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Abstract

This article presents a qualitative case study of Iranian beauty influencer Sadaf Masaeli (Sadaf Beauty), focusing on how she has cultivated her followers’ trust on her Instagram account. Sadaf was identified as the second most influential beauty influencer of 2019 in the world by Forbes magazine (Caludet, 2019). Her example provides insight into how influencer marketing has become a popular way to increase brand awareness, find new customers and enhance purchase intention. In particular, her case highlights the effects of a contradiction shaping influencer marketing. On the one hand, influencers appear as authentic social media users, to attract followers whilst, on the other hand, they use their popularity to promote products, an act that might be perceived as “inauthentic” by followers. Managing this contradiction and creating trust are crucial in their success and affects the number of people they reach. This case study, drawing on past research about trust and influence suggests that demonstrating qualities like moral authenticity, similarity, expertise, likability plays a crucial role in influencers’ ability to inspire followers’ trust. This article suggests that successful influencer marketers are focusing more on factors related to affective trust—like moral authenticity, similarity, and likability—rather than factors related to cognitive trust—like expertise and knowledge.

Journal Title

Iowa Journal of Communication

Volume

56

Issue

1

First Page

121

Last Page

139

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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