The Central Community of Twitter ego-Networks as a Means for Fake Influencer Detection

Tsapatsoulis, Nicolas; Anastasopoulou, Vasiliki; Ntalianis, Klimis

doi:10.1109/dasc/picom/cbdcom/cyberscitech.2019.00042

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…SMIs can also gain a significant source of income from endorsement deals (i.e., Scipioni, 2021) if they have enough of a following. The ability to make a lot of money quickly has led to many influencers using less than ethical means of gaining followers and influence (i.e., Tsapatsoulis et al, 2019). For example, by spoofing or stealing content from more popular profiles, social media users could trick followers who thought they were following legitimate accounts (Marwick & Boyd, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When influencers are not very influential: The negative effects of social media verification

Dumas

Stough

2022

J of Consumer Behaviour

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As social media usage has grown over the recent past, so too has a new form of celebrity: social media influencers (SMIs). It can be difficult for consumers to know whether the influencers they are following are real. To combat this, social media sites introduced user verification. Verification, denoted by a blue checkmark badge visible in search and on one's profile, is ostensibly a way of confirming one's identity, yet only accounts with large followings are awarded verification status by the platform. In this paper, we investigate the perception of verification in the context of SMIs, a topic relatively absent from the literature despite the billions of dollars spent on partnerships. Specifically, we investigate if consumers perceive verification as more directly associated with credibility or celebrity. Further, we consider whether the fit of the influencer with the advertisement yields discrepancies in consumers' trust of the advertisement and endorser in paid partnerships on social media. Through two studies, we find that consumers associate verification most closely with celebrity, rather than authenticity and that when the influencer is advertising a product that does not fit with their brand, consumers are significantly less likely to trust verified accounts rather than unverified accounts. This study has theoretical implications for marketing researchers as well as practical implications for marketing managers. Verified influencers cost more; therefore, this research provides unique insights for brands to capitalize their ad return if they are made aware of the implications associated with verification.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When influencers are not very influential: The negative effects of social media verification

Dumas

Stough

2022

J of Consumer Behaviour

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This can lead a brand to think that it can be a great investment to hire this account to spread their products or services, but in reality it would be a waste of money because these accounts really generate interaction with accounts managed by bots and other non-real accounts, so there is no real interaction. Detecting these accounts requires network analysis, and according to Tsapatsoulis, Anastasopoulou, and Ntalianis (2019), they are usually egocentric accounts easily identified by network analysis algorithms based on centrality.…”

Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%