Building a Small Business Marketing Strategy with Influencers

There is a real lack of ethical framework around social media and their influencers. It is easy to think that influencers have an impact on the consumer buying decision behavior as they create a feeling of trust with the followers (Ye et al., 2021) This relation encourages the followers to take their attitudes and beliefs and this makes it difficult for consumers to discern commercial content from noncommercial content (Evans, Phua, Lim and Jun, 2017). 

Moreover, this attachment may result in followers’ excessive use and problematic engagement with them (Farivar et al., 2022). Another concern is that social media design and content can induce addiction (Farivar et al., 2022) associated with mental health problems such as stress, anxiety and depression which lead to reduced wellbeing. Although research 

has provided some answers, there are still gaps to be filled. Indeed, literature on influencer marketing related to impacts on consumer behavior mostly focused on general use of social media (Naranjo-Zolotov, Turel, Oliveira and Lascano, 2021) but the role of the specific activities like follthat may affect brand image or purchase intent. Consequently, this study 

adds value to previous customer behavior 

research by offering both academic and managerial contributions becausthere is a lack of previous research regarding the mediating role of brand image in onlineand what they like. The second thing to look at is Engagement, which is an indicator of how interactive an Influencer’s readers is with the content in the post in foimportant role here (Ye et al., 2021) 

This makes the influencers more trustworthy by users. As they reach large audiences, and thanks to their popularity companies and brands use them to promote products or services. Followers are increasingly attached to the influencers and the influencer communities (Ki, CuevasChong and Lim, 2020). This attachment helps influencers to achieve marketing and 

business success of branding and selling. More and more, marketing experts state that the technologies used in promotion and communication activities are evolving rapidly, leading to changes in markets and changes in customer behavior (Dwivedi, Ismagilova, Hughes, Carlson, Filieri, Jacobson, Jain, Karjaluoto, Kefi, Krishen, Kumar, Rahman, Raman, Rauschnabel, Rowley, Salo, Tran, and Wang, 2020). All the changes specific to the digital 

area are a matter of concern to any 

organization because they can act as either opportunities or threats, with important consequences in terms of economic and social results. Social media influencers have an important impact on consumers' buying behavior, with a greater tendency to acquire what is marketed. Factors that increase confidence in social media influencers are whether the 

consumer feels connected, honesty and that social media influencer markets products and/or services within its area of expertise (Singh, 2021). As previously explained, influencer marketing allows brands and companies to promote their product through tools such as influencers and social networks. Many industries are using this growing marketing strategy 

such as sports, technology, food and travel (Ingrassia, Bellia, Giurdanella, Columba and Chironi, 2022; Ye et al., 2021). However, influencer marketing presents new opportunities to the beauty and fashion industry (Paço and Oliveira, 2017). Consumers are particularly bound to follow influencers in product categories that deal with fashion and beauty (Nafees, 

beauty and fashion influencers are very 

numerous and arouse great interest in followers. It is therefore the beauty industry that we are going to look at and all that it encompasses, as it is of great importance to many consumers. Fashion is defined as “the process of social diffusion by which a new style is adopted by some group of consumers” (Sudha and Sheena, 2017, p.18). Fashion influences many aspects of 

our lives; it has both economic and social value and provides individuals with a tool to express themselves and create an identity. It is therefore important to understand the process of customer decision making within the fashion industry.rm of responses, comments and shares. You can indicate on how meaningful readers and publishers’ relationships are based on how 

the readers engage and how often they return to the blog. The third thing to think about according to Hamann is Reach. By this she means that marketers should resist the urge to only look at unique visitors when measuring reach and that traffic and followers are only meaningful if the influencer is reaching the brand’s target audience. Frequency is

Conclusion

relationships. wing influencers has not been explored further. As followers are predominantly included in the young age groups, the people around 19-24 years old are more prone to follow influencers (Hein, 2017). We would like to explore the role of the influencers related to behavior and especially for teenagers and young adults, part of the generation Z, between 

age Azzopardi, Wickremarathne and Pawho are easily persuaded because of their cognitive abilities and advertising literacy not fully mature (Ye et al while exploring the two points of view of those who influence and those who are influenced. In the light of this research gap, throughout this thesis, we will try to investigate and provide answers to the following questions