EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS ON CONSUMERS PURCHASE BEHAVIOR IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Abstract

Social media (SM) has changed how consumers seek and receive information, compare products, and make purchases (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Appel et al., 2020). Social media influencers (SMIs) have turn into key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the modern marketing process (Freberg et al., 2011; De Veirman et al., 2017). Their views, statements, and activities have a considerable impact on consumer sentiment and behavior (Lou & Yuan, 2019; Sokolova & Kefi, 2020). Therefore, the current research aims to inspect the influences of (SMIs) social media influencers on the purchase process. The study will consider seven variables: trustworthiness, credibility, attractiveness, engagement, content quality, social media platform, and promotional frequency. Purchase behavior will be evaluated using six variables: purchase intention, buying decision, brand preference, impulsive buying, repeat purchasing, and customer loyalty. The data will be collected from (SM) social media users through a survey. The survey will include multiple-choice questions and statements using a five-point Likert scale. The collected data will be analyzed by statistical tests to reveal connections between influencers attributes and purchase behaviors.