Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers

Social Media Influencers (SMI) and Influencer Marketing (IM) are all the rage nowadays, with many organisations trying to leverage its growth for advertising. The study is primarily interested in questioning whether influencers really “influence”, in other words, if followers really perceive a chang...

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Main Authors: Lew, Crystal Chong Hui, Ng, Ruihe, Goh, Pei Fen
Other Authors: Lim Khek Gee, Francis
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78714
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-787142019-12-10T12:37:05Z Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers Lew, Crystal Chong Hui Ng, Ruihe Goh, Pei Fen Lim Khek Gee, Francis School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Sociology::Social influence Social Media Influencers (SMI) and Influencer Marketing (IM) are all the rage nowadays, with many organisations trying to leverage its growth for advertising. The study is primarily interested in questioning whether influencers really “influence”, in other words, if followers really perceive a change in their attitudes, behaviour or identities through following SMIs. Focusing on the beauty industry, we interviewed female followers of such influencers involved in this market segment. Using concepts and theories from both the social sciences and communication field such as Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Limited Effects Theory (LET), the paper also shows how interdisciplinary bridges can be formed to understand recent social phenomena more holistically. We generally found that our respondents did not perceive any substantial change in attitude or identity, supporting the central view of LET. Given the rapid growth of IM, we expect many more opportunities for future studies. Bachelor of Arts in Sociology 2019-06-26T02:38:16Z 2019-06-26T02:38:16Z 2019 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78714 en 36 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Sociology::Social influence
spellingShingle Social sciences::Sociology::Social influence
Lew, Crystal Chong Hui
Ng, Ruihe
Goh, Pei Fen
Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers
description Social Media Influencers (SMI) and Influencer Marketing (IM) are all the rage nowadays, with many organisations trying to leverage its growth for advertising. The study is primarily interested in questioning whether influencers really “influence”, in other words, if followers really perceive a change in their attitudes, behaviour or identities through following SMIs. Focusing on the beauty industry, we interviewed female followers of such influencers involved in this market segment. Using concepts and theories from both the social sciences and communication field such as Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Limited Effects Theory (LET), the paper also shows how interdisciplinary bridges can be formed to understand recent social phenomena more holistically. We generally found that our respondents did not perceive any substantial change in attitude or identity, supporting the central view of LET. Given the rapid growth of IM, we expect many more opportunities for future studies.
author2 Lim Khek Gee, Francis
author_facet Lim Khek Gee, Francis
Lew, Crystal Chong Hui
Ng, Ruihe
Goh, Pei Fen
format Final Year Project
author Lew, Crystal Chong Hui
Ng, Ruihe
Goh, Pei Fen
author_sort Lew, Crystal Chong Hui
title Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers
title_short Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers
title_full Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers
title_fullStr Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers
title_full_unstemmed Do influencers actually influence? : Uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers
title_sort do influencers actually influence? : uncovering the significance of beauty influencers on the social identities and self concept of their followers
publishDate 2019
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78714
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