“Who call themselves an influencer?” : – A qualitative study regarding followers attitude to influencers on Instagram

An influencer’s task is to reinforce and strengthen a company’s brand, but can there be any risk that they weaken their own trust towards their followers in the process? This study aims to examine influencers as a social phenomenon from the followers point of view to investigate any elements that can challenge the concept. Influencer marketing is visualized as something positive with a successful impact on the commercial industry. The question is: do the followers ever reflect whether the collaboration between the company and the influencer is genuine? The focus of this essay is directed towards distinguishing patterns which oppose the positive and favorable phenomenon as its seen in today’s social light. The study embodies the follower’s perspective since they possess the power on social media, which entails that their perspective is an interesting perspective to examine. The purpose of the study is to examine followers, aged between 18-35, with relationships to influencers on Instagram. In doing so, identify potential criticism or other negations that can reflect on the phenomenon. The method that is used, contains qualitative semi-structured group interviews. For the study, the snowball method was applied. Sixteen respondents were divided into four separate interview groups and were faced with sixteen open questions, concerning influencers on Instagram. The result is a negative attitude towards the phenomenon known as influencers. The largest contributing factor towards this result, was the financial gains behind the influencers’ sponsored posts. What eliminates the credibility towards influencers is the financial advantages, which generates a questionable attitude concerning the influencers authentic interest in their posts. The respondents’ attitudes also stands doubtful regarding the influencer as a professio