The present research addresses the issue of source credibility of social media influencers from the perspective of users. Social media influencers are defined as online personalities with a large number of followers, across one or several social media platforms. They have a complex role, being content creators, online opinion leaders, and even entrepreneurs. Influencer marketing is becoming a more and more relevant component of current advertising campaigns worldwide. A consistent body of literature has underlined the importance of source credibility for the effectiveness of advertising. Recent researches on Source Credibility Theory (Teng et al, 2014; Djafarova & Rushworth, 2016; Munnukka et al 2016; Lou &Yuan, 2018) have stressed the influence of trustworthiness, expertise, similarity and attractiveness as elements of source credibility on perceived trust in influencer marketing. In order to gain better insights, we chose to conduct qualitative research that can allow us an in-depth perspective on the phenomenon of source credibility in influencer marketing. We carried out four group discussions in Germany and five in Romania. We explored the differences and similarities regarding the users’ perception of the perceived credibility of social media influencers.

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用户对罗马尼亚和德国社交媒体影响者可信度的看法

本研究从用户的角度解决了社交媒体影响者的来源信誉问题。社交媒体影响者被定义为跨一个或多个社交媒体平台具有大量关注者的在线人物。他们扮演着复杂的角色，既是内容创建者，在线意见领袖，甚至是企业家。有影响力的营销正在成为全球当前广告活动中越来越重要的组成部分。一致的文献资料强调了来源可信度对广告有效性的重要性。来源可信度理论的最新研究（Teng等，2014； Djafarova＆Rushworth，2016； Munnukka等，2016； Lou＆Yuan，2018）强调了信任，专业知识，相似度和吸引力作为影响力营销中感知信任的来源信誉要素。为了获得更好的见解，我们选择进行定性研究，以使我们能够深入了解影响者营销中源头信誉的现象。我们在德国进行了四次小组讨论，在罗马尼亚进行了五次。我们探索了关于用户对社交媒体影响者可信度的感知方面的异同。