Framework Case-related:

❏ How did you find the influencer? (when?)

❏ What was your first impression of the influencer?

❏ How would you describe the influencer?

❏ How do you keep up to date with what she does? (Which platforms, how often,)

❏ Would you say that your image of the influencer has changed since you started follower?

Parasocial interaction and antecedents Perceived interactivity

Perceived interactivity is defined as the degree to which a follower perceives a two-way communication with an influencer through message cues indicating listening, interacting and timely responses.

❏ How would you describe the communication between the influencer and her followers?

Possible follow ups:

❏ Does the influencer listen and talk to her followers? (How do you know?)

❏ Does she respond to her followers’ questions? (If yes, how do you see that? And how is she responding?)

❏ How important is it for you to follow an influencer that is communicating with her followers?

Adapted and modified from Labrecque (2014).

Openness in communication

Openness in communication is defined as the influencer’s tendency to disclose information, for instance, information that a follower perceives as private.

❏ How does the influencer communicate? (Could you describe the tone of voice or the topics that the influencer talked about?)

❏ How important is it for you to follow an influencer that is sharing personal and private information?

Possible follow ups:

❏ Do you think the influencer is sharing information openly? (Why?)

❏ What is private information to you? -> How likely is it that the influencer would share such information?

Adapted and modified from Labrecque (2014).

Attitude homophily

Attitude homophily is defined as the degree to which a follower experiences perceived similarities between individual beliefs and the beliefs of an influencer.

❏ How would you describe the influencer in comparison to yourself? (is she similar or not similar to you)

❏ Is she like or not like the person you are inside?

❏ How important is it for you to follow an influencer that is similar to you?

Possible follow up:

❏ Does this influencer have any values, thoughts and ideas that are similar to yours? (Which?)

Adapted and modified from Lee and Watkins (2016).

Social attraction

Social attraction is defined as the degree to which a follower perceives an influencer to be attractive to others and therefore finds it desirable to have an interpersonal relationship with the influencer.

❏ How would others describe the influencer?

Possible follow ups:

❏ How does the influencer fit or not fit into your circle of friends?

❏ What would others think of you if you had her as a friend? (why?)

❏ How important is it for you to follow an influencer that is liked by others?

Adapted and modified from McCroskey and McCain (1974).

PSI

PSI is defined as an illusionary experience such that a follower interacts with an influencer as if it is a friend, which is characterized by feelings of intimacy and an emotional bond.

❏ How does the influencer make you feel when you’re looking at her posts? (Why?)

❏ What does the influencer mean to you?

❏ Do you care about what happens to the influencer? (Why?)

❏ Would you like to meet the influencer in person?

❏ How do you feel when the influencer reveals her feelings and emotions about something?

Adapted and modified from Labrecque (2014) and Lee & Watkins, (2016) Engagement and antecedents

For the following antecedents the first question will be

❏ Could you describe the content that you are interested in?(follow up: what’s your favourite/least favourite of type content that she posts?) Why?

❏ How important is this type of content to you?

❏ Are all the posts about (the one mentioned before as favorite)?, could you describe other posts?

Information

Information exchange and information to keep up to date with current trends which followers seek when engaging with an influencer’s content.

❏ How would you describe the information you find on her profile?

Possible follow ups:

❏ How important is it for you to find informative content on the influencer profile?

Adapted and modified from Men and Tsai (2013) and from Muntinga, Moorman and Smit (2011) Inspiration

Inspiration is defined as the infusion of some idea or purpose into the mind of a follower evoked by consuming influencer related content.

❏ How likely is it that you would receive new ideas when visiting her profile?

Adapted and modified from Trash and Elliott (2003) and from Muntinga, Moorman and Smit (2011)

Possible follow up:

❏ Can you describe the last situation where you got inspired from a post?

Entertainment

Entertainment is defined as any influencer’s content followers consume in order to escape from problems, relax, get aesthetic enjoyment, fill time, seek emotional release and sexual arousal.

