The Effects of Social Media Influencers on Consumers’ Buying Intentions with Mediating Role of Consumer Attitude

Today the influencer marketing is actually replacing the other forms of marketing especially the traditional ones. It is growing at a fast pace and number of people who working on social media platforms as influencer is constantly increasing. Since people tend to trust recommendations more from people they know, influencers are now trying to create a relationship in which followers may involve in influencer’s everyday life by sharing stories and posts, hence boosting their trust. By increasing trust in followers, social media influencers have the power to affect consumers’ attitude and persuade them to buy the product they are endorsing for a particular brand. Companies are aware of this power and make the most of it by collaborating with social media influencers in their advertisements as the ambassador of the company to reach potential customers that may not be accessible using traditional marketing techniques and as a result increasing companies’ sales and revenue. This research tries to analyze the effects of social media influencers on consumers’ buying intentions by considering the mediating effect of consumers’ attitude. With the help of Social Learning theory, the factors that make a particular influencer effective enough to affect consumers’ buying intentions and attitudes have been defined. These factors are Source Credibility, Source Attractiveness, Influencer-Product Fit, and Meaning Transfer. iv The required data for this study collected from 300 Iranian people. According to the data analysis, the results demonstrated that Source Attractiveness has no effect on either consumers’ attitude or consumers’ buying intentions. In contrast, other elements that are Source Credibility, Influencer-Product Fit, and Meaning Transfer have significant and positive impact on both consumers’ attitude and buying intentions. Furthermore, it has been concluded that consumers’ attitude has a mediating effect on the relationships between Source Credibility, Influencer-Product Fit, Meaning Transfer and Buying Intentions. Consumer Attitude itself has a positive effect on buying intentions. Finally, the last chapter of this thesis includes managerial implications of the study, limitations for this study, and also provide suggestions for future studies related to this topic. Keywords: Social Media Influencers, Social Learning Theory, Source Credibility, Source Attractiveness, Influencer-Product Fit, Meaning Transfer, Consumer Attitude, Buying Intention, Iranian People.