IDENTIFYING REASON TO FOLLOW OR UN-FOLLOW FOODBLOGGER REASON USING SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

• Main Author: Iwantoro (19015152), Kimberly
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/28493
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Instagram is being a tool for followers to reach and engage with the influencer. As the internet and Instagram platform explodes with influencer, food also becoming an unexpected battlefield, and resulted in rising up the number of food blogger. People can find food blogger from any source. Before following the food blogger, there are several factors that will affect the decision. The factors including the food blogger&#8223;s „attractiveness&#8223;, „trustworthiness&#8223;, and „expertise&#8223; as mentioned in the Source Credibility Model. As the time goes by, people may keep being interested with the food blogger, or otherwise, they become no longer interested. This may lead into clicking the “unfollow” button. Somehow, there&#8223;s still lack of understanding about the reason behind these phenomenon. Behind the phenomenon, this research is important for two things. First, what is the reason on following food blogger. Second, why people decided to unfollow the food blogger. And the findings of this research will therefore give new bits of knowledge about the step of choosing foodblogger. <br /> <br /> This research used qualitative approach using semi structured interview, then proceed into coding, and the highlight data also used quantitative approach by using online questionnaire to support the data by getting the average in each question. Participants of this research are 20 man and woman who live in Bandung and Jakarta, aged 18-25 years old. The respondents are divided into 2 segments based on gender, which are man and woman. These criteria were included to define “culinary enthusiast” as it pertained to this study, have and Instagram account that follow at least one food blogger account and has been following the account more than 6 months. For the online questionnaire, data is collected from 100 respondents that has the same criteria like interviewees. <br /> <br /> Instagram feature contributes to the most used source in finding foodblogger compared to Internet source and referral. Whatever the source used, the crucial part from knowing until following the foodblogger is checking the profile, mainly the photo. People tend to scroll down the feed, and if it looks interesting, they click the follow button. The main reasons underlie people on following foodbloggers are because the foodblogger offers: good quality photo, show the person behind the account, post some contents outside food area (attractiveness), honest and tell review that is same compared to the actual condition (trustworthiness), experienced in trying many foods, review the taste, review when travelling, and review on the focused domicile (expertise). The main reasons for un-following are: too many promotions/advertisements (attractiveness), tell review that is different compared to the actual condition (trustworthiness), don&#8223;t update (expertise), and have people have followed other similar account (other account). For the gender preferences, there&#8223;s no significant difference in terms of „attractiveness&#8223;, „trustworthiness&#8223;, and „expertise&#8223;. Both man (51%) and woman (49%) in this study share the similar behavior in choosing foodblogger as they consider „attractiveness&#8223; and „expertise&#8223; as the main factors. The findings of this research is useful for foodblogger to manage their profile in order to keep people attracted as they should make a content based on source of credibility „attractiveness&#8223;, „trustworthiness&#8223;, and „expertise&#8223;.