❏ Think about the last time you visited the profile, how did you feel?

Adapted and modified from Men and Tsai (2013) and from Muntinga, Moorman and Smit (2011)

Remuneration

Remuneration is defined as any reward that is given to a follower in exchange for engaging with an influencers’

content.

❏ Have you ever received something in exchange for visiting her profile? (what?)

Adapted and modified from Men and Tsai (2013) and from Muntinga, Moorman and Smit (2011).

Self-expression

Self-expression is defined as an act in which a follower engages with an influencer to enhance or reflect the social self or the inner self.

❏ Does this influencer symbolises the kind of person you really are inside? (How?)

❏ Does following this influencer have an impact on what others think of you? (How?)

Adapted and modified from Wallace (2014a).

Engagement

Engagement is defined as any online brand related activity by followers which can be categorized as consuming, contributing or creating

❏ How often do you visit the influencer platforms?

❏ What do you usually do when you visit the influencer? (Consume; watch, listen, read, follow, contribute;

liking, rating, commenting, joining, subscribing, messaging or create; sharing, publishing, uploading) Adapted from Muntinga, Moorman and Smit (2011)

Trust

Sponsored content

Sponsored content is defined as brand related content posted by influencers for which they receive compensation in exchange.

❏ How would you describe sponsored content on social media? (What types? Are you able to recognize it?)

❏ What types of sponsored content comes into mind when you think of the influencer? (Describe when you came across it?)

Trust

In this thesis, trust is defined as a follower’s belief that an influencer will behave in expected ways, or as a willingness to rely on an influencer, coupled with a sense of vulnerability or risk if the trust is violated.

❏ How would you describe a trustworthy person? (How would you relate this to the influencer?)

❏ How sincere, honest and trustworthy do you think that the influencer is? (Why?)

❏ Do you think that the social media platform is trustworthy? (Why?) (e.g. platform makes sure every sponsorship is disclosed)

❏ Do you believe that this platform would act in your best interest?

❏ How does it make you feel to know that the influencer posts sponsored content?

Adapted and modified from Chow and Shi (2014).

Outcomes

Acceptance of sponsorship

Acceptance of sponsorship is defined as a follower’s belief that it is acceptable and appropriate for an influencer to receive support from a company in exchange for posting company related content.

❏ How do you feel about the fact that the influencer posts sponsored content?

❏ Ask about connection to brand loyalty; would sponsored content make you unfollow her?

Adapted from Liljander, Gummerus and Söderlund (2015).

Brand loyalty

Brand loyalty is defined as a holistic concept based on behavioural and attitudinal loyalty that manifests itself through repeat interactions with and strong emotional attachments to an influencer.

❏ Would you consider yourself loyal to the influencer? (why?)

Adapted from Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001)

Attitudinal loyalty

In this thesis, attitudinal loyalty is defined as a two-dimensional construct that explains the level of commitment of a follower toward an influencer. One dimension is brand-self connection, which is defined in this thesis as the emotional and cognitive connection between an influencer and a follower’s self. The second dimension is brand prominence, which in this thesis is defined as the salience of the connection between an influencer on a follower’s self .

Brand-self connection:

❏ How would you describe the connection between the influencer and yourself?

❏ How would you feel if the influencer deleted her account?

Brand prominence:

❏ How important is the influencer compared to other influencers that come to your mind?

Adapted from Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), Wallace et al. (2014a) and Keller (2013).

Behavioural loyalty

Behavioural loyalty is defined as a follower’s actual behaviour that can be measured by word of mouth and repeated brand related activities such as revisiting an influencer’s social media pages.

Word of mouth:

❏ Are you talking to others about this influencer? (How? E.g. recommendation, etc.) Revisit intentions:

❏ How often do you visit the influencer?

❏ Would you keep visiting the influencer in the next few years?

Adapted from Jahn and Kunz (2012) and Labrecque (2014).

In document BEYOND PICTURE-PERFECT BRUNCH PLATES (Sider 123-129)