (Müller et al.,

2018).

Influencer endorsements are a popular way for marketers to promote their

brands, products, and services. By transferring the positive image and

characteristics onto the brand, marketers aim to trigger consumers’ intent to

purchase or use the endorsed product or service. Many academic studies have

confirmed that endorsements significantly increase advertising effectiveness

(e.g., Atkin and Block 1983; Erdogan 1999; Amos, Holmes, and Strutton 2008;

Bergkvist and Zhou 2016). However, in addition to using ‘traditional’ celebrities

such as actors, supermodels, and athletes to add value to their brand,

companies increasingly turn to social media influencers (also called ‘micro-

celebrities’), such as vloggers and ‘Instafamous’ personalities, to endorse their

brands (Marwick 2015). In contrast to traditional celebrities who have gained

public recognition because of their professional talent, social media influencers

(from now on called ‘influencers’) have gained fame by successfully branding

themselves as experts on social media platforms (Khamis, Ang, and

Welling 2017).

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Despite the increasing deployment of influencers for brand endorsement,

scientific knowledge on their marketing value is limited. Whereas the

effectiveness of traditional celebrity endorsement has been widely investigated

(Bergkvist and Zhou 2016), the impact of influencer endorsement on brand

responses is relatively understudied.

Social Media Influencers’ Insights

Being an Influencer could be really hectic as the judges of the content are

the viewers. To be verified by them is the real task. It requires a tough skin to

face their criticisms and a lot of confidence to move forward with it. If your

audience does not like something, it could take down your career then and there.

Let me tell you something: you don’t choose this line of work. It chooses you.

When strangers decide that your online persona is so engaging that they’ll trust

whatever product endorsements you make, well, there’s no bigger responsibility

than that. To abdicate it would be wrong. It would be perverse (by River Clegg in

A Day In The Life of a Social Media Influencer).

Ellie Victoria mentioned in her blog entitled Inside the Life of a Social

Media Influencer, “alongside this journey, I have had the opportunity to work with

some incredible brands; Lounge Underwear, Skinny Tan, ChiChi London, Vesper

247 and many more. However, these collaborations did not come easily and took

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office job and an Instagram career is not an easy ride. Becoming an influencer is

not an overnight process and most definitely not an easy way into money. It has

taken months to learn the best way to balance it all is planning.”

“It’s really easy to not have a good work-life balance, especially working in social

media because social media never sleeps,” says Martin. He maintains

boundaries by setting firm work hours, keeping work stuff off his personal phone,

and having good contingency plans prepared in advance (Nick Martin).

Jon-Stephen Stansel mentioned that social media can also have positive

effects under the right conditions. To limit negative effects, create a self-care plan

or “personal protective equipment” from the University of Central Arkansas put it

in our recent webinar on mental health. Take breaks, cleanse negative content

from your feeds, build a support network, and have resources handy.

Local Literature

According to the Digital in 2017 report of Hootsuite and United Kingdom-

based consultancy We Are Social Ltd., Pinoys allocate at least “four hours and

17 minutes per day,” almost half of the hours they need to be at work or sleep.

Credibility

Adapted to the context of influencer marketing, this means that to

generate purchase intention, customers have to perceive the influencer as

credible to develop purchase intentions towards the endorsed product. In line

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with prior research (Pavlou & Dimoka, 2006), credibility can be defined as the

perception that the influencer is a competent and reliable source of information.

Expertise

As suggested by to Erdogan (1999), expertise is defined as the extent to

which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertions. It refers to

the knowledge, experience or skills possessed by an endorser. Thus if a celebrity

has expertized in his/ her field, it will be more persuasive and subsequently will

motivate the decision makers to buy the indorsed product or service. Social

media key influencers are subject matter experts since they are resourceful

people who share meaningful information. They build their loyal audiences from

follower trust because they are honest, credible and authentic. (Erdogan, B.

(1999). Celebrity Endorsement: A Literature Review. Journal of Marketing

Management, 15(4), 291-314.)

Foreign Literature

Influencers also provide insight into their personal lives, and interact with

their followers. Responding to messages, giving their opinions on products, and

their accessibility set them apart from their celebrity counterparts. These actions

create a relationship and generate trust between the consumer and influencer.

According to eMarketer, an estimated $570 million was spent globally in 2017 on

influencer marketing, and 39% of marketers will increase their influencer

marketing budgets in 2018.

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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology used in the research. The

research design, population and sampling, research instruments, data gathering

procedures, and data analysis procedures.

Research Design

This study aims were to understand perceived benefits and risks of using

social media as a professional marketer’s, as well as to understand physician’s

experiences, perceptions and views on current and future use of social media.

This study utilized the growth of social media influencing marketing

platforms. Marketing opportunities in building brand visibility over the web. The

study was conducted as a qualitative research.

Social media marketing integrated with search engine optimization

strategies is effective in building an organic for website. According to Kim, and

Kahle (2012 There are different social media marketing trends that will affect the

way digital marketers. Online marketers now view the value of social media

marketing for their business from a different perspective.

The qualitative design ensures that the determined how Influencer

Marketing can be considered as a Career Option in the 21st Century. Based on

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the results of the interviews, recurring themes will be used as basis in the

determination of the strategies and problems that are commonly experienced by

the informants.

Research Locale

The study is conducted through online. The online research operation is

within the different places and they support their members in terms of micro-

financing, training and development, and information technology here in the

Philippines.

Sampling Size and Sampling Techniques

The research is form of purposive sampling as a non-profitability sampling

strategy. Non-probability sampling focuses on sampling techniques where the

units that are investigated are based on the judgment of the researchers.

This purposive sampling relies on the judgment of the researcher when it

comes to selecting the units (e.g., people, cases/organizations, events, pieces of

data) that are to be studied.

Research Instruments and Techniques

Since the study is qualitative in nature, the sole data gathering procedure

utilized One-on-one interview. Most time consuming, costly approach, but most

common in educational research.

The subjective methodology to validate the data was utilized. The data

after the transcription were shown to the respondents for their evaluation.

Necessary changes were made and incorporated in the revision and finalization

of the transcript.
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Data Gathering Procedures

Interviews were conducted to determine the purpose of this qualitative

study and to explore how social media influencing can be considered as a

marketer’s career option in the 21st century. Interviews will be conducted through

online.

Data Analysis

Qualitative data analysis is used. The data will be transcribed, read and

re-read to determine the patterns and themes.

In the analysis, data transcription from the interviews is scrutinized after

reading and re-reading the transcription. The data is first described and analyzed

per respondent.

Profile of Respondents

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CHAPTER 4

RESULTS, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

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