The effects of the standardized instagram disclosure for micro- and meso-influencers

Abstract

Social media influencers-such as the 'Instafamous'-are required to disclose any commercial relationship. To achieve transparency, Instagram has introduced a standardized disclosure ('Paid partnership with [brand]'). This study examined whether this disclosure effectively raises ad recognition, and how this consequently affects consumers' responses to the message, influencer, and brand. Additionally, the effects of the disclosure were compared between micro-(< 10,000 followers) and meso-(10,000-1 million followers) influencers. Results of an online experiment (N = 192) with a 2 (no disclosure vs. standardized disclosure) x 2 (micro-vs. meso-influencer) between subjects design showed that the disclosure did achieve its goal of increasing ad recognition. Furthermore, the disclosure positively affected brand recall and intentions to engage with the post, via ad recognition. The parasocial interaction with the influencer was not affected. Moreover, influencer type did not moderate the effect of the disclosure and did not affect people's responses to the message, influencer, or brand.

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“…Next, we looked at the number of followers and included all influencers with more than 10,000 followers. Most sources agree that micro influencers range from 5,000/10,000 to 20,000 followers and that meso influencers have 20,000 followers or more (Domingues Aguiar and van Reijmersdal, 2018;Agrawal, 2019;Boerman, 2019). We chose to use 10,000 followers as a minimum to be able to include "micro, " "macro, " "meso, " and "mega" influencers.…”

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“…Así los influencers de las redes sociales deben ser transparentes en cualquier relación comercial (Boerman, 2020). Es necesario incluir etiquetas o transparencias que transmitan efectivamente la naturaleza del mensaje al consumidor para que existan consumidores informados, especialmente cuando la naturaleza pagada del mensaje se ofusca (Evans et al, 2017).…”

“…Es necesario incluir etiquetas o transparencias que transmitan efectivamente la naturaleza del mensaje al consumidor para que existan consumidores informados, especialmente cuando la naturaleza pagada del mensaje se ofusca (Evans et al, 2017). Se ha demostrado que las transparencias que son más explícitas tienen más probabilidades de aumentar el reconocimiento de los anuncios (Boerman, 2020;Boerman et al, 2015;Wojdynski & Evans, 2016). No obstante, aunque se reconoce la relevancia de la transparencia en la relación entre el influencer de las redes sociales y sus seguidores, la literatura del marketing de influencer, se ha centrado en la visión de los seguidores.…”

“…No obstante, aunque se reconoce la relevancia de la transparencia en la relación entre el influencer de las redes sociales y sus seguidores, la literatura del marketing de influencer, se ha centrado en la visión de los seguidores. Específicamente, referente a la percepción de la audiencia sobre la transparencia del patrocinio en las publicaciones de los influencers de redes sociales y el reconocimiento de los anuncios en las respuestas hacia la marca, como las actitudes de la marca y las intenciones de compra por parte de los seguidores (por ejemplo, Boerman, 2020;De Jans et al, 2018;De Veirman & Hudders, 2019;Evans et al, 2017).…”

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“…Also, all of them have a large number of followers on social media compared with other bloggers. Sophie C. Boerman defines micro-influencers as "'normal' people who turned Instafamous and typically have dozens to hundreds of followers" [54]. Tables 1 and 2 show that they have a considerable number of reach in the social network.…”